@P@nther:
@Herr:
Thanks, Krieghund and P@nther. It’s good to know that it works this way. But, having said that, I can’t really figure out why it works that way.
In the example given:
(a) A non-British base on the Pacific side of the board can repair a British ship, so apparently, the UK repair capacity is unimpaired (we’re assuming that London pays for it);
(b) Also, a British base on the Pacific side of the board can repair a non-British ship, so apparently, the repair capacity of the base itself is also unimpaired.
Great questions, Herr Kaleun.
Actually the (ship) ‘repair capacity’ of a nation is simply based on the presence of a (UK) / the (other powers) capital and the ‘repair capacity’ of a naval base is exclusively influenced by bombing, no way by the loss of capitals.
When solving the scenario(s) we assume the damaged ship being at a (friendly) operative base.
So it is “only” the presence of a capital (in case of UK) respectively the capital (other powers) that additionally determines the ability to repair.
Hope that helps.
In case your questions go deeper, asking why it is this way and why the ( intact ) repair capacity of the naval bases have not been taken into account when creating the rules, I remember Krieghund saying “It must hurt losing a capital”. I am sure he will comment if there are additional reasons behind it…
The repair of a capital ship requires two things: the physical capacity to repair it (an operative base) and the resources to repair it (an operative economy). The first requirement may come from any friendly source, but the second must come from the owning power. This is the reason for the rules as they are. You may say, “why do I need resources? It doesn’t cost any IPCs to do the repair.” We explored the idea of having it cost 1 IPC to repair a damaged sea unit, but Larry didn’t want the IPC expense to influence combat decisions of whether or not to damage capital ships. The result was a compromise that you can do the repairs for free, but you must still have an operative economy in order to do them. This implies that there is still some amount of resources being used, but they are too small to account for even 1 IPC. However, a power (or an economy) with a captured capital generates and spends no IPCs - not even a fraction of one.
In the case of UK, the picture is complicated a bit by its dual economy. The requirement for the physical repair capacity is the same, but the source of the resources is different. Per the rules I quoted above, an economy that has a captured capital may not do repairs, and the two economies make their own separate purchases and repairs. If the repair is being done at an allied naval base, it doesn’t really matter which economy “pays” for it (the units don’t belong to a specific economy once they’re on the board), so this can be done if either capital is free. However, the rules I quoted prohibit the repair of units by an economy with a captured capital, as well as the use of resources from one UK economy with the facilities of the other, so that rules out repairing at a Europe base using Pacific resources, and vice versa, if either capital is enemy-held.
I hope this helps.