Hill/Road Riddle

This forum is for any questions about the rules. Post here is you need feedback from the design team.

Moderators: philqw78, terrys, hammy, Slitherine Core, Field of Glory Moderators, Field of Glory Design

philqw78
Chief of Staff - Elite Maus
Chief of Staff - Elite Maus
Posts: 8842
Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2007 11:31 am
Location: Manchester

Post by philqw78 »

Has anybody considered that the rules were written inthis way in order to reduce the amount of terrain placed. The authors certainly knew it would.
phil
putting the arg into argumentative, except for the lists I check where there is no argument!
expendablecinc
2nd Lieutenant - Elite Panzer IVF/2
2nd Lieutenant - Elite Panzer IVF/2
Posts: 705
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2006 2:55 pm

Picking an old scab

Post by expendablecinc »

philqw78 wrote:Has anybody considered that the rules were written inthis way in order to reduce the amount of terrain placed. The authors certainly knew it would.
If they have the issue is acknowledged and altered. RBS has already said on this list that in fog r roads are placed last. All we are really doing here is picking at an old scab.
deadtorius
Field Marshal - Me 410A
Field Marshal - Me 410A
Posts: 5290
Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:41 am

Post by deadtorius »

I thought we were trying to confuse an old issue even further.....
titanu
Major - Jagdpanther
Major - Jagdpanther
Posts: 1089
Joined: Wed Nov 01, 2006 7:26 am

Post by titanu »

petedalby wrote:I'm climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in November to raise money for Cancer Research UK. Please visit our Just Giving page if you wish to make a donation. Thanks for your support. http://www.justgiving.com/Paul-Jackson1.
Bet you couldn't get a road up that village or no village!! :shock:
petedalby
Lieutenant-General - Do 217E
Lieutenant-General - Do 217E
Posts: 3118
Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:23 pm
Location: Fareham, UK

Post by petedalby »

Bet you couldn't get a road up that village or no village!!
I'll let you know Bob!
Pete
rpayne
Staff Sergeant - Kavallerie
Staff Sergeant - Kavallerie
Posts: 345
Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2010 5:57 pm

Post by rpayne »

Surprised this thread got as many posts as it did. I was just having fun!

Since it's actually turned into a discussion and it's my thread I suppose I'll throw out my road idea.

My problem with roads is that if you don't have initiative and you take one, it's not really useful for anything. If you don't want terrain and your opponent has won initiative and boxed you into a corner where your two mandatory picks have to be terrain (possible in some options such as Hilly) then the road can take up one of those slots. But really, not useful for much else.

Making the road placed last in my opinion makes it even less useful. I've never seen anybody make a reasonable use out of the movement bonus in a game. I've done it once with a unit of LF for one move, ever, and I take roads a lot when I win initiative so that's one use out of maybe 30 games in which I've taken a road. The problem is because you have to be in column to get the bonus, the difficulty of getting into and out of column is not worth the extra 1" in many situations.

And, really, roads do go through terrain features. You cannot argue that they can not. You can't even argue that ancient cultures didn't do it because it was difficult (I've seen that argument here). I know the Arthashastra says the Mauryans did it in India, and if they could cut roads into the jungles of India I'm sure other cultures did it too.

So, after the long rant, this is what I'd do with roads:

When a road is placed, it can be placed over other terrain features, with some possible exceptions (Impassables, Marshes and Steep Hills maybe)

After the road is placed, other terrain cannot be placed on top of the road.

This allows a player with initiative to do the Byzantine Bowling Alley, and also allows a player without initiative to place a road through existing terrain to possibly create an avenue of attack. Makes it useful for the player without initiative without changing how it works for the player with initiative.

Maybe that makes roads more useful than is intended though. I dunno!
Post Reply

Return to “Rules Questions”