Joseph Miranda - 05:15pm Jul 6, 2003 PST (#25 of 89) 

Here are the design notes for Asia Crossroads. Please note this is not
errata. 

[4.0] Balance of Power. Executing Agents and eliminating Civilization
markers leads to the Balance of Power shifting in favor of the targeted
player representing outrage over attacks on civilians—remember, this is
an era of civilized warfare! 

[5.31] The Events Pro-British Uprising and Pro-Russian Uprising do not
literally mean that the uprising was fought to support either the
British or Russian empires. It simply allows one of the players to
control that Region's forces for purposes of the game. 

[8.0] Random Events. It is highly recommended that players read the
Random Events Table prior to play inasmuch as some of the events will
have a major impact on the game. 

[9.0] Income and Pounds. A player has a better chance of receiving more
Pounds from his Home Income die roll if the Balance of Power is
moderately or strongly in his own or his opponent's favor. This is due
to the fact that (1) as a player gains dominance, his home government
reinforces success; OR (2) as the situation gets worse for a side, the
home government would pour in more resources to bail the Central Asian
command out. On the other hand, an indecisive campaign will elicit
little interest from the home office. 

[12.0] Operations. The multiple Operations phases, of course, represent
that the game uses five year long turns. This frequently makes strategy
a matter of anticipating how many phases the enemy is going to conduct
in a turn. 

[13.0] Movement. Diagonal movement represents the greater flexibility of
individual Agents and irregular forces. Amphibious movement assumes that
there is always enough local shipping to requisition or naval units to
be assigned. 

[16.4] Agent Elimination. Players need to carefully follow the sequence
of play for Agent elimination. For example: Herat is a Neutral region.
British agent Pottinger is in Herat city along with a stack of Herat
units (being an Agent, he does not trigger Belligerency). A Russian army
enters the Herat city square (Movement Sub-Phase) and makes a
Negotiations attempt (Negotiations Sub-Phase) which fails. Herat is now
a belligerent and British controlled (Belligerency Check Sub-Phase).
Since Herat is British controlled, the units in Heart city now “protect”
Pottinger. The Russians then attack the Herat force and so Pottinger can
now lead the Heart forces (Combat Sub-Phase). If, on the other hand, the
Russians had succeeded in their Negotiations attempt and Herat had
become Russian controlled, then Pottinger would have had to make a
capture check at the end of the Combat Sub-Phase). 

[17.0] Supply. Yes, supply costs can be crippling at times, but try
marching a army into central Asia without a railroad and see how long it
lasts. So supply point management is crucial to any operation.
Maintaining as reserve of SPs will be critical, especially if the enemy
conducts additional operations in a turn. And the extra cost for the
eleventh and subsequent SP represents the dislocations to the economy
caused by buying up of civilian transport. 

[20.0] Civilization Markers. Asia Crossroads is not just about
conquering the map, you actually have to build up your empire’s economy.
So you will have to balance resources between military and
“civilization” expenditures. 

[24.0] Open War. A direct clash between British and Russian forces would
have had immense political and military implications, so this rule ought
to make players a little more circumspect. It is entirely possible to
play and win the game without once attacking any enemy British or
Russian units.