Nothing says you can’t take off all your planes during one mission phase. Being new to this game though, I have learned that’s not a smart move … as you (Half-Track) have said and history re-affirms.

In my first full game from the current Avalon Hill Guadalcanal online campaign, I have a land based, aircraft heavy force builds with over 5 quadrons on each side. I am beginning to suspect that that is not normal and I am not as concerned about the delay of play-by-forum game due to back and forth air mission unit placement.

Yes, that’s how the rules read. I think this forces the players to take risks with placing their deadly, expensive bombers. Do you you risk putting a single dive bomber on a ship caught alone in a sector or do you keep all you squadrons in tight formation with fighter escorts?

I’ve been testing the first War at Sea MapView mod in the “Play Miniatures” section of this forum. Look for “GC_T1_B1 Cobalt vs Brian” post. My gut feel is that the back and forth placement of air units will drag games out to a very long time. There are also “casualty” maps required at the end of each phase. So while an Axis & Allies Miniatures game turn can be conducted in about 6-8 back and forth posts between players, it would take a War at Sea game at least 12 and probably between 15 - 20 back and forth posts between players. I’m thinking the only way to play War at Sea online is via some sort of realtime Java game engine like the ones used at Gleemax.