Do airbases extend range of planes on aircraft carriers

That happened in the actual war at one point, intentionally rather than because the CV was sunk I mean. USS Enterprise had a broken (front?) elevator and couldn’t land planes rapidly enough so they landed on Henderson Field in the Solomons campaign.

@SouthsideCH:

If as Germany I want to attack all the surface ships around the UK can I declare a strategic bombing attack against his air base with a lone strat bomber, knock it out and he cannot scramble later? That assumes he does not intercept on that particular attack. Am I reading it right that there is a certain sequence in combat?

Missed this originally.

You can strat bomb the airbase. As long as it has three or more damage and is not repaired, it cannot be used to scramble later. However, if you combine the raid on the airbase with the attack on the adjacent sea zone, the defender has the opportunity to scramble before any combat (including the strategic bombing raid) is resolved.

Much more effective is a 1-2 punch. For instance, Italy would strat bomb the airbase, and then Germany would hit the fleet before the UK had an opportunity to repair the airbase.

Marsh

No.  You can leave the CV in SZ 8 during Combat moves.
You’re operating under the assumption that you will win the SZ 6 battle and move the CV to SZ 6 during Non-combat.

Now if you lose the SZ 6 battle - and you will - your fighter crashes into the ocean, but the CV can move anywhere else it wants during Non-combat.

The only way that a plane can be stuck on a carrier is if it goes into battle as cargo on an ally’s carrier (attacking only) and the carrier becomes damaged in the battle.

Planes always being in the air is realistic because planes fly patrols all the time, looking for the enemy.

The bummer is a damaged carrier can’t land planes.

Thanks for the clarification.  Makes sense now

@calvinhobbesliker:

@MEGAEINSTEIN:

even durind an amphibious assault?

Yes. Planes can always retreat. The only things that can’t are units which came via transports

But to add:

If the amphibious assault is called off during the naval battle before the units on the transports disembark, any planes (and land units attacking from other territories) that commited to that fight still have to go through one round of combat before they can retreat.

They are required to continue, as they have no retreat option.