Rules clarify - order of loss in sea battles


  • I have a question about the order of loss in sea battles.

    Situation:
    A naval force of two DD and two CV is attacked by several enemy units.
    The attacker got following dices:

    • a “2” to a DD -> the first DD is damaged
    • a “1” to a cruiser -> no cruiser available, the second DD is sunk
    • a “2” to a BB

    Go that last hit to the damaged but still exist DD (and sunk it)
    or to one of the CV?

  • Official Q&A

    The hit would go to the destroyer.  Undamaged units are hit before damaged ones within the same unit type.  A “wrap-around” hit will still apply to the first unit type for which there are still undestroyed units.  It would only go to the CVs if the destroyers were all sunk first.


  • I thought so. Want to be sure.
    Thank you very much!


  • hello all

    I’ve got a question about what you call a “wrap around hit”. When you hit a unit the ennemy doesn’t have, you start from slot one to find which ennemy unit you can hit, ok. What happens when the first unit you can hit is listed in a slot after the real hit?  example : you attack a lonely cruiser with two dice :
    slot one (destroyer) : 1
    slot two (cruiser) : 6
    Is the cruiser sunk or not? (I think she’s sunk)
    hope we haven’t played  it in a wrong way…


  • The hit would destroy the cruiser assuming you have the two attack dice.

    A unit can not escape because it is the only unit.


  • thanks a lot for your answer

    I agree that a unit can not escape because it’s the only unit. Just to be sure : your opponent has a DD, a cruiser and a submarine and you roll six dice or more with the following result : 1 1 6 1 6 6. The DD is sunk, the cruiser also, the last 1 (the AC slot) hit the submarine, right. (2 1 6 1 6 6, would have first damaged the DD, sank the cruiser and the last 1 would have ‘finished the DD’). maybe my question sounds stupid but all the examples displayed in the rulebook show a dice, hitting a unit the ennemy doesn’t have, being assigned to a slot placed before the real hit (hope your understand what I mean) Thank you very muchfor your patience


  • As far as I can tell you’ve got it. I didn’t have it quite right myself the first 2 games. I thought incorrectly that damaged units were immune to further hits even if they were the only unit of that type. But that only really came up for us once.

    I know what you mean about the rulebook. It could use another example or a slightly different one than is there. I’m not that crazy about this combat system. I think it is good and the sort of random casualty element is nice but I think I prefer the BOTB system.

  • Official Q&A

    @frimmel:

    The hit would destroy the cruiser assuming you have the two attack dice.

    You don’t need two attack dice in order to hit the cruiser.  No matter how many dice you roll, you still read through the chart until you get to a unit your opponent has if you score a hit, even if that unit is on the chart beyond the number of dice you rolled.


  • are you sure you can score a hit on the chart beyond the number of dice you rolled ??? I trust you when you say so, but it seems very strange to me. So that means you can attack and sink an AC or a cruiser with just one dice (assuming you roll a 1 and there is no other sea unit), for example with a gun or a fighter?

  • Official Q&A

    Why shouldn’t a single unit have a chance against another single unit?

    Look at it this way:  “Transport” is in the fifth position on the chart.  Does that mean you have to send a minimum of five fighters after an unescorted transport in order to even have a chance of sinking it?  That would seem a little weird to me.


  • Ok you score the point. When I first read the rules  I didn’t notice about the transport, but found very strange you need at least six dice to get rid of a sub. anyway I must admit that my previous example was not a good one as a capital ship is always escorted by several smaller units which are supposed to protect her and take damages. My wife was right  when we had a discussion about this point last night (and the worst is that she won the game)!
    thank you very much for your help


  • @Krieghund:

    @frimmel:

    The hit would destroy the cruiser assuming you have the two attack dice.

    You don’t need two attack dice in order to hit the cruiser.  No matter how many dice you roll, you still read through the chart until you get to a unit your opponent has if you score a hit, even if that unit is on the chart beyond the number of dice you rolled.

    I’m sorry I suggested otherwise. My meaning was you can only check for hits up to the number of attack dice. I was just making sure that there were enough attack dice to give the needed hits. I didn’t mean you had to roll attack dice up till you get to Cruiser to sink the cruiser. I guess I was just not saying this very well: @Krieghund:

    Why shouldn’t a single unit have a chance against another single unit?

    Look at it this way:  “Transport” is in the fifth position on the chart.  Does that mean you have to send a minimum of five fighters after an unescorted transport in order to even have a chance of sinking it?  That would seem a little weird to me.

    Sorry for any confusion I created.  :-(


  • You don’t need to apologize, the main point is that everything is clear now! Thanks to both of you!


  • additional note.  Here’s an example to print out.  This helped me alot.

    Example: I have 2 destroyers and a cruiser in the space, and you are rolling 6 dice.

    Slot         1         2         3         4                   5             6
    Type  Destroyer Cruiser Battleship Aircraft Carrier Transport Submarine
    Result Hit Roll  1    Hit Roll 2    Miss Roll 5 Miss Roll 3         Hit Roll 1 Hit Roll 2

    * The first hit destroys a Destroyer because it’s a hit with a result of 1.
        * The second hit will damage the cruiser because it’s a hit with a roll of 2.
        * The next two shots miss.
        * The hit of 1 on the transport will go back to the start of the line and destroy another destroyer, since I have no transports in the space.
        * The hit of 2 on the sub will also go back to the start of the line, but there are no more destroyers left to kill (both have already been counted as destroyed from the 1’s). This will put a second damage on the Cruiser, destroying it.

    Obviously destroyers, fighters, and infantry are “cannon fodder”.  The only way to get a sure hit is to get one on that spot of the ship such as a “Roll of 1” in the 5 location if there was an aircraft carrier.  During the war, there were no countermeasures for ships, smaller ones including PT boats would get in the way of the torpedo instead of the larger ship and take the hit.

    I thought there might have been a kamikaze in this one, but Japan didn’t start doing that until later in the war.  Your choice for another house rule Token, but balance it out with something on the allied side.

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