AAA1941 Questions need answers so my son and I can resume playing!

[Dad]

I bought AAA1941 for my 9 year old son and we started playing with the help of some youtube tutorials.  There are certain scenarios that have occurred during the game about which we have some fairly detailed questions.  Does anyone have the time and willingness to offer some help?  The questions are as follows, but you can also email me privately, thanks.  The questions are verbose, sorry about that, but I didnt know how to condense them without losing the specific points…

1. If the NATIONAL PRODUCTION number-line printed on the top of the board keeps track of IPCs, how come we have to keep track of IPCs on a separate piece of paper?
   For example, if Germany starts a turn with 12 IPCs and purchases a Destroyer for 8 IPCs, wouldn’t that lower their NATIONAL PRODUCTION to 4 IPCs on the NATIONAL PRODUCTION number-line on the board? Or does it stay the same on the board and just get lowered in the bank (on the separate piece of paper) � and if so, is the NATIONAL PRODUCTION number-line on the board just keeping track of territories and not effected by purchases, and the bank (separate piece of paper) keeps track of purchases and NOT territories?

2. In battles:  If the battle looks something like this:
   ATTACKER: GERMANY
   1 Bomber
   1 Aircraft Carrier
   2 Fighters
   3 Infantry

DEFENDER: UNITED STATES
1 Bomber
1 Destroyer
1 Fighter
1 Infantry
1 Transport
I roll the dice for the Bomber to attack � but am I rolling the die once for the Bomber to attack the US Bomber, and then again for my Bomber to attack the US Destroyer, and then again for my Bomber to attack the US fighter, and a 4th time to attack the US Infantry, and a last time to attack the US Transport; and then roll the die for my Aircraft to attack each one of the US units again; and then do the same for each of my fighters and each of my infantry?
OR do I roll the dice for my Bomber to attack just ONE of the US units? And then roll for the Aircraft carrier to attack another of the US units�so on?
And if so, how do I determine which US unit my Bomber, or Aircraft, etc, is attacking? Or is it only a Bomber fights a Bomber, an aircraft fights an Aircraft, etc?

3. Related to above question, another permutation of battle:  If my German fighter attacks 3 US infantry � do I roll the die 3 times, one time for each of the 3 US infantry � or do I only attack once and if I hit, only take out one US infantry?  Conversely, I assume the 3 US infantry has one shot each, which is a total of 3 shots, against my fighter?

4. I know a tank can blitz, but if a territory is undefended and empty -has no hostile units in it and no friendly units in it- during a Combat Move can I just fly a fighter in, or walk an infantry in, and put a Control Marker there without a battle at all?

5. If the US wants to invade Japan, being an island, how do I offload land units form a transport in order to combat there?  It seems I am not allowed to offload land-units onto hostile islands?  Am I only allowed to combat hostile islands with air units?
   Another permutation of this situation:
   If my German Tank is in Gibraltar and I want to combat in North Africa, which us currently controlled by US, how do I get my tank from Gibraltar to North Africa if I cannot offload land units into hostile territory? Do I have to take a circuitous route and go all the way around to invade from an adjacent German-controlled territory?

[baron Münchhausen]

5. You can load when TP is in a friendly SZ, then move up to 2 SZs (or not, if no need to), then unload in hostile TT to invade. All planes which can reach this TT can be part of amphibious assault.
   If things don’t go as attacker wishes, he can retreat air units but all TPs unloaded units have to fight to death or until winning.

If the SZ in which you want to unload is hostile, you need to bring other combat units (naval or air) in this SZ to sink enemy’s naval units. Then amphibious assault may proceed.
If defender’s naval combat units in SZ are not defeated, TPs have to retreat 1 SZ from where they came. And cannot unload.

[DrunkenCat]

1. The IPC tracker only keeps track of income from territories. You do have to keep track of the balance on a paper, or with poker chips or with what ever you like.

2. You throw one die per unit that YOU have engaged in a battle. If you manage to get a hit, your OPPONENT chooses which unit takes that hit. I’d also like to mention, that a transport can’t be declared to take a hit, it gets destroyed automatically if you manage to destroy opposing units AND have at least one unit with attack value left.

Your example is a bit weird, since Infantry can’t fight on sea and bombers wouldn’t be able to defend on sea since it shouldn’t be there (and there is no carrier for the defending fighter, but let’s just say it was already destroyed). If we exlcude those, you would throw four dice on the first round of combat:
-A four or less for bomber
-A three or less for fighter (x2)
-A one for Aircraft carrier

Let’s say that your bomber and one of your fighters hit. Your opponent then chooses which two units are taken as casualties. They do, however, to fight back until end of this round. They are removed from the game AFTER your opponent has thrown his/her dice.

So, your opponent would throw two dice in total:
-A four or less for fighter
-A two or less for destroyer

Let’s say, that your opponents fighter manages to get a hit, YOU choose which unit is taken as a casualty. After that, both sides casualties are removed from the game. In this example your opponent doesn’t have any units with defence value left, so the transport and the infantry unit in it are destroyed. IF your opponent did have units left, attacker gets to choose if he/she retreats or pushes the attack. If attacker chooses to continue, another round of comabt with units left would occur.

3. In this example, you would throw 1 die for fighter and your opponent would throw one die per infantry unit, three in total. Let’s say your fighter hits but your opponent misses all three, so one of the defending infantry is removed. Now the attacker chooses to retreat or to continue. If the attacker pushes on, he/she again throws one die for the fighter, and the defender throws one die per unit, two in total. And so on.

4. During the Combat Movement Phase, you can claim undefended territories with your ground units. So yes, your infantry (or tank) unit can move there, but your fighter won’t be able to land there. This is because air units can only land on territories that were friendly at the BEGINNING of your turn.

5. I believe this question was already answered. You can unload units from transports to hostile territories if the seazone is friendly (you destroy all of your opponents units from the seazone, or there weren’t any of them to begin with).

Hope this helps at least a little bit. I myself started playing Axis and Allies with 1941 edition a few years back, and remember being very confused about the rules for a long time. The only way to get used to it is to just play it. Don’t get discouraged and remember to have fun!

[Private-Panic]

Hi Dad

Welcome to the forum! :-)

DC & BM have answered all your questions, but a couple of clarifications may help:

1. The ipc tracker is income. The paper records the bank balance for the following turn. Each turn the bank balance from the previous turn less the cost of this turn’s purchases plus the end of turn income equals the bank balance for the following turn.

2. The presence of the defending fighter (but no aircraft carrier) and bomber suggests to me that you are moving defending forces from elsewhere into the battle. That does not happen. The defending force is limited to those units already in the sea zone (or territory).

Of course the attacker can move any units in range into the battle. But the defender cannot do so.

If anything remains unclear do ask again.

[Wolfshanze]

@Dad:

I bought AAA1941 for my 9 year old son and we started playing with the help of some youtube tutorials. There are certain scenarios that have occurred during the game about which we have some fairly detailed questions. Does anyone have the time and willingness to offer some help?

Hello and welcome to the forum (and back to the A&A community).

Let me try and answer as best and concisely as I can for clarity. Hope I can help you and your son.

@Dad:

1. If the NATIONAL PRODUCTION number-line printed on the top of the board keeps track of IPCs, how come we have to keep track of IPCs on a separate piece of paper?

The chart at the top of the board tracks the INCOME, not your bank account… it’s the difference between how much your job pays you a week vs how much is in your bank account.

If Germany’s income (based on how many territories they control and how much each is worth) is “12”… then each turn, Germany earns 12 IPCs. If you then spend 8… you have 4 IPCs left over, but your income is still “12”… next turn, you would collect 12, which would then be added to the 4 you have left over that were unspent the turn before, for a total of 16 IPCs available to spend (your income is still “12”).

This is why the rules recommend tracking your bank account on a piece of paper… however, most A&A fans use either paper money or poker chips to track how many IPCs each nation currently has… this can be as simple as using monopoly money, play money or everyday poker chips, or for the more hardcore, you can go to A&A on-line stores and order actually A&A paper money and/or A&A poker chips… as you’re new to the game and just getting back in, if you want to keep spending to a minimum till you decide if you and your son are really into the game enough to throw some money at it, I would just recommend grabbing some monopoly money or a $1-tray of play money at your local dollar store. If you and/or your son decide A&A is a favorite game of yours and you really want to “spice-it-up” you can always order some custom A&A paper money and/or Poker Chips at a later date.

A final clarification on the income tracker at the top of the board… in the case of your example of Germany having a 12 IPC income, the only time that tracker moves up or down is based on taking or losing territories on the map that have an IPC value printed on the map… if Germany has a 12 IPC income and takes-over a territory from Russia worth 2 IPCs, Germany moves up to a total of 14 IPC income on the map, while Russia’s income tracker would simultaneously go down 2 IPCs for the loss of the territory… spending your income (or saving it) never changes the tracker at the top of the board.

@Dad:

2. In battles: I roll the dice for the Bomber to attack but am I rolling the die once for the Bomber to attack the US Bomber, and then again for my Bomber to attack the US Destroyer, and then again for my Bomber to attack the US fighter, and a 4th time to attack the US Infantry, and a last time to attack the US Transport; and then roll the die for my Aircraft to attack each one of the US units again; and then do the same for each of my fighters and each of my infantry?
   OR do I roll the dice for my Bomber to attack just ONE of the US units? And then roll for the Aircraft carrier to attack another of the US unitsso on?
   And if so, how do I determine which US unit my Bomber, or Aircraft, etc, is attacking? Or is it only a Bomber fights a Bomber, an aircraft fights an Aircraft, etc?

You’re not the person determining your opponents casualties… you don’t say “my bomber is attacking your bomber”… you simply say “my bomber is attacking”… “my tanks are attacking” and you roll the dice. With each hit, you wrack up a tally of hits… after rolling your bombers, your fighters, your tanks, your infantry… whatever it is, you have a total number of hits… and THEN your opponent decides which units he wants to lose… if you roll a bunch of dice and determine your opponent loses three units, it is your opponent that decides WHICH THREE units are lost, not you.

The only exception to this rule would be if a certain unit can only kill a certain other kind of unit… if you have three subs attacking a destroyer and a fighter, and one of the subs hits, its the destroyer that has to die, not the fighter because subs can’t hit fighters.

@Dad:

3. Related to above question, another permutation of battle: If my German fighter attacks 3 US infantry do I roll the die 3 times, one time for each of the 3 US infantry or do I only attack once and if I hit, only take out one US infantry? Conversely, I assume the 3 US infantry has one shot each, which is a total of 3 shots, against my fighter?

Each unit only rolls once, regardless of how many enemies you have… one fighter rolls one time… one infantry rolls one time. So in your example, the fighter would only roll once with a chance to (at best) kill one unit in a single round… yes, all THREE of the enemy infantry would then get a chance to roll against the fighter (so you get one roll of 3 or less vs the infantry and they get three rolls of 2 or less vs the fighter).

@Dad:

4. I know a tank can blitz, but if a territory is undefended and empty -has no hostile units in it and no friendly units in it- during a Combat Move can I just fly a fighter in, or walk an infantry in, and put a Control Marker there without a battle at all?

Yes and no… an undefended territory can be blitzed without combat by a tank (claiming the territory), and YES, an infantry could just walk in and claim it with a control marker… however there is a “boots on the ground” rule that GROUND UNITS have to claim a territory… so your question about a fighter is a big fat “NO”… fighters cannot claim enemy territory… you could KILL enemy units in a territory with fighter(s), but you can’t claim the territory with fighters (or bombers) alone… you need either infantry or tanks to do that.

Furthermore, fighters cannot land in a territory unless you STARTED the current turn with that territory as friendly (in other words, you can never land fighters or bombers in territories you just conquered that same turn).

@Dad:

5. If the US wants to invade Japan, being an island, how do I offload land units form a transport in order to combat there? It seems I am not allowed to offload land-units onto hostile islands? Am I only allowed to combat hostile islands with air units?

I think the rules are fairly clear about this… reread the rules, but bottom line, if you’re the US and you want to invade Japan, you simply move your fleet with transports that have units loaded on them (infantry and tanks) into the seazone surrounding Japan and declare an amphibious invasion… you would then unload the infantry and/or tanks into Japan (along with any supporting aircraft you may have) and conduct a battle as you would any other battle… the only difference(s) in an amphibious invasion are:

1. you need to make sure you clear the seazone of enemy ships first (if Japan has a fleet off the coast of Japan you have to kill them before you do an amphibious invasion, but you CAN do BOTH in the same turn as long as they are declared… like “I’m destroying the Japanese fleet with my battleships and destroyers, then my transports will unload all my infantry and tanks into Japan”). If for any reason you cannot kill the Japanese fleet off Japan, the amphibious invasion cannot happen until the Japanese fleet is removed from the picture.
2. once an amphibious invasion is under-way, the attacking player cannot retreat his land forces… its all or nothing for them.

@Dad:

Another permutation of this situation:
If my German Tank is in Gibraltar and I want to combat in North Africa, which us currently controlled by US, how do I get my tank from Gibraltar to North Africa if I cannot offload land units into hostile territory? Do I have to take a circuitous route and go all the way around to invade from an adjacent German-controlled territory?

The German tank in Gibraltar has two options… drive all the way across Europe, down through the Caucasus into Persia and back into Egypt and Africa (yes a very long drive), or have a German transport pick him up from Gibralter and drop him into North Africa, which then becomes an amphibious invasion (much shorter route).

Btw, how did you get the German tank in Gibraltar to begin with?

Oh, and after re-reading your 5th question (and follow-on) you seem to have somehow gotten the notion you cannot unload units carried on transports into hostile territory… not sure where you got that idea from, but that’s not at all the case. In fact, the main function of transports is to conduct amphibious invasions, dumping their land unit cargo into hostile territories.

Anyways… hope that answers your questions… if you have any more, feel free to ask.

P.S.
Never trust PrivatePanic… he’s one of those “British People” (possible inside joke… okay, maybe he’s ok, but he’s still “one of them”).

[Private-Panic]

😛And proud of it old fruit. Lost those darn Colonials an not looked back since ……😎

[Dad]

Thanks all! Wow that was very helpful.  Made a lot of sense.  We’ll be playing this weekend.