Retreating from a combined amphibious assault and land attack. Is it possible?

@Martin You did. Agree.

@faruu

Exactly! That’s why I always wait for a declaration of war. Attacking first caused Japan to lose in real life.

@Soviet-Steamroller said in Attacking an empty sea zone?:

Hi there,
As i’m reviewing the scramble rule a question came to my mind.
Can i assign planes to a sea zone with no ennemy warships just as a safety against scramble?

Bringing units against a potential scramble is a valid combat move, indeed.
Rulebook Pacific 1940.2 page 13

… Further, if enemy air units could potentially be scrambled to defend the sea zone, additional units may be moved into the sea zone to combat them in case they are indeed scrambled.

Correct, but no interpretation is needed.

At the moment the decision where to land has to be made, the scrambled fighters are in the seazone where they scrambled to.
So it is one move from there.

@rulebook:

After all combat is completed, each surviving scrambled air unit must return to the territory from which it was scrambled. If
the enemy has captured that territory, the unit can move 1 space to land in a friendly territory or on a friendly aircraft carrier.
If no such landing space is available, the unit is lost.

I’m also pretty sure it’s a no.
The rules say you can plan to win a sea battle (no matter what the odds are), but there’s nothing about planning to lose a battle or retreat from a battle.

@calvinhobbesliker:

Yes, I distinctly remember reading this in a thread here (probably the FAQ). In particular, they were talking about the possibility of the defender spoiling an intended strafe by taking the AAA as final casualties instead of initial, so that the attackers can’t retreat when they hit all but one unit.

I have had this done to me by the Russians as Germany. They left 1 AA gun after Germany had fantastically good dice on the first round of a planned attack outside of Eastern Poland. It left my main stack of units in Bryansk without their support, and lead up to Russia suiciding into the main German stack. There weren’t enough Germans left to take Moscow from the RAF sitting on it without heavy plane losses. America had three bombers on moscow, and attacked the Germans after Russia, and all three hit. Germany took Moscow that game, but it lost everything to do it, including that game.

I definitely reread the rulebook and FAQ that night :|

Thank you rockrobinoff!

Gotta correct you on that Dessert Fox.

If a naval battle occurs in the sea zone prior to the amphibious assault, then you have the option of retreating your navy as per normal BEFORE any round of fire.  This includes the transports involved.

If the naval battle is resolved and the land units are offloaded into the hostile territory, THEN they cannot be retreated and are forced to fight it out.

If you realize in time that your navy is not gonna last against the defending one in that sea zone before the amphibious assault can even go through, you don’t HAVE to sentence your entire navy (transports included) to now certain death.  You declare an amphibious assault assuming that you can win the sea battle, but the sea battle itself can play out just like any other.