The Bocage Problem

Edited for some corrections.
 
While contemplating the "Bluff at Easy Green" scenario and the possibility of following it up with "Ranger Relief" and "Grandcamp" (all from Skirmish Campaigns: Heroes of Omaha and Panzer Lehr) I started obsessing about how to handle bocage. Literally, every spare moment when I wasn't otherwise occupied, and sometimes even when I was, I thought about how best to handle bocage in a simple manner but that would reflect something of the "hedgerow hell".

I did some digging into the rules that have inspired and informed this whole process and found a variety of approaches (not addressing it all was pretty common), and then went to look and see how different board games handle it (three cheers for companies that make their rules available for free on their company websites). Finally, I even read some over-my-head discussions about Advanced Squad Leader's treatment of bocage (this article was fairly clear however).

Map for Ranger Relief (June 7, 1944) converted into a grid.

One thing became very clear: if I went too far down the rabbit-hole, I'd end up with a very complex system for handling bocage, while the rest of the rules are pretty simple.

While trying to avoid too much complexity, I also wanted something more complex than Blitzkrieg Commander's approach of "impassable to all except American & British armor from July 1944 until breached . . ." since the way the maps are drawn for the scenarios I am going to play, whole swaths of the table become inaccessible to infantry if I follow that approach.

The idea of "wall advantage" (ASL) makes sense to me - as I want some way of saying, "these units are in the bocage" and are thus treated differently than the units trying to push them out. This does require an additional marker, and I may, in practice, find the additonal marker too annoying to continue to use, but for now, it doesn't bother me too much.

Here's what I have come up with, liberally using ASL as the backbone (most of the wording is pretty generic and doesn't require knowing my rules otherwise), while trying to address some of the vagaries of the particular maps I'm using:


Bocage (Tentative rules)

At this scale, bocage is grid-space edge terrain and is shared by both spaces that share the edge.

Bocage may cover the entire edge line or part of it (half is a good representation) and while most effects are the same, there are some differences.

Movement

• A full edge of bocage is impassible to vehicles
• A partial edge of bocage can be traversed normally by vehicles
• Infantry and like units may move only move 1 space, if any part of the move would involve crossing a full bocage edge. 
• For example, if a unit wants to move into a space with a bocage edge and move a second space beyond the bocage, it must stop and wait for the next phase in which it can move.
• Infantry and like units may move normally when crossing a partial bocage edge.
• If the unit crosses a bocage edge, it may close assault adjacent target spaces (even if they share a bocage edge with the unit's new space).

Occupying Bocage

• A unit that moves into a space with one or more bocage edges, may "occupy" the bocage (all edges - this is to keep things simple) provided all of the bocage edges for that space are unoccupied.
• As long as a single unit that is not suppressed is occupying bocage, the side maintains control of the bocage for that space. If all units are suppressed, then the bocage is no longer occupied.

LOS

• Bocage blocks line of sight through the bocage edge with the following exceptions:
• Units in adjacent spaces that share a bocage edge may see into each others spaces.
• Units that have occupied the bocage in a space have normal LOS extending out of the space and can be seen normally.
• A unit in a grid space that can draw a diagonal from the center of the space, through the corner of the grid space where only one edge that makes the corner is bocage has LOS . If both edges that make up the corner are bocage, then LOS is blocked.

Example 1:
Y and Z are not occupying the bocage. Units A, C and D have LOS to the space occupied by Y and Z. Unit B does not have LOS.

Example 2:
Y and Z are not occupying the bocage. Units A and D have LOS to Y and Z. B and C do not.

Shooting

• Bocage blocks direct fire into the grid space through the bocage edge, even if it's partial, except from adjacent spaces, unless the units in the target space are occupying the bocage. Then normal shooting rules apply. Treat target as in cover in either case.
• A unit may fire through a bocage edge only into the adjacent grid space unless it is occupying the bocage, in which case it shoots normally.
• In Example 1, if Y and Z are occupying bocage, then A, B, C, and D are eligible targets.
• In Example 1, if Y and Z are not occupying bocage, then A and D are eligible targets.A and D both can claim the bocage as cover.
• Bocage does not prevent indirect fire.
• Indirect fire from across the bocage edge without direct observation by a Forward Observer or other eligible unit is recon by fire and is adjusted accordingly.

Close Assault

• Units may close assault through a bocage edge.
• If the defender is occupying the bocage, then use bocage as cover modifier, if not, use the terrain of the space the defending units are in to determine cover modifier.

It is a bit "gamey" in that you can control the bocage on all of the edges of grid-space with a single unit, which seems highly unrealistic, but given that a space is 40-50m and we dont' know where in that space a unit is exactly, to me it's an acceptable compromise, for now, between tracking exactly where units are and limiting units attacking through bocage to targeting the space on the other side of the bocage (a possibility if I find the current method too tedious after all).

I've played numerous games with my "test" setup (using printed counters on a square grid) but tomorrow night will be the first real go at a complete game for the "Bluff at Easy Green" scenario.