@USS:
I have a question about scrambling. If a territory is attacked via amphibious assault and the attacker already had a destroyer or an aircraft carrier in the SZ, if defender scrambles his fighters, who are they fighting exactly? Is it only the ships involved in the amphibious assault (battleships, cruisers, transports) or are you also required to fight destroyers, subs and carriers that were already in the zone at the start of the turn?
If these ships must participate in the battle, does that prevent them from making a non combat move later in the turn? It seems strange that you are basically attacked in your own turn, preventing you from controlling your own units. Alternatively, it would be odd for a non-air unit to be able to fight in a battle and then move in the non combat phase. Please clear this up for me, my friend and I disagreed on this during a game. Thanks for the help!
I can clear this up for you.
The defender scrambling fighters will be fighting all naval and air forces in the sea zone(s) where the amphibious assault(s) are coming from. So yes, the destroyer in the zone would be attacking with the amphibious force if the attacker did not move it away.
Here is the part you are missing. You may move units during the combat movement phase to get away from combat. For example, if your submarine starts the turn in the same zone as an enemy destroyer that has moved in and ignored your submarine, you may move the submarine away during the combat movement phase, even if you are not moving it into another combat.
It would be the same for your scrambling situation. If the attacker does not wish the destroyer to be stuck there, he could move it away during the combat movement phase, even if the move is only to avoid combat (because yes, if you leave it there and the defender scrambles, the destroyer would be in combat and could not move after that).
See bottom of page 12 in Europe manual, bullet point #2
You may move units into friendly spaces during the combat move phase if you are doing it to avoid combat.