@moralecheck:
@kcdzim:
@Young:
On their second turn, Germany sends in 2 strategic bombers to bomb London’s IC with one escort fighter, and 1 tactical bomber to bomb the air base with 2 escort fighters, Britain has 3 fighters to scramble. Germany’s plan is to bomb the air base first, so it becomes unoperational in order to allow the strategic bomb run on the IC, without facing scrambled interceptors. Is this possible if I split my bombing campaigns into 2 separate operations? Would the UK be required (if they choose) to intercept the Tac bomber and escort knowing that their air base could get bombed disallowing them to scramble during the second bomb run? In the combat sequence it says 1. SBR 2. Amphibious Assaults 3. General combat, is it up to the attacker on which SBR is conducted first if their are 2 in the same combat phase?
1. Intercepters aren’t “scrambled”. The defender can send up interceptors in a territory with any facility to defend against an SBR, with or without an airbase.
2. Though strategic bombing runs are rolled before other combats, scrambled fighters are placed in the territories they will defend at the end of the combat move phase. It is impossible to premptively stop a scramble with an SBR to pave the way for a scramble-less naval battle on the same turn.
Also, I was under the impression you don’t split bombing/escorting forces until after interception. So in the above example the Germans are attacking with 2 SBR and 1 TAC, escorted by 3 FTR. Only after the battle with the 3 defending fighters, does Germnay declare which unit is bombing what.
My reading of his question was not whether you can split the run to multiple targets in the same territory (you can, and it is after interception as you say). Rather I was answering some rule confusion that made his proposition false:
1. You don’t “scramble” interceptors.
“Scrambling” is a defensive move to a seazone during the combat move phase and requires an airbase.
“Interception” is a defensive response in the territory being bombed and does not require an airbase. It requires fighters to be in that territory being bombed.
2. Splitting strategic bombing runs is fine, but there is no “order” you can use that would shut down one thing to affect another strategic bombing run in that same round -
You cannot bomb an airbase to prevent “interceptors” from being “scrambled” against a bombing run on a factory (see item 1 as to why this is false).
And, because I figured I knew where he was trying to go with this line of rule interpretation and wanted to pre-empt him, you cannot bomb an airbase to prevent “scrambling” in a seazone adjacent where a naval battle or amphibious assault will be. The “scrambled” fighters are placed in the seazone during the combat move phase, before the bombers arrive to roll hits on the airbase in the combat phase.