GameMaster

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Ottawa, Canada

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Convoy Paradox
Placeholder - This is a work in progress. I will be creating/clarifying a house rule to deal with a typical convoy paradox. It has come up before and I was recently asked my position on it as depending on the ruleset used, and the GM, the outcome is different.
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/L.B.Kruijswijk/#4.A.2
quote: 4.A.2. CONVOY DISRUPTION PARADOXES
A convoy disruption paradox is a situation with a possible disrupted convoy and for which the rules give no resolution or more than one resolution.
Some people argue that some situations are not convoy paradoxes, since the rules give a resolution for those situations. Hence, for a proper discussion on paradoxes, rule XII.5 of the 1971, 1976, 1982 and 1992 rulebooks and the rule on the top of page 16 of the 2000 rulebook, should not be taken into account in the above definition of a paradox.
In case of a paradox, the smallest subset of orders for which the paradox still exists, is the core of the paradox. In case there are several independent paradoxes on the board, then it is possible that there are two different subsets of orders with the same number of orders. In that case, just one can be taken to proceed. Since the paradoxes are independent it doesn't matter which one is handled first.
The 1982 rule about this issue is:
"If a convoyed army attacks a fleet which is supporting an action in a body of water; and that body of water contains a convoying fleet, that support is not cut. ". The advantage of this rule is that it is a simple and effective rule that eliminates all paradoxes. Compared to other rules that eliminate all paradoxes, it is the easiest rule to program in an adjudicator. However, the disadvantage is that it effects not only the paradoxical situations, but also many other cases. This has as consequence that players can do tricks with this rule to take advantage (see test cases 6.F.20 and 6.F.21). It is also not clear what a "convoying fleet" means. Does it mean a fleet that is ordered to convoy? Or must there be at least an army that tries to convoy? Or must there be a possible route? Finally, as with the 1971 rule, it conflicts with the dislodge rule in some cases, although, the common interpretation is that this rule takes precedence (see test case 6.F.17).
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