Slitherine

The railway ends up one hex before the Copenhagen.

Is it a bug, or is that the way it should be? Because now you cant' rail in or out of Copenhagen...

On a similar point, the gauges of the western and eastern European railways were different in 1914 so everybody had to get off one train and then get on to another. Might that be represented in the game? I don't actually know how far apart the two rail systems were from each other and, given that each turn is 2 weeks, it might not warrant making any change at all. Just a thought anyway.

Just a further thought - maybe to represent the delay caused by the difference of gauge size you could have a number of railway hexes that halt rail travel there for that turn. In that way the journey would be interrupted but the rail network could still be represented as continuous so railroad units could still get from Berlin to Moscow, for example.

As you say, the turn scale is two weeks. It doesn't take that long to switch trains (or hoist carriages to new wheelbases, as was done in some places). Another possible solution, if technically possible, would be to shorten the maximum length of a train trip by a hex or two if it crosses the borderline between gauges (I assume the Russian border)?

avoran wrote:As you say, the turn scale is two weeks. It doesn't take that long to switch trains (or hoist carriages to new wheelbases, as was done in some places). Another possible solution, if technically possible, would be to shorten the maximum length of a train trip by a hex or two if it crosses the borderline between gauges (I assume the Russian border)?

Yes, that would work as well.

Found a railway map for 1914 now . . .

http://www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/europe_1914.htm

The lines do seem to stop at the border, except in Prussia and through the Balkans to Turkey. There are less railway lines here than in the game, so I assume these are the main routes and the map does not include any "light railway" lines. There is a very big gap between the rail networks in Central Poland.

We have lots of railway maps which we used as references. Unfortunately it's very difficult to get good references for the European railways of 1914. Almost all of them are either incomplete (not detailed enough) or only show a very small area. The map you have there shows only the most major of rail lines. The rail network was much more dense than shown in that map.

Myrddraal wrote:We have lots of railway maps which we used as references. Unfortunately it's very difficult to get good references for the European railways of 1914. Almost all of them are either incomplete (not detailed enough) or only show a very small area. The map you have there shows only the most major of rail lines. The rail network was much more dense than shown in that map.

Oh yes, for sure. Does the idea of having a small penalty if using the railway to cross into/out of Russian territory make any sense? Or is it too trivial a detail?

I makes sense I guess, but because the max railway distance is between cities and not any railway hex, the difference might not be noticeable (in fact, it might make no practical difference at all...)

Myrddraal wrote:I makes sense I guess, but because the max railway distance is between cities and not any railway hex, the difference might not be noticeable (in fact, it might make no practical difference at all...)

do you mean it's not measured along the tracks? (Incidentally, did you look at the issue of Ruhr to Paris rail when Antwerp is in enemy hands? There are analogous situations elsewhere.)

It is measured along the tracks yes. That will be the problem. Most rail moves are not on the edge of movement, but are a few hexes short of the maximum. Removing one hex from the max distance here and there may not actually make a difference to which cities you can travel between.

Would making any train finish its turn on the hexes that are representing the change of gauge be too much of an effect, do you think?

If so, another alternative is an extra reduction of the efficiency of any units travelling over the designated hexes - to represent a more arduous journey?

That could work. We could in fact generalise it to make it so any railway journey across original national boundaries has a greater efficiency impact, but to be honest I'm not sure it's worth it... The effect would be pretty minor so it feels like overcomplicating things. *shrug*

Besides, the differrent gauge is not limited to Russia, Spain had also a different gauge. Also the Ottoman railway was not continuous from Constantinople to Syria, there was an area in the Ciclian mountains that had to be crossed by road.

Myrddraal wrote:That could work. We could in fact generalise it to make it so any railway journey across original national boundaries has a greater efficiency impact, but to be honest I'm not sure it's worth it... The effect would be pretty minor so it feels like overcomplicating things. *shrug*

OK then, thanks.