Can you use scramble to defend unescorted transports

Sure, why not?

There may not be a naval battle occurring immediately once the US Transport enters SZ6, since there are no Japanese combat ships in the water, however the Japanese Kamikazes and Fighters are protecting SZ6; thus they are able to act after the Combat Movement Phase is completed and before the Combat Phase begins.

Kamikazes cannot be used against transports or submarines so the transport may enter the “empty” SZ6 by itself in safety. However, upon entering SZ6 the Japanese Player now has the option to scramble to protect SZ6 and therefore the transports can now be attacked. There does not have to be a naval battle already in place for the planes to scramble; their scrambling itself creates the naval battle.

Axis and Allies Pacific 1940 Rulebook (2nd Edition)
Page 15 (Bold added by me)

Scrambling is a special movement that the defender can make at the end of this phase. It must be done after all of the attacker’s combat movements have been completed and all attacks have been declared. The attacker may not change any combat movements or attacks after the defender has scrambled.

A quick reaction team of no more than 3 defending fighters and/or tactical bombers (strategic bombers can’t scramble) located on each island or coastal territory that has an operative air base can be scrambled to defend against attacks in the sea zones adjacent to those territories. These air units can be scrambled to help friendly units in adjacent sea zones that have come under attack. They can also be scrambled to resist amphibious assaults from adjacent sea zones, whether or not the territory being assaulted is the territory containing the air base. They may defend against the enemy ships conducting the amphibious assault even if friendly ships are not present.

@Kreuzfeld:

@simon33:

I wish there was a defender decision phase between combat move and conduct combat to clarify these things. Declare kami, scramble and intercept are all effectively done before any dice are rolled.

There is.
Scramble happens at the end of movementphase (as the last thing)
Kami assignment happens as the first ting in combatphase, and are resolved before any combat begins
then you do bombing raids
then you do all your amphibous assault combats
then you do general combat.

RulebookE page 16 says

Scrambling is a special movement that the defender can
make at the end of this phase. It must be done after all of
the attacker�s combat movements have been completed

RulebookP Page 16

Japanese
player can announce at the beginning of this phase that he or
she intends to launch one or more kamikaze strikes in that sea
zone. They are resolved before any combat begins.

It isn’t as obvious as what I would like. That’s all I’m saying. You have to dig into the nuances of the rules to understand how everything works.

I was debating what do with that last one. Keeping it sounds like a good play.

Awesome.  Thanks for the quick reply.

yeah, what captain of an oiltanker would travel without an escort to london hoping the germans would just let him pass?

and would the german captain really let him pass?

The rule that you quoted deals with airbases that border more than one sea zone, not sea zones that border more than one airbase.  The point of it is that an airbase in a territory that borders more than one sea zone may still only scramble three planes, not three planes into each sea zone that it borders.

@Krieghund:

There must be either a battle in the sea zone, or an amphibious assault being launched from the sea zone.

Thank you!

Has coastal only house rule been play tested at all???