Question about surface warships starting in hostile sea zones (See top right of page 13 of rulebook).
There is the exception, that you can load units in a hostile sea zone only if you just declared war on that power in that turn - you can still load ground units.
Our question is, can you load units in that zone and go conduct amphibious assault with them elsewhere, and also attack the enemy surface ship(s) in that loading zone all in the same combat move phase?
I’m attacking an American destroyer in Z6 with aircraft and warships, while also loading ground units from Japan for battles elsewhere and my opponent’s understanding of the page 13 rules is that you can’t do both.
I thought the purpose of the rule was to point out that you can’t just stay in the zone without conducting any combat (ignore it), and that you can’t load ground units from that zone (there is the exception for when you just declared war that turn, though).
Who’s right?