http://www.wizards.com/AvalonHill/rules/AAEurope1940_FAQ.pdf
Is it just me, or am I seeing the date September 3 2014 and the following line on page 3 of 7,
Q. Can I scramble fighters or tactical bombers from United Kingdom?
A. No. They can only be scrambled from island territories with airbases. An island is a single territory
completely surrounded by a single sea zone.
???
I read the rulebook that’s posted alongside this, and later into the FAQ which still shows AA Guns, as opposed to AAA. So it’s definetley a first edition FAQ (Phew!)
Odd though… that they would be updating an FAQ for a 1st edition that’s been out of print for so long?
Found a proper FAQ a few minutes later
http://www.wizards.com/AvalonHill/rules/AAEurope1940_2ndEdition_FAQ.pdf
Had me worried!
If you play UK IMHO you should never scramble your fighters in UK anyway, but not because of the rules, but because its not a very clever move. This is only a good move when you want to lose your planes fast. IMHO
There are situations where a scramble makes sense. Often I see a Germany that sends too little to 111 and the UK scrambles. My rule is that if my fighter is likely to take out 2 German units (either 2 planes or a plane and a battleship) if I scramble it, then it’s worth the scramble. This is especially true because Germany is often just trying to strafe 111 anyways, and in that case the fighter just gets you an extra 4 pips into the battle without endangering the fighter. Also, the threat of scramble is also what protects the destroyer/transport in 109.
Scrambling in sea zone 110 on the other hand is pretty much always a bad idea (even trading 4 German planes for the 3 planes on the UK would be a bad trade for the UK).
Regarding SZ 110, I got hosed one time on a UK scramble. Usually as Germany, I send 3 fighters, 3 Stukas, 1 bombers and sometimes 1 sub to SZ 110. Our UK player had gotten in the habit of not scrambling in order to save the RAF for future action.
Well, this one game I made the mistake of just assuming UK would not scramble. I sent 2 fighters, 2 Stukas and 1 bomber to SZ 110. The other fighter and Stuka I sent to kill the French fleet in SZ 93. Well, UK taught me a lesson. They scrambled and wiped out my planes. I didn’t even kill all the ships in the channel.
Never made that mistake again.
