A&A 1942 Epic Rules Dispute

[bananasling]

A friend (UK) and I (Germany) are having a heated dispute.  Here is my question:

I have a destroyer in Seazone 14. He wants to attack that seazone with only air units (no navy) during the combat phase of his turn and then move naval units from his planes’ starting point (Seazone 15) into Seazone 13, moving through what was my destroyer’s territory at the beginning of the UK’s turn.

I think that even if he wins in the air battle, he cannot move through Seazone 14 (hostile at the beginning of his turn).  He thinks that he can move the naval units through if he wins because during the non-combat phase of his turn, there are no naval units occupying that seazone (hostile at the beginning of the turn, but not hostile during the non-combat phase). Game is on hold until this is resolved.

For reference, here is our board setup atm:
Seazone 13 - Not occupied
Seazone 14 - German destroyer
Seazone 15 - UK carrier (2 planes), cruiser; transport

Input from the community appreciated.

[Krieghund]

Welcome, bananasling!

Your friend is right.  There is no rule against moving sea units (or land units, for that matter) in noncombat movement into or through a space that was hostile at the beginning of your turn.  The space(s) in question need only be friendly at the beginning of the Noncombat Move phase.

[MrMalachiCrunch]

bananasling, if memory serves me correctly, the way you interpreted the rules was the way older versions of the game were played.

Not only can you do this with navy but with land.  You can attack and capture a territory then with your non-combat phase move tanks (that of course did not participate in any combat) through that newly captured territory and beyond it to a friendly territory on the other side to say reinforce an ally’s position.  Krieghund will correct me if I am wrong but when it was done to me for the first time….its hard to forget.