Scorched Earth question(s)
Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2019 3:58 am
I am quite puzzled by the Scorched Earth option ...
* I can understand Russia being covered, as this would represent the problems of running Standard Gauge trains over Broad Gauge lines with half the amount of infrastructure needed (see my post elsewhere ... changing standard to broad gauge rail or vice versa is a doddle, lack of infrastructure less so)
* But why is Germany rated as such? There is no obvious reason for such. )And, of course, Switzerland is also rated as 'Scorched Earth' when not mentioned as such in the manual)
I am guessing it is to prevent gamey tactics, which makes it problematic as ...
* Given the rubbish level rail infrastructure in Turkey, Spain, and the Middle East and North Africa in general, it would have been ludicrously easy to completely destroy their rail nets in case of invasion.
Surely those countries should be rated as 'Scorched Earth' as well, to represent their limited rail nets ... or, alternately, it might be better to convert all their rail lines to roads to represent their limitations from the get go.
* It is stated that 'two hexes per turn' of scorched earth rail lines are repaired ... is this two hexes per country, or two hexes for the entire map.
For example, say that German and Russian rail lines are damaged and held by the same player, is it a case of two German hexes and two Russian hexes are repaired each turn, two hexes total (which could be, randomly, one German and one Russian, or two German or two Russian).
This rate is also problematic - given what we know of the rate at which the Germans repurposed Russian broad gauge lines for their own use, this is by far and away too fast by far, I'd suggest that even 1 hex per two week turn is far too fast. This is partly because the historical rate was far lower than you seem to estimate and partly because there are far fewer rail hexes to be repaired.
It really should be much less for Russia and even less for Spain, Portugal and the Middle East ... perhaps 1 hex a month for Spain and Portugal combined and one hex a month for the entirety of the Middle East, and one hex a month for Turkey.
And even that may be too much.
* Rail Capacity is also something that confuses me ... once a country is conquered, whose capacity applies to RR transfer through it? Its original capacity of that of the conquering country?
All of the minors mentioned above seem to have a 30 cap for RR transfer, but the reality is that in most cases they simply wouldn't have been able to manage that ... either because of limited rolling stock availability, a mish-mash of different gauges (as in Iberia) or some combination of the two.
For example, though there is are several links (at least one of which, the one in the south near Cadiz, simply didn't exist) shown making the Portuguese and Spanish RR nets one, they had two different gauges and transhipment would have been a huge delaying factor. Likewise, the links between the French and Spanish RR nets were of different gauges and would have had identical problems.\
Then there's the nonexistent rail link across the nonexistent Bosporus!
Phil McGregor
* I can understand Russia being covered, as this would represent the problems of running Standard Gauge trains over Broad Gauge lines with half the amount of infrastructure needed (see my post elsewhere ... changing standard to broad gauge rail or vice versa is a doddle, lack of infrastructure less so)
* But why is Germany rated as such? There is no obvious reason for such. )And, of course, Switzerland is also rated as 'Scorched Earth' when not mentioned as such in the manual)
I am guessing it is to prevent gamey tactics, which makes it problematic as ...
* Given the rubbish level rail infrastructure in Turkey, Spain, and the Middle East and North Africa in general, it would have been ludicrously easy to completely destroy their rail nets in case of invasion.
Surely those countries should be rated as 'Scorched Earth' as well, to represent their limited rail nets ... or, alternately, it might be better to convert all their rail lines to roads to represent their limitations from the get go.
* It is stated that 'two hexes per turn' of scorched earth rail lines are repaired ... is this two hexes per country, or two hexes for the entire map.
For example, say that German and Russian rail lines are damaged and held by the same player, is it a case of two German hexes and two Russian hexes are repaired each turn, two hexes total (which could be, randomly, one German and one Russian, or two German or two Russian).
This rate is also problematic - given what we know of the rate at which the Germans repurposed Russian broad gauge lines for their own use, this is by far and away too fast by far, I'd suggest that even 1 hex per two week turn is far too fast. This is partly because the historical rate was far lower than you seem to estimate and partly because there are far fewer rail hexes to be repaired.
It really should be much less for Russia and even less for Spain, Portugal and the Middle East ... perhaps 1 hex a month for Spain and Portugal combined and one hex a month for the entirety of the Middle East, and one hex a month for Turkey.
And even that may be too much.
* Rail Capacity is also something that confuses me ... once a country is conquered, whose capacity applies to RR transfer through it? Its original capacity of that of the conquering country?
All of the minors mentioned above seem to have a 30 cap for RR transfer, but the reality is that in most cases they simply wouldn't have been able to manage that ... either because of limited rolling stock availability, a mish-mash of different gauges (as in Iberia) or some combination of the two.
For example, though there is are several links (at least one of which, the one in the south near Cadiz, simply didn't exist) shown making the Portuguese and Spanish RR nets one, they had two different gauges and transhipment would have been a huge delaying factor. Likewise, the links between the French and Spanish RR nets were of different gauges and would have had identical problems.\
Then there's the nonexistent rail link across the nonexistent Bosporus!
Phil McGregor