@moompix:
Scrambling is a reaction to attacks which occur in the sea zone, including amphibious assaults, not combat movement into the sea zone.
To me (and I suppose also to the rulebook) combat moves are attacks, or to be more precise attacks consist of both the combat move and the resolution of combat. The word ‘attack’ seems very imprecise in the rulebook since it is used in a variety of situations so it might be better to be careful on its use and meaning.
If you were to non-combat move a fleet with loaded transports into a sea zone containing an island, then wait until your next turn to launch the amphibious assault, the defender would still be able to scramble. My understanding is kamikazes would not be able to attack, if you made these same movements, unless the movement into the sea zone that makes kamikaze attacks possible does not have to be made on the same turn.
If the player makes any sort of combat move (including amphibious assaults) on that SZ then kamikazes should also be able to attack, just like scrambling is possible. The wording in both sections is different - on the kamikaze it says: “If an Allied player has moved ships into one of the SZs”, on scrambling it says: “can be scrambled to defend against attacks in the SZs”.
An amphibious assault is a combat move made by ships (along with ground units and planes), whether it moved 1-3 spaces to land the troops or if it stayed on the same place and offloaded the troops. This because a combat move is defined as any movement that results in combat (with 1 exception: when sea units are running away from hostile SZs where they started the round to prevent combat).
I have a question for Krieghund: if a warship is retreating from a hostile SZ to avoid combat and moves to a friendly SZ it is possible to launch kamikazes or scramble planes if the SZ is a kamikaze area or an island with an enemy airbase? I think yes, but I’d like to have confirmation.