Rules: Escort fighters in strategic bombing

@MrBill13:

fellow world domineers,

After a bit of a vacation from the forum, I made the mistake of reading a post that said the “LHTR” is essentially the bible for tournament play. So of course i had to read it. I have to ask because unless Hasbro came out with some modifications to the rules, there are some conflicts.

1. The rules that came with (my copy anyway) of spring 1942 say that strategic bombardment cannot total more than twice the territories worth. The LHTR says no more than simply the value of the territory. Since I don’t play in tournaments, which is the overall accepted procedure.

2. When I played classic, every Ack Ack we flew over could fire on your planes. Spring 42 says that only Ack Acks in a country being attacked fire on planes. LHTR goes back to the classic way. Again, which is generally accepted.

3. Nothing is said in the Sping 42 rulebook about weapons development. And I ask again, is this generally accepted, or do these particular rules only come into use during tournament play.

Thanks for your indulgence…

The sequence of releases/rules is Revised, LHTR and Spring 1942. LHTR is a middle step between Revised and Spring 1942, you can see the differences between the 3 rulesets on the attached .pdf made by Krieghund.

Concerning your questions.

The strat bombing on Spring 1942 inflicts damage on the IC (up to double the territory’s value), on LHTR it removes IPCs from the player (up to the value of the territory).
2)On LHTR/Revised AAs can fire during Combat Move. On Spring 1942 they only fire during combat. There’s no tech on Spring 1942.

A&A_1942_&_Revised_Editions_Rules_Comparison.pdf

Yes, the AA50 sub rules are a bit muddled, but the FAQ helps immensely.

There are no official rules on undoing a mistake, so you’ll have to work that out with your opponent.  However, many on-line clubs have procedures for such situations.  Maybe one of their members will suggest something here.

By the way, this is the AA42 forum, so questions about AA50 are off-topic here.  Please post further AA50 questions in the appropriate forum.  Thanks.

It’s an attractive game board though. I’ve seen some of the original AA boards and they were hideous. I think it serves the purpose of getting people into the series well. We’ve added D-Day to the game list. The games get very heated and the players are very competitive, this last game was sort of a buzz kill because it was over in only 3 rounds and seemed too easy, I was convinced we must have been doing a lot of things wrong, and I think I’ve realized all of those things now. =)

Like Krieg wrote.

But tanks get lonely too.

Fighter escorts yes, Dardanelles no. Fighter escorts makes bombing campaigns more challenging than simply building fleets of bombers and sending them.

Regarding the Dardanelles rule it limits the options for nearly all powers in the Med:

Germany’s Med fleet is reduced to striking Africa. It can’t help pressuring the Russians on Caucasus or dealing with any incursions on Ukraine. Russia R1 tactic of building a submarine to sink the German fleet is removed (the only time on the entire series of games where the Russians can build ships!) The US cannot set a transport chain to reinforce Caucasus (rather a waste of resources but I’ve seen enough people trying it). Japan can’t threaten Caucasus with amphibious landings (which usually makes pressure on the Allies to close the Suez)

Since the game is considered already balanced by most players I disagree that having the rule goes towards balancing it, since I can’t see 1 side getting a big advantage by having it closed.

The main argument thus to use the rule is the historical situation but the game does not intend to fully reproduce History, I so guess it is mostly a matter of taste regarding playability/historical accuracy.

I also like 42 better. They took what had most improved in Revised (the map) and then improved what still needed the most improvements (naval warfare).

Nowadays naval combat matters, and, guess what: it’s FUN! I’m using (and buying) subs. SUBS!

A great ruleset!

@Veqryn:

can you move a submarine into (not through) and stop in an enemy controlled sea zone during combat move, and choose not attack?

No, you can’t.  However, in AA50 and AA42 if there are no enemy destroyers you can submerge at the beginning of the first combat round, effectively avoiding combat.

@Veqryn:

can you move a submarine into (not through) and stop in an enemy controlled sea zone during Non-combat move?

In Revised, no.  In AA50 and AA42, yes, regardless of the presence of enemy destroyers.

You can retreat from an attack regardless of how many moves your unit has left. It has been that way since Classic. It effectively adds 1 movement for the attackers but defending planes can also move 1 to land on a territory if their carrier has been sunk.

One of the best examples is for G to have a big tank stack on Caucasus and the Allies move a large force to Eastern Europe. You hit EE with units for G and the tanks from WR and afterwards you retreat back to Germany. And all of a sudden Germany gets a lot harder to take by the UK/US.