I am fairly new to A&A. Although back in the 80’s my college roommates and I tried to play the original A&A version 1986, which by the way I still have (awesome!). We never got to really play so I am unsure of some Combat concepts. Now many many moons later my sons what to play, pretty cool. Anyway my questions are as follows and is focused on island battles.
First, taking an island. If no hostile surface ships, it seems pretty straight forward. Amphibious assault and/or if possible fly a fighter or bomber in leaving moves to get back to friendly zone. On a side note if the island is only taken with air and the attacker eliminates all hostile land units does the attacker take the island or does he need to get a unit on the island?
The nest setup, if there are hostile surface ships. Let’s say there are hostile battleships, destroyers and aircraft carrier (with a plane). The attacker is coming in with 2 transports (each with an infantry and tank) for an amphibious assault, a battleship, destroyer, aircraft carrier with 2 planes.
So now the question: I know the sea battle must take place first. What pieces battle? My guess is all surface ships and planes (unless you say the planes will not battle, saving them for the land battle hopefully). As for the transports and what is on them, my guess is they are not available for the sea combat. For the defender all surface ships and planes but not what is actually on the island. If attacker is successful in defeating all hostile surface ships then transports unload on island and land combat takes place. Am I thinking correctly on this?
Finally, air assault on an island. Let’s use Hawaii in this example. In the Hawaii zone there are 2 tanks and 3 infantry on land, there is a battleship and aircraft carrier with two planes in the water. If, Japan wants to fly in 2 bombers and 3 planes, do the bombers and planes have to battle the surface ships first before attacking land? Or can they just fly directly to the island and do land battle? My guess is that the surface ships must be eliminated first as they are protecting the island.
I purposely left out the subs as I know they are a little different and may follow up later about how they may come into play.
Sorry for the length of the post. Hopefully, my questions are clear.
Thanks in advance. We are all really digging the game. Just ordered Europe and Pacific for the monster battle but thought it made sense to take a baby step with 1941.
