Transporter, battle with planes

@krieghund Your answer and the FAQ are super helpful – thank you!

The answer to both questions is “no”.

@gnasape:

Have you thought of compiling all the questions and answers and having it stickied somewhere so that we can just find it and read through the various scenarios and questions that people have?

Larry’s thought about creating an on-line Q&A database, but I don’t know if it will ever happen.

@gnasape:

Also what about a 1-800-AAN-SWRS hotline number?  That way none of our games have to be stopped for a ruling.

Naaah.

@gnasape:

Not sure if anyone asked but what is your AA background?  I’m imagining a guy in white robes with flowing beard sitting in front of a computer eagerly awaiting a question.  I could be totally wrong, maybe it’s black robes, who knows.

It’s grey robes.

I’ve been playing A&A since 1984, and became the “Official Answer Guy” at Larry Harris’s site in 2005.  Since then, I’ve written the FAQs for Battle of the Bulge and Anniversary Edition, and helped write the FAQ for Guadalcanal.  I was also a playtester for Anniversary, and helped write the rulebook.  Recently, I revised the rulebook for A&A 1942.

Skew is an important concept, but unfortunately, it’s hard to quantify.

The most accurate battle-predicting statistic that I know of is to add up your starting punch, plus your punch after taking 1 hit, plus your punch after taking 2 hits, etc, all the way down to when your force is wiped out.  For instance, if you have 2 inf 2 tanks attacking this statistic would be 8+7+6+3 = 24; for 4 inf defending it would be 8+6+4+2=20.  This statistic shows the advantage of skew.  Also, it can account for attacking transports and/or the “free” hit on battleships; for example, an attacking force of 1 BB 1 tran would have 4+4+4=12.  Unfortunately this takes a while to calculate, especially for medium- to large-sized forces.

If there’s a faster way to calculate skew, I’m not aware of it (but would love to be!)  Punch and count can be calculated much faster.  Based on these, the most accurate predictor comes from multiplying punch times count.  Punch times count tends to be a pretty good predictor unless the forces are highly skewed; for unskewed to moderately skewed forces it will pretty much always tell you who’s favored.  In most situations the way that I account for skew is just by noting that it’s there and mentally saying “ok, this side is actually a little better than the punch and count would indicate”.

Then of course you can always do the expected-outcome calculation where you run through a battle in your head, and for each round assume each side gets the expected number of hits, and see what happens.  The nice thing about this is that it does account for skew, plus you can do it reasonably fast.  Unfortunately the round-off errors can pile up, but it’s still a decent indicator overall.

Craig’s clarification is one that is often overlooked, even in games on this site.

The important things that I want to emphasize about TRN’s…

1.  They can carry UP TO 1 INF and any 1 other land unit.  But they can carry only 1 unit of any land type (this comes up often from new folks thinking they HAVE to have an INF and something else in order to use a TRN).
2.  Once a TRN offloads it is DONE for the turn.
3.  Forget the term “bridge”.  It is just a regular load and offload, with a movement of zero spaces for the TRN.

@yucatan:

Thanks everybody.

Now it’s perfectly clean. :lol:

Yucatan

Oops!
Maybe it was “clear”!! :-D

Yucatan

Before, transporting a tank was a joke, something you didn’t do unless you had extra transports.  It was a 3-2 unit, so a 2-2, 2-2 artillery infantry combination was better.  Now, tanks are on par; amphibious invasions are much more like land attacks.  So the end result of the increased defense and transport ease is that the artillery is what it should be: a supplement unit both amphibiously and not.  I applaud avalon hill’s new rules on land units because it is both realistic and feasible.  I don’t really see that one of the poll options adaquately shows my view.  I would say “it’s all about the money”, but when in this game is it not always about the money?