The rule book says “Air units can’t fly over an unfriendly neutral unless they are attacking it”
Because unfriendly neutrals immediately join the opposing alliance when attacked, does that mean that air units can fly through such a territory during combat movement in order to attack other territories, so long as the originally unfriendly neutral is also being attacked simultaneously?
I believe I’ve read before that this isn’t possible, and would only open up the option for subsequent turns … but I want to double check because of the word immediate.
Practical scenario:
Northwest Persia remains a pro-Allied neutral territory containing no units. Germany wishes to attack British-controlled Iraq. Could Germany send 1 air unit to Northwest Persia (thus ‘attacking’ it) and during the same combat movement send other aircraft to British-controlled Iraq (even if that requires them to fly over Northwest Persia)?
Secondary question:
Can a player technically ‘attack’ an empty territory with air units? The rules comment “Movement into a hostile space counts as combat movement whether that the space is occupied or not” seems to suggest that maybe it could qualify as an ‘attack’ (apologies in advance if I missed a more basic rule that addresses this explicitly … I’ve been on hiatus from G40 for awhile)