Nice essay - thanks for the pointer :)

I have to say, though, that this kind-of spoils the game a little for me. If you can’t play the historical situation without a reasonable chance of it turning out the same as it did historically, then as a simulation the game is broken.

If at the start of my turn I have a sea area containing one carrier and two fighters (and no island bases), the fighters are obviously landed on the carrier.

Now, say I move the carrier into an adjacent sea area during Combat Movement. Do the fighters have to use one of their four movement points to enter the sea area (i.e. move independently), or can they move in with the carrier and launch within the sea zone?

Ok, everyone knows that the Japanese can wipe out the Pearl Harbor fleet and the units in the adjacent sea area (can’t remember its number right now). As well as wipe out the Prince of Wales battle group and other things.

However my question is this - the Japanese then have three carriers and their (surviving) fighters - what’s to stop an overwhelming force of USA materiel from turning up in Hawaii on the USA’s first turn, from both the USA itself and Samoa? There’s two carriers, loads of fighters, bombers, tons of firepower! The Japs would get marmalised!?

So, do the veteran players of this excellent game consider the loss of the three carriers to be worth it, and/or the damage of much of the USA Turn 1 forces in destroying the carriers? I just think that the three carriers are in a very vulnerable position.

But then I have only just started playing this excellent game, and I realise I might well be missing something….

There’s no way the carriers can retreat after the raid? Nor can they retreat at all if they are attacked - is that right? They’re basically stuck there…

Fair enough. But, only on Combat Movement phases, right?

That makes sense, thank you. But, I assume that the presence of the convoy ‘shipping’ does not mean that a fleet not wanting to stop is not ‘held up’ by the convoy, in the same way as if it would have had to stop if there had been enemy units in there?

Another odd little query if I may - to ‘capture’ a convoy route or centre, the attacker has to go in to the space during Combat Movement.

Combat Movement has to be into or out of a space which is either enemy-occupied, or enemy-controlled as far as I understand.

So, what happens if there’s no enemy units near the convoy space, such that the space is out of the range of normal Combat Movement; there’s no enemy units to move ‘to’ or ‘from’ in order to make it Combat Movement?

Is it that only a submarine can control it, then, by being in the space at the start of its movement and so on? Or does the convoy count as if it’s an enemy-controlled space and therefore eligible to be moved into under Combat Movement?

It just seems a little odd that it has to be Combat Movement, when this is not always possible. Also, am I the only person that thinks the rules are not all that clear? For other board games, I’m an established Rules Lawyer; A&A is quite difficult to understand imo :)

Wow, those really are nice. Downloaded; I have some lovely glossy labels to print them on to too. Thanks so much :)

Another question on a similar subject; how do players generally distinguish between pieces that have moved during Combat movement, and those that have not (and presumably want to either stay in place or move during non-combat movement)? Do peopel flip the non-movers on their sides and then you know which ones can move?

I realise that those units in areas with enemy units have almost by definition moved under Combat Movement, but after combat they may be the only pieces left in a space so this is not a reliable indicator. What, then? Flip 'em on one side?

In fact the same could be said for any air units that deploy in the Combat Movement phase and land in the Non-Combat Movement Phase. How do you know/remember which planes of your air armada have the range to get back to their original bases?

Ah, excellent; so it seems that by ‘defending’, they mean ‘returning fire’. Thanks for that :)

Another question if I may - when doing strategic bombing raids, it appears to me that you move your planes to the are where they are to fight, then conduct the combat, then they return to base to land. To do this, they use any remaining movement points that they didn’t use in their move TO the area they bombed.

How do you remember which aircraft have used how many movement points? Say a bomber flies from Bonin Is. to Japan and bombs, and other aircraft fly there from other bases. There could be like six or more bombers in there; how do you know which ones are in range of their bases? Granted, the bombers from Bonin Is. could land in China if a space is Allied controlled in order to ‘strategically’ redeploy, but how do you keep track of these units?

Hi guys - completely new to the game and trying to get my head round the rules!

Please can someone explain to me what it means when it says a unit ‘defends on a ‘1’’? Does this mean it’s allowed to defend on a ‘1’, or that its return fire only scores a hit on a ‘1’ - or something else?

Thanks! Sorry it’s such a noob question, especially for people who have been playing the game for so long….