ORIGINAL: Lobster
ORIGINAL: TheGrayMouser
I think the key is the game is "operational". The logic is that rivers are generally not simply "linear obstacle" but wiggle and waggle and have "mass" with in the confines of a hex. Since the game is modern combat with dispersed formations that generally do NOT want to clump up, everybody being all on one side or the other of a river wiggle or waggle doesnt really matter. The penalties represent barriers to communications and movement, ie it is not a moat.
For every picture you show of an exaggerated meander I can show you one that does not. Here's the Mississippi. What's your point?
Sure, much easier to flippantly post a pic than to discuss what I actually said.
This game was a wargame construction kit with a huge range of hex scale. For rivers to be hexside, you likley would need unique rules for every scale. Obvioulsy opinions will vary over the abstractions, yet the mechanic as is now hardly seems flawed.