Two basic questions about length and balance

The AA50 game we just finished the US bombed the hell out of Germany. We used the unit counter chips (red-5, gray-1) to show damage. It worded ok. Even if there is a mix-up and chips go flying (which happened) you tend to remember how many damage there was. What seems to get mixed up is how many tanks vs inf you had. Even if you had different colors to show damage (good idea), you might need two damage colors to show increments, other wise you could have towers in some cases. For at least 2-3 rounds Germany was damaged into double digits.

Thanks for the clarification, my friend was trying to argue that we couldn’t bring bombers into the sea zone just in case he wanted to scramble.

Whenever a carrier is attacked, its planes are assumed to be launched and defending in the air.  This is not optional.  If the carrier is hit, the planes can’t land on the carrier and must find another place to land within one space or be lost.

The only way that planes can be trapped on board a damaged carrier is if there are planes belonging to an ally on an attacking carrier.  Since it’s not their turn, the planes remain on the carrier as cargo rather than participate in the battle.  If the carrier is damaged during the attack, these “guest” planes will be trapped (unable to take off) until the carrier is repaired. If the carrier is attacked while still damaged, the planes will remain cargo.  They will be unable to launch and defend, and will be lost if the carrier is sunk.

Thanks, that makes perfect sense.  The wording in the rulebook was confusing me :-D

At the very beginning of the Conduct Combat phase, before combat is begun.  For all practical purposes, when you said.

Chinese can enter Burma, and Kwangtung that"s it besides tt w/Chinese star.

If you destroy 12 IPCs as Japan the US is down to 38 or so. If Japan keeps up with the US Navy builds it seems like that would keep the Japanese on a pretty even playing field with the US.

Ok, great. Thanks for the answer!