jrv
Forum Guru
Map edge hexes seem to determine whether an area is a pocket or not. O11.6058, "If the process of expanding a Pocket adds a friendly map-edge hex to a Pocket, that section of the Perimeter area ceases to be a Pocket and is considered to be a “normal” section of Perimeter Area (i.e., as if it had been marked out in RePh step 11.6054)". Per O11.6056, "All Pockets are Isolated Areas."So what effect do the map-edge hexes have?
Per O11.6053 the map-edge markes are at least placed along the shore line:
"...This map-edge (Alternate) Hex Grain may even go “around the corner(s)”, and along Shore Hexes, of the map if necessary (and therefore change from a normal to an Alternate Hex Grain, or vice-versa)..."
According to O11.2, there are several sorts of strategic locations, including each "non-Water-Obstacle map-edge hex" and each "Shore hex," which seems to say that shore hexes are not the same as non-water-obstacle map-edge hexes (although, perhaps confusingly, some individual hexes might be a member of both sets). The fact that the Map-Edge Markers can be traced through Shore Hexes, but that doesn't make Shore Hexes into map-edge hexes (nor make map-edge hexes into Shore Hexes).
There is one seeming problem. Again per O11.2 an Isolated Location is a "Location that lies within the Perimeter Area of both sides." If on the Red Barricades map the Germans controlled all the map-edge hexes and the Soviets controlled all the non-map-edge shore hexes, I can't see any way the Germans could construct a Perimeter that contained whatever Pocket the Soviet player generated. There is no way to draw a perimeter line from JJ18 into the water and on to DD0. Thus per O11.6056 the Soviet area would be a Pocket, but the Locations in it would not meet the O11.2 definition of Isolated Location. I lean toward such an area being a Pocket and Isolated, and the O11.2 definition of "Isolated Location" is just not sufficiently robust.
My read: a Pocket that contains shore hexes but no non-water-obstacle map-edge hexes remains a Pocket even if it ísn't in the both Perimeter Areas (i.e. it does not meet the O11.2 definition of "Isolated Location"). It is isolated, and newly-purchased RGs may not set up in it. If on the RO map the Germans control all map-edge hexes, the Soviets could bring on Infantry and Gun RGs into south-edge land hexes ≥ hexrow M per CG9.
JR