I hate to, respectfully, disagree, but that is not logical. If it takes X amount of energy/time to move into a hex in one direction, it takes exactly that much energy/time per capita/unit/device to move in the opposite direction, and the distance to cross the hex side must be the same in both directions. Further, if there are areas within each hex other than the center point, then how is it that the unit moving into the hex does not come into contact with the unit defending until the entire 60 miles of movement time/energy have been spent and the contact is immediate. If that were not the case, there would be the possibility of units within the hex not in contact with each other, which we know in reality, exists. So, the active point must be a designated point within the hex, and there is only one point in the center. Now, if follows, if you postulate that the units are in constant contact immediately following entry into the hex, then it has to be at that point, and if they remain in consant contact the combat phase, then neither one would then be able to move 60, or 40 miles in one 24 hour period because "it takes time for a unit to pack to move and whatnot and take that "60 mile" move to just represent the TIME to move from here to there" and that time would be required in anything less than a full bore rout, in which the routing units would cease to exist in any effective fashion in a sixty mile "Run away! Run Away!" It does take time to haul/load/manhandle machine guns, mortars, howitzers, field guns, field kitchens, headquarters equipment, etc., etc., etc. If both the attacker and defender are moving in good order, and in constant contact, neither one would be able to move into another hex in one day. That was precisely demonstrated in the New Guinea campaign across the Owen Stanley range, and should be somehow reproducible in the game. Instead, we have a galloping contest down the Malay peninsula, or between Lunga and Tassafaronga, for example. There is just no way an entire corps can move from a battle set, attack, transition into movement and pursuit, move, transition into attack formations, and attack again within 24 hours sixty miles away. Yet, we are told that the hexes in WitP are 60 miles hexes, and the movement from hex to hex happens just that way in combat.
At the very least, it should take in a constant contact action no more than twice the movement cost within the hex to exit it in good order retreat as it does to enter it.
One more thing. Why is it that when the attacker is attacking at a value of say 17, to a defense value of, say 340, the attack is only at 0-1 when the reverse is not true. Any idiot that would launch attacks of that magnitude of disparity against an entrenched foe would lose a lot more then a 0-1 attack would warrant. If this is supposed to represent a campaign game, then it ought to take time to wear down an opponent who is in a defensible position, and able to bring fire to bear, and not just be "I have 75,000 men attacking 40,000 men and I will break down his defenses in a week, even though he is dug in, fortified, artillery zeroed, and camouflaged because I can keep throwing troops into his defensive fire.
Perhaps the game ought to have some mechanism other than just movement in a sixty, or 40 mile hex. Perhaps zones of control within a hex, either based on six equilateral triangles (cumbersome, one would think) or seven circles within a hex in which the area would be smaller and simulate the real perimeter effects of a corps, or even a division spread out.
I know that this is not feasible for AE, but in seeking a means to try to make land combat more realistic in what must, by the nature and size of the beast, be at best an abstract formulation, it would seem to me to be incumbent to make the ground combat at least realistic in outcome, and not short changed, or exaggerated, in time requirement, etc.
This is just my opinion, so take it for what it's worth...the same as all other opinions.
ORIGINAL: Yamato hugger
ORIGINAL: RevRick
Thanks be to, well, you know, for small favors. I have never fathomed how a unit in combat, in either a shock or deliberate attack could up and run 60 miles in pursuit of a combat unit employing the Monty Python Retreat Maneuver. For that matter, I have never understood how a unit could retreat 60 miles overnight without a mobile rating or a flock of trucks anyway, specially when it might take a month to walk into the combat zone, but that is part of the problems with this scale map, I would suppose.
Well, lets see if I can put it in perspective (or at least have you look at it in another light):
First of all, a unit isnt moving 60 miles really. Its 60 miles end to end in the hex (or center of hex to center of hex). Now when you order a unit to move to another hex, it has to walk 60 miles to get there. Most people take that to mean center of hex to center of hex but consider this: If you assume that it takes time for a unit to pack to move and whatnot and take that "60 mile" move to just represent the TIME to move from here to there, then that 60 "miles" is more like "3 days" or "30 days" or whatever based on the terrain of the hex rather than an actual distance.
So if you look at it from that perspective then center of hex to edge of hex (in reality a unit only needs to be forced just across the hex-side) one has to consider the size of area occupied by the defender. If you consider the defender to have roughly a 10 mile perimeter, then the defender is only really "retreating" 21 miles.
Sir Robin can hoof that in a day. Even with worn out coconuts.
