@simon33:
Question. TT starts in a hostile SZ with a power you are already at war with - i.e. new DOW exemption doesn’t apply. Can you move to another SZ, pick up troops but then not unload them? AFAIAA, if you pick up in Combat Movement you have to unload. Can you just leave the units on the transport then?
And what about if you want to unload to a friendly space while I’m asking. I presume the exemption covers this scenario though.
You have answered your questions yourself. The exemption you mentioned (Blue Box, page 11, Pacific Rulebook) indeed does not apply.
The possible actions in the given situation are determined by the following parts of the rulebook:
@rulebook:
Sea units starting in Hostile Sea Zones
At the beginning of the Combat Move phase, you might already have sea units (and air units on carriers) in spaces containing enemy units that were there at the start of your turn. For example, an enemy might have built new surface warships in a sea zone where you have sea units. When your turn comes around again, you are sharing that sea zone with enemy forces.
If you are sharing a sea zone with surface warships (not submarines and/or transports) belonging to a power with which you are at war, this situation requires you to do one of the following:
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Remain in the sea zone and conduct combat,
-
Leave the sea zone, load units if desired, and conduct combat elsewhere,
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Leave the sea zone, load units, and return to the same sea zone to conduct combat (you can’t load units while in a hostile sea zone), or
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Leave the sea zone and conduct no combat.
Once these sea units have moved and/or participated in combat, they can’t move or participate in the Noncombat Move phase of the turn.
and
@rulebook:
If a transport loads land units during the Combat Move phase, it must offload those units to attack a hostile territory as part of an amphibious assault during the Conduct Combat phase, or it must retreat during the sea combat step of the amphibious assault sequence while attempting to do so.
This is why you neither can’t leave the units on the transport nor unload them to a friendly space.
HTH :-)