Transports in 1942

[Streetlife Brown]

I played the old A&A when I was a kid, and I’ve recently met some friends who wanted to play so we got the 1942 edition.  I hadn’t played in over ten years at least, so there were a lot of rule changes to digest.  My biggest confusion/complaint is the new (for me at least) rule about transports.  So please let me know if I have this right.  Transports now cannot defend or be taken out as casualties.  So if I have 10 transports in a sea zone, an opponent can send one of any attacking unit into the zone and the transports are simply removed: no rolling or anything.  In theory, then, I could have an infinite amount of transports and one fighter could destroy them all.  Do I have this right?

[Grogtune]

Yep, that’s right.

[Streetlife Brown]

@Grogtune:

Yep, that’s right.

Hmm, that seems ridiculous.  We played one game with that rule, and then the last game we changed it to our own house rules.  Thanks for the confirmation, though.

[Grogtune]

Disarming transports and removing them from combat is actually a pretty good rule once you get used to it.  It stops the practice of using transports as fodder during naval battles, which is unrealistic.  Instead it is necessary to protect them with warships, which is how it should be.

[Streetlife Brown]

Yeah, I understand the reasoning of the rule and the need to change it from the old way, but we thought this went too far.  What we’ve done is left them defenseless but still able to be a casualty at any time in combat.  And if you’re attacking an undefended transport or transport fleet, you get three rolls per attacking unit to kill them and any survivors can retreat.

Maybe we’ll give this new rule a second chance next time.