NWOL German/Italian Territory Control Rules

State Ownership of Strategic Squares

Some rules in NWOL (notably the rules for peacetime movement and the rule for declaring war with units in enemy territory) depend on which state owns a given strategic square. In any nation with only one state, all strategic squares are the territory of that nation. In any nation with multiple states (Germany, Italy, France/Bourbons, and any other nation where a Revolutionary twin has been created), the rules for determining which state owns a given strategic square are:

1. If there is one city of that nation closer to a square than all other cities of that nation, then if the state that controls the city is of that nation, the square belongs to the state that controls that city. Otherwise the square is neutral.

2. If there are two cities of that nation equally close to a square than all other cities of that nation, and both are controlled by the same side, then the square belongs to that side. If they are controlled by different sides, then:

If one side is of that nation and the other is not, the square belongs to the national side.
If both sides are of that nation, and the two sides are allied, the square belongs to neither of them, but each may place units there in peacetime strategic movement, as may any power allied with both of them.
If neither side is of that nation, or both sides are of that nation but they are not allied, the square belongs to neither of them and no unit may deploy there in peacetime.

3. If there are three or four cities of that nation equally close to a square (there are about 20 squares for which this is true) then if all are controlled by the same side, that side owns it. If all sides of that nation controlling one of those cities are allied with all the rest, none of them owns it but they and all nations allied with all of them may deploy there in peacetime. Otherwise the square will not be owned by any state. (Unusual cases can occur when the three nearby states are A, B, and C, A and B are allied, A and C are allied, but B and C are not. Even more unusual cases can occur when there are four nearby cities.)

4. Control of strategic squares in a nation is determined only by cities of that nation. That is, German cities do not affect control of Italian strat squares, and vice versa (this is a particularly important point in the Savoy/Piedmont near Geneva) and similarly for any other nation with two states.