Subs & Destroyers. Help settle a dispute.

Read the rules of general combat very carefully.

Remember also, “As many hits as possible must be assigned”. (General Combat, Step 3). It clarifies here as well with an example that submarines cannot hit air.
This essentially answers a lot of questions for you… if you had destroyers and submarines firing you’d want to seperate these out because it may be a case that the submarines score hits against a mixed force including air and you will need to know exactly what hits assign to what, according to sub/air rules.

The presence of the destroyer takes effect at the start of the rolls… so if a destroyer disappears, submarines special abilities that would otherwise be cancelled kick in.
This is always interesting when the carrier or battleship is the last surface ship… so it could end up being a costly casualty if the opponent has still got a surprise strike up his sleeve.
I think this adds a lot ot the gameplay, as there are often very tough decisions to make :)

Again this is all clarified in the general combat rules. Just read them carefully.

Play Memoir 44 and Risk with them first.  Axis and Allies isn’t a good beginner game.

This is complicated stuff SC, but I believe I have this right:

In your example, if the US initiates combat in a sz in which the US has no destroyers, then J decides whether its subs submerge or surprise strike, not the US.

If the US had a destroyer present, then any subs in a sz in which combat is initiated would be involved. The US cannot decide to ignore them.

If the US placed units in a sz which contained only J subs, then the US can decide whether to initiate combat or ignore those subs. If that US movement occurs during non-combat then combat cannot be initiated.

I thought since a destroyer nullifies a subs specials that meant it could see the sub and would have to engage in battle since the sub would not have an option to submerge.

I guess it comes down to the choice of the destroyer.

Thanks again wittmann.

My friends and I games this weekend should go much more smoothly with all this additional “verified” info.

Evening Ike.
They do not die.
They can retreat one SZ (from which one of them  came) with the cargo still on board if they were not hit by the defending naval units in the last combat round.
(All hits are allocated to units, transports last. )

@Imperious:

Are they renting rooms in Caucasus? Is the line too long to find a room?

I see what you did there.  :-D

Not to be a complete nerd, but this just reminds me of the old Death Star problem:  the engineers probably told the defense coordinators they were placing a venting shaft directly out of the reactor, and when the defense coordinators complained to the general contractor, the general contractor blew them off citing cost overruns that would occur if they put a simple angel in the shaft line so proton torpedoes couldn’t dive straight down. Really?

Avalon Hill can’t spare one person looking fresh at all the game components before they go out to make sure they, like, add up?  Really?