First off, I realize I am late to the party on this thread, my apologies.
Secondly, there were a plethora of ideas thrown out on this thread.
I don’t see the crime in modifying the transports rules.
I find it humorous that the main reasons not to let them defend themselves is from a historical/realistic stand point. When in reality, who has ever been able to choose their casualties in a war? So in that regard, a fundamental concept of A&A is not realistic.
In an amphibious assault, the defending forces (including scrambled planes, and naval units) top priority is going to be targeting the landing craft to keep them off the beach, not the naval bombardment.
The infantry units aren’t only representing riflemen in the game. Carriers represent carrier groups, and battleships represent that group. I say all that to say, couldn’t a transport represent the transport and a minimal escort?
A transport loaded with an infantry and a tank is 16 IPC. The same cost as an Aircraft Carrier, who takes two hits. An empty transport may be seen as fodder, but not a loaded transport. To lose one or more loaded transports is major setback.
Defending @1 either on a D6 or D12 sounds reasonable to me. That is an 8% or 16% chance of a hit. Those aren’t great odds. I don’t care for the AA ability idea, that seems too limited. I also like the idea of allowing them to be taken as casualties during the battle.
A few of ideas I had and maybe a combination of would work:
- If at the end of the combat round, instead of them being auto killed. Let it be similar to AAA rules. For one final round, every warship can roll 3 dice each no more than the number of transports, the transports not hit can retreat.
- One unit on the transport and fire once at the end, before the auto kill.
- For every two transports let one be chosen as a casualty during combat.
- For every two transports let one defend at 1 during combat.
I understand that a transport shouldn’t be as strong a battleship, but it is an investment when loaded that needs protection.
I have enjoyed reading through this thread.