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Europa Games and Military History

FAQ Tag: Sequence

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

 

Rules 20G2g & 20G2h: Allocation of Naval Losses

Question:
Losses to Naval Units: Are these allocated after each air attack, or after all air attacks in a player turn?

Answer:
Rule 20G2g defines how this happens for both 20G2g & h: “For each air operation, resolve all bombing attacks of air units flying this mission before applying any hits achieved. (Keep track of the total number of hits achieved.) Apply the hits after all air units on this mission [naval units in port bombing] have finished bombing.” This means you do it on a per-air-operation basis, applying all hits (losses) to the naval units once all bombing attacks in the operation are over.

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

Rule 20G2d: May an Air Unit aborted during an Harassment Mission become operational in the next initial phase?

Question:
An Allied air unit flies a harassment mission during the Axis player turn but never makes it (aborted or killed by flak or fighters). Example: During the Axis Jul II 43 player turn, a USAAF p-400 participates in an air operation flying harassment mission against Messina (26:3823); during the AA fire step it is aborted, and does not participate in the mission resolution step. During the initial phase of the Allied Jul II 43 player turn it is replaced. May the P-400 become operational during the Allied Jul II 43 player turn initial phase? Or is the P-400 inoperative under Rule 20G2d last paragraph, “an air unit which flies a harassment mission during a player turn does not become operative at the start of the next player turn”? Under the Master Sequence of Play Summary air units are replaced (step 6) before air units become operative (step 8).

Answer:
The air unit may become operational. Once it was aborted (or eliminated) it was no longer flying a harassment mission, it was out of play. No air unit “carries” over any status from previous turns when replaced/rebuilt from a replacement pool.

Source:
TEM 74

 

Rule 20G2b: How and when is GS commited to battle?

Question:
At what point is a phasing player using air for GS committed to battle? Here is example of a problem: A phasing player sends 30 air units for GS. The phasing player has 20 REs in hexes adjacent to the hex being attacked, but is not using all 20 REs in the battle of course the Allies don’t know that. After AA 20 air units are left. My question: Is the attacking player required to use 20 REs of ground units or can he use any number of units and ignore all the extra GS in the battle? If a battle is lost or if I wish to try and deceive my opponent can I use 1 unit and make a 1 to 4 odds attack?

Answer:
First of all, combat is not mandatory, so any number of air units could be flown on GS and this would not “force” an attack, in and of itself.

However, once the phasing player initiates combat resolution for a particular hex, then combat resolution must proceed.

Any units that fire AA are automatically included in the attack, since firing AA is, per earlier rulings on this, part of resolving combat. Beyond this, however, there are no requirements that anyone attack. So yes, if you decide to begin the combat resolution for a particular attack, you are free to declare that of the x number of units available to participate, only one will do so, and if so, then GS calculations are governed by what attacks, and not by what is available to attack.

To be quite clear, the number of air units flown on a mission such as DAS and/or GS has nothing to do with how many may participate; one is always able to fly as many air units as desired and possible, the limitations are only in effect once the combat is to be resolved. Even flying the GS mission doesn’t mandate combat, as the rules make plainly clear (last paragraph, 20G.2.b).

Source:
TEM 59/60

 

 

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

Rule 20E: During the initial phase when phasing and non-phasing players fly their CAP missions, who flies first?

Question:
During the initial phase when phasing and non-phasing players fly their CAP missions, who flies first?

Answer:
Here’s how it works (text taken from WitD 16D):
One player, the initiating player, announces that he is initiating a specific air operation. Should both sides wish to initiate an air operation at the same time, the phasing player first initiates an air operation, and, when that operation is over, the non-phasing player then may initiate an air operation (he may decide not to do so – for example, the outcome of the phasing player’s air operation may have removed the reason for the nonphasing player to initiate an air operation). Continue to alternate air operations between the two sides until both sides no longer wish to initiate air operations at the same time.

Source:
TEM 59/60

Rule 20E: In what sequence can air missions be initated?

Question:
The initial phase step 11 has three activities that occur: 1) Cap, 2) harassment and 3) assign naval patrol. Since both sides can do some or all of the above in which order should one do it? The problem we’re having is that one side might want to see CAP before assigning Naval Patrol.

Answer:
If both players want to fly missions at the same time, roll a die, on a 1-3 the Allied player initiates, on 4-6 the Axis player. Alternate missions from that point on until one side can’t or doesn’t want to initiate a mission. Note that since a player could initiate a one air unit mission, thus forcing the other player to initiate a mission, it may well be impossible to “see CAP” before assigning certain missions. [TEM 59/60]

Source:
TEM 59/60

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