First time player with rules questions about air units and anti-air

[1SG]

Hi all, a couple sure to be easy questions for the pros.

1)  When aircraft attack a region with ant-aircraft (AA) guns, do the AA guns get only one round of attack which is during opening fire?  The rulebook says 'return them to the game board', but if the attacker chooses to press the attack, do the AA guns come back out in combat round 2 for another crack at 'opening fire'.?

2)  On the heels of (1) above, the battle board shows anti-aircraft defending at 1.  Does that only happen if the AA didn't fire in the opening fire phase, or do they get to take part in the ground defense as well?

3)  The rulebook says carriers have the special ability 'fighter defense' and can choose fighters as casualties instead of the carrier.  Are the fighters considered part of the defense too with the ability to use their defense factor of 4 during 'defending units fire'?

Maybe I'm just reading too much into the rules and making this harder than it should be.   

Thanks in advance for any responses!

[ncscswitch]

AA fires once per aircraft that is attacking.  After that, it is no longer involved in the battle.

Yes, the FIGs on a carrier count as separate units for defense (so a loaded AC with 2 FIGs rolls 3 dice on defense, 1 for the AC, 1 each for the FIGs).  And the defender chooses what units are killed to attacker hits (except SUB hits cannot be applied to aircraft)

[axis_roll]

The key in the rules is the words 'opening fire' round.

This means the first round of one particular battle.

This concept is used through out the Operations Manual for other units as well (subs, BB offshores, etc)

[1SG]

Thanks for the responses.

I guess what's confusing is on page 16 of the rules under 'step 7:  press the attack'.  It says, "As long as combat continues, repeat steps 2-6."  Step 2 is 'conduct opening fire'.  That led me to believe that there's an opening fire step at the beginning of every combat round.

It does say that AA guns are returned to the game board, so I can see where AA only get one round of opening fire.

• Do battleships still get to do shore bombardment? 
  
  Do subs still get to sneak attack if they didn't submerge in the previous round?

To me it doesn't make sense that either of those would happen, so I can't see any reason for repeating step 2 again after the first round of combat.

[1SG]

Well, I just read the tournament rules and they're definitely clearer.  It specifically states that AA and Battleships are returned to the game board, and that only subs get to fire again during opening fire. 

I guess I'll burn a copy of the tournament rules.

Can't wait to get back to playing!

[ncscswitch]

There are numerous errors in the rule book that comes with the game.  You may want to check out Larry Harris Tournament Rules (which are available from a link on the main page of this website).

The only "opening fire" that repeats after the first round of combat is Submarine Sneak Attack.

BB Shore Bombardment and AA fire are limited to only opening fire of the first round of combat.