Air can't attack subs rule?

I got a question regarding this rule.

In my last game, the us player attacked my jap fleet.

I had 3 transports, 1 cruiser, 1 battleship, 2 carriers and 4 fighters.
He had 4 subs, 2 destoyers, 1 battleship, 1 fighter and 1 carrier.

My fighters could only hit his surface ships, while my other ships were hitting his subs.

So what remained was that i had 4 fighters left vs 3 of his subs.
I also had 3 transports. So my question is: do you sink the transports and land the fighters at the island? Or do the transports remain and the subs have to submerge? We decided to sink the transports and land the fighters, but there was alot of discussion about this.

You played it correctly.  The subs couldn’t hit the fighters, and the fighters couldn’t hit the subs without a destroyer.  The subs weren’t forced to submerge, since they couldn’t be hit.  This left the transports defenseless.

This left the transports defenseless.

meaning that the transports all die? So if he retreated before he faced a situation where all he had was fighters…he could have saved his 3 transports by a retreat of his other naval units?

He couldn’t retreat, as he was the defender.  If he was the attacker, he could have saved whatever transports weren’t actually hit by retreating.

Ok, another followup: So the subs can actually hit transports during the resolve combat phase, but only when the transports are the only ones left to hit? So for instance if he still had some surface ships for my fighters to hit, he would roll subs vs my transports?

Technically, yes.  However, practically it doesn’t make any difference, since under the circumstances it would eventually just come down to the subs and transports anyway.

If he had alot more surface ships that was going to be destroyed by fighters, the option of a later retreat would make it important to roll vs the transports. But i see now how the fight was resolved so thanks for the quick replies.

That’s true.  I didn’t think about that.  :oops:  If he retreated before all the transports were hit by the subs at least some of them could survive.  Good catch!

Krieghund,

So, to further clarify, here’s the following situation:

My Fleet of 9 Super Subs, 2 Destroyers, and 1 Battleship attack my opponents fleet of 3 transports, 3 Aircraft Carriers, 1 Cruiser, 1 Battleship, and 6 Fighters.

My Super Subs all hit, but my other ships all miss.  My opponent must choose all of his ships as casualties, including his 3 transports, right?  Then his Fighters fire back hitting 3. I “soak” 1 hit on my Battleship, and take the 2 Destroyers as casualties.  Round 2, I choose to retreat, because the only units firing would be my lone Battleship against the 6 Fighters.

Is the correct interpretation of the rules?

If so, then my opponents big mistake was having no Destroyers with his fleet.

Yes, this is correct.  Having no destroyers is a pretty big mistake.