Slitherine

I have a riddle for you guys.

I win initiative, and pick Developed as a terrain option.

As a mandatory, I take a 6" by 4" village, and place it in the center of a 12" circular gentle hill.

Then as one of my other options, I take a Road.

The Road is required to touch the village, but cannot go through the hill.

Where does it go?

Ryan

Isn't the whole hill supposed to be covered by the village?

Mehrunes wrote:Isn't the whole hill supposed to be covered by the village?

If you put brush on a gentle hill the whole hill has brush if you put forrest on a hill it is all forrested

So if you put a village on a gentle hill it all becomes difficult.

From the rules, p. 140.

"A hill can be clear or can be wholly or partly covered with one of either broken ground, brush, plantation, vineyards, forest or a village."

The rule says it can't pass through other terrain because of aesthetic reasons. In the case of a road stopping at the bottom of the slope this is superseded by the express requirement that it connect to the village.

rpayne wrote:From the rules, p. 140.

"A hill can be clear or can be wholly or partly covered with one of either broken ground, brush, plantation, vineyards, forest or a village."

Okey your right never seen it happen in x amount of games The reason you take it is:

a. To stop the opponent using it as on steppes taking brush and placing it on gentle hill

b. Making the gentle hill turn into difficult terriain that way the whole of the hill,is difficult

Can't say this has ever come up? when did you want to use it.

I would actually never do this in a tournament game, I just think it's kind of funny.

I did take a 6x4 Brush on a 16" gentle hill once in a game where I didn't want terrain, my opponent got initiative, picked hilly, and made the mistake of taking the steep hill as his mandatory though.

If someone had done this in a game against me I would have said, "Since you put yourself in a position where you can not legally place the road, you can not select it as a terrain feature."

Terry G.

I think the rules allow for a village on a hill to have an integral road. Since the hill is part of the terrain selection, the road can extend to the edge of the hill.

TERRYFROMSPOKANE wrote:If someone had done this in a game against me I would have said, "Since you put yourself in a position where you can not legally place the road, you can not select it as a terrain feature."

Terry G.

I guess they could select it but as it cannot be legally placed at the time of placement it would be discarded.

Sounds like another reason why the road not going through otherr terrain is a rubbish idea generated by overly competitive geometic tournament tigers.

That's a good riddle. Clever eye to spot that one.

The road goes through the village, be sensible people!
Common sense must step in at some point, when the rules aren't completely clear.
If I was a ref at a tournament and someone made a fuss .... I'd give them a "yellow card" after I'd stopped laughing.

The silly 'Road Rule" needs modification to prebent the 'Byzantine Bowling Alley" - where a player with initiative places a road almost all the way down one flank then trus sharply to the side edge in the corner and places a coast or river on the other flank there by virtually eliminating flank terrain.

Gino
SMAC

kal5056 wrote:The silly 'Road Rule" needs modification to prebent the 'Byzantine Bowling Alley" - where a player with initiative places a road almost all the way down one flank then trus sharply to the side edge in the corner and places a coast or river on the other flank there by virtually eliminating flank terrain.

Gino
SMAC

Richard(one of the rule writers) has wrote on one of the forums about this saying there is nothing wrong in using this.

Maybe nothing "wrong" with it but it is cheesy.
Gino
SMAC

What's cheesy about fighting on a plain between the highway and the deep blue sea?

I would just like to see the rule changed to allow a maximum width of 40mm to roads and for all terrain (other than Impassable) to be placed under roads. Bases wholly on a road are considered on clear flat ground with not terrain modifier, hill bonus, or movement penalty, for the surrounding terrain feature. To me this would be realistic (perhaps the up hill bonus could be maintained) and if someone wants to go into single file to march through a woods then they are vulnerable to shooting.

This allows roads to be used but not to eliminate the opportunity for terrain to the opponent.

Would add a bit of flavor to the terrain placement as well.

Right now all I have seen is either roads ignored completely or only used to block terrain.
I see them in less than 5% of my games and I think they look good on the table.

Gino
SMAC

MikeK wrote:What's cheesy about fighting on a plain between the highway and the deep blue sea?

Nothing wrong with the realism regarding the desire to fight in that situation. Its the terrain placement mechanism imbalanced in this way, and (for many )the notion that roads and rivers (linear terrain) cannot superimpose area terrain.

The game impact is that people select a road not becasue they actually want a raod, but that it denies other type of terrain in that area.

(edit) even taking into account the aesthetic issues, a fairer rule to both sides would be to change the wording for flank placement to be ("touching a side edge, road coast or river in the opponents half. Then it just pushes terrain in 6 inches. Alternatively (also avoiding overlaying terrin) permit linear features to be pivoted or slid extending or resticting the linear feature length accoringly.

The simple solution - which has been suggested some time ago - is to make road placement last. That way it can't be used to block other terrain features.

and that sounds like the simplest solution of all