Since receiving my copy of A&A 1942 2nd Edition on Thursday I’ve found an inconsistency in the rulebook, specifically on page 26 in the description and the diagram in the bottom right corner relating to aircraft movement, this may be confusing for brand new players (having only played 6 games of Spring '42, I was a bit confused at first):
In the 2nd paragraph of the main text it states “To determine range, count each space your air unit enters “after takeoff.” When moving over water from a coastal territory or an island group, count the first sea zone as one space. When flying to a island group, count the surrounding sea zone and the island group itself as one space each.”
However, in the diagram textbox it states “The U.S. fighter leaves Hawaii and enters sea zone 52. From there it enters sea zone 44, then on into sea zone 45. The U.S. fighter then enters Eastern Australia to land. It has used its full movement.”
The diagram shows the fighter moving from Hawaiian Islands and its surrounding sea zone (SZ 53, not specified in the diagram) straight to SZ 52 as its first move, not actually counting the movement from Hawaii itself to the immediate surrounding sea zone (SZ 53) first. If you compare this with the description and similar diagram on page 26 of the A&A Spring '42 (first ed.) rulebook: http://www.wizards.com/avalonhill/rules/AVL1942_RuleBook.pdf you can see that that diagram is correct as it shows the U.S. fighter moving from Hawaii to SZ 52 (the immediate surrounding sea zone on that map) first, then on to SZ 45 as the second step and onwards to SZ 46 and then Australia.
On the new map, Hawaii is in SZ 53, whereas on the old Spring '42 map Hawaii was in SZ 52. As they’ve used almost the same text (but not changed 52 to 53) and used an almost identical graphic for the flightpath, it makes it look as though aircraft can take off from an island, ignore the immediate surrounding sea zone as the first space of movement and have the next sea zone as the first space instead, which is incorrect.
As it happens, using the same example and the new map, the U.S. fighter on Hawaii can still reach Eastern Australia as it has moved into SZ 52 unneccessarily during its movement. The text should be: “The U.S. fighter leaves Hawaii and enters sea zone 53. From there it enters sea zone 44, then on into sea zone 45. The U.S. fighter then enters Eastern Australia to land. It has used its full movement.”
The diagram should firstly have SZ 53 marked on the map and show the first arrow moving from the fighter (on Hawaii) into SZ 53 (step 1 - i.e. taking off from Hawaii into the immediate surrounding sea zone). Then it should show the second arrow moving from SZ 53 down to SZ 44 (step 2) and the 3rd and 4th arrows the same.
I just thought this was worth mentioning as it’s an important rule and could be very confusing for new or less experienced players.
