Heavy Bombers - FAQ change and other options

I think they should still cost 5. The Wizards.com FAQ for revised (2004 edition) says AA guns can target fighters or bombers separately. So the AA guns are no stronger in AA50. They are actually weaker because they no longer fire on planes passing over-head like they did in revised.

It is official, and it will definitely make it onto the AH site at some point in the future.  However, please feel free to play with any house rules that you like.

On page 5

Shouldn’t “fighter” be replaced with “cruiser” in the first line of the answer. The defender has a sub and cruiser, the attacker has the fighter.

Q. Assume there’s a sea zone that contains an enemy sub and cruiser, and that I attack it with a destroyer and a fighter. If the defender scores two hits in the first combat round, can I take the hit from the cruiser on my destroyer, saving my fighter, since the sub can’t hit it?
A. No. Because you have a destroyer, the defender’s sub rolls in Step 4 along with his or her fighter cruiser. Since both defending units roll in the same combat step and all dice are rolled in a step before applying casualties, the two hits are applied together. Therefore, you must apply both hits if possible. The only way to apply both hits is to take the cruiser hit on the fighter and the sub hit on the destroyer.

Thanks to his bump, I think I have my answer.

I almost always buy a bomber a round for Germany starting turn 2.  They are great for threatening Moscow, even when in Germany, threatening allied fleets, and if they got nothing else to do I do enjoy bombing Brittan.

Its the allies I hate buying them for, even though they are still incredibly useful, every bomber UK buys is one less cruiser or transport.  You must be very careful not to ‘overbuy’ bombers as the allies.

@gamerman01:

@naturesprank:

Yeah, gamerman, I am aware of that most recent update. We don’t use it, since it negates much of the fun of getting HBs in the first place and we have been playing with the published rules for over a year. My playing group doesn’t always like to implement the updated rules errata that we come across. You shouldn’t need to access forums like these to play the game, so we usually use the OOB rules unless there is a conflict or complete misunderstanding.

Yeah, right on.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few ambiguities in the rulebook.  I have had to ask several different rules questions.  If you guys can’t agree on a rule, just post your question in the FAQ and errata thread under AA50, and you’ll have an answer in no time.  Probably not a bad idea to scan through that thread and see the answers to lots of questions…

True on all counts, and we have used that resource numerous times. Especially as pertains to subs, the OOB rules are very vague.

Even using the updated best-of 2 dice rule for HBs, the Americans can send a lot of heat toward the Rome, Berlin and Karelia ICs when not doing huge dmg to ITA or GER fleets. It’s nice to know that you will probably (89% on 2 HB) roll a minimum of 3 per HB during SBRs after risking them to AA. It might not seem like enough, but we seem to agree that the best early pressure US can exert on Ger is via SBR.  And getting HBs definitely helps with that. It, along with LR air, seem to have the biggest impact on our games.

Just roll them all at once.  As long as you use different colors for different attack powers (ie all 1’s roll white, all 2’s roll red, all 3’s roll blue and all 4’s roll yellow or something) or you just roll for each attack power separately, you are fine.  No need to roll each individual bomber since all the hits total up at the end anyway.