If I have a loaded aircraft carrier and battleship in the caroline islands SZ and want to use my Ftrs on board to clear the India SZ then the Ftrs can fly 3 spaces - NG sz, EI sz, Ind sz. My carrier can move two spaces to the EI sz and pick them up after the mission…
Can my opponent block me from doing this - by placing a Cruiser in the NG sz?
In this event I would be tempted to launch my air attack against the Indian sz and use my battleship to attack the cruiser in the NG sea zone. Assuming the battleship sinks the cruiser then in non-combat my AC can proceed to East Indies and pick up the Ftrs.
Is this allowed? As in - I understand that (for instance) even if the NG Sea zone was empty but my opponent had 3 battleships and 6 subs in the East Indies, I could still send my Ftrs to the indian sz and also send my Carrier to E.I sz to ‘pick them up’ afterward knowing there wasn’t an ice cube’s hope in hell of the carrier actually surviving combat. But the ‘intention’ is enough.
In the case I’m asking about I cannot directly get my Carrier to E.I. but can promise that if I win the battle in New Guinea (with good odds) that I will send it there for my planes during non combat.
Equally if this were allowed then the Japanese can attack the US AC in 41 on round 1 I believe by guaranteeing to send carriers through the hawaii sea zone after the BB is ‘cleared out’. A further question then arising from this is - if my preference was to launch a suicide attack against the US carrier in rnd 1, I could send a lone destroyer against the battleship ‘on faith’ that should it win (?!) my carriers will sally through and collect the planes during non combat.
What do people think on this?
The only barrier to this tactic I can come up with is that the first non-combat move most people make is to land aircraft. Hence - you need to have a carrier there already as your planes will have to land straight after battle… but is this actually a rule?
