Kamikaze Rule

[TheHatchMan]

Hello,

I am new to these forums and my first post happens to be somewhat controversial:  The Kamikaze Rule.

The group I have is in the middle of our third game of global.  Although this has not happened yet, we got into a rather heated discussion around this rule.  The hypothetical situation is this:  Japan has only 4 Inf and 3 Art on it not to mention its original 2 AAA.  The contents on Japan can really be anything land based.  The rule states that you CANNOT target transports.  So, hypothetically, an Allied player (US in this case) could load some transports, send them straight at Japan, do an amphibious assault and NOTHING can be done to the transports.

It seems that if transports participate in the assault then they should be considered surface warships and thus be a fair target for a kamikaze attack.

I have done a fair amount of searching and not much on this topic has been spotted.  So, I would certainly appreciate any comments on this.

Thanks!

[Witt]

Hi The Hatchman.
You cannot Kamikaze a Transport or Sub(or plane obviously).

Is always best as Japan to keep a Destroyer in SZ6  and Fighter on Japan.
Either would stop a Transport only landing.

[IKE]

Does sea combat have to happen in order to use kamikazes or could you use them on an amphibious assault in which there was no sea battle prior to?

[TheHatchMan]

From my understanding, an amphibious assault is an attack on a sea zone which allows you to use kamikaze.  Unfortunately, it cant target transports.

[Witt]

@IKE:

Does sea combat have to happen in order to use kamikazes or could you use them on an amphibious assault in which there was no sea battle prior to?

Morning Ike.
There does not have to be a sea battle.
A kamikaze can only be used in the Combat Round and as long as a surface warship is present in the SZ.
It will prevent a naval bombardment, so using one against an amphibious landing escorted by Cruisers and Battleships often makes sense.
Equally, if your opponent brings a Carrier into the SZ with Air units with no where to land except the said Carrier, a lucky hit would deny the Air units a legal landing  space. (They would crash into the sea.)

[knp7765]

Hey TheHatchMan,
I don’t know if you would be open to trying out a House Rule, but I created one involving Kamikaze and amphibious assaults. It kind of treats Kamikaze tokens like the presence of an enemy submarine in the sea zone from where the amphibious assault will occur. Here it is:

As long as Japan still has Kamikaze tokens available, Allied forces can NOT conduct an amphibious assault with only unescorted transports in any sea zone containing a Kamikaze symbol. Transports MUST be accompanied by at least 1 surface warship (no submarines) with an attack value (no aircraft carriers). Furthermore, if Japan makes a Kamikaze strike on the escorting surface warship(s) and Japan is successful at destroying the escorting surface warship(s), the amphibious assault can not proceed and the transports must retreat to a friendly sea zone.
Once Japan has no Kamikaze tokens left, this rule is null and void. In other words, Allied transports may conduct amphibious assaults in any sea zone unescorted by surface warships.

However, after some discussion with my gaming partners, I ended up creating a sort of loophole to this rule:

Transports conducting an amphibious assault from any sea zone containing a Kamikaze symbol, while Japan still has Kamikaze tokens remaining, may be escorted by aircraft. Since Kamikaze can not target attacking aircraft, the attacking aircraft can basically defend the attacking transports from Kamikaze attacks.

So, I hope this may help you.

[Witt]

Morning Knp.
Interesting and fair. I like it.

[IKE]

Equally, if your opponent brings a Carrier into the SZ with Air units with no where to land except the said Carrier, a lucky hit would deny the Air units a legal landing  space. (They would crash into the sea.)

I’m confused on the damaged carrier rule.  Let’s say 2 subs attack a carrier (w/ 2 planes) and score 1 hit the first round of battle and 1 hit the second round.  Do the planes get to move 1 space to land or are they destroyed?  Basically, are they treated as cargo since they can not participate in the battle against the subs?

From the rulebook:

“A damaged carrier cant conduct air operations, which
means that no air units may take off from or land on it.
Any guest air units that were on board the carrier as cargo
at the time when it was damaged are trapped onboard and
cant leave, attack, or defend until the carrier is repaired.”

[Whitshadw]

If you cripple or Destroy the Carrier and there isnt a Second Carrier or a Legal Landing Terratory in that space for those planes to land on… those planes will be lost.

[Witt]

Yes. They get to fly one space, as they are in the battle, just cannot hit anything.
It is because all units in the same territory or SZ defend(if at war), regardess of nationality.

It is different on attack.
Planes are only “cargo” if they are from a different nation(an Ally) to the Carrier’s owner.
Allied Air units on a Carrier which attacks are Cargo and cannot attack; they are just moved around as the Carrier moves. It cannot attack except in its turn.
In this case, a damaged Carrier would have the air units stuck on board until it reaches a friendly port. If the Carrier took two hits(as an attacker), the air units would go down with the ship.

Attacking with cargo is Not a clever move by the Carrier owner, obviously.

[IKE]

Ah, now I see.  It’s only attacking with cargo in which the planes would be stuck or sunk with the carrier.  On defense they get 1 space to land (since they are launched airborne in the defensive battle).  Makes sense, thanks!

[WILD BILL]

As a house rule, I would like if you could pick secondary targets w/Kami’s, so that if you get lucky rolling 1’s & 2’s you get all your hits.

How it works now is you generally send 2-3 Kami’s at each ship to try sink it, (or at least damage a 2 hit ship). So say you send 3 kami’s at a Battleship, and you get 3 hits. That’s awesome, but you still only get credit for 2 of your hits, the 3rd hit doesn’t count (even though it got a hit). You should be able to apply that hit to another surface warship of your choice. You should be able to roll all your kami dice and have all the hits applied to enemy ships.

I also think that if you manage to kill all the enemy escort ships, then your kami’s should be able to target the transports (transports last). This would also apply to un-escorted transports as well.