Sorry another newbie question

https://avalonhill.wizards.com/rules

Note there are rules AND errata. And yes, the rulebook is poorly written.

Yes. Russia can attack West Russia using forces from Russia, Karelia, and Caucasus. Further, units from one territory may attack multiple territories. E.g. Russia may attack West Russia AND Caucasus on its first turn, using its tank from Russia to hit Ukraine, and its other units from Russia to hit West Russia.

No and yes. The question implies attackers come from a single territory / sea zone. The actual rule is land or sea units retreat to an eligible adjacent territory / sea zone that one of the attackers came from. Also the question implies an attacker decides to withdraw “because the combat isn’t going well” but attacking with intent to retreat is commonly done to preserve units against an opponent counter.

Suppose Germany controlled West Russia but had no German units there, that Germany had a stack of units on Ukraine, USSR had a stack of infantry on Caucasus. USSR tanks on Russia could blitz through West Russia to hit Ukraine along with the Caucasus infantry, then USSR forces could all withdraw to West Russia OR all withdraw to Caucasus. They must all withdraw to a single territory.

Sometimes retreat is not possible e.g. if sea units all start in a contested sea zone and don’t move (sometimes they can’t) out then in again. Then there’s no adjacent sea zone that any sea unit came from, so there’s no eligible retreat zone.

Loading onto a transport does not “consume the unit’s non-combat move for the turn”. That is not how it works at all. A transport can load a unit AND unload it the same turn. Reference page 31 of the rulebook.

Reference page 15 of the rulebook. You cannot retreat seaborne units. You can retreat other units. Yes, you can declare a retreat; in that case the seaborne units fight on.

Yes, infinite defending transports are automatically destroyed by a single attacking unit.

No, flying across a sea zone with a named island doesn’t count as 2 movements at all. Taking off from an aircraft carrier . . . . look. An island is a territory, a sea zone is a sea zone. If a fighter starts on an island, it’s on the territory; if the fighter wants to move from the island into the sea zone around the island that requires 1 movement.

If a fighter starts on a carrier, it’s on the sea zone; moving to an ADJACENT sea zone requires 1 movement.

If a fighter is flying across a sea zone with an island, it uses 1 movement to move into the sea zone, and another movement to fly into the next sea zone, the same as any sea zone without an island. If a fighter’s not landing or taking off from an island, the island does nothing.

Already answered

You can get units of opposing powers in a single sea zone when a power builds sea/air units in a sea zone that already has enemy units in it. Sea units may ignore enemy submarines / transports (with some limitations, like if unloading their own transports). Your question is “these are the only instances when they can exist in the same sea zone” - was that a reference to a retreat (which could also happen) or what was it? Literally don’t understand.

There’s an OPTIONAL RULE that allows fighters to defend against industrial bombing, I think. I don’t use it so I forget. AAA does nothing against industrial bombing. Industrial COMPLEXES have built-in antiaircraft defenses; those are the only thing that defend against industrial bombing.

I suppose you’re trying to use some optional rule with the 4 or lower thing, but I’m just going to ignore that. If bomber survives - NOT THE ANTIAIRCRAFT ARTILLERY BECAUSE THOSE HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT - but the industrial complex’s antiaircraft fire - then it rolls a dice, and whatever the result is is recorded as damage against that industrial complex, up to twice the value of the territory the IC is on. So if you bomb Karelia and roll a 6 for damage, you can only apply 4 damage as Karelia’s worth 2, and double 2 is 4. Excess damage is lost.

Each damage on an IC prevents it from mobilizing a unit on that territory. So if you have a Karelia IC with 4 damage on it, you can’t mobilize anything there; same if it has 3 damage or 2 damage. If you had 1 damage on, you could mobilize 1 unit there.

No. If there’s a battle in the sea zone, there’s no bombardment, period. Doesn’t matter if enemy transports were there and you wanted to destroy them with a fighter, if there’s any battle in the sea zone, no bombardment, period.

I know the rulebook is poorly written, but try going through it a few times.

@Lifthil said in Questions from a returning player:

@Panther
With LHTR and LL, what’s a pretty standard bid for 1942-2e?

No idea here, someone else should answer this.

And is the bid per nation or per side? I.e., if the bid is 12, does that mean that Russia, UK, and USA each get 12 IPCs to pre-place, or is it 12 to be spent among all 3 Allied powers?

Usually the bid is per side. It depends on what the players agree.
In our Golbal 1940-league, these are two of the basic bidding rules:

Default settings for bidding:

Limit one bid unit in a territory or sea zone. The nation placing a unit in a territory or sea zone must have started with a unit in said territory or sea zone prior to placing the bid.

@StreblaX You must have missed it. I don’t have the rulebook at hand at the moment. But you will find how to roll for battles in the Combat Sequence description (Conduct Combat Phase) . Actually in this edition there is only one unit that needs more than one hit to be destroyed, that is the battleship (2 hits). You will find this information in the respective Unit Characteristics description.

Do I paint over the plastic pieces that come with the game?

You can but the small, soft plastic miniatures aren’t ideal for taking paint.  The ones like the boats with flat surfaces should do fine.  You can prime them first, but its hard to do detail at this scale unless you’re really good.  Another consideration is that you will have to mass produce quite a few minis in order to have full sets for most of your games, otherwise you’ll end  up mixing painted and unpainted stuff which is kind of confusing to the eye.

-What if I mess up? Do I just wash the paint off and start over?

Not after things dry.  You can use the technique of wiping wet paint (I use cotton gun cleaning rag) away from unintended areas, this works like an eraser.  If you recoat/re-dip a small mini like these all your detail will be lost in layers of paint.

-What is the purpose of buying the expansion miniatures?

for fun.  FMG sells a lot of cool sculpts but they are not universally used in AXA, primarily in other similar games (eg Global
War)

-Are expansion miniatures already painted?

No, unless you buy them that way eg Axis and Allies Miniatures Game

-Can expansion miniatures be used to play my 1942 2nd ed?

Yes, but they are only variant sculpts (eg different halftracks, different tank models) or house rules.

Game questions:

-Is it difficult to learn?

Yes, though not for a wargame.  Rules are fairly simple though subject to much interpretation if not read carefully.  Should take 3-5 games to get good then 3-5 years to get awesome.

-How long does a came last on average?

42.2; About 4 hours to surrender, a bit longer until victory conditions.  G40/G42 take more like 10 hours-14 hours.  WW1 5-7 hours.

-How does A&A compare to say, the hexagonal war games of the 70s and 80s?

It is much less complex than a chit game.  Logistics and “rock-paper-scissors” unit balance aren’t in AxA.  Combat and movement are dramatically simplified.    Where chit games (aka Avalon Hill) games are a detailed, complex and abstract slog, axis and allies is a lighter, more “army men” sort of game with the depth coming from repeat play and learning from mistakes.  The quality of the pieces and the layout of the map are a huge draw in comparison to large paper maps, hundreds of similar, boring pieces and rules that are incomprehensible outside the context of each game.    Games like Memoir 44 and AxA try to capture strategy, tactics in a more playable and engaging format than a realistic, unit by unit, “order of battle” style game, but try to be much more in depth than games like Risk where there are no unit types and every team is essentially the same.

Makes total sense to me. Not odd at all IMO.

Probably best to stick  to ground units. Germany can hit you hard, then Japan comes at you from behind too.

It’s helpful to have the rulebook handy to reference when questions pop up.  Even if you think you know the rule it’s better just to find it in the rulebook and show your friend so that you build trust.  After a couple times of being right he will just take your word without question.

Thank you so much for explanation.  It is very clear now.