Attacking defenseless transport = scramble?

@Soviet-Steamroller said in Attacking an empty sea zone?:

Hi there,
As i’m reviewing the scramble rule a question came to my mind.
Can i assign planes to a sea zone with no ennemy warships just as a safety against scramble?

Bringing units against a potential scramble is a valid combat move, indeed.
Rulebook Pacific 1940.2 page 13

… Further, if enemy air units could potentially be scrambled to defend the sea zone, additional units may be moved into the sea zone to combat them in case they are indeed scrambled.

Unfortunately, my forum play is sporadic with all my kids as I prefer f2f -can actually ignore family and concentrate on rollin the bones.

Yes, without retaliation. The UK Fts land in non com.

Inf + tank, for the reasons mentioned. Plus, that combo actually has a slightly better chance of killing the defender in the first round, though the difference is small.

@WILD:

When doing a J1 attack I also sink the Hawaiian fleet. I hit the fleet with a couple dd, sub and 4 planes (2 ftrs/2tacs). I then NCM 2 carriers, cruiser and bb to Wake to pick up my surviving air units. Make sure a dd survives the Haw battle to block out the US ships from hitting your fleet at Wake (leave a few ftrs on Japan in case you need to NCM some air in to replace losses). US can try an ill advised air sweep on your Wake fleet, but if you want to play it safe take Wake Isl too. This will give your air units a place to land so your carriers and BB can soak up the first three hits.

I really like this (especially with balance mode because Wake denies USA an NO), and I would also add a bomber that lands on Marshall Islands.  The problem is all those planes are not in Kwangsi so you lose the threat of pounding an airstrike on Szechwan or Burma, and you might even have a hard time at Yunnan.  You do set the USA way back but you lose initiative on the mainland.

It is hard to tell whether or not a counter-Sea Lion (as you put it) helped or hurt America.  For one, all those ships had to have made Germany and Italy’s jobs harder, but on the other hand, that’s less ground units to push out the Japanese.

Thank you!

Prior to these changes I saw no reason for Japan to NOT attack Hawaii.

@Krieghund:

Yes.

thanks!