Matrix Games Forums

Hi Marshall
when you modified the winter land movement option for Mantis 669 (which I like btw), did you also make the change to the crossing arrows, to prevent their use during winter (which I thought was an excellent suggestion)?
DB.

Yes.
No crossing arrows can be used (In Winter zones). This would not affect the Dardanelles.
We also changed it so that the move costs are only upped by 1 as opposed to doubled. This is a blanket penalty for all terrains. I know there are some more specific options for the penalties and terrain types but I have settled for a compromise which is better than what we had.

This is great. do the movement penalties on land only apply in the winter zones as well?

You are correct. Only in the Winter zones does this apply.

Great, this is now a good option.

I need to resurrect this old issue for resolution in v1.26. I thought this was more or less settled long ago until I got a "bug" report regarding winter movement several weeks ago. What Marshall Ellis did back in 2010 was to simply increase the total movement cost by +1 in northern areas during winter. But this is not what the rules say for the option: "All terrain movement costs are increased by one and crossing arrow movement is restricted during winter months in Winter Zones. EXCEPTION: The Dardanelles crossing arrow is not affected."

Here's the applicable EIH rule: "9.5 WINTER During “winter” months, movement into mountains and across crossing arrows are increased by one, while costs for marsh are decreased by one. Winter also restricts crossing arrow movement to “5” factors crossing that arrow in each direction. EXCEPTION: The Dardanelles crossing arrow is not affected."

I am not seeing in the code where the Dardanelles crossing is specifically excluded. But I verify that total movement cost is increased by +1, not for each area.

So, I would appreciate some player feedback on this. I can do some combination of the following: 1) Leave as is and update the rules documentation accordingly. 2) Make the current winter move "penalty" the default (or leave as no penalty at all?) and update the option to be more consistent with the EIH rule. (This would increase move costs but reduce costs for marsh.) 3) Fix the Dardanelles exception, or possibly leave it as is. 4) Change other crossing arrows from no movement to +1. (Restricting moves to only 5 factors is problematic so it would be unlimited moves.) Obviously, I'll be updating the rules documentation regardless to be consistent with whatever we settle on.

The more I think about this, the more I am inclined to favor the following original rule minus the 5-factor restriction for crossing arrows:

Winter Land Movement: During "winter" months, movement into mountains and across crossing arrows are increased by one, while costs for marsh are decreased by one. EXCEPTION: The Dardanelles crossing arrow is not affected.

This only increases movement into mountains which seems reasonable. Frozen marshes become more passable. Crossings would all be slower due to winter storms except Dardanelles. I can make this happen, unless players have objections to this modest change.

I'm not sure what was implemented originally that prompted the compromise to only add a +1 movement penalty. Certainly winter snows impede movement, but so does spring and fall mud in Europe. I was also considering changes to the applicable Land Combat Effects for mountains and marsh, but I will leave those alone.

Comments? Yay/Nay?

Your changes seem realistic and reasonable to me. Do t have the board game background on this title like I do other like the Europa or ASL series.