Wired Bridge rule question for Glenn.

[Volcano Man]

Well, I am > 90% certain that it did not always work this way, it used to work exactly as the manual suggests; wired bridges meant that neither side can manually detonate them, the destruction of bridges is directly controlled by the wired status. I thought I remember raising an eyebrow when I noticed it different. I always thought that the reason this whole rule exists is so a designer can strictly limit the damage to bridges and control specifically which ones will be blown up. At some point, and I don't know when, the rules were changed to allow the named wired side to blow up bridges manually.

Here is the problem. In a games where both sides are more or less on the offensive, it just isn't very logical. One specific example is Stalingrad '42 where the bridges are wired for the Russians, the Germans cannot blow any bridges, they rely solely on the advancing Russians trigger the wired bridges, and then on the probability of said wired bridge set in the PDT. This is all fine and dandy, but once the Germans start their counter attack Winter Storm, the Russians are on the defense and they can blow every bridge in the path of the German counter attack force anywhere they want. It doesn't make sense to be honest, and it directly contradicts what the rules state.

I mean, why exactly would the Germans be strictly limited on the bridges they can blow up in Stalingrad '42, but the Russians are given complete freedom to blow any bridge they want, once they decide they need to blow up bridges to stop the Germans from relieving the pocket?

But whatever it is, whether it should be the way it currently is or not does not really matter: either the rule itself is incorrect or the manual is incorrect (or at the very least, needs to be clarified). ;)