Last updated July 5, 2007
Components and Concepts
1. GAME COMPONENTS
2. OVERVIEW
3. DEFINITIONS
4. TERRAIN AND THE MAPBOARD
Q: On the European mapboard, is naval movement permitted from hexes DD16 to DD17 to EE17, and from hex DD26 to hex EE26?
A: Yes to both.
Q: On the European mapboard, is hex EE44 a forest hex or a clear hex?
A: A clear hex.
5. MAPBOARD BOXES
6. COUNTERS
7. SCENARIOS
8. SEQUENCE OF PLAY
9. OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS
Q: Is there a BRP cost for naval units which abort their offensive operation as a result of enemy action?
A: Yes. The BRP cost is paid “when the offensive operation is actually carried out” (9.58), which means when the naval units embark on the operation. If the naval units are attacked by enemy air units or intercepted by enemy naval units and the operation is aborted, the BRPs spent are not regained.
Ground Operations
10. GROUND UNITS
Q: Can replacements occupy enemy-controlled hexes?
A: Yes, moving into enemy-controlled territory is not an offensive operation (10.23).
11. PARTISANS
Q: May partisans be constructed in Vichy France?
A: Yes, provided the Axis have control of the Vichy French hexes. Vichy France is part of France for the purposes of partisan construction (11.22A), even though it is also treated as a minor country once established by the Axis (77.21).
12. STACKING
13. MOVEMENT
14. ATTRITION COMBAT
15. OFFENSIVE COMBAT
16. EXPLOITATION
Air Operations
17. AIR UNITS
18. AIR OPERATIONS
Q: May Free French and Australian AAF use a British airbase counter in the phase in which it is placed?
A: Yes, as they are not minor ally or associated minor country units.
Q: If a hex is attacked simultaneously by adjacent ground units and seaborne invasion, how does one determine the limits on ground support from land-based AAF, carrier-based NAS, and CVEs?
A: The total amount of ground support permitted is limited to three times the total number of attacking ground factors (18.554). The amount of ground support provided by CVEs is limited to three times the total number of invading ground factors.
19. AIR COMBAT
Naval Operations, Air-Naval Operations
20. NAVAL UNITS
21. NAVAL OPERATIONS
Q: If all the surviving naval units carrying out a naval activity are damaged, must those naval units return to port?
A: Yes. If undamaged naval units are still conducting a naval activity, damaged naval units which were also conducting the naval activity may remain with the undamaged naval units, but once there are no undamaged naval units remaining, all damaged naval units must withdraw (21.314).
Q: Do range restrictions apply to neutral major powers?
A: No. Thus the U.S. may NR units to the Philippines without relying on British bases, if otherwise permitted to do so.
Q: May the requirement that a patrol hex be no more than 20 European hexes from an operational port (21.3613A) be met by tracing a path through an enemy-controlled strait?
A: No.
Q: How do the range restrictions for sea transports and NRs apply to one- and two-hex islands?
A: The island hex at which units are embarked or debarked is treated as a port when applying the range restrictions for that naval activity, although the island does not count as a port when applying the range restrictions to any other naval activities.
Q: May naval units at sea during the movement or combat phase return to a port which is brought under friendly control during that movement or combat phase?
A: No. Naval units may only return to a base that was under friendly control at the beginning of their player turn.
Q: Are 3-factor battlecruisers such as the Hood considered to be “3-factor battleships” when determining which ships may engage raiders?
A: Yes. A ship engagement die roll of “2” permits 3-factor battlecrusiers to engage raiders.
Q: May raiders that are damaged during their first engagement withdraw from naval combat and avoid a second engagement?
A: No, although damaged naval units may withdraw from naval combat (22.62), raiders are always subject to two engagements: while moving to an SW box (21.534) and when returning to port (21.538).
22. NAVAL INTERCEPTION AND COMBAT
Q: If two naval forces, each consisting of fewer than 10 naval factors, counter-intercept a naval mission in the same hex, and the attacker then wishes to counter-counter-intercept in the interception hex, does the -1 die modifier for intercepting small enemy naval forces apply to the counter-counter-interception dice roll?
A: Yes, although the small naval forces will combine to fight in a single naval battle (22.141), they are considered separate naval forces for the purposes of counter-counter-interception (22.232D).
Q: Must a submarine attack an enemy naval force it intercepted, even if the enemy naval force was also intercepted by a friendly naval force?
A: Yes (22.92A), provided that such an attack may legally be made in the course of naval combat. If submarines are unable to attack because no enemy combat group is found, the submarines return to port without penalty. If submarines defer their attack (22.941) and find they are unable to meet this requirement in the last round of naval combat, they also return to port without penalty.
23. AIR-NAVAL OPERATIONS
Q: Land-based air units attack an enemy naval force during naval combat. Some of the naval units withdraw from naval combat at the end of a naval combat round. May the land-based air units attack the naval units as they return to port?
A: Yes (23.82), although whatever land-based air units do so may no longer participate in the naval combat. One air sortie may be flown per hex (23.811, 23.812). Air units which did not attack the naval force during naval combat may also attack the withdrawing naval forces unless they were committed to other activities (22.433).
Strategic Warfare
24. STRATEGIC WARFARE
25. SUBMARINE WARFARE
26. STRATEGIC BOMBING
Logistics
27. UNIT CONSTRUCTION
28. REDEPLOYMENT
Q: Is redeployment next to an enemy mapboard box allowed if there are enemy units in the mapboard box?
A: Yes, enemy units in a mapboard box are not considered to be “adjacent” to the on-board hexes next to a mapboard box for the purposes of redeployment (28.25).
Q: If Japan declares war on Britain and occupies French Indochina during the same turn, do Nationalist Chinese units adjacent to northern French Indochina prohibit Japanese NRs into Haiphong?
A: Yes, but only if the Chinese resistance level from the previous turn was “+2” or greater (52.62), allowing Nationalist Chinese units to move outside of China. Otherwise, Japanese NRs into Haiphong are permitted, because the Nationalist Chinese are prohibited from entering French Indochina for political reasons (28.26B).
29. HEX CONTROL
Q: If a friendly unit moves through an area of isolated, enemy hexes, are the newly controlled and supplied hexes counted when determining which enemy-controlled hexes come under control of the moving player pursuant to 29.31?
A: Yes. The moving player
gains control of isolated enemy hexes as though a unit moved through them,
provided the enemy hexes meet the three requirements set out in 29.31: A. The
hexes did not receive supply during the opponent’s previous player turn; B. the
hexes were vacant; and C. the hexes are adjacent to a supplied hex controlled
by the moving player. Whether a hex meets the third requirement is determined
after movement and combat is resolved and post-combat supply to any newly
controlled hexes is determined. Supply may then be traced into, but not
through, the hexes gained through isolation (29.32).
It is important to remember
the rationale for 29.31: no one wants to painstakingly track hex control or
have to bother actually moving units through pockets of enemy-controlled hexes.
Isolated enemy-controlled hexes which are adjacent to supplied friendly hexes
at the end of the post-combat supply determination phase pass to the control of
the moving player. Because supply to hexes which are acquired by the more
conventional method of entering them with a unit is determined first, isolated
pockets tend to evaporate quickly, allowing players to get on with the game.
30. SUPPLY
Q: May an unprotected sea supply line be turned back by a damaged enemy naval unit?
A: No. This situation may arise in a number of ways. For example, friendly naval units protecting a sea supply line may be sunk by enemy air, naval or submarine attack, or may voluntarily abort or withdraw; while the intercepting enemy forces may be damaged by friendly air, naval or submarine attack. Regardless of how the situation arises, a sea supply line fails only if it is disrupted (“…if it incurs damage or loss from enemy attack…” - 30.381) or if the moving player voluntarily abandons an attempt to sea supply at the end of a round of air or naval combat (30.381B). A sea supply line, whether protected or not, is not “compelled to withdraw” after “three consecutive rounds of naval combat in which neither side has a naval unit damaged or sunk” (22.63).
31. BRIDGEHEADS
Q: May minor countries place bridgeheads?
A: Yes.
32. FORTIFICATIONS
33. OIL
Q: Are inverted submarines and kamikazes, other than those which redeploy, automatically uninverted at the end of their owning player’s turn, even if based in hexes which are out of supply or subject to oil effects?
A: Yes.
34. WEATHER
Q: In winter lakes north of Leningrad are frozen and are treated as clear hexes “solely for the purpose of tracing supply lines” (34.23C). Do ZoCs extend into frozen lake hexes or across frozen lake hexsides such as to cut supply lines?
A: No.
Economics
35. THE YEAR START SEQUENCE AND BRP CALCULATIONS
36. MOBILIZATION
37. INDUSTRIAL CENTERS
38. KEY ECONOMIC AREAS
39. SPENDING LIMITS
40. BRP GRANTS
Research and Intelligence
41. RESEARCH
42. PRODUCTION
43. ATOMICS
44. INTELLIGENCE
45. COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE
46. ESPIONAGE
47. COVERT OPERATIONS
48. CODEBREAKING
Q: May the U.S. use Magic (48.62C) to intercept a Japanese invasion of an Aleutian island?
A: Yes. The off-board operational port in Alaska within 10 hexes of the Aleutians (21.3614) permits the use of Magic in the Aleutians.
Diplomacy and Politics
49. DIPLOMACY
Q: May an allied or associated minor country revert to neutral status as a result of a diplomatic die roll giving the major power ally hex control or an economic interest?
A: No. Any diplomatic result short of surrender (85.5) is treated as a “3-4” result, maintaining the current status of the minor country.
50. DECLARATIONS OF WAR
51. PEARL HARBOR AND ALLIED UNPREPAREDNESS
Q: May the Japanese strike force which attacks Pearl Harbor attack any other Allied bases while en route to Pearl Harbor?
A: No.
52. LENT UNITS
53. MAJOR POWER COOPERATION RESTRICTIONS
Surrender of Major Powers
54. SURRENDER OF MAJOR POWERS
55. GERMAN SURRENDER
56. ITALIAN SURRENDER
57. JAPANESE SURRENDER
58. FRENCH SURRENDER
Q: When France surrenders the French control a minor country they have conquered and a group of hexes in a minor country that France invaded but did not conquer. Neither may trace a land supply line to a Free French colony. Is the presence of a single British ground unit in the French conquest or in the group of hexes in the unconquered minor country sufficient to cause the hexes to pass to British control (58.52)?
A: Yes.
59. BRITISH SURRENDER
Q: Where are Australian and Indian units placed after a British surrender if the British no longer control any Mediterranean hexes?
A: In the Australia and Indian boxes, respectively.
Q: May British ground units which are removed from the British force pool as a result of a British surrender be returned to the British force pool by military production?
A: No. Ground units which remain in the British force pool and ground units which have been removed from the British force pool (and which count as unbuilt units in determining future British resistance levels - 59.962) are counted towards the overall limit on the number of each type of British ground unit.
60. RUSSIAN SURRENDER
Q: Is China considered to be a “Western Allied major power at war with Germany” for Russian resistance purposes if Japan is at war with the Western Allies?
A: No.
Q: If Russia surrenders during a winter turn, may the land supply line from the eastern edge of the mapboard required for Russia to retain hex control (60.41) be traced over a frozen lake (34.23C)?
A: Yes, although Russia may face supply difficulties in such areas in subsequent turns.
Q: When Russia surrenders, does it acquire control over all unsupplied Axis-controlled hexes, regardless of location (60.44)?
A: No. Only hexes which were previously controlled by Russia “revert” to Russian control.
61. CHINESE SURRENDER
62. U.S. ELECTIONS
The Nazi-Soviet Pact and Eastern Europe
63. EASTERN EUROPE
64. POLAND
65. THE BALTIC STATES
66. BESSARABIA
67. THE FINNISH BORDER HEXES
68. THE UKRAINE
69. GERMAN ECONOMIC INTERESTS
British Commonwealth
70. CANADA AND SOUTH AFRICA
71. AUSTRALIA
72. INDIA
73. GIBRALTAR
74. BRITISH ASIAN COLONIES
France
75. RESTRICTIONS ON FRENCH FORCES
76. FRENCH INDOCHINA AND OTHER FRENCH ASIAN COLONIES
Q: May Japan occupy French Indochina by seaborne invasion in order to place a bridgehead there?
A: No. A Japanese seaborne invasion of French Indochina is not permitted (76.41) because it is pointless. French Indochina is not hostile, and therefore a bridgehead could not be placed in the invasion hex (31.22A).
Q: If a Vichy French colony survives the first turn of an Allied attack, does it associate with the Axis?
A: No. The colony continues to fight alone unless the Axis make a reaction die roll for Vichy France that changes the alignment of Vichy France as a whole (77.62).
Q: Are Vichy French colonies that are conquered by the Allies still considered part of Vichy France when determining the diplomatic effect of “…enemy ground/air factors in Vichy France”?
A: No.
China, Manchuria and Siberia
78. NATIONALIST CHINA
79. COMMUNIST CHINA
80. RESTRICTIONS ON CHINESE FORCES
81. MANCHURIA, SIBERIA AND THE URALS BOX
Minor Countries
82. MINOR COUNTRIES
Q: May Italian naval units intercept a Western Allied naval force invading a Vichy French colony in the same hex as Vichy French naval units in the attack colony (77.63, 82.72)?
A: Yes.
83. CONQUEST OF MINOR COUNTRIES
84. ASSOCIATED MINOR COUNTRIES
85. MINOR ALLIES
86. SCANDINAVIA
87. WESTERN EUROPE
88. THE MIDDLE EAST
89. THE FAR EAST
Scenarios
European Scenario:
Q: If a scenario requires the withdrawal of naval units, is sending the required naval units off the mapboard sufficient to satisfy this requirement?
A: Yes, if these naval units are eliminated while trying to leave the mapboard, the player need not send more in order to comply with the scenario requirement.
Barbarossa Scenario:
Q: May the Western Allies grant oil to Russia in a Barbarossa scenario?
A: Yes.