re: hex control

[NotaPacifist]

This mainly deals with the fall of France and north Africa. As a conquering axis player who hasn't accepted the French Armistice offer, you find yourself marching all over the country to de-britainize every hex regardless of wether there is a single enemy unit in the country or not. Seems to happen in NA as well.

Can there be some piece of code that once a) every city has been taken, and b) there are no enemy units present, that the countryside becomes your territory? It's a time-consuming pain especially where rough terrain is considered have all of these hexes in need of clearance when realistically, your corps would be sending out detachments, or more occupational non-combat types of units would be spreading into the countryside spreading the 'good' news that your taxes will collected by someone else...etc, etc.

[Blathergut]

I agree. Or maybe x# of hexes out from each city controlled? It just doesn't feel right to have to walk into just about every hex in France.

[PionUrpo]

How about area starts converting to enemy when it's cut off from supply source? Not the whole area immediately but those hexes that are adjacent to >0 supply level enemy hex. That way it would take few turns for larger areas to convert.

[metolius]

I've thought this was a good idea for some time. I would suggest that the following would allow for a gradual transition to control:

+ Any out-of-supply hex next to an enemy 'in-supply' hex has a 50% of switching to the enemy side at the end of each turn.

That way the territory would gradually switch over to being in control of the occupying power, as one would expect – not instantly, since there probably would be small scale resistance, but not requiring units to be 'walked' all over the map, which is, frankly, quite tedious.

Hexes actually occupied by units (that are themselves out of supply) would naturally be exempt.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

This would require quite a big code change and could introduce bugs. If we do this we can't make an Easter release for sure. E. g. partisans often take control of hexes to cause trouble for the Germans. If the Germans get the hex control back then the partisan nuisance would be much less.

If which situations do we see a problem with hex control? In France the Germans will have to move to left behind British units to capture the hexes and make them German again. I think that's fair because even if the main unit has evacuated the hex is not usable by the Axis until they maintain a presence in the area.

In North Africa the Axis player will have to get the ports and cities to get control. Granted, that some inland hexes won't change to Axis control, but the same happens to inland hexes in Libya when the Allies crush the Axis there. No land units would like to go there due to the dune terrain. Air units can't rebase to dune hexes etc. So that problem is minor.

I consider empty hexes to be hexes under your control with only token forces. To change control you need to make an active decision to move units through the hexes.

Enemy hexes who are cut off from supply can be flown to so you can use air rebasing to gain control of the hexes you need. Cities give supply level 3 so you physically have to occupy the city to make it change side. I don't think that's a bad thing.

[rkr1958]

Personally, I think the risk of introducing serious bugs is much higher versus what would be gain by such a change. I vote to keep things the way they are with respect to hex control.

[Blathergut]

Don't change anything then if it may cause problems. Maybe put on the back burner for another time.

[metolius]

This would require quite a big code change and could introduce bugs. If we do this we can't make an Easter release for sure. E. g. partisans often take control of hexes to cause trouble for the Germans. If the Germans get the hex control back then the partisan nuisance would be much less.

If which situations do we see a problem with hex control? In France the Germans will have to move to left behind British units to capture the hexes and make them German again. I think that's fair because even if the main unit has evacuated the hex is not usable by the Axis until they maintain a presence in the area.

In North Africa the Axis player will have to get the ports and cities to get control. Granted, that some inland hexes won't change to Axis control, but the same happens to inland hexes in Libya when the Allies crush the Axis there. No land units would like to go there due to the dune terrain. Air units can't rebase to dune hexes etc. So that problem is minor.

I consider empty hexes to be hexes under your control with only token forces. To change control you need to make an active decision to move units through the hexes.

Enemy hexes who are cut off from supply can be flown to so you can use air rebasing to gain control of the hexes you need. Cities give supply level 3 so you physically have to occupy the city to make it change side. I don't think that's a bad thing.

First of all, if it is too hard to do, it is too hard to do, and we can all live with it.

The issue is simply that the game is (as we have often been reminded) about corps-level activities, and you don't really need a corps, or even a division, to wander around in the mountains and establish 'control' over the territory (absent partisans).

Of course, the whole idea of territory being entirely the in 'control' of one side or another is a crude approximation, but as far as it goes, it makes more sense for the hexes to tend to fall into line with the surrounding territory, absent partisan activity.

It doesn't come up that often, but occasionally, particularly in certain supply situations in Africa, and also as the Axis is retreating in Europe, these issues do come up.

And finally, it is worth noting that the friendly hexes provide a certain amount of 'spying' help – you can see enemy adjacent, and you can (of course) see that there are NO enemies in the friendly squares.