Air attack on defenseless transports?

@Panther oh lol duh, me! Thank you for taking the time to read and answer, Panther. I appreciate it greatly. Thanks, and have a great day and/or game if you’re playing!

In most cases, you just want to lose in order from the least valuable unit to the most valuable.

Exception;

If you are the defender and you have 1 destroyer and 1 cruiser

The attacker has 2 subs and hits you 1 time

If you lose the destroyer, you are vulnerable to a surprise shot during the next round, and you would not get a reply, so losing the cruiser before the destroyer might be the smartest move.

Another example;

You have 3 bombers and 2 infantry.  Enemy attacks you with 2 fighters and 1 bomber and hits you 2 times.  You may want to lose one or more expensive bombers (defend;1) before infantry, in the hopes of keeping the better defenders alive now to drive off the enemy as the combat rounds go on.  Once all the bombers are dead, however, the enemy will probably just leave.

Another example;

AAA guns cost 5 but they can’t fight after they do their special shot, so lose them first no matter what.

…

Carriers are weak attackers, and expensive, but in some editions they do have 2 soak hits.  However, if you lose or damage a carrier first, they cannot collect planes after the battle, reducing your defensive posture and possibly giving your planes no where to land. While Battleships should always soak a hit first, carriers probably should not.  Note that losing carriers first keeps your combat power high (attack 1 or 0 lost vs losing a cruiser or fighter at 3).  It can be tempting to dump the carrier first, but you may regret this after combat is fully resolved…

All right, thanks!

Such a shame! Thanks for the quick reply.

@Black_Elk:

For Japan the most important route in a KGF oriented game is probably the sz 61 to Yunnan shuck. This is the shortest route from Tokyo to Moscow. With 4 transports you can shuck 8 ground to Yunnan every round, overland to Szechwan, then Kazakh. Basically if you can do this three rounds in a row, you’ll have enough fodder to start making the Russians sweat their capital. Just like the W. Allies on Berlin, the trick is not to move your Japanese ground forward too quickly and expose them in poor trades for 1 ipc territories, instead hold them back another round until they are stacked deep enough to defend themselves from Russian counter attacks. Szechwan is the optimal convergence spot for the main advance, and the push comes out of Yunnan via 61. This is to allow you to threaten India and Burma without having to put yourself out of position on Moscow. Later if you can launch into Africa or India uncontested thats great, but the main line is out of sz61 Szech push. Otherwise you leave the back door open to wiley Zhukov moves, with Russians running amock in Asia.

Because sz61 is such a clutch zone for Japan, most Allies I see will consider hitting the starting Japenese transport here a top priority, more important than the warships in sz37. You can cut the Japanese transport capacity in half during the opening round if you take your hit on sz61, and it can be done at relatively low risk for the payoff. I see most people jet out of Australia towards Brazil. The transport makes a less attractive target if you don’t fully load it. Just nabbing the dude off New Zealand for the ride. But again, I just don’t see the sz37 attack all that much on the bid lately. Even with a sub, or an extra Egypt fighter, it gets pretty dicey. I think the Allies are better served by keeping their forces in tact. You can still give Japan headaches, although full Pacific press is very hard if Japan has all their capital ships. Probably easier to face them in the med, if you don’t want to hammer 37 on a gambit. But KJF Pacific style games seem to always have a gambit of some sort, going all the way back (some risk you take as Allies to open up the game against Japan) and for that I like that sz37 exists. I just don’t use it as much, once the novelty wore off, and when you see that Europe is still the more attractive endgame on this map.

This specific point should be notice by all players.
This shortest road is truly a good pincer strategy against Russia.

“…transporters can not offload after retreating…” thanks that clarifies the situation.

Great thanks. We thought so but just wanted to check as was not clear in the book.

I actually prefer the opposite. No defense roll, can be taken as casualty at any point.