Question about "sneaky" swamps and "rivers&am

[flakfernrohr]

I know that you can make swamps, marshes, and unfordable rivers that effectively eliminate a threat from the other side from direct contact, BUT, is there any way to detect these little hidden surprises on a map unless you remember where they are or where you put them?

I am guessing the AI might be able to tell and keep a unit from moving across a marsh, swamp or river that is put onto the map this way, but how about a human player relying on his scouts, etc. How do you manage to test these types of geography out BEFORE you "take the plunge"? Are bridge engineers the only answer?

I have used this techinique and cover the swamps or rivers not only with moss but also Thick Forest tiles. Sometimes you can see a little blue showing indicating water, but sometimes you can't.

I learned to do this some time ago and also made some dry lakes for a desert type environment. Then I saw Kerensky give a little tutoral on this technique on the forum, and didn't think to ask about how to find these traps if you forget where they are. I mean you can't just stop the game and strip some layers off the map to find them while you are playing can you?

[Razz1]

That's what map strings are for.

Since those are special hexes you need to name them.

Deep Bog
Dead Swamp
Dark Forest
Impassable

ETC...

[El_Condoro]

The problem is that map strings can also *hide* the terrain type under them. For example, I might name a hex 'Forest' but it has a 'swamp' terrain type - the player cannot know that and there is no way to see it (which is what I think the OP is getting at). In PG2 there was a key (6 or 7) that showed just the underlying terrain - might be nice in a future iteration of PzC (shows terrain type under the overlay and strings)?

[Razz1]

I repeat again. That is what map strings are for.

You name that hex.

Plain and simple.

[flakfernrohr]

OK, I understand about strings. So I can string these all together even though they are in different rivers that already have strings bearing the river name? The hex with the "hole" is going to have TWO strings?

[El_Condoro]

I repeat again. That is what map strings are for.

You name that hex.

Plain and simple.

"Hex that looks like forest but has swamp underlay" - might work.

Seriously though, a city hex with entrenchment as its terrain type could be "City name (Entrenchment)" but I'd prefer to see the terrain type somewhere rather than in the string.

[Razz1]

Go to map strings and add a name. A Hex can only have one string.

Then go to the forest overlay that has a swamp underneath it. Assign the name of the hex to be the one you added like: Impassible, Dark Forest.

When a player goes to move a unit they can tell the hex is different by viewing the white hexes with dots. They can hover the mouse over the hex for the reason why.

Or just hover your mouse over hexes when viewing the map. On the right panel the name of the hex shows up.

For example you have several swamp hexes that are impassible because there is a lake underneath them.

Use the same string name of Deep Bog. That way a player can hover over the map and see where they can not enter.

Then when starting the game... explain to the player "All deep Bog hexes can not be entered." Oh, by the way... there are several Dark forests hexes that can not be entered.

[El_Condoro]

That's right - I do all that. For example, I have used swamp hexes with a normal overlay and a string 'actung Minen' to represent minefields on my Bluecoat map - it works really well and is documented.

A bigger issue is when I use entrenchment terrain type on city overlays. I do this because I don't want cities to be used as supply points (I use zones to give prestige). We have to be creative because there haven't been any significant changes to the editor since release except that relate to the DLCs although there are dozens of enhancement requests. Even though it's documented in my scenario notes guys can still get confused.

The problem with relying on telling players outside the game is they often don't read the docs. Anyway, I don't think a terrain type notice will be a development priority!