The combat phase - questions only a newbie can ask

[CraneDeNicollo]

(Used to search bar to try find a similar thread, wasn’t lucky)

Hey A&A peeps. Some of you might’ve read my “what A&A to buy” thread, after which I happily bought a '42 second edition box. Having now read the manual in its entirety, I have a lot of questions, most of them details that distract and confuse the heck out of me.

First off,
Turns are sequential, as in, first the USSR takes its 6 steps, then Germany takes its 6 steps, (…), right? That brings me to my first minor confusion: how long do engagements last? In the conduct combat phase we have Strategic bombing raids which I presume are resolved instantly, but after that we have Amphibious Assaults and eventually General Combat. When general combat occurs, do the steps 2,3,4 and 5 repeat themselves until a player in one of many step 6s (“Press attack of retreat”), is annihilated or the attacker retreats?
This makes sense to me due to the actual Battle Strip (which I’m still trying to comprehend) - no other battle can be initiated elsewhere because -duh-  the battlestrip is occupied by other units somewhere else. So a combat in a certain zone needs to resolve (by an eventual step 6, with the attacker bailing or someone getting slaughtered). This is how I interpret it, but I’m still not exactly sure.

Second,
Do Industrial complexes’ integrated AA rolls stack with AAA? For instance, 3 bombers attack a Complex with a single AAA battery. Before the strategic bombing run occurs, does Industrial Complex owner roll 6 dice? (3 for the integrated defense, 3 for the single AAA)

Third,
Is it possible for a lone transport to conduct an amphibious assault if the only hostile sea unit on the adjacent sea zone is an enemy transport? While we’re at it, can two hostile lone transports (while unlikely and strategically unlikely) pass each other or remain in a single sea zone?

Fourth,
How does the battlestrip/casualty zone operate? (Easily the least intelligent of my questions, bear with me)

Thanks so much guys for the patience.

[1Bean432]

1.
Yes, turn orders are sequential.
U.S.S.R does their 6 steps, then Germany, then Japan, U.K, U.S.A

1.1
yes, strategic bombing raids are instant. You only do 1 round of dice rolling. HOWEVER

If you are playing with the optimal -interceptor- rules, then a player may choose to bring fighters along. These fighters will protect the bombers, but will not participate in strategic bombing. These fighters also retreat before any AA fire from Industrial complexes.

Instead, these fighters will protect the bombers if the player that’s getting strategically bombed has fighters in the same territory. These fighters (by defenders choice) can intercept the attacking bombers/fighters.

Now you may roll for every bomber and fighter that’s attacking, every 1 IMMEDIATELY kills off a defending fighter.

Now all defending fighters roll, these fighters defend at a 2.

afterwards, all attacking fighters break off and are considered to have retreated and may me moved again during the non-combat phase.

Then regular strategic bombing. I will give you an example of this if you are still unsure.

1.2
Yes, players roll dice over and over until one player has been completely destroyed OR when the attacker decides to retreat.

1.3
For the next part i assume your talking about step amphibious assaults, if enemy warships are present in the sea zone from which you are un-loading troops from, then your battleships and cruisers may not participate in shore bombardment.

If there was no sea battle, battleships and cruisers may do shore bombardment. Where they get to participate for 1 round of attacking only.

So yes, the sea zone combat must resolve before you can place your troops onto the land and conduct combat.

No, Industrial complexes only. The AAA guns may only roll during general combat/amphibious assaults when enemy aircraft is present.

3. yes, i believe you can also ignore subs as well if you have warships present as well.

For simplicity, an example.

the U.S.S.R chooses to conduct battle with Germany in West Russia with 6 Infantry, 1 Artillery, and 2 Tanks vs Germany’s 2 Infantry, 1 Artillery and 1 tank.

Now, as the U.S.S.R you move the attacking zone of the battlestrip towards you, and the Defending part towards Germany. As both players, you line up your units where the strip tells you to.

So for the U.S.S.Rs side, you would place all the Infantry on a 1, because that’s were it tells you to. HOWEVER, because an artillery piece is present on Russia’s side, the Russian player can move 1 Infantry piece to the 2 or less (due to the Artillery’s special support ability).

Russia also places his tanks on the 3 or less.

Then Germany places his defending Infantry AND artillery on the 2 or less, And his Tank on the three.

Now for battle, each player rolls for every unit in each little section. So since Russia has 5 units in the 1 section, so Russia gets to roll 5 dice. Every 1 Russia rolled is a hit, remember that number. Now roll for your units in the 2 or less section, every 2 OR LESS scores another hit. Now for the 3s, every 3, 2 or 1 gets Russia another hit.

Lets say Russia scored 2 hits. Now the German player must choose 2 of his units to place on the casualty zone. Now Germany gets to roll for ALL of his units (including those on the casualty zone). Lets say Germany gets 2 hits as well.

Now Russia must choose to remove 2 units of his own. Once both players have chosen which units are to be casualties, they remove them from the battlestrip, never to participate in combat again.

Thats the jist of it, hope that helps.

[CraneDeNicollo]

Thanks for the answer!

My sister and my dad had a lot of fun with our first A&A game tonight. We didn’t actually finish it because it got kinda late, but we got the hang of how the turn flows, which should make for a quicker game the next time. Now with that said, I have TONS of new questions now, most of them related to realism in some way. Bear with me, I’m still new at this.

1. Submarines are kind sucky. I have a feeling that they work like meatshields for flotillas more than anything else, because their combat abilities are extremely subpar. Add to that the fact that I have absolutely no idea how their special abilities work, and you have a pretty meh unit. So their surprise attack is before any shots are fired and ONLY if there’s no enemy destroyer present. If that’s so, how does submerging work? If there’s no destroyers around, the enemy won’t be able to see the silent hunters anyway, so what’s the point of the ability? As soon as subs decide to attack, anything including air units can strike back, even with no destroyers around, right? (If not, wouldn’t a single sub be able to kill any flotilla?)

2. How does air combat work? Strategic bombardment is easy, I guess. You fly over, you throw the dice for integrated AA defense, the the bombers roll a die each and the numbers on them equals the damage done to the Facility (Right?)… now what happens when you send your fighters and bombers for standard attack missions? Do they roll and attack once, or does a normal battle resolve, with all kinds of units being able to strike back? This irks me a bit, as seeing tanks shoot up in the sky isn’t exactly realistic.

And if they only attack once, what happens when ground troops engage on landed aircraft? Do they defend once and then get the hell out of dodge? Do they get destroyed in their airfields? I believe we changed the rule several times over because no option seemed completely right.

3. How do transports operate? If I have an infantry stack on one island next to a friendly transport and want to conduct an amphibious assault on a neighboring island, can I do so on the same turn? Or is the infantry-to-transport move a non combat move, which would stall the operation for one more turn?

4. This one happened a lot as aircraft shot down lone infantry sitting on islands. Until a territory isn’t occupied by the enemy, it is still under the control of its original owner, correct? A single fighter cannot land on an unoccupied hostile territory, capturing it for its power, right? It’d require a ground unit to consolidate control, right?

5. The mobilization zone lists Factories for a cost of 15. Can they be built anywhere on a land territory?

6. Do you put a nation token on every territory you’ve conquered?

Thanks.

[1Bean432]

Good job on your first game.
A&A games can go on for very long times. The best way to do it, is to play over many days.

And remember, to win any land war. Build lots. And lots. Of Infantry.

Yea, submarines are really just meat shields. unless you build about 10 of them against a destroyer-less fleet, then there a real terror.

1.1
As for their first strike:

think of Subs as kinda getting to move before any other units in the battle. They get to choose what to do before anyone else.

They can either submerge, or first strike.

If they first strike, then any casualty they deal are immediately removed from battle. A.K.A, the destroyed ship cannot shoot back like normal.

If they submerge, they effectively retreat. They cannot re-enter battle, and they cannot be chosen as casualties for that round of combat (or any sequential round).

1.2
If there was an enemy destroyer present, then your ability to first strike or submerge is negated. Then the sub just becomes like any other ship.

It also negates the subs immunity to air, thus, air units can kill subs.

Without a destroyer, those subs will never be able to hit the air units and vice versa.

Any (surviving from the first strike) flotilla can shoot back. Afterwards, the subs can once again choose to sub-merge or first strike again.

Yep, that’s strategy bombing.

2.1
Yea, realism isn’t a big part of the game. anyway

Air vs air battles only work just like normal battles, you keep rolling dice and killing until one side is destroyed.

Air and Ground vs ground work just like normal, the aircraft stay and keep rolling dice along with all the other ground units. Aircraft can however retreat on their own (if no enemy aircraft is present, and only if your attacking).

2.2
Aircraft can attack as many times as they like during regular combat. They can be chosen as casualties just like any other unit, and they deal casualties, just like any other unit.

Rules are really icky about this for some reason.

In a nutshell, you can stick your dudes onto the transport, move the transport, and upload onto whichever territory, and conduct combat. All on the same turn.

The transport cant move after it has unloaded.

But transports can load up, move 1 territory, and load again, move another territory, and then unload onto a territory.

yes, yes, and yes.

remember, it takes 1 movement to enter the sea zone with the island, AND ANOTHER movement to go onto the island. Conduct combat etc. Then another movement to get off the island, and into the sea zone.

I think your asking if you can build it on any territory.

Yes, as long as it has an IPC value of AT LEAST 1.

Factories also cannot build more units than the amount of IPCs that territory has, so Italy, can only build 3 units max per turn.

Yep

Nation tokens are also used to mark how many IPCs you have on the top of the board.

Keep those questions rolling.

[CraneDeNicollo]

Thanks for the help! If it wasn’t clear in my previous post, I really enjoyed the game (what we played of it, naturally), and so did my family.

Being able to first strike at the beginning of every round against a destroyerless fleet is pretty nifty, actually. Hard to find a fleet that’s actually destroyerless, though. I didn’t know the attacking subs were able to first strike and submerge at the beginning of each combat round, though. I thought it was a one-shot thing.

Something that I found weird as well was carriers fighting in naval battles. For instance, my carrier had 2 fighters and a cruiser escorting it, while my opponent had 2 cruisers. A couple of bad rolls on my part and I had to assign casualties. I killed off the fighters. On the flipside, one of my fighters managed to score a casualty, which made me feel pretty weird as my opponent removed a cruiser off the board. Given decent rolls, a fighter can technically destroy anything except non-spotted subs?

While we’re on the topic of fighters, since they fight just like any other unit, can they be destroyed by, say, a good roll made by artillery, tanks or infantry? I just want to be sure.

There are limited factory tokens included in the box. Is it legal to construct more than there are actual tokens for, by using substitutes?

To make transports crystal clear: Pacific theatre; I have a single US infantry on Iwo Jima with a US transport swimming next to it. Adjacent to Iwo Jima is a hostile japanese infantry holding Okinawa (I think), with no sea units on the sea.
So, in order for me to conduct an amphibious assault -which would engage both infantry units against each other- I need to load the infantry on the transport, which would equal to the infantry’s non-combat move for the turn. I can then move the transport next to Okinawa for its non-combat move of the turn. Next turn, I can move the infantry out of the transport and conduct an amphibious assault, correct?
So assuming the transport can reach the destination in a single turn, it’s a 2-turn-deal, correct?

Finally, I believe it’s possible to conduct battles with forces converging from different territories, right? For instance, I can attack Germany in a single combat with troops from Italy, Poland and Rumania, for instance, with a single move, right? If I end up winning over the defenders, I can decide which of the troops I move over to the heart of germany and distribute the troops remaining in their original positions, right?

Thanks so much for the response! I feel my questions must be a tad obvious, but it’s best to be sure.

[1Bean432]

Its not surprising you find A&A so fun. Everyone here at the forums does. Thats why we have these forums in the first place  :-)

Yep, fighters work just like normal units in battle.

3 or less kills on attack and 4 or less on defense.

1.1
Yep, fighters (and bombers) can be killed by Artillery, Tanks, Infantry, Other planes, etc

1.2
Yep. Try using little pieces of paper if you start having serious issues with running out of tokens or figures.

-Write down the size of the force on the paper
-Put a little nation control marker on it, to indicate who it belongs to
-mark on the little paper 1 of something you have 2 of. (a black bishop from a chess set for example)
-Then mark where that force is located on the board with the other piece. (the other black bishop)

Amphibious assaults are conducted during the combat phase. So its a 1 turn deal.

-Stick dudes onto transport during combat movement phase
-move transport to where you want to unload units
-during conduct combat phase, you can unload these units
-these units then conduct combat with those land units

• if their friendly, then you wait until non-combat movement phase

As i said, 1 turn deal.

And your example move is legal.

Yep, as long as the troops can reach that territory, all those troops can participate.

BUT, all troops participating in the battle for Germany must remain in Germany.
So all those units from all those different places that attacked Germany, remain in Germany.

Uh, mind me asking how your first A&A game went?

[CraneDeNicollo]

Oh, I misunderstood your post. I thought subs do the surprise strike on destroyerless fleets at the beginning of EVERY combat round, which would be a tad overpowered. Same with submerge, you choose it at the beginning of the engagement. EDIT: Strike that, page 18 of the rulebook reads: “Step 6. Press Attack or RetreatCombat rounds (steps 2-5) continue unless one of the following two conditions occurs (…)” … step 2 is sub surprise attack/submerge.
Huzzah! Subs making ninja moves every round of combat sounds so much fun.

Same with transports. I thought ground units loading up on transports counted as their move, so disembarking would be illegal for infantry, por example. Since it’s all accounted for with the transports, it makes me happy knowing that I don’t need to wait another turn for small scale landings like that. 1-turn-deal sounds good.

Now as for your question…

We randomly assigned powers (both my father and I wanted to play Germany because we have a strong relationship with that country). I played the US, USSR and UK, while my sister played Japan and my father Germany. This was perfect as I had read the rulebook and was teaching the game to them. The knowledge disparity was mitigated by the fact that they were playing together, so great.

Now, I think we managed to play 6 rounds, give or take. The turns were pretty static, as we were daunted by the sheer size of, well, everything. I think we had a couple of skirmishes, in Europe and northern Africa, but nothing really changed much there. Japan, on the other hand, started dispensing pain in the pacific, as I wasn’t able to stop the honorable Samurais from stomping Australia and Nationalist China. Now, in terms of victory cities, nothing much changed. I managed to take Paris for a turn, but lost it afterwards to good ol’ german steel.

So from a victory point of view, “nothing” happened. We chose to close the game because everyone had to do something in the morning, but we had a lot of fun and WILL play a new game, this time with adequate rulings and a quicker gameflow, now that everyone has it somewhat down.

… and I’ll produce a lot more fighters.

[1Bean432]

Great!

Hope your next game develops into something more.

Just remember, the Axis powers (specifically Germany) have a much easier time winning than the Allies. (Axis are OP)