Discussions of the effects of terrain and movement on battlefield units can descend into arguments about the “realism” of moving and fighting in places that aren’t just open fields.
The most important consideration is what kind of game are you playing?
Individual skirmish games like Mordheim or Pulp Alley have a very different set of requirements for movement and terrain than regiment-level, mass-combat games Black Powder or Fire & Fury. Then you have grid-based games like The Portable Wargame or Commands & Colors, which abstract the size and movement of units even further.
A single cowboy in Fistful of Lead can take cover behind a tree, but a regiment of riflemen would be badly disorganized in a forest using Bigger Battles.
The Rules Set the Scene
In the realm of wargames there are wildly varying terrain rules, and the game system you choose depends on one's own preference for realism vs abstraction. Movement rates and combat effects should be appropriate to the scale and format of the game you are designing. In a recent conversation a colleague mentioned "being cautious in light woodland but not when walking past low walls or buildings that could be occupied doesn't seem to be consistent."
That is an astute observation. I would submit it is a weak ruleset that doesn't reduce movement in built-up areas with walls or buildings that could be occupied. This comment only reinforces the idea that movement and terrain rules are vital to game design.
I recently played an ACW game with a rule that "moving into forest reduces movement to 1/2 for the turn" which created quite a paradox. A unit with a move of 6" was 4" from a forest, but if they wanted to move INTO the forest their move would have been only 3". In this case they couldn't enter the forest at all, but had to stop after only moving 3”, stranding them 1" away. As this situation was not addressed in the rules, it was determined the unit could move the 4”, stop, then enter the forest on the following turn. These rules were poorly written, to say the least
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