In his article in this issue, our rules guru Rich Velay includes: "Garrisons: Units in garrisons are deployed on the map, either during initial set up, or when added to/returned to a garrison. Units in garrison may move within the borders of their district, but may not leave their garrison district. A unit in garrison must end each player turn in a hex that contains a city, printed fortification, or a point city. Mark units in garrison by any agreeable means (rotating them 180 degrees relative to other friendly units works well), or record them off-map on a separate piece of paper or chart."

The OB purpose of SF garrisons is to account for forces almost permanently assigned to rear-area occupation and other such duties, rather than having them be available to the player for use as he wishes. The activation/appearance rules of the garrison is a method to get them into play in situations where they might be committed to major combat duties, and the uncertain location of their appearance is a secondary feature.

In design of the game, I considered two alternatives to the current rule:

1) Have the player place the garrison forces in cities on the map, but indicate the units in some way (for example, markers) that they were in garrison. While the garrison is not activated, the player can move (using the movement rules) the units from one legal garrison location to another, but that's all. When the garrison is activated, the player gets full control over the garrison's units. This rule was rejected because a) it cluttered up the map with units over which the player didn't have full control (making play awkward), and b) it was impractical to devote a lot of counter space to "garrison" markers.

2) Keep the garrison units off map but have the player decide where the units were at the start of play and write down their locations on paper (and not reveal them to the other player). While the garrison is not activated, the player could move (using the movement rules) the units from one legal garrison location to another, keeping track of it on paper. Immediately before the garrison is activated accordingly to the rules, all units of the garrison are immediately placed at their locations. This rule was rejected because a) it imposed a heavy bookkeeping function on the players, and b) the major work for the bookkeeping falls during initial deployment, being yet another task slowing players from starting actual play.

Personally, I like option 2 the best but regard its bookkeeping requirement as too much to impose on the players, even if this was ameliorated with a handy set of charts (for example, each garrison is listed, with all legal locations to place units in the garrison, and the player simply needs to note the unit at the location). Still, no doubt some players would like this rule and it's fine by me to make either version a house rule.

More Inside Europa

Crating Air Units
Garrisons
Second Front Player Sequence
British Cadres
Second Front Off-Map Movement