Can AAA defend sea units

@marcus711 The hang up with that is that all hits must be accounted for. If you attack with 4 fighters against a defending stack of 6 infantry, you will (statistically) land 2 hits (3/6 x 4 = 2), killing 2 of the 6 infantry. And then the 6 infantry get their defending rolls (statistically) getting 2 hits as well (2/6 x 6 = 2), killing 2 fighters. You would trade 6 enemy IPCs (infantry cost x 2) for 20 of your IPCs (fighter cost of 10 IPCs x 2). I wouldn’t call that a good trade.

-Midnight_Reaper

In most cases, you just want to lose in order from the least valuable unit to the most valuable.

Exception;

If you are the defender and you have 1 destroyer and 1 cruiser

The attacker has 2 subs and hits you 1 time

If you lose the destroyer, you are vulnerable to a surprise shot during the next round, and you would not get a reply, so losing the cruiser before the destroyer might be the smartest move.

Another example;

You have 3 bombers and 2 infantry.  Enemy attacks you with 2 fighters and 1 bomber and hits you 2 times.  You may want to lose one or more expensive bombers (defend;1) before infantry, in the hopes of keeping the better defenders alive now to drive off the enemy as the combat rounds go on.  Once all the bombers are dead, however, the enemy will probably just leave.

Another example;

AAA guns cost 5 but they can’t fight after they do their special shot, so lose them first no matter what.

…

Carriers are weak attackers, and expensive, but in some editions they do have 2 soak hits.  However, if you lose or damage a carrier first, they cannot collect planes after the battle, reducing your defensive posture and possibly giving your planes no where to land. While Battleships should always soak a hit first, carriers probably should not.  Note that losing carriers first keeps your combat power high (attack 1 or 0 lost vs losing a cruiser or fighter at 3).  It can be tempting to dump the carrier first, but you may regret this after combat is fully resolved…

In the 1984 version of the game (Milton Bradley) you were limited to the pieces in the game. Looks like they managed to find a copy of the old rule book online.  Nothing more than trivia though at this point.

But the dice keep it fresh. Every game is different. New challenges. The need to recover from different setbacks. I think the random element adds a lot to this game.

On the other hand it is all about probability. If it wasn’t we would not need strategy. Strategy is what I love about this game. My weakness is that I can lose focus when I start to add up big stacks of unit numbers and values.

A perfect mix of strategy and chance.

Yep, that’s why both destroyers have to be sunk. If the transports in sz 11 survive its ok, the attack on London is still a go, but in sz 10 you really need to kill the destroyer and the transport (so UK can’t bring the Canadian tank to defend the capital.)

It’s a pretty tall order.

The alternative to all this, is what you might call the “Late game” Sea Lion. Where you try to slowly build up a surface fleet without drawing too much attention, and then drop a bunch of transports all at once, to exploit a weakly defended London. But there is no real consistent strategy for how that can be accomplished, since so much will have changed by the time you get into later rounds.

It can only hold if you are lucky dice. I myself seem to always roll below avgerage. And a friend of mine is always above average. So I tend not to play him head on. and we team up alot in 4 player games.

No. Only in the territory being attacked. Meant to say, sorry.

@MistuhJay:

@UrJohn:

It depends on your strategy.

–CV, AP & 3 INF

why would you need a third CV when you start with two already?

I don’t think you’d need a 3rd CV on J1. By the time its J1, you may be down to 1 CV. If the UK attacks your SZ 37 fleet and wins soundly, then Japan starts off on the defensive. You may want a 2nd CV.

If you don’t buy any navy/air force on J1, then the US can take the initiative in the Pacific. You will be hard pressed to do everything the IJN needs to do: protect Philippines, Borneo, East Indies, Japan, Kwangtung and Manchuria; chase off or destroy the USN; crush India; and pick up Australia, New Zealand and/or Africa.