AA50 Rules Errata and Q+A

@Gamerman01:

@514bishy:

-When you are declaring your attack with a plane you must declare where it will land correct? And even if it is retreating it must continue that path correct?

No.  You never have to declare paths with planes and never declare where it will land.  You land it when the time comes (noncombat movement).

To be clear, you do have to demonstrate that there is at least one place where your plane can land when you attack with it.  However, if there are multiple places, you don’t have to pick one until noncombat movement.

Right.

Experienced players can always see whether it is possible to land all the planes, so these declarations are never necessary when your opponent is experienced, because he can see whether or not the move is legal without you explaining it…  I’ve played dozens and dozens of games online without a single aircraft move having to be explained.

Wow guys thats huge. Feel like such a noob  :oops:

So when a plane is 'disengaging" from an attack it can land anywhere it wants (friendly territory or AC of course) according to how many moves it has left?

Now lets say in Europe where Germany is attacking a territory with its 5 planes, when it is time for non combat, it is a matter of remembering where your planes came from to know how many moves each one has left correct?
I believe, if my memory serves me well, that in the revised edition they had markers available to either indicate how many moves it took for that plane to get to the attacked territory or to indicate how many moves that plane had left. This seems handy in this case where you have many planes attacking a single territory but otherwise its all memory I guess right?

Yes, that’s correct.  Many people make their own markers or use tiny dice to indicate how many moves remain for each plane.  Of course, if you have to take a plane as a casualty, you’ll always want to take the one that travelled furthest to the battle in order to gain the most flexibility in noncombat movement, all other things being equal.

I use coins.  Pennies to denote 1 MP remaining, Nickels for 2, Dimes for 3, Quarters for 4…  I put the fighters and bombers on top of the appropriate coin
You could use country markers or something, alternatively
Where they came from becomes irrelevant - you just need to know how many movement is left for each plane

I think I still have revised :-o

More questions

1. Land units attacking from an amphibious assault cannot retreat correct?

2. All warships entering an enemy seazone must participate in the attack together and cannot do other objectives correct? (such as a bombardment)

3. During non combat, can you move an AA gun into a newly controlled territory that you captured in the same round?

4. For the paratrooper breakthrough, is the bomber restricted to attack only the territory it is dropping the infantry in? Or can it drop the infantry into the first hostile territory it goes over and continue to attack another territory?

@514bishy:

I think I still have revised :-o

More questions

1. Land units attacking from an amphibious assault cannot retreat correct?

Correct, but you can separate them from and land units coming from overland (not by transport) and they can retreat separately (but air must break off at the same time)

2. All warships entering an enemy seazone must participate in the attack together and cannot do other objectives correct? (such as a bombardment)

Right, if you are attacking any ships, even submarines or transports, no bombardment can take place in that sea zone that turn.

3. During non combat, can you move an AA gun into a newly controlled territory that you captured in the same round?

Yes

4. For the paratrooper breakthrough, is the bomber restricted to attack only the territory it is dropping the infantry in?

Yes

Or can it drop the infantry into the first hostile territory it goes over and continue to attack another territory?

No

What is not considered a surface warship?

514bishy: A Transport and a Sub.

thx wittmann, thats what I thought but wanted to be sure.

I am very new to this forum so please forgive me when  ask what are bids and how do they work?

Thx again guys for your help with all my questins  :-D

@514bishy:

I am very new to this forum so please forgive me when  ask what are bids and how do they work?

Bids serve 3 purposes (off the top of my head)

The players bid auction style, for which side they will take.  For example, I’ll offer to take the Allies at 10, which means you will spot me 10 IPC’s worth of units which I can place on the starting board, possibly with certain restrictions.
But you don’t want to give me that much so you bid the Allies at 9.  Now if I don’t lower your bid, you will have the Allies with 9 IPC’s worth of units to start.  So of course this continues until one player is unwilling to bid lower.

The 3 purposes served:

1. A great way to determine sides (as opposed to rolling dice or fighting over it).  It’s great because neither player can argue that they had the weaker side - both players are essentially agreeing to the same terms using the bid.
2. Helps balance unbalanced games.

For example, in 1941 with no optional rules in play, the Allies are at a severe disadvantage with the Box setup.  The Allies will win a lot less than half the games if the players have equal ability.  The bid helps even up the sides, if the players know what is fair.  Way over 100 games of 1941 scenario have been played between all kinds of players on this site alone, and the vast majority of players agree that the Allies need between 6 and 15 IPC’s of stuff extra to start to make it 50/50
3) It makes each game different. 
For example, in a recent game my opponent won a bid of 10 and placed a Russian fighter on Bryatia (1941 scenario).  Russia goes before Japan in this scenario, so he could sucker punch my Z62 transport with no risk.  Then he landed the fighter on the Phillipines, a typical J1 target.  This was enough to radically alter my J1.  So the bid helps keep the first turn attacks from always being the same old, same old

The moderators have established a few rules for legal bids (you can’t just put anything anywhere you want on the board), and those rules can change from year to year.  If you want to know what has been conventional the past few years on the site, just ask.

Thanks Gamerman  :-)

I am really surprised with the bidding but I will have to take your word for it. I have only been playing 42 set up without NO and I just recently tried 41 without NO and it wasnt even normal lol. I did read in the forums though, and from this last experience, that you cannot play 41 without the NO’s. Even with the NO I am surprised that the axis are that heavily favoured. I think the axis player has to be a really good one and the allies a really bad player as well for that to be true. However I have not played enough to know so I presume these bids will come into play after a few games ;)

I would like your opinions on the latest 1942 revised game. Is it worth buying when you already own AA50 and are NOT a collector? The map looks interesting and it looks to be like a quicker game but could you really find yourself playing both AA1942 and AA50? I can see that for the axis it might be easier to be able to place units where Italy should be but not having Italy(even with minimal gameplay) its still a long & rough wait for the 1-2 punch of the allies. Thoughts pls  :?

1942 is a good game (since it uses the current AA50 naval mechanics, etc) but yes it is redundant and AA50 is superior in nearly every way.  If you are not a collector and have no need to play different versions of A&A, then no, I advise you do without 1942 just as I do.  Also, you could play 1942 online with people without buying the game, if you really want a new experience, but you haven’t even played with NO’s much yet or the 1941 scenario of AA50, so you shouldn’t even be thinking about buying another game, no.

Play against yourself (because you have equal skill with yourself) a few games of 1941 with NO’s and with the Dardanelles open and I think you will find that the Axis have a huge advantage.  I know I did when I was in your situation (had the new game, didn’t know much about it, etc)

But it holds true even for veterans.  I’ve played way over 50 games of AA50, both 1942 and 1941 scenario and I’ve played a lot of different veterans on this site.  I promise you with NO’s and Z16 not blocked off, the Axis are heavily favored if there is no bid or compensation to the Allies.

If you ever figure out how to play online with ABattlemap, ask me for a game  :-)

I have thought of playing against myself but how can you go forward knowing your enemies strategy  :-P

About 1941 My buddy bought an industrial complex first round in India and second round bought AC and Battleship. Plus the US went full out pacific. We didnt play long enough to see Germany explode but I could clearly see that Japan wasn’t going anywhere. This was my reason behind questioning the axis advantage. I will just play some games and get back to ya on it  :lol:

I can definately try and figure out how to get a battlemap or u can just tell me how  :-P.
I also heard of this die counting system which its based on calculations rather than rolling. How does that work? (sry again for extreme noobyism  :roll:)

combat & non-combat movement questions
Unless I am a complete amateur I am pretty sure u cannot, in non combat move units into a territory that u just took over(except AA gun). So my question comes in two parts:

1. Lets say u blitz with a tank into 2 empty enemy territories. Can your infantry move into the first territory in non combat or must he have moved forward with the tank in combat?
   2)Lets say you have several ships in a sz. U would like to attack the island in the adjacent sz which contains NO ENEMY BOATS! U proceed to move your transport along with the other ships (no bombardments). If you moved all your ships into that sz is that considered a combat move? Is it then fair to say that it was your error an they should have been moved in non combat or is that clearly non combat and bad habits???

Retreating
lets say u do an amphibious assault along with planes and additional land units from an adjacent territory. After the first round of combat even though you have both sea and land units, you decide to retreat. what is the procedure here??

@514bishy:

I have thought of playing against myself but how can you go forward knowing your enemies strategy  :-P

All I can say is don’t knock it 'til you’ve tried it.  The best strategies are changing all the time anyway, I think.  Also, you don’t know what the dice will do.  I’ve played games against myself since I was a little kid.  Obviously not games where secrets are kept (battleship, card games, etc), but many games are very playable by yourself.  A&A lends itself very well to this.

About 1941 My buddy bought an industrial complex first round in India and second round bought AC and Battleship. Plus the US went full out pacific. We didnt play long enough to see Germany explode but I could clearly see that Japan wasn’t going anywhere. This was my reason behind questioning the axis advantage. I will just play some games and get back to ya on it  :lol:

You guys are just inexperienced.  You do NOT buy an IC in India on UK1.  Japan should be able to take that over on round 2 or 3 easily, and you’ve just built a forward IC for Japan.  Even if you go all out to protecting it with Russia and stuff, this just means you are not concentrating on Germany enough.  All UK money should go to building units on UK in 1941 scenario.  I have never, ever had an opponent try building an Indian IC on UK1 in 1941.

I can definately try and figure out how to get a battlemap or u can just tell me how  :-P.
I also heard of this die counting system which its based on calculations rather than rolling. How does that work? (sry again for extreme noobyism  :roll:)

It’s OK, we were all there once.  Look under the “software” section of the boards, in the stickied threads, for Abattlemap.

combat & non-combat movement questions
Unless I am a complete amateur I am pretty sure u cannot, in non combat move units into a territory that u just took over(except AA gun). So my question comes in two parts:

no, actually, you are wrong.  You can always non-com units into a territory you just took.  You can even move tanks THROUGH them!  I didn’t use to know this either.

1. Lets say u blitz with a tank into 2 empty enemy territories. Can your infantry move into the first territory in non combat or must he have moved forward with the tank in combat?

Can move in noncombat

2)Lets say you have several ships in a sz. U would like to attack the island in the adjacent sz which contains NO ENEMY BOATS! U proceed to move your transport along with the other ships (no bombardments). If you moved all your ships into that sz is that considered a combat move? Is it then fair to say that it was your error an they should have been moved in non combat or is that clearly non combat and bad habits???

You cannot move any warships into the zone during combat movement because there is no combat.  There are exceptions to this rule - like when you find enemy surface ships have been built in your zone and you move to escape combat.  So yes, bad habits, need to change.  It’s to your benefit - always better to decide what to move AFTER rolling dice, not committing before rolling dice.

Retreating
lets say u do an amphibious assault along with planes and additional land units from an adjacent territory. After the first round of combat even though you have both sea and land units, you decide to retreat. what is the procedure here??

No problem.  You must retreat ALL air and overland ground units at the same time.  You must leave all amphibious assault ground units to battle to the death.  The rulebook says you should keep track of which units came over-land and which unloaded from transports while choosing casualties, for this reason.

@Gamerman01:

You must retreat ALL air and overland ground units at the same time.

Following normal procedure - that is, all ground units coming overland must retreat together to ONE territory that ANY of the units came from or traveled through.  (This could result in infantry traveling 2 spaces, or tanks 3, which can be a very effective and unexpected maneuver.  Also, the retreating rules can be used to effectively consolidate several armies that were previously separated by the enemy!  The best players keep ALL possible plays in their playbook and never forget them.)

@Gamerman01:

You can always non-com units into a territory you just took.

To be clear, you can always move land units into a territory you just took.  You may never do so with air units.

The air units I know but I am in shock about the land units and clearly from what I wrote I am still an amateur  :cry:

I mean thats a huge misunderstood rule for me and my buddies and I wonder how a lot of our games “might” have gone LOL

Now you know, and knowing’s half the battle  :-)

Is it legal to move a Sub into a sea zone with a hostile destroyer during non-combat movement phase in AA50?