Amphibious Assult vs subs.

[Bravehart]

Hi,

Reading OOB rules to AnA G40 original, pg 17 in Europe, under step one, it says If there was only defending subs or transports, the attacker can choose to ignore them or do the sea battle

Great, but why would the defending Subs have no say and allow the attacker to stroll into that SZ to then conduct the Land Bombardment?

BH

[Witt]

Hi Bravehart. It is because they do not make a SZ hostile. Subs have many good abilities; this is a relevant downside. Otherwise they would be way too powerful for the cost.(Which they already are.)

[Narvik]

In two words….playability and stalling…

Now imagine US spend 400 IPC on battleships, carriers, destroyers, trannies with men and guns, etc etc and then sail this huge fleet to France in order to make an amphibious assault. Now Germany spend 6 IPC on a lone Sub with the ability to stall this huge invasion fleet, and there are no ways to deal with it. I guess you would have complained in this case too, asking why a lone Sub can stall this huge fleet, and if there were any cases in the real war to justify this. So, since the designer didn’t want this game to be too gamey and tricky, he made the rule Wittmann is talking about, a Sub or Tranny don’t make the seazone hostile. The Tranny is unarmed and the Sub is hiding under water, or submerged as the experts say. Now Germany need to spend 8 IPC on a Destroyer if they want to stall US, as if one single Destroyer could possible stall 200 Battleships in the real world, but as a Destroyer that can be easily removed by two UK planes before the US attack, and everybody is happy.

But do it make sense, is it rational ? You tell me. Look up the D\day landings and Battle of Normandy, and tell me how many ships were sunk by German subs during that campaign. I guess that will give you an answer.

[baron Münchhausen]

Am I wrong but I think that in the first edition the OP is talking, Submarines cannot even stop an amphibious assault made by transport only?

This was changed in the second edition, I believe.

[Krieghund]

In the first edition, subs couldn’t stop unescorted transports, but they could fire at them as they moved into or through their sea zone.

[Bravehart]

Appreciated the feed back,

Thanks for the realistic and board game feel for this type of situation I have posted. I have an answer and can now pass it onto my group.

BH