URGENT QUESTION! Kind of…

Welcome, Bapinurnose!

Yes, they can.

It doesn’t matter if the land unit survives to retreat or not.  Just its having moved into the territory establishes the retreat path.

@Kaine:

Can england use its transports to move out of the hostile zone, pick up troops, and then move back in to the hostile zone (and then conduct an amphibious assault as normal if the subs are defeated) or must the transports, if they retreat, end up in a friendly sea zone?

Yes, this is legal, as long as the sea zone in which the transports are loading units is friendly.

@Kaine:

Further (and related) are there ANY restrictions on movement caused by starting in a hostile zone rather than a friendly?

The movement must be done in the Combat Movement phase.  It must follow all of the rules for Combat Movement, except that it need not end in combat.

Thanks +1.

LT

1.  Yes.  However, after 1 round of combat, the SUB can choose to submerge if it is still alive, ending the attack by the FIG (or BOM).

2.  NO.  The Battleship is offshore.  It can only engage in land combat for a single shot and only in the very special case of an amphibious landing.  In the example you cite, with Germany counter-attacking Western, the Allied BB is in SZ7, and means NOTHING to the Allied defenders in Western.  Battleships are naval units, and are ignored for land combat except in the case where the Battleship is in the same sea zone as the attacker’s transport(s) that are offloading to combat.

Also, DSTs (Destroyers) can only engage in land combat if you have the technology that permits them to fire a support shot like a Battleship.  Otherwise DSTs mean NOTHING in land combat.

@Ranor:

LHTR 2.0 says to this:

“If the attacker has not withdrawn all units, defending submarines may submerge.”

This implies defending subs submerge after the attacker has chosen to either retreat (or submerge) or not.

(page 16 - Condition B) Defender withdraws subs by submerging)

Page 14 is more to the point.

It categorically states that the Attacker choses to press the attack or retreat BEFORE defending submarines chose to submerge or remain surfaced.

You can also drive tanks that were not engaged through the territory to a friendly territory on the other side.  Good way to open up reinforcement routes in Europe.

Where’s the unguarded territory if he blocked off the Baltic? What if there are no troops or very little troops in W. Europe? You may be infinitley efficient when you can bombard a territory, but when the territory doesn’t have many or any troops to bombard, or you are blocked, you are many turns behind in amassing the necessary troops to attack.