Unescorted transports can be attacked by partial fleet

@marcus711 The hang up with that is that all hits must be accounted for. If you attack with 4 fighters against a defending stack of 6 infantry, you will (statistically) land 2 hits (3/6 x 4 = 2), killing 2 of the 6 infantry. And then the 6 infantry get their defending rolls (statistically) getting 2 hits as well (2/6 x 6 = 2), killing 2 fighters. You would trade 6 enemy IPCs (infantry cost x 2) for 20 of your IPCs (fighter cost of 10 IPCs x 2). I wouldn’t call that a good trade.

-Midnight_Reaper

@Simon98v:

…

If I interpreted this correctly, a seazone containing both submarines AND transports blocks the movement of sea units. This doesn�t make any sense.

Do submarines have the ability to protect allied transports? (obviously not from air units)

Can you ignore making an attack on a seazone containing transports and submarines to make a seashore bombardment?

Don’t forget:

@rulebook:

An enemy submarine and/or transport does not block any of your units’ movement, nor does it prevent loading or offloading
in that sea zone (with one exception - see Special Combat Movement: Transports, pg. 13). As the moving player, you have the
option of attacking an enemy submarine and/or transport that shares a sea zone with you. However, if a warship chooses to sink
an unescorted transport, that warship must end its movement in that sea zone. It is possible that some units may stop to attack
while others continue moving through the sea zone.

This should answer all your questions.

Thanks.

Please see

@Rulebook:

…
Attacking or defending submarines that choose to submerge are immediately removed from the battle strip and returned to the
game board in the contested sea zone, removing them from the remaining battle sequences.

Note: Decisions on whether attacking and defending submarines will fire or submerge must be made before any dice are rolled
by either side. The attacking player decides first.
…

and

@Rulebook:

…
Once all attacking and defending submarines that conducted a Surprise Strike have fired, the casualties they have generated
are removed from the game and this step is over for this round of combat. As long as there are attacking and/or defending
submarines and no opposing destroyers, this step is repeated during each round of combat. Any hits made during this step that
do not destroy units (such as battleships) remain in effect until the end of the combat.
…

Please ask if anything remains unclear.

@Swift:

So a sub can suprise strike, submerge, then other sea units fire, then defending units fire (excluding submarines), then remove casualties, then press attack, then same sub suprise strikes and submerges, then attacking sea units fire… and so on until defeat or retreat of attacker?

No, a sub can either surprise strike or submerge. If it submerges it will be out for the rest of the battle.
If it decides to surprise strike in the first round of combat and survives this round of combat, it can decide
to submerge or to attack again in the next round of combat.

HTH :-)

Thanks.  :-)

All right, thanks!

Such a shame! Thanks for the quick reply.

I find the concentrated bomber strategy very interesting as an approach for the US, for the reasons outlined here - the cost of getting US infantry into the action is incredibly high, so much so that Air power compares much better vs. land forces  for the US than for other nations.

How many bombers is too many? I was picturing maybe 2 US bombers on US1, but for the purposes of strategic bombing, the early IPCs denied will be magnified throughout the game, so perhaps a US1 buy of 3 bombers makes sense?

Unless Japan was posturing in range of a US attack, I imagine I would build the bombers in western US and then send them directly to the UK for use in SBRs vs. Germany (or sinking/deterring a German fleet). Would you agree?