Okay, so playing the second global edition of 1940, and Japan has run into a prickly rules situation in China. Essentially what’s going on is the Japan player wishes to assault a British territory with nothing but air units. The British territory which is being attacked had air units defending, but they were all wiped out by the attacking Japanese. This is the part where we run into trouble.
What do you do at this point? Essentially now there are just Japanese planes and bombers flying unhindered above the British troops. Do all the British die? Do the Japanese do one round of attacks against the land units and then fly back to their respective teritories?
Long story short:
1. Can an attack group made only of air units attack another territory?
2. If so, how is combat for that resolved? Do unguarded land units get automatically wiped out? Or do aircraft conduct one round of “strafing” and then leave for friendly territories?
Any help would be greatly appreciated - the rules seem to make no mention of this issue so it’s a huge deal whether the Japanese planes just wipe out an entire army or not.
Not sure if I understand you completely. If Japan attacks a territory with planes only then the territory they attack can retaliate with all the units in that territory including ground units and air units. Japan does a similar attack sometimes against the Chinese Flying Tiger. If they are within range of the stack of inf and fighter they sometimes decide to attack it with a bunch of planes. Its very risky because the exchange rate in IPCs lost is not comparable.
Afternoon Chorizo. It sounds like you have misunderstood the rules about combat.
All combat units can attack other ones, with the exception of Subs against air units. The air and ground units in the territory that is attacked defend together. Ground units can most certainly hit and kill air units. It is not only AA and other air units that defend against air only attacks. Please reread the rules about combat.
As Cyanight has said, players often go air only against a stack of ground units. But it can prove costly.
Please say if we have misunderstood your question.
There are only 2 units in the game that automatically die in combat alone vs enemy forces.
Transports will die automatically if attacked and there are no units capable of mounting a defense. IE, a sub attacks a lone transport adjacent to an airbase. Fighters/Tac from that air base scramble but are incapable of hitting the sub so the transport dies automatically.
AA guns can be taken as casualties if present with friendly forces. Alone they die without accomplishing anything except maybe stopping a blitz. Keep in mind that though they don’t have a combat value, they still get their aa shots against any attacking air units as this takes place prior to the first round of combat.
And of course land units on transports don’t get to participate in combat if the transports they’re on are attacked. Same goes with allied fighters on an attacking carrier, in which case they’re just considered cargo. Although allied air on carriers can still participate in defending against attacks.
Every other unit in the game can defend or attack in various combinations of air, ground, naval to your heart’s content. Pair some amphibious assaults with capital ship bombardment and air for the trifecta. :-D
Each player gets to choose their own casualties as well. So in the scenario you presented, the defender would be wise to keep his expensive and heavy hitting fighters/tacticals for last and lose cheaper ground units and/or aa guns first. As long as it’s an attack and not a bombing raid, all units in the terr will defend against all attacking units simultaneously.
While it can be expensive to send just air units against ground units, sometimes it is warranted.
In a recent game of 1942 2nd edition, Germany was really giving Russia a hard time and Russia was having trouble having enough troops and tanks to retake their own territories. The US and UK had built up sizable air forces so they took turns attacking the German infantry and tanks so on Russia’s turn, they could simply move in and take the territories thus improving their income.
While the US/UK did lose some expensive air units, it worked out very well as Russia was able to roll up a lot of territory and Germany just couldn’t produce enough to reverse the tide. Russian tanks would blitz 2 territories while Germany could only take the 2nd territory back in combat. Then here would come those dang Brit or American planes again.
