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When Senate authorizes a move to Gaul, I often use a naval movement from Carthage to try to land in Narbonese Gaul (an area that prompts an incomplete move screen). The game kicks back my army to Spain... an exploit or a feature? I never feel guilty using this trick, since you sail to southern Gaul or northern Iberia in more or less the same direction from Carthage. However, this trick does allow for an increased chance to meddle in affairs of Spain... a historic Carthaginian Senate may agree, but the game designer may not.

You have discovered a quirk of the game.

When the Carthaginian Senate authorizes you to send forces to Gaul you may move armies from Africa to Spain because Spain is "on the way." In that case, moving an army by sea from Africa to the area in Spain north of the Pyrenees is taken by the game as a move to Spain itself - which is legal. The army is placed in the operational area of Spain.

So this isn't really an exploit. I allowed this because it seems reasonably logical. But I can see now that this feature is not sufficiently well documented. There is some mention of the general "on the way" rule in one of the tutorials, I believe. The manual needs more explicit information. One more thing for the next minor revision. [8D]

This rule also operates when Spain is the authorized theater and you want to take an army from Italy to Spain; you may enter Gaul under those circumstances. You will probably never need to do this, of course.

The area of Narbonese Gaul only gets that special treatment (the move-completion dialog) when you move an army which is already in Spain across the Pyrenees to that area.

I don't know. Sometimes I forget to leave Mago in Gaul during the first turn. It's nice to know he can return to Gaul when move to Spain is authorized.

Thank you for the explanation.