The confusion seems to be in you’re holding back naval ships for naval bombardment. The advantage about scrambling planes is that it forces the attacker to commit all their naval ships regardless if they want to or not. That’s why it is sometimes wise to scramble in a losing battle if the enemy is relying on bombardment for victory. The easiest situation would be when Japan invades the Philippine islands. If Japan was so aggressive that all they brought was two infantry with two cruisers as example. I would scramble the fighter in that situation because while I will lose the sea battle, if you choose to invade the island after the battle, you’re doing it without naval support which gives my defending infantry a better chance at winning.
Scramble
-
I keep seeing people mentioning Scrambling planes in from England or West Germany for sea battles. On page 25 of the rules it stats you can only scramble from an island and that the United Kingdom is not an island. So neither territory qualifies. In fact the only territory in the European theatre that actually qualifies is Iceland.
Am I missing something?
-
Short answer: yes
long answer: yes, the alpha 2 rules, it states that fighters and tactical bombers can now scramble into defence in an adjoining seazone to the functioning airbase in order to assist friendly naval units or against an amphibous assault.
-
Welcome, taschuler!
To expand on Zcion’s answer, the Alpha Rules are being developed by Larry Harris (the games’ designer) in order to deal with some balance issues that have arisen since the games’ publication. They are currently a work in progress. You can check them out here.
-
Thank you!
Prior to these changes I saw no reason for Japan to NOT attack Hawaii.
Suggested Topics
