@Young:
Lets say my aircraft carrier with 2 fighters is attacked by 2 destroyers. During the first round, the destroyers each score hits, but I also sink both destroyers with my casualty fire. If I decide to apply both hits to the carrier, can my fighters land safely elsewhere within range, or are they required to land on the undamaged carrier essentially forcing me to apply both hits to the 2 aircraft?
If you want the planes to land somewhere besides the carrier, you would need to take one or both hits on the carrier, making it so the planes cannot land there.
You cannot choose to have the planes land on an island or territory in/by that seazone or carrier in an adjacent seazone unless the carrier can no longer pick them up (one, or more).
That said, you’re not obligated to assign damage to keep the planes alive. You can, if you wanted to, apply both points of damage to the carrier and the planes could have no other available landing space. You wouldn’t do this, but you can.
So you could either:
- take both hits on the carrier - two planes need a landing space within one move or they die.
- take one hit on the carrier and one hit on a plane - the remaining plane needs a landing space within one move or it dies.
- take both hits on the planes. Carrier remains undamaged.