FAQ Tag: airbase

Rule 21: Intercepting Cap over an Airbase

Question:
The Allies are flying a CAP mission to cover an airbase with heavy flak (irrelevant but the reason why this is happening). German fighters are in range to intercept. How is this handled?

Answer:

The CAP mission is a mission, so if the Axis want to intercept it, it is handled as any other interception. In this case, there is no escort for the mission force. The entire mission force consists of the CAP mission air units.

Let us assume that there are 12 Allied air units on CAP and the Axis intercept with six air units. Randomly select six of the CAP air units and pair each one off with a randomly selected interceptor. Since there is no escort, there is no screen to be attacked or bypassed. These six air to air combats are resolved. All of the surviving interceptors are returned to base once the combat is completed and the surviving CAP air units remain in the target hex with the other, unengaged CAP air units.

Note that the CAP air units, whether engaged or not, have not completed their mission yet and so none of them not affected by combat would be returned to base at this time. Let’s assume that the Axis achieved 1× K, 1× A and 1× R in the air to air combat and 3× no effect. Since 12 air units were part of the mission, we would end that interception with nine Allied air units on that CAP mission still over the target hex.

Note that just as a bomber doesn’t lose its mission ability by being intercepted (unless affected by the air to air combat), neither does a CAP air unit; it may defend itself against the interception, and still remain in the hex, and carry out its mission.

Source:
TEM 74

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 21: Intercepting Cap over an Airbase

Rule 14C: Firing AA at Airbases

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