Shortly after Omaha was shipped to the pre-pub purchasers, Rod Miller cornered me on the phone with what he insisted on calling a "fundamental change" in the philosophy of the TCS system. The culprit was the seemingly unobtrusive rule regarding Bocage Hexsides. As was intended, units which move adjacent to a bocage hexside are exempted from creating an overwatch triggerfor enemy units which must use an LOS which crosses the bocage hexside to see the trigger. Rod was sure that if units where exempt in this situation, the same rule should be applied to when units enter the edge of a forest, village, or come up to a regular hedgerow hexside. I wasn't so sure--and felt that the designer had specified the terrain correctly for the effect he wanted (units tended to move along the bocage, not in the open field behind it.)

The more I thought about it, however, the more I became convinced that his argument actually had a great deal of merit. Adjusted correctly, a new overwatch fire trigger rule could add greatly to the TCS's handling of terrain and its effect on tactics. Units would be allowed to move through covered and concealed routes in order to take up firing positions without tripping overwatch fires on themselves. An insignificant hedgerow near your troops may provide the enemy an easy way to get into range to set up for a big suppressive fire. It looks very good.

In writing, however, this rule must be carefully set up--or new loopholes and so on would appear much like a freshly opened can of worms. It would require a painless insertion into the existing rules (to include the latest addenda regarding permission to fire.) The below is the initial roughed out rule--I will be looking for your feedback on its merit, weaknesses, and whether or not inclusion is warranted. At this point, consider it no more than an official optional variant rule.

The idea of this rule is to apply a variable definition of to which point, exactly, the overwatch trigger or LOS is determined. It is best set up in the form of a table:

Trigger or Reason	Trigger or LOS Point	Hexside features of Target's hex
Regular Suppressive Fire	Center of target's hex	Ignored for LOS
Triggered by Fire	Center of target's hex	Ignored for LOS
Triggered by Movement	Center of hexside crossed to enter hex	Blocks if LOS crosses

In all cases, hexside features of the firer's or "trigger observer's" hex are ignored. In all cases, units can always see triggers in hexes adjacent to themselves.

Therefore, a unit moving through a forest to that forest's edge to enter a firing position would be free from a movement generated overwatch trigger if the final hex of movement contains forest which blocks the observer's LOS attempting to reach the hexside the moving unit crossed the enter the hex.

Give this rule a try and see what you think. I believe it opens up a world of new tactical possibilities. Let me know what you think and will consider or ditch this for the 3rd Edition TCS rules.