SGS Rules

Combats

Combats, i.e. (land) battles usually take place when all movement in the concerned domains (air and land) has been executed. Note that a battle which shall see on one side only land-attack able air units would still be dealt with in the land battle resolution.

A player can choose to resolve his battles in the order he wishes, by selecting them in the Battles List window, each battle being resolved one at a time, in the order selected by the player.

Cards impacting battles are playable either at the start of each individual battle round (attacker first, followed by defender) or during the battle’s Cards round.

Note that some cards may cancel battles completely (e.g. the “Retreat” card in some cases).

A / Generalities

When there are stacks of two different sides in the same region, there is a battle.

When the Battle Phase opens, all combats initiated by the active side will be displayed inside the Battle List window (see Illustration 17.1) which allows the player to select which battle is resolved before which, provided that, in the end, all battles have been resolved (not possible to skip unresolved battles)

To launch a battle, click on the arrow button in the battle list window. The player selects the order in which battles are resolved. This is rather important because due to the fact it is not allowed to retreat into enemy regions OR into regions where battle is unresolved. There may be cases where some enemy troops can find themselves trapped and unable to retreat, thereby risking full elimination in case of defeat. See also Breakthroughs in the next section I below and see also Retreats.

Illustration 7.8 – 16-1

A land battle will last a certain number of rounds, depending on the terrain, the participants and, in some cases, cards played by one side or the other.

The possible battle rounds (one of each except the last) in the battle unfold like this:
• Cards
• Artillery Preparation
• Air Support
• Mines
• Recon
• Main
• Next (s) – up to three times

Once cards have been played in the Cards round and it has been established that the battle takes place (i.e. battle not cancelled by card play), resolution of battle rounds is processed always in the order above, when applicable, and is usually simultaneous (unless a card modifies this or one side has no units able to participate in the round).

B / Battle Window, Leaders and Battle Morale

Once the player has selected its battle, it is resolved immediately. Explanations on what you see when entering the battle window are shown in Illustration 16.2 below.

Illustration 16.2

Top part :

  • Battle window reminds both sides where it takes place 1, and between which sides as well as  where it is on the main map, through a “hole” in the battle screen that is centered on the region 2 in map.
  • On both sides of the central information display, the flags of the participants 3, with the attacker located on the left hand side on the screen (see also the red arrow decoration on battlefield) and defender on the right-hand side. For both side, their respective battle morale 4 is indicated inside the blue diamond, at the bottom of their flags,
  • Next to each flag, a area will show which cards have been played by each side 5, while the current battle round is indicated in the center of the screen 6.

Central part :

  • On the far side, support and artillery units are displayed 7 (usually on top of the semi-circle decor), then leaders 8, then planes 9a right behind the land combat units 9b.
  • On the top-bottom center of the battlefield you have the battle log button 10 which you can open or close (it expands or reduces at will at all time during the battle) by clicking on the arrow displayed on top of it (the battle log giveswritten details of everything that happens in the battle). Important: just below the battle log, when the battle starts, a button to launch the phase appears there (see one of the next screens). See 10 in Illustration 16.2bis below.

Bottom part :

  • On the bottom of the screen, on the left and on the right, you find the Losses and Routs Boxes 11 (LRB), where units destroyed in battle (on the left, below the skull symbol) or those which routed and left the battlefield (on the right, under the white flag icon) will go.
  • Finally, the bar joining the two above boxes, colored according the sides in play 12, gives an indication (it’s statistical and does not factor luck or cards) of the chances of each side to win the battle.
Illustration 16.2bis

Note that in the NEXT round(s) two new buttons allowing RETREAT 13 appear next to the LRBs, on which player can click to leave the battle (it’s only available after all rounds till the main one have been executed, in this version of the game – see following explanations)

Role of Leaders

Leaders are NOT necessary to engage in battles, but they might prove helpful (if they have values of interest) on TWO GROUNDS: they impact on the Battle Morale calculation (see below) and they may influence the combat performance of the units under their commands via their combat modifiers and boost abilities (see units description – leaders section – above)

Battle Morale and Demoralization

The main factor contributing to the duration of a battle is called BATTLE MORALE (or BM – see 4 in Illustration 16.2 above). It is a calculated value that sums the Leader morale value and the combat units avg. morale calculated value, i.e. the average mean of all morale values of combat units (not support ones) engaged in the battle (the mathematical mean is
rounded to the next closest full value), plus the modifiers below (all of them are cumulative):

  • If a side has Air units present, a +1 Air force Bonus is added to the BM.
  • If a side has Armor units present (i.e. tanks), a +1 Armor Bonus is added to the BM.
  • If a side has Armor Superiority (this means at least double the number of armor units than the opponent and minimum two of them), there is an extra +1 BM modifier (and also combat modifier, see later)
  • Important : there can be Morale « booster » units present (HQ, Leaders, some Logistical units), each with their own BM bonus (see individually the unit’s tooltip), those BM modifiers are also added cumulatively added.
  • In some scenarios, one side (or even both) may have a “Scenario Morale Bonus” that will be added to all battles, no matter what the battle configurations or the engaged units are.
Illustration 16.3

In Illustration 16.3 above, you can see that when you place the mouse pointer over the blue diamond indicating the current battle morale, you can see a tooltip which summarizes the various elements taken into account in the calculation. This is dynamically recalculated in each of the battle’s rounds.

The higher the BM value, the longer the duration of the battle.

Indeed, a side ‘lasts’ in battle for as long as its BM has not fallen below 0 (zero) AND the side has not routed.

  • When the BM is below 0, a ROUT test is made (see explanation in battle sequence below) and battle end may occur if the test fails (it may even generate a pursuit in some cases, terrain and/or units allowing).
  • When the test is passed (i.e. no rout) and another round remains to be done, the battle goes on.

Battle Morale changes as follows:

The BM of a side is lowered by 1 for every completely eliminated or every routed unit in the force engaged in the battle (which happens every time a unit moves from the battlefield to sections 11 of the battle window.) See Losses and routs below.

The BM also automatically drops by 1 every round after the main one (i.e. during the rounds that are labeled NEXT), which means at some point the battle may end (even if there are still rounds to engage in). See Next Rounds details and explanations below.

The BM finally drops by another 1 in round with heavy losses, which means that if, in one single round, the total number of hits strength points lost is higher than half of the total of strength points present at the start of the round, then the BM loses an extra one. For instance, if a side has units (with a cumulative 9 SP) engaged at the beginning of the round and it loses 5 of them in the round, the BM will drop by 1.

C / Battle Sequence Generalities

This sequence is always following the list of rounds described above (all explained in details hereafter). Some rounds will not take place if the battle has NO unit on both sides that could participate (e.g. no air support phase when no planes involved, no artillery preparation when no one has artillery units, no mines when no mine units present, etc…)

When the battle opens, you see the battlefield with the units present (and their leaders if present). Players will first be offered the option to play cards if they have some (attacker first, followed by defender). Morale values and modifiers are then calculated and adjusted when relevant, as they may be altered by card play.

Card Round

The attacker plays all the cards he wants first (the only limitation – for now – being the number of playable cards in his hand). When a card is playable, it displays a green halo and when it is dragged on the center part of the battlefield, the location where to release it also becomes green-highlighted. See Illustration 16.3 next.

Illustration 16.4

 

 

Then the defender proceeds similarly.

Note that you are never forced to play cards. Cards played by both sides are stored on the top of the panel, next to the nations’ respective flags, as shown in Illustration 16.4b on the right here.

Illustration 16.4

Also note that if you don’t want to play any currently playable (i.e. with green halo) card, you have just to click on the button in the center of the screen, just above the cards green zone (in the yellow circle here on the right).

Once both sides have played (or not) their cards, the active player (or the AI when it’s her phase) can click on the button (middle of battlefield) to actually launch the next phase of the battle. In each of the subsequent rounds, action is simultaneous (except if modified by some Cards effects) and as follows:

  • Each unit allowed to fight in that round has one (or more, depending on their rate of fire) shots at the enemy (Elite units re-shoot if they fail their first shot).
  • Losses are automatically assigned and applied, then each unit with too many losses checks to see if it stays on the battlefield or leaves it (also called a panic).
  • A rout test is made when the BM is null or negative, if it fails, the losing side routs.
  • A Pursuit may occur after a rout if the terrain allows and there are pursuit able units.
  • Surviving units of the loser retreat; a breakthrough may take place for the attacker (never for the defender in this version of the game), which may in turn generate a new battle.

Rounds and shoots

A land battle will last a maximum of 8 different rounds, excluding the card round, but including special rounds such as Ambush, Mines, Air Support or Artillery Preparation which only exist if the capable units are present. A battle can end earlier if one of the involved sides (or both) has no combat units left on the battlefield at the end of a round, or if it has routed.

In a battle, each combat unit fires as many times as its ROF (Rate of Fire) allows, which is usually 2 for Division-sized units and 1 for all others. This is independent to the number of steps it has, but the combat strength is usually lower for units that have lost 50% or more of their strength. Elite units (showing a nice little medal on their counters) may re-roll if they failed to hit on their first rolls.

Modifiers

The following modifiers exist in the game and may apply to some or all types of rounds. They are classified as follows:

Leaders

• As a bonus the difference of their Combat values, in favor of the side whose leader has the highest value
• Also as a bonus their booster capacity (may apply to attack, defense and/ or morale)

Terrains

• May vary according to terrains (the value can be seen above and in the terrain image, as a tooltip): as a rule, usually a +1 or +2 in favor of the defender in non-clear terrains, and sometimes a -1 penalty to the attacker in some rather difficult or dense terrains.

Connections used to reach the battle

• The modifier may vary according to type: as a rule a +1 or +2 bonus to the defender when fighting against an attacker that crossed a river or strait. However this modifier is only effective in the first round of the battle

Cards

• All kind of modifiers can in theory be inflicted by cards, be they positive or negative, according to the card definition and purpose. This is the most random and uncertain modifying factor in a battle (aside from the die itself).

Entrenchments

• Attackers suffer a -1 combat penalty when in a battle against entrenched defenders.

Units and Superiorities

• Armor: if a side has an Armor unit (usually displaying a little tank silhouette on the top left of the counter, below the nation flag), it will receive a +1 Morale bonus (see above). If the total number of Armor units is at least double that of the opponent, there is an extra +1 combat factor modifier.

Where to find Modifiers: as those modifiers will be calculated individually for each unit, a summary is available inside the unit tooltip: just check it (even in battle) to get the details.

Visual Impact of Modifiers on Units Values: in addition to the details (value and type) of each modifier shown in the tooltip, all units whose values have been modified are colorized, either in light green if their value has increased, or in red if it has decreased. Values shown in standard white color have not been modified OR the modifiers received have cancelled each
other out so that the final change was zero.

Hits, Losses and Disorganization / Panic

A unit will either succeed or fail its shot. If the shot is successful, the number corresponding to the die is colored in yellow. If it shown in black, this is a miss. A success occurs when the dice is equal or less to the modified combat value of the unit, for each time it fires.

Each successful shot inflicts a loss on the opponent (barring a few exceptions, such as cards canceling first shot, or heavy units which “absorb” some hits for free – not in version 1.00). Some units may suffer losses before others. See I/ Combat Round below.

Any unit that receives hits equal to or higher than half of its remaining strength points will make an automatic test to check if it remains engaged in battle for the following round (if any). The process is called disorganization or panic. A unit will fail the disorganization or panic test if a die is rolled and the result obtained on that die is strictly higher than the double of the base Morale value of the unit. If the test is passed, the unit stays engaged in battle.

Panicked / disorganized units leave the battlefield (they no longer fire or suffer losses) during the regular battle round. They return to the owner’s stack during the pursuit phase (if any, in which case they can receive pursuit hits), and thus will be present in the owner’s stack, wherever it is located, once the battle is over.

Visual Aspect of Combat Dice

Illustration 16.5

Each time a units shoots, a very large figure is displayed on the unit counter, either in yellow color (the unit scored a hit) or in black color (the unit failed). A smaller value of the result(s) is (are) displayed, as a reminder, on the right-hand side of the unit’s counter. See Illustration 16.5 here on the right.

NB: the dice roll values remain on the unit counters till the end of the ongoing round, then they are erased, and new figures will be displayed if there is another round. If you want to keep track of ALL the rolls of your unit, you can open the Battle Log window in the middle of the screen, to see every roll and result for every unit engaged.

End of Battle – Victory and Defeat

A battle ends when one side is completely eliminated from the battlefield (all its combat units are destroyed or disorganized) or has retreated. The winner of a battle is, in decreasing and exclusive order of importance:

• the side which is the only one with combat unit on the battlefield, else
• the side that did NOT retreat, else
• the defender.

The defeated side, if it has surviving units, must retreat. See Illustration 16.6 below.

Illustration 16.6

D / Air Support

This round takes place only when there is at least one air unit – that is capable of attacking land units – present on one side. When the round plays, the air units are clearly visible, other units that cannot shoot or cannot be targeted are shown dimmed. Suitable targets for those air units are displayed normally.

During that Air Support round,

• Only the AIR combat AND air support units which have the ability to shoot at land targets can fire.
• The only applicable modifiers are coming from Cards, Terrains and Entrenchments.
• Some cards (usually related to aerial operation such as bombing) can be playable in that phase.
• Each air unit shoots as many time as its ROF allows.

Hits are implemented immediately. Units destroyed or disorganized influence the BM change (as indicated above). See Illustration 16.7 below.

Illustration 16.7

E / Artillery Preparation Round

This round takes place only when there is at least one artillery present on one side. When the round plays, only the artillery able units are clearly visible, the units that cannot shoot or cannot be targeted are shown dimmed. Suitable targets for the artillery fire are displayed normally. See Illustration 16.8 below.

Illustration 16.8

During that Artillery Preparation round,

• Only the combat AND support units which have the Artillery role (you can see usually a little gun silhouette on the unit’s counter for most of those – see the yellow circled icon in Illustration 16.8 above – but it can also include heavy static fortifications units like bunkers, as those have guns, or the HQ units, which hold the corps artillery) can fire.
• The only applicable modifiers are coming from Cards, Terrains and Entrenchments.
• Some cards (usually related to artillery operations, such as barrage) can be playable in that phase.
• Each unit shoots as many time as its ROF allows.
• Hits are implemented immediately. Units destroyed or disorganized influence the BM change (as indicated above)

F / Recon Round

This round takes place immediately AFTER the Air Support and Artillery Rounds, and is usually present only when the circumstances and certain specific units warrant it.

Illustration 16.9.

Recon conditions are: the battle has reconnaissance units involved, and the terrain allows it. Only the said units will shoot, without any return fire from the enemy except the enemy’s own Recon units. Both sides may decide to retreat at this stage, which is a great advantage if one finds oneself in a difficult situation or risking to take many losses (Illustration 16.9 above).

G / Minefields Explosions

This round takes place only when there is at least one MINEFIELD unit present on one side. When the round plays, only the minefield units of the shooting side are clearly visible, her other units are shown dimmed. Suitable targets for those shooters are displayed normally. See Illustration 16.10 below.

Illustration 16.10

During that Minefield Explosion round,

• Only the minefield units (designed as such in the scenario) can shoot, no other unit can shoot or reply
• The only applicable modifiers are coming from Cards, if applicable.
• Each unit shoots as many time as its ROF allows.
• Hits are implemented immediately. Units destroyed or disorganized influence the BM change (as indicated above)

I / Combat Rounds (Main and Next)

Those rounds take takes place after all the previous ones listed above have been executed (if present). The Main or Next Rounds play exactly in the same way, the ONLY difference being that NO RETREAT is allowed in the Main Round.

All units that are COMBAT units will fire during those rounds, whatever their types.

• Air units that are allowed to fire are Fighter-Bombers (i.e. close support attack aircraft) or Dive-Bombers, usually identified by a specific icon on their counters. Regular Bomber or Fighter units take no role at this stage.
• Artillery units that are in the support zone do not fire either (they already did so in the preparation round), unless they are also considered as combat units (e.g. frontline artillery regiments).
• As in previous rounds, units of your side that are NOT allowed to fight are shown in a dimmed aspect.

See Illustration 16.11 below.

Illustration 16.11

Losses are assigned by the game, the player cannot choose them. There are some keys to understand allocation of loss, as follows.

Units are “classified” by the engine into two main groups: CavUnits and OtherUnits. CavUnits is more or less armored units like tanks, or heavy mechanized units. Each group present stores the hits it is inflicting separately.

• First, all losses inflicted by CavUnits are assigned to the equivalent units of the other side (if any), with the hits assigned in proportion of the remaining strength of those still there (so logically the bigger units receive the majority of losses)
• Then if there are still hits inflicted by CavUnits and no equivalent unit(s) on the other side to absorb them, the balance is inflicted on the OtherUnits
• Then all losses inflicted by OtherUnits are assigned to their enemy’s counterpart.
• The procedure is applied exactly the same way for sides, and losses are simultaneous, even if for practical reason we show attacker’s results before the defender’s
• In case there are only CavUnits remaining on one side, only half of the balance of losses inflicted by enemy’s OtherUnits can be assigned to the CavUnits (i.e. there is a wastage of half of them). This represent the superior mobility of those units on the battlefield, making them harder to be hit.
• Obviously, if a side has no more units able to absorb losses, all excess balance inflicted is lost.
• Units are in addition sorted by category of “Loss priority”: we have those which ‘Take Hits First’ (e.g. minefields), those which ‘Take Hits Last’ (e.g. fortifications supposed to be in the rear), and those without one of those two specifications. Obviously, the category is used when assigning the hits (of any kind or from any source) by the game.
Typically, players will see all minefields or obstacle sustaining (and sometimes being killed) by the first hits, while
some units (like forts in the rear) will never suffer hits until no other units can absorb them before.

The same procedure is applied in ALL the rounds, including the Pursuit round (except that, in the latter, only the pursuing – i.e. victorious – side can shoot and inflict hits).

RETREAT: from the first round (called NEXT) following the main battle start round, players will see a RETREAT button displayed in the bottom part of the battle interface. Those buttons are clickable and, when this is done, make the side which clicked on it retreat from the battle. The advantage of deciding to retreat by oneself (i.e. using the button) is that it prevents the
enemy to make a pursuit (consider this as some kind of organized withdrawal from the battlefield).

J / Particular Cases in Land Combats (from Cards)

The general procedure described above applies, but may be changed sometimes due to the play of some specific cards

Retreat Card

If one side plays such a card at the start of the battle, the whole battle will become cancelled and the playing side will retreat (if the card says so, or it could be the attacker forced to retreat). This ‘missed’ battle will generate no VP change – See K below.

Non Simultaneous Battle Card

If a side plays a card that allows it to shoot first in one (or both) round(s), then the combat is no longer simultaneous. The side benefiting from the card effect will shoot first, and inflict all its results first. The other side will then replicate with its surviving unit(s), if any.

K / Demoralization, Routs and Pursuits

A rout is the consequence of a test which is made when a side is demoralized, that is when the side’s battle morale is lower than zero. If a rout ensues, it may in some cases imply of pursuit of the routed side.

Rout

When the conditions are satisfied (side is demoralized); a rout test takes place.

If both sides are demoralized, the one which suffered most loss and panics cumulatively is the only one to make the test.

In case of ties of those cumulated loss/panics, the loser is the one which suffered more panics than loss. In case of total tie, there is no test.

Reminder: if, during a non-simultaneous battle (usually at sea), the enemy may become demoralized even before having a chance to shoot back, he won’t fight and will make a rout test immediately instead.

Pursuit

There can be a pursuit ONLY if there was a previous rout AND the side not in rout has pursuit able units AND the terrain allows pursuit. In such a case an extra Pursuit round takes place, where all the units of the victor capable of pursuit will make another round of fire. The units capable of pursuit in this game are all armored and mechanized units on both sides. See Illustration 16.12

Illustration 16.12

Total Elimination

If at the end of a pursuit (or at the end of a normal combat round, main or next) all the combat units of a side are eliminated, then half of all support units also present are fully eliminated as well.

L / Breakthroughs

For a breakthrough to occur at the end of a battle, the following conditions must be met:

• The victorious side is allowed breakthrough (it is a scenario parameter)
• The victorious side has combat units engaged in the battle that are allowed to breakthrough or follow a breakthrough (more or less the same units as those able to make a pursuit)
• If a victorious leader is allowed to break through, it will accompany the units in breakthrough. If none is present, those units will move alone (i.e. with no leader).

Target Region of the Breakthrough

The target region must be a region allowing breakthrough (which is a terrain parameter) and adjacent to the region where the battle took place. Valid regions are highlighted in yellow overlay. See Illustration 16.13.

SGS Afrika Korps - Breakthrough
Illustration 7.11 – 8.5 – 16.13

 

Number of Breakthroughs and Which Units to involve

A same stack of units may make up to two breakthroughs per turn, if allowed to its side (e.g. Italians are not allowed double breakthrough in the 1940 scenario).

In the unit list that opens above the map (see Illustration 16.13 above), you have all the units that can use the breakthrough option. The player is not forced to use all of them. If you want to leave some of them behind (to keep control of the battle area for instance), just deselect them from the list (they will no longer be highlighted). In other words, ONLY those units that are highlighted inside the breakthrough list will participate.

Important – NO BREAKTHROUGH: note that undertaking a breakthrough is never mandatory, and the receiving side may choose NOT to execute it. To do so, just click on the region where the stack is presently located (i.e. where the battle initially took place) and the breakthrough will be canceled.

Also, note that once a breakthrough region is selected, the moving units go there. Then the game returns to the battle list if there are unresolved battles (including the one potentially created by the breakthrough which will show at the top of the list of remaining battles).

M / Retreats

In this version of the game, retreats are effected automatically, including for the active player when necessary. The destination region of a retreat is chosen according to the following guidelines:

  • A retreating attacking unit goes back to the region from where it entered the battle region (i.e. each unit is returning to its own region of entry).
  • The defender must retreat towards a friendly region (non occupied by enemy forces), and cannot retreat into any of those from which the attacker(s) entered. A region which is the site of a yet unresolved battle cannot be entered as well. Game mechanisms will attempt retreats into region closest to the defender’s supply source if more than one choice is possible (random choice if more than one and all equivalent in terms of supplies).
  • And, in all cases, terrain of and connections into the retreat region must be allowed.

Important: a stack that could not retreat is eliminated instead.

The defender must retreat into an adjacent region free of enemy combat units; it will be eliminated if none can be found. A region where a battle is yet unresolved does not qualify for defender’s retreat. However, if the region of the battle holds a friendly fortified structure, the defender can retreat inside the structure if no other choice is possible.

Overstacking: last but not least, if the retreat region has a stacking limit that is exceeded because of retreat, then all units in excess are retreated one more region that would accommodate the stacking (in other words the first region will be “jumped”), the choice of which – if more than one qualifies – being made randomly by the game engine according to the guidelines above (i.e. getting closer to the supply sources).

Battle Summary Window

When all battles of the same turn have been resolved, a Battle Summary window is displayed with the account of all those battles. See Illustration 16.14 and 16.14a (details viewed when clicking on the button on the left-hand side) below

Illustration 7.10 – 16.14

It summarizes the various scores, VP, winners and losers and many other details. You can see more details by clicking on the information button located at the far left of each battle listed in the window (see Illustration 16.14b below).

Illustration 16.14b

N / Anti-Aircraft (AA) and Air Combats

As a major difference with all other combats, combats exclusively involving air units and AA units will be handled during the movement of air units (interception by enemy fighters and AA fire) and dealt with automatically by the game engine without player intervention.

This said, the procedure is strictly identical to the general unfolding of battles, without player intervention AND no battle window display. A player that would want to play a card that can influence air battles or AA must do so at the start of the air movement phase (and not during the battle itself, as in other cases, because it won’t be possible).

Anti-Aircraft (AA)

In every region crossed by air units during their movement (including their final destination) where there is an enemy AA unit, an immediate AA combat takes place when the air unit(s) enters the region. It is solved as follows:

Warning: only the AA fires, air units won’t shoot back (as a non-simultaneous combat where AA shoot first).

Modifiers: there are only two of them, cumulative, that apply on the combat factors (CF):

• +1 to the CF of the AA if their owning nation has radars (a national parameter set in the scenario).
• -3 to the CF of the AA if ALL opposing air units are of the SL (Stealth / Invisible) type.

Results implementation is automatic: panics are assigned to air units with the lowest moral values (chosen at random among those concerned). Hits are assigned totally randomly on the surviving non-panicked air units.

Panics are flying back immediately to the base they started from (and can no longer move). All other planes will continue their movement. An AA fire never inflicts any retreat.

Interceptions

In every region crossed by air units during their movement (including their final destination) where there are enemy air units (flying or not) AND at least one of the two sides has Interceptors (also called Fighters, F letter on the unit), there is an Interception test. The test ALSO occurs if the air unit travels through a region which is ADJACENT to one with enemy
fighters (the test is made for EVERY such region). Test resolution is handled as follows:

• If one side only has Interceptor, it will handle the test
• If both sides have some, the defender (inactive side) handles it

An Interception is deemed successful on a modified die roll of 0 to 3, modified as follows:

• -1 if the intercepted air stack has reached its final destination,
• -3 if at least one nation of the intercepting side has Radar,
• +5 if none of the inactive side air units is of Fighter type,
• -1 if the intercepted air stack is NOT in the same region has the Intercepting units,
• +1 if all intercepting air units where originally on the ground (in an airport structure), and lastly
• +/- ? if a card was played at the start of the air movement phase.

In case of successful interception, an air battle is resolved. In case of failed interception, nothing happens and the moving stack will pursue its movement to the next region (where another test could happen if the conditions are met), and so forth, till all possible interception attempts have been tested or the stack has reached its final destination without being intercepted.

Air Combat

It is solved automatically with one battle round for each side, simultaneously. All air units with an air-to-air combat capability will fire (be they Fighters or not).

Modifiers: there is only one them in this version of the game engine, which is applied to the air combat factors (CF):

• +1 to the Fighters (and them only) if their owning nation is the only one to have radars (a national parameter set in the scenario). Modifier is 0 if at least one nation on each side has radars.

Results implementation is automatic: panics are assigned to air units with the lowest moral values (chosen at random among those concerned). Hits are assigned totally randomly on the surviving non-panicked air units.

Panicked planes are flying back immediately to the base they started from (and can no longer move). All other planes will continue their movement ONLY IF they won the air battle. If not they fly back to their base. In case of ties, the defender (intercepting player) wins the battle.

If the defender lost, it returns to its base (if unknown or unavailable, to the closest friendly airbase).

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