The General Staff Archives

Europa Games and Military History

FAQ Tag: aa

Rule 3A2 – Artillery unit types

Question:
AA units are replaced using art RPs, and are in fact anti-aircraft artillery.  However, the rules, at least as I can find, do not seem to make a distinction beyond that.  Are these units treated the same as artillery units for movement, or purposes of combat restrictions?  Can they provide support?

Answer:
3A2, 2nd bullet:  “Artillery.  All unit types listed as artillery on the unit identification chart…  …Note that for game purposes antiaircraft and antitank units are not artillery.”  So the answer to both questions above is no.  For more details, see also the Unit Identification Chart (UIC).

Source:
[DPS, Rules Judge, 21-Aug-05]

Rule 22: When is AA fire against DAS resolved?

Question:
When is AA fire against DAS resolved? Rule 20.G.2.cpart 3 says “Each DAS operation follows the standard air sequence, until the mission resolution step is reached. ” That step (#5) occurs after the AA Fire step (#4), so that means that AA fire should be resolved when the mission is flown. However, this is impossible, because at this point no one knows whether the hex will be attacked, much less what the AA strength of the attacking units will be.

Answer:
Resolve AA fire versus GS and DAS during the mission resolution step. Fire AA for individual combats immediately before resolving the individual combat.

Source:
TEM 59/60

 

Rule 22: Is a player required to use AA against air units?

Question:
Is a player required to use AA against air units? Rule 22, page 32 states, ” Air units may undergo enemy antiaircraft fire when they fly certain missions. ” The word may seems to imply that AA is optional.

Answer:
See Rule 22B.2, first bullet: “Total the AA strength eligible to fire at the target air unit’. The word eligible here would seem to indicate it is an all or nothing affair; if you choose to not resolve the AA attack then no AA fires, but if you choose to resolve the AA attack then all “eligible” AA must fire. So it would appear that while making the AA attack is optional, who participates in that attack, if made, is not optional.

Source:
TEM 59/60

 

Rule 22: Firing AA against GS or DAS mission

Question:
When firing AA against air units flying GS or DAS missions, does the AA unit fire only against those air units effectively supporting the attack or against all air units in the hex making GS or DAS mission (even those not considered for combat ratio calculations)?

Answer:
AA fire is resolved against all enemy air units flying GS/DAS missions in the hex. After AA fire is resolved, the owning player may decide which air units will participate in the combat resolution, up to the limits imposed by RE considerations.

Source:
TEM 50

Rule 22: Is there any standard rule for firing AA against air units making a Harassment mission?

Question:
Is there any standard rule for firing AA against air units making a Harassment mission?

Answer:
Per Rule 20G2d, Harassment is a bombing mission. Per Rule 22B 1, the enemy player may fire AA against air units flying bombing missions. Harassment is not listed in Rule 22B1 as being one of the exceptions to the general rule on firing AA. Therefore, the standard rules apply, and any friendly units, except for naval units, may fire at any enemy air units flying a harassment mission in the hex the friendly units occupy. Advanced rules 43B1 and 43B2 simply modify the standard rules concerning AA fire versus this particular mission.

Source:
TEM 50

 

Rule 20G2c: The sequence of Firing AA at DAS missions

Question:
There is a problem involving firing AA at DAS due to the new sequencing. The rules specify that AA is fired during the AA fire step of the air operation (including DAS air operations), and not (as used to be the case with DAS) just prior to ground combat resolution against the hex. This forces the phasing player to decide immediately upon the first DAS mission arriving in the hex if he is going to attack the hex (and with which units), so that he can fire his AA at the enemy air units. If such fire binds the phasing player to attack the DAS hex (and presumably it does), the enemy could theoretically continue to pile many other DAS missions into the hex to the point where the impending attack would become suicidal.

Answer:
I see your point. I do not want to delay the AA fire, but until I can figure out a way to make this work, use the old sequencing. Modify the appropriate section of Rule 20G2c as follows:

“Each DAS operation follows the standard air sequence, until the AA fire step is reached. At this point the mission is suspended until the players are to resolve the ground combat in the hex.

When the players are to resolve ground combat in a hex containing a DAS operation, the remainder of the air operation occurs in conjunction with the ground combat, in this sequence:

  1. When ready to resolve the combat, the attacking player declares the attack, indicating the attacking units.
  2. The AA fire step occurs, per Rule 22B1.
  3. The DAS mission resolution step occurs.”

Source:
Errata published at http://www.hmsgrd.com/Files/Europa/Second Front/Second Front.pdf

Rule 20F3: Naval Units Firing AA at Minelaying Aircraft

Question:
(Rules 20F3, 22B, and 34E) The minelaying rules seem to make mines excessively effective; in particular, the lack of breakdowns for the big Allied TFs seems to make sweeping mines ridiculously expensive. The rules seem to prohibit naval units firing AA at mine-laying aircraft in their hex — is this correct?

Answer:
One slick trick would be to wait for the invasion armada to end a movement step, then do a night mine-laying air operation in the hex (the rules do not seem to prohibit this, even if the Allies are not sailing at night). There would be no AA, and only night fighters to contend with. If successful, even one mine point could inflict very heavy losses, far more than seem to have occurred historically.

Naval units don’t fire AA at air units on aerial minelaying missions, as the air units do not lay the mines in the part of the hex where the ships currently are. (The hexes represent a huge expanse of area, with it being impractical to impossible for ships to cover the whole extent.)

Air units dropping mines in a hex containing enemy naval units at sea, thereby doing all sorts of harm to the ships at the start of their next naval movement step, can be abusive. However, it requires numerous sorties over the course of a turn to lay enough mines to qualify for a mine point, so the enemy can’t catch the ships by surprise through a single overnight mine laying. The game’s sequencing of activities attempted to show this:

  • A player may aerially lay mines by flying a transport mission, which can be done only in the movement and exploitation phases of his own player turn (Rule 20F).
  • Enemy naval units in the hex are unaffected at this time, since per Rule 34E1 they check for mine damage if they enter or put to sea in the hex (they are already in the hex, so this doesn’t count) or if they start a friendly naval movement step in the hex (since it is not their player turn, this can’t occur at this time).
  • After the mine-laying player is finished his turn, the enemy player turn begins. The enemy naval units now can be affected by the mines, but before they do check for damage, automatic mine clearing occurs if the mines are in various coastal hexes or beyond the range of certain ports (Rule 34E3).

I had thought the above sequencing would take care of things in most typical cases. However, reexamining the point leads me to believe that when automatic mine clearing does not occur, the naval units in the hex have a big problem in the game, whereas in reality this would not occur in such a fashion.

The best way to handle this situation is: When a player aerially lays mines in a hex containing enemy naval units at sea, then during the immediately following player turn those naval units (only) ignore the presence of those mines (only) during the naval unit’s first naval movement step (only) of the turn.

 

Source:
Errata published at http://www.hmsgrd.com/Files/Europa/Second Front/Second Front.pdf

Disruption affect on AA.

Question:

Disrupted units may not attack. AA strength of ground AA units is twice their attack factors (attack strength is never affected by general supply). Can a disrupted AA unit fire AA? Is there anything else that affects AA strength?

Answer:
There’s nothing in the Narvik rules which modifies the AA strength.

Source:

Posted by David Stokes on the Yahoo Europa Mailing list on 16.08.2013 05:30.

Rule 14C: Firing AA at Airbases

Question:

I am engaged in a PBEM game of Narvik, and a point of contention has arisen between my opponent and I. I am attempting to bomb the airbase outside of Trondheim, and he has stacked a pair of CLAs in the little tiny piece of ocean in the hex, and attempting to fire AA at my bombers. Here is his argument: Per rule 14C

“Naval units may only fire against units bombing ships, ports or bases.”

Does this include “airbases” or only the supply “bases”?

Here is my argument:
Per 11B3: When referring to Allied supply bases, the rules consistently refer to Allied supply bases as a “base” or bases”. This consistency extends to rule 12C3c, where it again refers to Allied supply bases as “bases” or a “base”.  In most cases, when referring to an airbase, the rules either use the term “airbase” or “airfields”. There are a few references to the airbases as “base” or “bases”, however, the most common reference is “airbases’ within the context of the rules. “Base” references include “return to base”, or damage to the “base”.  Rule 14, in it’s example, also refers to an “Allied base”, to me, meaning an Allied supply base.

Answer:

I looked at it from two different ways and both exclude naval units from
firing AA at airbases.

1. Rule 11B3 states

“French, British, and Polish units receive bases from
which they may draw supply.”

Spot checking various other rules shows that the intention reference of “bases” is indeed these bases and not airbases. The occasional use of “base” to mean airbase is in the air rules, where “base” obviously means airbase. (“Return to base” for example is a standard
term used across a number of games and always means return to airbases. I agree in the context of Narvik with its Allied supply bases, it would be clearer if instead of “base” only “supply base” or “airbase” was used. However, rules writing was less strict back then, and I never got a rules questions that questioned the meaning of “base”.)

2. In reading the Antiaircraft Fire rule (14), it is clear to me that the intention is that naval units can fire AA only in the naval “domain”: at sea or at the sea-land interface (ports and supply bases, [supply bases must be placed in ports]). Airbases are typically more inland (sometimes much more so) and are outside the naval “domain.” “Domain” is just a term I am using here to get the concept across and is not used in Narvik.

Not only do I read this as the intent of Rule 14, but as the person who worked on the 1980 edition of Narvik, I know it was the intent of the GDW design team and how we actually played it.

Source:

Posted on Yahoo Europa Mailing List by John Astell on 15.07.2013 07:10

Rule 12: Airdrops and Antiaircraft Fire

Question:

Are airdrops and transport missions subject to AA? In one place the rules seem to indicate airdrops are, in another place it only talks about AA against bombing missions. For example, the Germans hold Trondheim. The Allies placed an interdiction marker (8 AA) and 2 CLA (5 AA each). If the Germans try to airdrop or air transport a supply depot into Trondheim would all 3 naval units fire AA, only the CLAs, or none?

Answer:

Spot checks of Rule 12A (air sequence) and Rule 14 (AA Fire) indicate that AA fire occurs against mixed waves, with the restrictions that 1) naval units may only fire on mixed waves bombing ships, ports, or supply bases and 2) AA units may fire on any mixed waves except those bombing ships. Air transports on air transport or air drop missions will be in mixed waves (per 12E1) and thus can be fired on by AA units but not ships. I think this is clear and do not wish to take the time to read through all of the rules to see if one says AA can ONLY be fired against aircraft on bombing missions. If you can list any specific rules that says AA can ONLY be fired against bombing missions, I will review this.

Source:

Answer posted by John Astell at Yahoo Classic Europa mailing list on 16.07.2013 23:40.

© 2025 The General Staff Archives

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑