River Travel
Current Rule:
To follow a river, a manual adjustment is required.
1. The Fleet is treated like an Element in so far as it will move overland adjacent to the River
2. A bonus of 10 MV points is given to the unit in question for this purpose (GM uses 0263e3)
3. The player must start their movement on one side of the river and give the order “follow River with River on Right” or “follow River with River on Left”.
4. Terrain that is impassable on land is impassable by vessels on river.
5. The unit following the river will stop when the river meets Lake, Ocean etc at this point (from the next turn) the unit may travel on Lake or Ocean as a normal fleet.
Special Rule for Barges Traveling Between Village Sites
Fleets composed only of barges (barge flotilla) may travel a river using the rule above or they may travel using this rule which can be used only between villages located on a river, lake coast, or ocean coast.
The movement limit for a barge flotilla moving under this rule is 40 MP. Movement costs for barge flotillas are 1 MP per water hex side. A flotilla moving under these rules will follow the river or coast hex sides, not move hex to hex. So if it were traversing a hex that had river on three sides, it would take 3MP to traverse past that hex. The rate is the same whether the barge is moving upriver or downriver.
To use this rule the barge flotilla must begin and end its move at a village with a meeting house. The route the barge flotilla takes must have been previously established and approved by the GM. To establish such a route the villages at each end must exist prior to the establishment of the route. If either village ceases to exist, the route also ceases to exist.
Route start and end points are based on the location of the village at each end. If a village has more that one hex side that is bordered by water, the hex side that the village is located on should be specified when the village is created and must be specified before a route is created. Routes into and out of a village must start on that specific hex side.
Routes may be chained, i.e., a barge flotilla may travel a route from village A to village B by one route and then travel another route from village B to village C. However, if village B ceases to exist then both routes in the chain cease to exist as well. Barge flotillas that are stranded as a result of lost routes must wait until new routes are established or they can move using the rule in the previous section. Note that it is possible that the barge flotilla may not be able to retrace the lost route using the rules in the previous section.
Route maintenance is the responsibility of the player. Frequent route changes or abuse of the rule may result in modifications by the GM.