@Cernel said in A&A Global 1940: Amphibious Assaults, Bridging, and Sea Zones that Start the Turn with Hostile Ships:

@jchamlin said in A&A Global 1940: Amphibious Assaults, Bridging, and Sea Zones that Start the Turn with Hostile Ships:

Page 22 of the A&A Pacific 1940 Second Edition Rulebook says:

Transports can move to friendly coastal territories and load or offload cargo, unless they loaded, moved, offloaded, or were involved in combat during the Combat Move or Conduct Combat phase.

So, basically, the ruling challenge is that this sentence means that transports cannot do any of those things if they were involved in combat.

Can you help point me to the relevant parts of the A&A Pacific 1940 or A&A Europe 1940 Second Edition rulebooks which would clarify that you can load or unload, but not both, and not move, if the transport was involved in combat that turn?

Thanks in advance!

-J.C.

You cannot. From Revised LHTR onwards, rules like those you quoted disallow transports that have been in combat from loading and from offloading. I was merely pointing out that is not the case “since classic”, as you said, but rather since Revised LHTR. This is what I said:

@Cernel said in A&A Global 1940: Amphibious Assaults, Bridging, and Sea Zones that Start the Turn with Hostile Ships:

Assuming you find yourself in this situation in any version of A&A since classic with a fleet sitting in a hostile sea zone (due to the defender building a destroyer to block), with empty transports, and units available to be picked up from that sea zone for an amphibious assault but cannot: it will take you THREE TURNS before you can conduct an amphibious assault (assuming you don’t get allied help to destroy the blocker). Turn 1: transports flee empty before combat, some portion of the fleet remains to kill the destroyer built to block (as stated earlier in this thread, they must flee, if they stay they are forced to are participate in the sea zone combat and this cannot be loaded during non-combat).
Turn 2: kill the second destroyer built to block, non-combat the transports back in and load them
Turn 3: conduct the amphibious assault

@jchamlin I believe you are correct here for every strategic games since Revised LHTR (included). However, I believe that Europe, Pacific and Revised OOB (non-LHTR) reduce this to 2 turns only, as, on turn 1, you can just leave the empty transports in the sea zone, have them taking part in the sea battle and, then, load units onto them (so they will start turn 2 in the same sea zone, but with the units already on board).

You said:

Europe, Pacific and Revised OOB (non-LHTR) reduce this to 2 turns only.

Now I’m confused.

What did you mean Europe, Pacific, and Revised (non-LHTR) reduce this to two turns only? Did you mean A&A Europe 1940 Second Edition, and A&A Pacific 1940 Second Edition, as well as Revised (blue book)?

We’re playing A&A Global using the A&A Pacific 1940 Second Edition and and A&A Europe 1940 Second Edition rulebooks, not LHTR or Revised (Blue Book). So, is this allowed? If not, what did you mean when you said Europe, Pacific?

-J.C.

@Cernel said in A&A Global 1940: Amphibious Assaults, Bridging, and Sea Zones that Start the Turn with Hostile Ships:

So, you’re saying the Global A&A Second edition rules allow transports to participate in both the combat and non-combat phases, by first “participating” in the sea battle (not that they do much) and then still participating in non-combat by loading units?

Differently from bridging, loading (only) doesn’t count as a movement for the transport. So, technically, the transport is not moving during Non-Combat, if it only loads. Rather than allowing this, the rules set is not disallowing it (while LHTR and later do). However, the rules set also specifically states that a transport that Combat moved or took part in battle can load, but cannot bridge, on the subsequent Non-Combat move phase, as long as it didn’t offload, during the turn. The only two exceptions to this are if the transport offloaded or retreated.

It can load or offload, but not both (because it cannot bridge), if it hasn’t offloaded anything. If it offloaded one or more units (during Combat Move or Conduct Combat), it cannot load and it is restricted offloading into the same territory as before (the offloading can only happen if you started your turn with 2 units already on board and offloaded only 1 during Combat Move or Conduct Combat).

Can you point me to where this rule is please (link to a forum thread, a rulebook page, an official errata/FAQ, etc)? I can’t seem to find it. The only thing I’ve found is the rule that says all ships present in the sea zone must participate in the battle.

As I said, the fact that you can load, after having taken part in Conduct Combat without retreating from a battle and without offloading, is primarily the consequence of the fact that there are no rules that say you cannot (loading without offloading is not a movement for the transport).
This is the Revised OOB rules set:
https://www.axisandallies.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Axis-Allies-Revised.pdf

On page 21 you can find the (unnecessary) clarification I mentioned:

Transports that have been in combat may either load or offload (not both) during this phase, but not if they have retreated from combat this turn.

As I said, even if the text quoted above would be absent from the rulebook I linked, you could still do that, since the rules set is not forbidding you to do it (and it is already forbidding you to do “both”, as that would be bridging, that counts as moving, which is not possible after having been in combat).

We’re playing A&A Global using the second edition rules (from the books), not revised OOB. This statement doesn’t appear in the second edition rulebooks for either Europe or Pacific And this ruling is being challenged by one of the players using this part of the rules:

Page 22 of the A&A Pacific 1940 Second Edition Rulebook says:

Transports can move to friendly coastal territories and load or offload cargo, unless they loaded, moved, offloaded, or were involved in combat during the Combat Move or Conduct Combat phase.

So, basically, the ruling challenge is that this sentence means that transports cannot do any of those things if they were involved in combat.

Can you help point me to the relevant parts of the A&A Pacific 1940 or A&A Europe 1940 Second Edition rulebooks which would clarify that you can load or unload, but not both, and not move, if the transport was involved in combat that turn?

Thanks in advance!

-J.C.

@Cernel said in A&A Global 1940: Amphibious Assaults, Bridging, and Sea Zones that Start the Turn with Hostile Ships:

Thank you very much for the reply. It is very informative and very much in-line with the type of discussion I had hoped to would happen on the topic.

The main reason why I believe so is given by the fact that, by the rules, enemy ships have the ability to impede you offloading into a territory, from the sea zone they are inside. The dynamic by which this happens can only be pictured as these ships interposing themselves between your transports and the coastline where you intend to offload. Therefore, it would make no sense that, instead, they are unable to interpose themselves between your transports and the coastline where you intend to load. If you need to destroy all enemy ships before offloading to a coastline, it makes the only sense that you need to destroy all enemy ships before loading from a coastline, at least in the case in which the transports are moving into the sea zone (thus being blocked by the enemy ships, from moving any further).

I agree, that would be the dynamic for transports entering the sea zone from outside, and then attempting to bridge units across. The defending units could attempt to impede the load, or impede the unload. Tactically speaking impeding the unload might be superior since you are closer to your coast and can have the support of your shore batteries, and you are sinking transports with cargo, which is always more valuable than sinking empty transports. Also, impeding the unload action seems much more like “defending” your territory from incursion, and attempting to impede the load by sailing away from the coast you’re supposed to be defending to an enemy coast to attack an enemy port seems more like an “attack” or preemptive strike than defending. When it’s not your turn, you’re units are supposed to be “defending”, not “attacking”.

But nonetheless, the attacking units are performing a maneuver that is legal in the absence of the defender’s presence: arrive in the sea zone, load troops, unload troops on the enemy shore, and fight an amphibious assault. The fact that there are defending warships in the sea zone should just mean you have to destroy them first before you can proceed with the maneuver. However, due to the way the rules work for every game other than classic, this is not allowed.

Now, if the transports started in the sea zone at the start of the turn along with warship support, and the enemy launched a new fleet into the sea zone during their mobilize phase, it would seem impossible for the defending ships to impede the loading of the transports. The transports were already there at the start of the turn and thus are presumably already docked and ready to load and the rest of the fleet is on patrol nearby to keep them safe. It seems strange that “defending” enemy surface warships could have any say at all about what transports can load from the sea zone they start their turn in. Attacking an enemy port during preparations for an amphibious assault in an attempt to disrupt the loading of the transports is an attack action. Even say they did attack and try to prevent the load, and get destroyed, then the amphibious assault operation just proceeds and now the attacking surface warships are now also free to bombard when they arrive at the enemy coast since there’s nothing left for them to engage at that point.

@jchamlin I believe you are correct here for every strategic games since Revised LHTR (included). However, I believe that Europe, Pacific and Revised OOB (non-LHTR) reduce this to 2 turns only, as, on turn 1, you can just leave the empty transports in the sea zone, have them taking part in the sea battle and, then, load units onto them (so they will start turn 2 in the same sea zone, but with the units already on board).

Sorry for being new, but I’m not sure about all the acronyms for the various versions of the rules. I think OOB is Out of the Box (i.e. rules as written), and LHTR is Larry Harris Tournament Rules. So, you’re saying there’s a Revised OOB ruleset that allows transports to participate in both the combat and non-combat phases, by first “participating” in the sea battle (not that they do much) and then still participating in non-combat by loading units? Can the transports also move during non-combat after loading, and also unload, or can they just be loaded? Can you point me to where this revised rule is please (link to a forum thread, a rulebook page, an official errata/FAQ, etc)? I can’t seem to find it. The only thing I’ve found is the rule that says all ships present in the sea zone must participate in the battle.

Finally, @Krieghund, even though it doesn’t really matter, as “bridging” is merely flavour text, can we clarify it? @jchamlin clearly believes that moving into a sea zone and, then, loading and offloading units without moving any further is bridging. My understanding, instead, is that no bridging is happening during such sequence of actions, as bridging is, instead, when you load and offload units during the same turn while the transports doesn’t move at all, during the phase in which it is bridging (thus it is also not moving during the whole turn). So, is bridging whatever situation in which you load and offload without moving between loading an offloading (as @jchamlin believes) or is bridging only the situation in which you load and offload without moving the transport at all, during the whole phase (as I believe)?

Looks like @Krieghund already answered:

So I would say that the nature of the loading and offloading is what defines bridging, not whether or not the transport moves first.

So it looks like my interpretation is correct, that bridging is when you load and offload in the same sea zone. It doesn’t matter if the transport moves first. It only matters that it doesn’t move (i.e. doesn’t change sea zones) between the load and the unload actions.

I think the rules of both A&A Classic and A&A Europe 1942 that describe bridging support this conclusion. In A&A Classic the rulebook reads:

A transport can pick up cargo, move 1 or 2 sea zones, and unload the cargo all in the same move. THE CARGO CAN BE PICKED UP BEFORE, DURING OR AFTER THE TRANSPORT MOVES. … ONCE A TRANSPORT UNLOADS, HOWEVER, ITS MOVE IS OVER!

The next paragraph then goes on to describe bridging. Since all of the rules examples of using transports up until this point in the rulebook had them picking up cargo and moving 1 or 2 sea zones (or picking up, moving 1, picking up more, and moving again, and then dropping off), it wasn’t clear whether or not transports had to move in between picking up cargo and dropping it off. So, thus, the bridging rule was introduced.

Bridging: A transport can even load and unload units without moving from the sea zone it is in by “bridging”.

Note, it doesn’t say without moving at all. It says load and unload units without moving from the sea zone it is in. It could be more clearly written that bridging is when you load units and then offload them in another territory from the same sea zone where you loaded the units (i.e. a load and unload that does not require the transport to move to a different sea zone).

And A&A Europe 1940 Second Edition rulebook has this wording:

A transport can load and offload units without moving from the friendly sea zone it’s in (this is known as“bridging”). Each such transport is still limited to its cargo capacity. It can offload in only one territory, and once it offloads, it can’t move, load, or offload again that turn.

It’s pretty clear here that the phrase “can’t move, load, or offload again” means “can’t move again, can’t load again, can’t offload again”. Can’t move again clearly implies that the transport could have moved before bridging.

And finally, I want to address this:

even though it doesn’t really matter, as “bridging” is merely flavour text

Do we have an official statement from Larry Harris that bridging and the rulebook text around it is “merely flavour text”?

For example, the case of bridging into an amphibious assault when the transports start their turn in the sea zone from which they wish to perform the amphibious assault, do we know if it was Larry’s intent to really allow the purchase and mobilization of a single destroyer in that sea zone to be able to prevent the assault? If there’s an official reference to a comment from Larry saying so, I’d really like to read it. Otherwise, I think it would be good if Larry would chime in on this thread and provide us some context of why this is the case (i.e. what’s the purpose of the rule, either historically/factually, or is it for game balance reasons, or is this just an unintended side-effect of the rule that transports can’t load or unload from a hostile sea zone that he didn’t foresee)?

-J.C.

@Krieghund said in A&A Global 1940: Amphibious Assaults, Bridging, and Sea Zones that Start the Turn with Hostile Ships:

Doing that is legal, based on the fact that you can load in a hostile sea zone. What you said before (move in, attack, load, offload) is not. It’s the order which you do it that’s important.

This matters because you must commit the land units to the assault before the sea battle is fought.

Agreed that you need to commit the units to the amphibious assault before any battle is fought.

However, I’d like to clarify for the record that I never said “move in, attack, load, offload”.

I provided you two cases that happen in A&A classic to demonstrate that the move to both clear a sea zone and use the transports to conduct an amphibious assault where they will be operating under the briding rule of both loading and unloading without moving in between the load and unload operations, and also that this combination of actions (i.e. “the situation”) does not require any optional / additional rules to be added to the game for it to exist (i.e. you said earlier):

However, such a restriction was not necessary under the standard rules, as this situation can only occur when using the optional rule …

So, this situation (loading transports in a hostile sea zone) can occur in the standard / classic game without any optional rules added. But it can only happen if the transports are being used as a bridge (both loading and unloading without moving in between the load and unload).

In summary:

• The action of bridging into an amphibious assault in a hostile sea zone is legal in classic.

• Assuming the rules for bridging are being interpreted correctly, the action appears to be not legal in any version of A&A since classic.

• Assuming you find yourself in this situation in any version of A&A since classic with a fleet sitting in a hostile sea zone (due to the defender building a destroyer to block), with empty transports, and units available to be picked up from that sea zone for an amphibious assault but cannot: it will take you THREE TURNS before you can conduct an amphibious assault (assuming you don’t get allied help to destroy the blocker). Turn 1: transports flee empty before combat, some portion of the fleet remains to kill the destroyer built to block (as stated earlier in this thread, they must flee, if they stay they are forced to are participate in the sea zone combat and this cannot be loaded during non-combat).
  Turn 2: kill the second destroyer built to block, non-combat the transports back in and load them
  Turn 3: conduct the amphibious assault

The rules glitch is that a single destroyer built on each of two turns in this case can delay the impending amphibious assault by THREE TURNS. That seems against the spirit of the game.

-J.C.

@Krieghund said in A&A Global 1940: Amphibious Assaults, Bridging, and Sea Zones that Start the Turn with Hostile Ships:

@jchamlin said in A&A Global 1940: Amphibious Assaults, Bridging, and Sea Zones that Start the Turn with Hostile Ships:

However, such a restriction was not necessary under the standard rules, as this situation can only occur when using the optional rule that allows placing new units in a hostile sea zone and that sea zone contains enemy transports.

That’s not correct. It happens any time you play with a later game German navy when the UK fleet isn’t at home and Germany has sea units in its sea zone. You can move the UK fleet home, destroy the German fleet, and bridge land units from UK into an amphibious assault on Western (assuming you win the sea battle), all in the same turn.

It sometimes happens with Japan too, where Japan can move home, destroy the US fleet there, and bridge units into combat in Manchuria (assuming the US landed there).

Enemy units in a sea zone never prevented bridging in A&A Classic. It works just like an amphibious assault with both a sea battle and a land battle, if you win the sea battle you can then bridge into the land battle. While not common in games (Germany usually didn’t build fleets and US rarely built in the Pacific), it was part of the classic game and no optional rules were required for the case to happen.

This is not legal. Even if you concede that bridging allows loading in a hostile sea zone, that does not lift the requirement that all combat movement with the exception of offloading units for an amphibious assault must be done before any combat is resolved.

Both of the moves I described are perfectly legal in classic. You move the UK fleet home to the UK sea zone where the German fleet is, load the transports, declare the amphibious assault, clear the sea zone, then resolve the land battle. In this case, the transports are bridging (both loading and unloading without moving in between the load and unload actions).

What part of that is not legal in classic?

-J.C.

@Krieghund said in A&A Global 1940: Amphibious Assaults, Bridging, and Sea Zones that Start the Turn with Hostile Ships:

I’ve reviewed the Classic rules, and it seems you are correct. There is no restriction there against loading in a hostile sea zone.

Good to know we weren’t playing classic wrong all those years!

However, such a restriction was not necessary under the standard rules, as this situation can only occur when using the optional rule that allows placing new units in a hostile sea zone and that sea zone contains enemy transports.

That’s not correct. It happens any time you play with a later game German navy when the UK fleet isn’t at home and Germany has sea units in its sea zone. You can move the UK fleet home, destroy the German fleet, and bridge land units from UK into an amphibious assault on Western (assuming you win the sea battle), all in the same turn.

It sometimes happens with Japan too, where Japan can move home, destroy the US fleet there, and bridge units into combat in Manchuria (assuming the US landed there).

Enemy units in a sea zone never prevented bridging in A&A Classic. It works just like an amphibious assault with both a sea battle and a land battle, if you win the sea battle you can then bridge into the land battle. While not common in games (Germany usually didn’t build fleets and US rarely built in the Pacific), it was part of the classic game and no optional rules were required for the case to happen.

As every game since then (1999’s A&A Europe onward) does not allow loading in a hostile sea zone.

Yeah, I see that. However, I still think bridging replaces (or should replace) loading and unloading actions. You don’t load or unload a bridge, you simply just walk across one. If you clear a sea zone, you should be able to bridge into an amphibious assault, just like you could in classic.

I can check with Larry if you want verification of that.

I’ve pinged Larry and provided him a link to this thread. I might be using an outdated email address though. If you could ping him and point him to this thread as well, that would be great.

Not being able to bridge into an amphibious assault after clearing a sea zone results in a pretty weird rules glitch. It results in people doing some strange moves like Italy building a destroyer and dropping it onto an oversized US fleet just to take advantage of this glitch. It makes sense that transports cannot unload / amphibious assault if the sea zone has enemy surface ships present, but not being able to bridge into an amphibious assault once the sea zone is clear doesn’t seem to fit the spirit of the game.

-J.C.

@Krieghund said in A&A Global 1940: Amphibious Assaults, Bridging, and Sea Zones that Start the Turn with Hostile Ships:

As this rule has been the same in every game since Classic.

This is part of where the confusion is. I’ve played a lot of Axis & Allies Classic (but not for many years now), including making the popular Axis & Allies Combat Analysis Program, http://www.mninter.net/~jch/aa/, and have also won the A&A Mega Tourney at Gen Con with Josh Paulson and Michael Houg many times (http://www.headlesshorseman2.com/gen-con.html#a:~:text=Hamlin). And in Classic, there was never a restriction that a transport couldn’t be used to bridge units into an amphibious assault, even if the sea zone was occupied. It didn’t come up very often, but A&A Classic didn’t have the restriction that transports cannot load in a hostile sea zone, they were only restricted from unloading if the sea zone was hostile (i.e. the sea zone had to be cleared before the units could land for the land battle part of an amphibious assault). I just went back and reviewed classic second edition rulebook to make sure. @Krieghund, you’re the expert rules guy, can you point me to a place where it says that it was this way in Classic too?

Thanks.

-J.C.

@Panther said in A&A Global 1940: Amphibious Assaults, Bridging, and Sea Zones that Start the Turn with Hostile Ships:

@jchamlin Welcome to the forum :slightly_smiling_face:

Thank you for the welcome, and for the reply.

No. “Bridging” simply illustrates the fact that a transport can “move” carrying units without leaving a seazone (think of it as sailing from coast to coast within the same seazone). In general loading can only happen during Combat Move Phase (load in order to unload into a hostile territory) or during Noncombat Move Phase (load in order to unload into a friendly territory).

Well, the rules explicitly say that the bridging is moving units where the transport does not move. So, the transport either moves, or it does not. In the bridging case, the transport’s movement is used up (so it will be unable to move if used to bridge), but the transport itself is not considered as having moved.

Loading during Combat Move Phase in your scenario is not possible in SZ 110, as a transport cannot load in a hostile seazone.
The transport needs to be loaded during Combat Move Phase, what is not allowed in this case.
Also loading never takes place during Conduct Combat Phase. You can’t load any involved transport, you can’t add any Combat Movement once Combat has started.

I’m not sure I agree. The Conduct Combat Phase has the disclaimer right at the beginning of the section: “A number of units have special rules that modify or overwrite the combat rules in this section. See “Unit Profiles,” page 27 for combat rules associated with each type of unit.”. And it so happens that the rules for transport bridging are in the unit profiles section.

If the German destroyer prevents the amphibious assault, then it seems silly that all Germany has to do is spend a few IPCs each turn to buy and place a single blocker to keep the entirety of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines at bay.

That is a common strategy, however easy to deal with.

Are you sure this is what Larry Harris intended: that a single cheap surface warship is able to prevent an entire power’s navy and land forces from invading? I mean, there’s both a problem with the spirit of the intention (which seems plain wrong), and also, I’m also bringing up something in my post here which seems to cast doubt on also the letter of the intention.

So in your scenarios eliminate enemy units and load your transports during Noncombat Move Phase. So unloading into enemy territories is delayed by one turn.

It would appear that this is not possible either. If the transports stay to fight (i.e. option 1) with the intention of picking up units during the non-combat phase, then that’s not possible either. According to the rules all units present in the sea zone must participate in the combat action (you can’t have some hang-back and not participate). Since the transports participated in the combat action, they now can no longer participate in the non-combat action (which would be loading the units from islands). So, it appears the one destroyer built by Italy prevents those units from ever being picked up, unless the transports retreat from the sea zone in turn one during their combat move to escape, and then the following turn non-combat to move in, pick up, and either stay loaded or move back out and drop off outside of SZ 95. And then three turns from then they would be able to move back in and participate in an amphibious assault. That seems pretty absurd to me that a single destroyer built on each of two turns can delay the amphibious assault for three turns.

The rules don’t state (or I can’t find it) when bridging for an amphibious assault as to when the transports need to be loaded. …

Remember that the action behind loading a transport (regardless if and where the transport moves to) is moving other units onto it. That is bound to the movement phases and clearly explained in the rules.

It is not clearly explained in the rules. If it were, I wouldn’t be here asking about it. The fact that transports can offload during the combat phase, means that some combat movement happens during the Conduct Combat Phase. The fact that bridging is a special type of transport movement called out in the unit profiles section with its own text completely separate from the other transport rules means it has a purpose for being there. The Conduct Combat Phase rules clearly say that rules in the unit profiles section have overrides to those rules from the Conduct Combat Phase. Therefore, it is in fact not clear at all if the rules for bridging units across a friendly (which could also mean a recently cleared sea zone) are meant to be able to happen during an amphibious assault.

How do we know which rules in the unit profiles section are meant to override the rules of the Conduct Combat Phase, and which rules are not? In this case, it sure seems that the whole reason for the rule on bridging to exist is to call out the special bridging ability of transports and make sure that players are aware of that ability. It seems to me it is likely so that people were aware that it could be used to both load and unload units in the same sea zone as an exception to the rule where transports would normally just be unloading during combat. In Axis & Allies Classic (Second Edition) transports could move empty/partially empty into a hostile sea zone (with escort ships) and then if the sea zone was cleared, they could use their remaining capacity to bridge units into the amphibious assault.

Thanks again for the communication. I’m not a rules lawyer, but this one really has me stumped. If Larry really meant the rules to work this way, then it sure seems wrong (sorry Larry, I mean you no offense if you stumble across this at some point). No way would the small fleet represented by a single German destroyer, freshly built and just rolling out of the shipyards, single-handedly prevent the entire British Navy from picking up troops from the UK, or from landing in Normandy (nor would a single Italian destroyer freshly built and rolling out of the shipyard in Italy prevent the entire US Atlantic Navy and Marines from picking up in Sicily and landing in Italy).

-J.C.

I’ve read all the rules clarifications on amphibious assaults, bridging, and rules for sea zones that start the turn hostile due to enemy ships being present in them, and I can’t find an answer. If this has been answered before, please feel free to post a relevant link to the answer.

Relevant Rules

These are (copy-pasted from the A&A 1940 Europe rulebook):

• Hostile sea zones contain surface warships belonging to a power with which you are at war.
• A transport can’t load or offload while in a hostile sea zone.
• A transport can load cargo in friendly sea zones before, during, and after it moves.
• A transport can load and offload units without moving from the friendly sea zone it’s in (this is known as “bridging”). Each such transport is still limited to its cargo capacity. It can offload in only one territory, and once it offloads, it can’t move, load, or offload again that turn.
• At the beginning of the Combat Move phase, you might already have sea units (and air units on carriers) in spaces containing enemy units that were there at the start of your turn. For example, an enemy might have built new surface warships in a sea zone where you have sea units. When your turn comes around again, you are sharing that sea zone with enemy forces. If you are sharing a sea zone with surface warships (not submarines and/or transports) belonging to a power with which you are at war, this situation requires you to do one of the following:

1. Remain in the sea zone and conduct combat,
2. Leave the sea zone, load units if desired, and conduct combat elsewhere,
3. Leave the sea zone, load units, and return to the same sea zone to conduct combat (you can’t load units while in a hostile sea zone), or
4. Leave the sea zone and conduct no combat.

Here are the two scenarios. In both, I think the crux of the matter is the same, but each scenario has some slight differences:

Scenario 1

UK fleet in SZ 110 with 3 cruisers, 1 destroyer, 3 aircraft carriers, 6 fighters, 6 transports, and at least 12 infantry and three more fighters in UK. This fleet, without moving, could use the bridge rule to bridge 12 infantry into an amphibious assault on Holland or Normandy, along with 3 offshore bombardments from the cruisers, and up to 9 fighters could also join the amphibious assault. Now, let’s say that Germany has a factory in Normandy, and on its turn decides to build a destroyer and mobilize it into SZ 110. So, the SZ will start out hostile on UK’s next turn.

Since the transports cannot load in a hostile sea zone, does this prevent the amphibious assault on Normandy or Holland? Or, does the bridging rule come into effect here, where the bridging (loading and unloading both happen at the same time without the transport moving in between) takes place once the sea battle part of the assault is over, and thus the sea zone is now friendly and the units can be bridged during the land battle part of the amphibious assault? If the German destroyer prevents the amphibious assault, then it seems silly that all Germany has to do is spend a few IPCs each turn to buy and place a single blocker to keep the entirety of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines at bay.

So, I assume the relevant choice for what to do about starting in a hostile sea zone is (1) above “remain in the sea zone and conduct combat”. And then declare the amphibious assault: move aircraft to Normandy and then declare that you have the intent to bridge 12 infantry over to Normandy after the sea zone is cleared (assuming it is cleared, which in the case would be hard to imagine it wouldn’t be with three cruisers, a destroyer, and three aircraft carriers that could be used to soak up a hit if needed). The bridging would take place in a “friendly” sea zone since the zone has been cleared before the bridging begins.

Of course, the presence of the destroyer will prevent the cruisers from getting to bombard. All the sea units will have to take place in the sea battle and won’t be available for the land battle part of the amphibious assault. No matter what the case is on bridging, that part is clear.

I know in this example, the transports could always take option (3) above and withdraw to SZ 109 (assuming it was clear of enemy surface warships), load the 12 infantry (sinze SZ 109 is also adjacent to the UK where the 12 infantry are), and come back and declare an amphibious assault, and the net result would be identical, except that now the transports are loaded with 12 infantry before the SZ battle part of the amphibious assault begins, and the transports are no longer bridging since they moved between the load and unload operations.

Scenario 2

There is a large US fleet in SZ 95 (SZ west of Italy), with US troops landed on the islands of Sicily and Sardina (which are in SZ 95). Can Italy build a destroyer and mobilize into SZ 95 and prevent the US transports in SZ 95 from conducting a bridging amphibious assault against Northern and/or Southern Italy? Or can the sea zone be cleared first during the sea battle part of the amphibious assault, and then the transports there be used to bridge those forces from Sicily and Sardina into an amphibious assault on Northern or Southern Italy?

In this case, there is one main difference than Scenario 1: there is no option (3) since Sicily and Sardina are islands contained completely within SZ 95 and so there is no alternate place to move the transports to load them up before returning to SZ 95 for the amphibious assault. If again, it cannot be done, then it seems silly to me that Italy buying a single destroyer each turn can keep the entirety of the US Atlantic fleet and all the US Atlantic marines at bay indefinitely.

It is also very clear that the transports cannot load up the troops on Sicily and Sardina and then move to a different SZ to amphibious assault there, since that would require the transports to load in a hostile SZ and then move elsewhere during combat movement to declare an amphibious assault from a different SZ, which is explicitly called out in the rules as not possible. So the destroyer does pin down those troops from being deployed to amphibious assault elsewhere, that is clear.

Crux of the Matter

The rules don’t state (or I can’t find it) when bridging for an amphibious assault as to when the transports need to be loaded. The fact that the term bridging and the rule about it is explicitly called out in its own separate line, and says “A transport can load and offload units without moving from the friendly sea zone it’s in” seems to imply that when bridging, you can “load and offload” all at once as long in a friendly SZ as the transport doesn’t move in between the load and unload, and thus it happens whenever it is appropriate to do so (in this case, right before the land portion of the amphibious assault happens). To me, it seems to be the only reason for the whole bridging concept to be introduced in the rule book at all. Afterall, if bridging is covered 100% by all the other transport rules, then why even put in the section about bridging?

Thanks!

-J.C.