Attacking Transports (Question)

[Cmdr Jennifer]

Are transports in a hostile sea zone and owned by the attacker treated like allied units (ie, they are in the sea zone, but not present in the battle) or like war units?

They cannot attack, it's specifically mentioned in the rules.  They cannot block enemy ship movement.  They can, however, defend, they just have 0 defense rating and must be selected last after all other ships have been lost.

It seems to me that transports are considered to be somewhere else away from your fleet when you attack.  First you attack a sea zone, then the transports come in and land amphibious units, or come in and pick up units to transport them somewhere else.  In any case, it seems that if your transports are in a sea zone with hostile units during the combat move phase, they are not in "combat" and do not "engage" the enemy, they are treated like allied units and considered to be somewhere else in the sea zone at that time.

[axis_roll]

Trying to answer but am not sure of your question.  How could units that are "owned by the attacker" not be  "treated like allied units"

An example can help to clarify.

When brought into a battle, transports 'hang-out' and wait for the outcome.  They may be able to land it the attacking units win the battle or they may be given the retreat order if defender wins...

[Krieghund]

Attacking transports are part of the sea battle.  They are considered to be in combat along with the rest of the attacking sea units.  The only difference is that they don't get to roll and they must be taken last as casualties.  In practice, the only time they will be lost in battle is either when they can't retreat or they are hit before they can retreat.

For example, let's say that the US is moving two cruisers and two transports to make an amphibious assault against a Japanese-held island protected by three destroyers.  Only one cruiser hits, but all three defending destroyers hit.  The attacker will have to remove both cruisers and one transport to assign the three hits.  The remaining transport can then retreat from the remaining destroyer.

[axis_roll]

... Only one cruiser hits, but all three defending destroyers hit...

I hate when that happens, but it's part of the game. 

Sucks to be you then