Who is attacker and defender in Sea Battles?

@PrivateerPuffin

In case the attacking transport survives, it can retreat. Every sea unit participates in the preceeding sea-battle.

@aardvarkpupper

Agreed.

100 dice!! I think you may have reached overkill levels of dice-throwing already :) Here’s my suggested breakdown:

20 “ones” 40 “twos” 30 “threes” 10 “fours”

This would represent a perfectly-matched battle with a unit count of 40-50 and the following composition on each side:

20 inf/art in any combination 15 tnk/ftr 5 bmr

I think that breakdown would cover 95% of your battles, with a possibility that you have to throw some infantry dice twice (or throw a few of them into a “2x” or “3x” tray).

One sub point that Argo didn’t mention is that if you commit the transports to the attack, and the naval battle fails, that the whole surviving group retreats together, with the land units stuck on the transports until the next turn.  This makes them very vulnerable to being destroyed, which makes this type of combined sea/amphibious attack high stakes.

This is also why you have to commit to the battles at the same time; not only does it keep the flow of play clean but it also forces you to analyze all the risks you are taking at the same time.  Reshuffling your unit allocations in other planned battles after the first combats are seen is also a no-no, though in a friendly game it is ok to make some revisions.

Still, since you can choose the order you fight battles in, this can be helpful.  You can see the outcome of 1-2 big battles, and then know whether the smaller battles are worth fighting to the bitter end, whether its more important to take the territory vs just clear it.  You do have to fight at least 1 round of combat for every declared battle, my point is that gaining certain information as to the outcome of one important battle can be instructive of the need to fight other battles to their bitter conclusion or withdraw early.

We fight in this order, not sure if its required in all versions by the letter of the rules, but it can make the game have a cleaner flow…

Declare all combats, unit buy is sealed and cannot be changed after we begin to do;

strategic bombings in any order then sea combats without land element in any order sea combats with a landing in any order land combats in any order don’t do any noncoms zero zilch none until now because it keeps the separation of turns and moved units cleaner I realize its tempting…

lots of teams only have 1-2 combats to declare per turn so focusing on doing all your combats first (and ignoring units that will noncom) is also an easy way to keep your mind focused on one task at a time;  things that fight get committed first and everything else can be contemplated at length after combats are resolved.

It’s chief effect in gameplay terms is to make it harder for the Axis to build/support a med fleet in the deep endgame. Particularly in cases where Japan manages to take the Caucasus, or has parked a fleet in the Med, since they don’t have the black sea safe zone to build. This is the kind of thing that usually doesn’t become a factor until Moscow has fallen. In rarer instances it prevents the Allies from dropping on Ukraine/Caucasus (again usually after Moscow has fallen) in an attempt to sneak in a wedge, or see the formerly Soviet territory come under Western control.

In the opening rounds it prevents Germany from making amphibious drops into Ukraine, or attacking Caucasus directly, which in turn means that the Russians don’t have to defend it quite so heavily.

I think for game balance it’s probably better closed, though most players I’ve gamed with seem to leave it open. Whether you play Open or Closed, or with interceptors on, is something that should be determined before bidding for Allies, since it can have an effect on how the Russians open (e.g. how much emphasis they need to put on a Ukraine opener.) The Ukraine strafe/take by the Soviets is much more attractive, if there is no threat posed by the German transport in the med.

Thanks.

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.

And the transport never ends up on a territory.  Just in the seazone adjacent to the territory you’re dumping units into.