The new rules of 1942 prevent transports from being used as blockers. A fleet may pass through a group of defenseless transports leaving a combat unit behind to dispatch them while the remainder move on to a second sea zone. Since this is part of the combat movement phase it’s perfectly fine.
When these same transports are present in a seazone where an amphibious assault will be launched from the attacker has to decide if the entire fleet must engage the transport(s) or perform offshore bombardment.
Technically only one battle can occur from the seazone either attack the ships or the shore. I am curious to see what people would think about 2 versions of a rule modification to allow both attacks to occur.
Rev 1) In a situation where only defenseless transports are present a single attacking piece can be used to destroy them allowing the rest to perfrom offshore bombardment.
Rev 2) This is much more radical. In a situation where there is a defending fleet, some of the attacking fleet is held in reserve. Combat occurs in the sea zone and if the attacker wins, then the the reserve fleet performs offshore bombardment.