[eia] referendum on 2 House Rules adopted in a previous campaign

["Kyle H" <menexenus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

ISSUE 1:  Timing of Voluntary Access Agreements
    I believe we had as a House Rule that Voluntary Access agreements (which
are public knowledge) had to be publicized during the Political Phase.  I
forget exactly why we adopted that rule...  I vaguely recall that it was in
response to some hypothetical situation that seemed to abuse the lack of
specificity in the rules.  But since I can't remember what it was now, I
guess it couldn't have been that important.  So in lieu of a reason for
maintaining it, I'm happy to dispense with the requirement that access
agreements are publicized during the Political Phase, if others wish to do
so as well.

ISSUE 2:  The National Borders Rule
    Speaking of old House Rules that should probably be abolished...  I'm
really losing my enthusiasm for the "minimum number of national borders"
rule we came up with during our last game.  The situation was this:  France
had just ended a war with Austria, but wished to pursue Spanish troops
deeper into Austrian-controlled territory prior to leaving.  At the time, we
decided that it violated the spirit of a peace treaty for a previously enemy
force to be allowed to march willy-nilly across the territory of a former
enemy to get at the former enemy's ally.  So we came up with this rule that
says after a peace is made, a withdrawing force must choose a path that
crosses a minimum number of national borders.  (A corollary of this rule is
that once you leave previously enemy terriory, you cannot re-enter without
access.)
    In retrospect, I think this rule is a bad idea, and I'd like to just
abolish it.  The rules already specify that a corps has 6 months to get out
of a country after peace is made.  During that six months, the corps should
be able to take whatever path is most convenient.  Here's an example of why
this rule is goofy:
    Suppose Austria and Prussia have just finished a war with one another.
Let's say that Austria has a corps in the Prussian city of Magdeburg and
Austria has successfully stripped Mecklenburg from Prussia and has a corps
in Lubeck.  Our rules would say that the Austrian corps in Magdeburg cannot
traverse (Prussian-controlled) Saxony to get back to Austria.  Furthermore,
our House Rule would say that the Austrian corps in Austrian-controlled
Mecklenburg cannot re-enter Prussian territory in order to return home.
Both of these consequences are strange, to say the least.
    It is for these reasons that I say we return to the rules as they are
written:  you've got 6 months to remove corps from previously enemy
territory and 3 months to remove garrisons.  How you do it is completely up
to you.  You can traverse as many 'national borders' as you want; you can
leave previously enemy territory and re-enter it if you want.  Otherwise,
(i.e., if we keep the House Rule) people will be forced to do very odd
things.  (Why should the victor be placed under such unwieldy constraints?)

If you have an opinion on either of these issues, please let your voice be
heard.

kdh

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