House Rules -- 3 hexes

[delatbabel]

Gentlemen,

I present for your edification a screen shot from the standard WiR game of the area around Saratov. Marc Wersing and I are having a disagreement as to whether Saratov is "within 3 hexes of the map edge", and hence qualifies under the thou-shalt-not-bomb-the-HQ rule in the standard house rules.

(The disagreement relates to the possum map -- the hexes are the same except that there is a lake hex where one of the rail hexes is in the standard WiR map).

Doing a quick count, my cursor is at the forest hex, which is the "map edge". The hex to the east of this is actually a half hex -- you can click there but you can't move your cursor there nor can you place a unit there so I don't count that one.

The next hex is the rail junction.

The next hex is the rail hex, with the river bridge.

The next hex is Saratov.

So: Would you count these hexes as:

1: forest / map edge.
2: rail junction.
3: bridge
4: Saratov (hence, not within three hexes, can be bombed)

Or would you count them as:

0: forest -- "this is the map edge".
1: rail junction -- "within 1 hex of the map edge"
2: rail bridge -- "within 2 hexes of the map edge"
3: Saratov -- "within 3 hexes of the map edge", can't be bombed.

I guess it's a question of semantics -- do you say that the forest hex is the "map edge" and hence zero hexes from the edge, or do you say that the forest hex is hex 1 of the three hexes to be counted?

I'd be interested in everyone's opinions.

[Attack]

I think that this is not important. The 3 hexes home rule is a gentlement agreement.
 
If German player doubts, can e-mail to the Soviet and to demand if this is (or not) a Siberian HQ.
 
There are a lot of hexes of Siberia, is not necessary any discussion!
 
If the Soviet player wants to place an active HQ in the 3 hexes zone, must warn to the German player. Simply.
 

[Alfred]

Delatabel,
 
Saratov (and any other city with victory points) is a legitimate target irrespective of how close it is to the edge. 
 
Because of the map size limitations, the 3 hex rule is meant to accomodate training aircraft in HQ which are located within 3 hexes of the edge.  These HQs would otherwise be located in Omsk, Sverdlovsk and other Siberian cities beyond the range of Axis aircraft.  The 3 hex rule is not there to prevent strategic bombing of cities - it does not serve as a general DMZ.
 
To put it into perspective, if Saratov were surrounded by 6 Axis Korps, it would be silly to say that Soviet units trapped in Saratov could not be interdicted because of the 3 hex rule.
 
Alfred

[delatbabel]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Delatabel,

Saratov (and any other city with victory points) is a legitimate target irrespective of how close it is to the edge.

Because of the map size limitations, the 3 hex rule is meant to accomodate training aircraft in HQ which are located within 3 hexes of the edge. These HQs would otherwise be located in Omsk, Sverdlovsk and other Siberian cities beyond the range of Axis aircraft. The 3 hex rule is not there to prevent strategic bombing of cities - it does not serve as a general DMZ.

To put it into perspective, if Saratov were surrounded by 6 Axis Korps, it would be silly to say that Soviet units trapped in Saratov could not be interdicted because of the 3 hex rule.

Alfred

Hi,

The question was perhaps a bit unclear.

I should have stated "can a HQ in saratov (or on the third hex from the map edge) be bombed" (and this is early 1941, so Saratov isn't surrounded by German units). I merely used the clip of the map edge containing Saratov because it was easier to identify one hex containing Forest, one containing rail and one containing a junction as three hexes, rather than picking some other random part of the map which would have had me saying "this clear hex, the next clear hex", etc. Harder to see what I was saying.

So the question is, really:

Do you count 3 hexes starting with 0 (at the map edge), or 1 (starting at the map edge)?

Use the geography & city as part of the guide, not as part of me saying you can't bomb a city or a forest hex.

I sort of like Attack's answer where the Germans can ask which is a rear edge HQ and which is not. I prefer, as the soviets, to advance my active (e.g. bomber / transport) HQs some number of hexes from the map edge to clearly state that they are not in Siberia. Either that or clearly state to the german player in email "The XXX HQ is not in the Urals, it has fighters on CAP". In the case of Saratov, however, I might want to put my HQ actually in Saratov, so that if it was bombed all of the CAP fighters fly, and any flak units in the HQ get to fire.

[Attack]

Well, if an HQ is doing another air mision that training, then is not in Siberia. So the HQ can be bombed.
 
And an HQ doesn´t add its Flak to the city bombed. Anyway, the factories of Saratov always can be strategically bombed, if in range. The 3 hexes rule only is about HQ´s, not interdiction or strategic attacks.