I’m about to start my first game of Pacific 1940, and I’m a little confused about the escort rules for the bombing raids.
The rules seem to imply that all bombers (strategic and tactical) get to participate in the single round of special combat with the fighters in the air battle prior to the bombing. Is this correct? So if I have 1 tactical bomber, 1 strategic bomber, 1 attacker fighter escort on the bombing raid, and the defender has 1 interceptor fighter, the attacker would get to roll 3 dice in the special combat, and the defender would get to roll 1 die, correct? Any rolls of a 1 on either side would result in a casualty.
Exactly. The rules changed from a two for the defender and I think this detracts from history and changes things for the worse. But they are the rules.
Makes intercepting very risky.
Enjoy your new game.
The biggest change I see from the previous version of AA I have been playing, which is the Spring '42 version, is that the bombers themselves get to participate in the pre-bombing battle. In Spring 1942, only the fighters get to participate. No bombers get to attack. They can only be casualties if all the attacking fighter escorts are destroyed. The escort rules were optional in Spring '42, but we always played them.
I think the bombers getting to battle is even a bigger reason that I’d be careful using defending escort fighters.
