Unloading Transports

Units loaded in combat movement phase must be unloaded for combat. So no.

Yea I had a ruling on this a ways back.

You HAVE to unload everything.  No half loads.

Not only that, but if you move a transport during the CM phase, you cannot move again during the NCM phase, even if it would have move points remaining.

And you don’t HAVE to unload EVERYTHING.  But you cannot unload during different phases or to different territories.  You are free to leave units on the transport (and sometimes you might HAVE to, such as an AA gun, which can only be offloaded during the NCM phase, and might get stuck onboard for a turn if you performed an amphib assault with the transport)

Any units that loaded in the current combat movement phase must offload, unless the transport retreats.  Any units that loaded in a previous turn may offload or not.  However, each transport may only offload once per turn, so if a unit that loaded in a previous turn stays on board, it will remain there until the next turn.

@Krieghund:

Any units that loaded in the current combat movement phase must offload, unless the transport retreats.  Any units that loaded in a previous turn may offload or not.  However, each transport may only offload once per turn, so if a unit that loaded in a previous turn stays on board, it will remain there until the next turn.

Hello, the first and second sentence tend to say opposite… how can I have a loaded unit in a previous turn if “Any units loaded during combat movement must be offload”. Actually, I understand there’s only 2 possible ways to have a unit onboard during opponent turn :
1. it’s because is was loaded during NON combat phase.
2. Because a transport retreat during a naval or amphibious combat. (i.e. was planned to do amphibious attack, but sadly -for the attacker!- turned out otherwise)

I didn’t see anything in rulebook about the fact that all units loaded during combat move MUST offload. Verb use is “can” for amphibious offloads… just like surrounding territories for that matter, so see I thought legit to keep a unit onboard.

But I understand, from this thread, I CANNOT (for instance) load 2Inf unit but unload just 1 to capture a empty (no unit) ennemy controlled territory and keep the second infantry onboard. Is this understanding correct? Did I miss a FAQ? Just wondering, because I would like share this knowledge with my (box playing) players and I would like a reference to show them. If not in rulebook nor FAQ, I’m print this thread.

Page 15: “If a transport loads land units during the Combat Move phase, it must offload those units to attack a hostile territory as part of an amphibious assault during the Conduct Combat phase, or it must retreat during the sea combat step of the amphibious assault sequence while attempting to do so.”

Page 30: “During an amphibious assault, a transport must either offload all units that were loaded during the Combat Move phase or retreat during sea combat.  It can also offload any number of units owned by the transport’s power that were already on board at the start of the turn.”

Excellent, much appreciated. Thank you for you time, again (and as always) a quick, exact and nice answer.

I’ll spread the info around as many of us didn’t applied it in the past. Thanks again.

I think the confusion with transports comes from non combat and combat moves.

A transport normally only moves during non combat, it can only move during the combat move phase if it is participating in an amphibious assault.

The restrictions below, on transports apply only when they are moved during the combat move phase if I understand correctly.

Simply put: if you move a piece during the combat move phase, it must participate in a combat that is resolved during the conduct combat phase.

That means you can not pick up more then you intend to unload in that combat move turn.

However, if you start the turn with units on a transport (loaded previous turns not this turn) then you can still use that transport in your combat move phase, and any or all units not loaded this turn can still land with any units picked up this turn(if any) to support the amphibious assault.

If you had one unit on board (like an aagun that does not move during combat move phase), you can still use that transport during combat move phase to pick up an infantry and drop that infantry during an amphibious assault while leaving the previously loaded unit on board.

You can only have one unit loaded prior to the current turn remain on board a combat moving transport(if there were 2 units already on board not participating, this full transport would wait until non combat to move). If a previously loaded transport moves during combat move phase, any unit picked up on the way during that turn must participate in the battle. Unless you are forced to retreat, thus aborting the combat and leaving all units stuck on board until the next turn, as they may not be unloaded during non combat phase as the transport is considered done with its move prior to non combat and thus the transport is unable to unload until its next turn.

Edit: A transport moving during combat move phase may not pick up units that can only move during non combat(such as an aagun) as it is the combat move phase. These units can stay on board if they had been previously loaded and the transport is used to pick up a combating unit.

Normal non combat moves: You may pick up from 2 or fewer locations up to 2 units total as long as one is an infantry and then you may drop off one or more units to only one location and if you choose, may leave a unit or two on board.

I hope that wordy description helps and is right.

Edit: strike-through above per Krieg below.

@JamesAleman:

A transport normally only moves during non combat, it can only move during the combat move phase if it is participating in an amphibious assault.

There is one instance in which a transport may move in combat movement if it is not participating in an amphibious assault.  If it begins the turn in a hostile sea zone, or if its owner declares war and makes its initial sea zone hostile, it may move away to escape combat without attacking.  Of course, it may not act in the noncombat movement phase under these circumstances.

Just to be clear w/AA guns. I load an AA gun (my own) the turn before in NCM. Then my next turn I load an inf, move tpt for an amphib. The inf hits the beach in the attack, and the tpt can’t unload the AA gun in NCM because it can only off load in one phase, either CM or NCM (not both in the same turn). To get the AA gun into the tt I just took (if I use the inf in the amphib) I have to wait until my next turn. My other choice would be to not use the tpt in combat (amphib), so I could off load its contents in my NCM.

Just as a note, if you want an AA gun on a tt that you are going to amphib, load one of your allies AA guns the turn before in his NCM (if tpt is in position). It will be able to get to the newly taken beachhead faster then your own in most cases with the Alpha+2 turn order.

Example:
G1 move your W Ger AA Gun to N Italy (may want to buy another one). G2 NCM it to an Italian tpt in sz 95 or 97. It2 load an It inf and amphib Egypt (Ger AA left on tpt). Because of turn order (if you take Egypt w/Italy) you then NCM Ger AA to Egypt on Ger turn well before UK takes it’s next turn. We also do this w/Ger inf left over from taking Greece to get the very easy 5 IPC Ger bonus for havering a ground unit in Egypt.

You can do the same thing w/US tpt w/UK AA gun off the coast of England to land in Europe in case UK has no tpts.

Same in the Pac from sz 54 (Queensland) w/US tpt & Anz AA gun. You can get to mainland China w/US troops, then off load the Anz AA gun if Anz doesn’t have the means to do it itself.

On your place I would ask the help for users of this forum.