Non-combat into contested sea zone

[cvoeglein]

Here’s the scenario: my opponent has, say, a cruiser parked in a particular sea zone. I attack with my own cruiser and win. Can I then, during non-combat, send another cruiser into that sea zone? I think the rules imply that the sea zone is no longer “hostile” the second I kill that cruiser so I could non-combat any sea unit in there, but they don’t say that outright, and that’s different than it works on land, and it seems to me kind of unfair: I feel like if my second cruiser wants that sea zone it should have risk the battle, although I admit it’s mostly academic since the first cruiser won anyway.

I used cruisers as examples precisely because there’s nothing too special about them just to avoid any confusion about special cases for transports, subs, planes, etc.

Looked for an answer to this elsewhere but couldn’t find much, so apologies if this is a repeat. Thanks!

[Panther]

@Chris:

…Can I then, during non-combat, send another cruiser into that sea zone? …

Welcome to the forum, Chris.

When the Non Combat Move phase begins, the seazone is no longer hostile.
So yes, you can move other sea units into it, provided those units have not moved during combat move phase and/or have not been part of a battle.

The rulebook has it on page 21: “Sea Units: A sea unit can move through any friendly sea zone. It cannot move into or through a hostile sea zone. …”

HTH :-)

[Krieghund]

@Chris:

and that’s different than it works on land

Actually, it’s not.  There’s nothing preventing you from moving additional land units into a territory in noncombat movement in the same turn that you capture it, as the territory is friendly at the start of that phase.  It’s only air units that are prevented from moving into a territory that wasn’t friendly at the start of the turn.

[cvoeglein]

Thanks P@nther it does help. And Krieghund, I totally misread that part of the book…looking at it now it’s plain as day! I feel like that’s not how it worked (for land or sea) way back in Classic, but maybe I’ve just been playing wrong all these years. I guess I just figured if a unit wanted to live in a territory, it had to risk for it. Thanks again!