Quick Question about Amphibious Assaults

[Johnnukacola]

I’ve been considering doing a G2 sealion attack in my next Global game, the 1942 Larry Harris setup. I want to purchase a single transport, 3 strategic bombers and a tactical bomber on my first turn as Germany. If Britain moves their battleship into SZ-110, then I can simply use my small navy and overwhelming airforce to destroy his small navy, and I believe that I can split my air force intelligently enough that no matter whether he scrambles the 2 british fighters and 1 french fighter in London or not, I should be able to win both battles.

However, if Britain doesn’t move or build any ships into SZ-110 on his first turn, then my navy will have a clear shot at London (since the sea zone will be clear) and I won’t have to conduct sea combat. However, I only have a cruiser and 2 subs defending the transports, and if he decides to scramble the 3 fighters (the rules say fighters can be scrambled even if no friendly sea units are present) then my navy will certainly be crushed and the attack will fail.

My question is, can I preempt this move by bringing in a few fighters to the sea zone along with my navy, which will be able to participate in combat in the event he scrambles? The rules don’t seem to say anything about it, and I’m 60% sure I can’t do that anyways, but I thought I’d ask much more experienced players than myself just to be sure

[Witt]

@johnnukacola good day and welcome to the forum .
You can, indeed, send Air units to the Channel to preempt a British scramble. You should send 4 to be safe . The Subs can’t be hit by his scrambling Fts , so you would need at least 5 units for security , if he has 3 units . I would prefer 6! Good luck .
Are you sure your opponent won’t buy units for England? I know I would.
Sealion can be fun (and demoralising to the British player), but remember the war is won and lost in Russia.

[Krieghund]

@johnnukacola said in Quick Question about Amphibious Assaults:

My question is, can I preempt this move by bringing in a few fighters to the sea zone along with my navy, which will be able to participate in combat in the event he scrambles? The rules don’t seem to say anything about it, and I’m 60% sure I can’t do that anyways, but I thought I’d ask much more experienced players than myself just to be sure

From page 13 of the Europe Rulebook:

You can move units through friendly (but not friendly neutral) spaces en route to hostile spaces during [the Combat Move] phase. However, units can’t end their movement in friendly spaces during the Combat Move phase except in four instances.

• Tanks and mechanized infantry that have blitzed through an unoccupied hostile space (see “Tanks, Mechanized Infantry, and Blitzing,” page 15).
• Units moving from a hostile sea zone to escape combat as their combat move. A sea zone into which defending air units may be scrambled in reaction to an amphibious assault (see “Scramble,” page 16) may be treated in the same way as a hostile sea zone for this purpose.
• Sea units that will be participating in an amphibious assault from a friendly sea zone, as well as sea and/or air units that may be needed to support it in the case that defending air units are scrambled (see “Scramble,” page 16).
• Units moving into a sea zone containing only enemy submarines and/or transports in order to attack those units. (Remember that such a sea zone is not considered hostile.)

See bullet points 2 and 3.

[Johnnukacola]

@witt @Krieghund Thank you guys for the help! To answer your question about Britain, it is entirely possible that he will place land units in London to defend the assault. That’s why I was hoping air units would be able to defend my transports, I didn’t want to spend my money on expensive naval units that will only be used in a sealion attack, and air units are versatile enough that if they survive the assault (or if I deem it too risky) they can be turned around and used on the eastern front against Russia.

My main purpose of this attack is not necessarily to win with Germany in this game, just to test out some new ideas. I played 1 game of G42 before, and Germany lost against Russia fighting almost entirely alone. They just don’t seem to have very many troops to start out the game with, and Russia on their first turn is able to push Germany almost entirely out of their territory. To me, so far, it seem this setup of the game is actually won or lost in the Pacific. However, as the Hilltop Pillbox once said, “That’s why we roll the dice!”