11. Weather
Adverse weather turns are marked on the Turn Track. There are three types of adverse weather: Mud, Storms, and Snow.
△ 11.1 Weather Areas
Weather affects the hexes of six different Weather Areas on the map: Desert, East Asia, North, North Monsoon, South, and South Monsoon.
Central: all Land hexes inside Formosa, Hong Kong, Kiangsu, Shanghai, Szechwan, Tibet, and Yunnan.
Desert: all Land hexes inside Australia, Kansu, Mongolia, and Sinkiang.
North: all Land hexes inside the Aleutian Islands, Hopeh, Japan (including Karafuto and the Kurile Islands), Korea, Manchukuo, and Russia (including Kamchatka, Komandorski, and Sakhalin).
North Monsoon: all Land hexes inside Burma, Ceylon, India, Indochina, Malaya, Nepal, the Philippines, and Siam.
South: all Land hexes inside New Zealand.
South Monsoon: all Land hexes inside the Netherlands East Indies (including its Dependents), Papua, and Sarawak.
△ For Weather purposes, Dependents and Regions (13.3) are always considered based on their printed disposition on the map; the Weather of these areas does not change if their political situation changes.
The Mongol Frontier region is always considered to be part of Mongolia (and the Desert Weather Area) for Weather purposes, even if it is ceded to Japan as a separate Dependent.
Beachheads: Although All-Sea hexes are not normally part of a Weather Area, an All-Sea hex containing a Beachhead marker is considered to be part of the Weather Area that the Beachhead Hexside points to.
This is mostly to prevent attackers from claiming the ability to conduct Blitz combat against a Beachhead in bad weather.
Note that many islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans are not part of any Weather area. These places never suffer weather effects.
11.2 Weather Effects on Combat
Reduce the Dr result against a defending hex affected by Mud, Storms, or Snow as follows:
- Dr3 becomes Dr2
- Dr2 becomes Dr1
- Dr1 becomes Ex.
Ex, Ad, and Attrition results are not affected.
11.3 Mud
A ground unit in a hex with Mud cannot move out of a hex containing an EZOC. No exceptions.
Friendly units do not negate EZOC for this purpose.
Here’s a tactical tip. To disengage in Mud, attack and try to get Ad and Ex results.
A ground unit cannot attack a hex with Mud in the Blitz Combat Segment.
When attacked in a hex with Mud, the defender receives a one-column shift to the left.
A ground unit cannot conduct Exploitation into a hex with Mud.
Mud does not affect Retreat, Advance After Combat, or a Failure (14.15).
Mud (and Storms and Snow) do affect the Retreat Result you receive during combat (11.2), but it doesn’t affect how you conduct Retreats.
An Air unit cannot be placed in a hex with Mud.
An Air unit does not provide an Air Unit shift in combat if the defending hex is a hex with Mud.
△ During Turns in which the North Monsoon Area is experiencing Mud, a support unit cannot be placed in an All-Sea hex in the Bay of Bengal, Philippine Sea, or South China Sea Naval Zones.
△ During Turns in which the South Monsoon Area is experiencing Mud, a support unit cannot be placed in an All-Sea hex in the Arafura Sea or Bismarck Sea Naval Zones.
11.4 Storms
A ground unit in a hex with Storms must stop moving after moving into or out of a hex containing an EZOC in the Operational Movement Phase. No exceptions.
Friendly units do not negate EZOC for this purpose. A multi-step armor unit can ignore the EZOC of a unit it is overrunning in Storms.
A ground unit cannot attack a hex with Storms in the Blitz Combat Segment.
Storms do not affect Retreat, Advance after Combat, Exploitation, or a Failure (14.15).
An Air unit does not provide an Air Unit shift in combat if the defending hex is a hex with Storms, and the Air unit is adjacent to that hex.
An Air unit can provide an Air Unit shift in its hex during Storms (or Snow, for that matter).
11.5 Snow
A ground unit in a hex with Snow must stop moving after moving into or out of a hex containing an EZOC in the Operational Movement Phase. No exceptions.
Friendly units do not negate EZOC for this purpose. A multi-step armor unit can ignore the EZOC of a unit it is overrunning in Snow.
Blitz-enabled Russian units (only) can attack defending units in Land hexes with Snow in the Blitz Combat Segment:
An Air unit does not provide an Air Unit shift in combat if the defending hex is a hex with Snow, and the Air unit is adjacent to that hex.
Snow does not affect Retreat, Advance after Combat, Exploitation, or a Failure (14.15).
During Turns in which the North Weather Area is experiencing Snow:
- An Ice hex cannot be considered a Naval Base or an Open Port.
- △ A support unit cannot be placed in any All-Sea hex of the Sea of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk, Northwest Pacific, North Pacific, or Gulf of Alaska Naval Zones.
Support units can be placed in the Naval Zone Boxes of those Naval Zones during Snow.