Shannon V. OKeets
Posts: 22095
Joined: 5/19/2005
From: Honolulu, Hawaii
Status: offline
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They dwindle down to a precious few. By my count I only have a dozen of these suckers left (69 completed).
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[53][Carrier Planes][RAW 56 s. 14.4.1]
This optional rule provides separate carrier air units for each carrier. Instead of building carriers and having implicit air units associated with each carrier, the players build explicit carrier air units separately. This rule can be used with or without the optional rule for pilots. While the introduction of separate carrier air units adds a lot of realism, it also increases the complexity of playing WIF quite a bit too. Carrier air units are treated quite differently from normal air units. Indeed, in some circumstances they can fly missions without becoming passive afterwards and can even fly missions if they have already become passive. This is a major difference from all other air units in the game.
Carrier air units cost 3 build points each (or 1 build point each when using the Pilot optional rule) and take 4 turns to produce. A carrier air unit has the values shown on the counter, not those calculated from the carrier's air class. The carrier’s air class capabilities do not increase over time as in the standard game.
A carrier air unit does not count as a unit for stacking purposes when it is on a carrier. In other cases, it counts as a normal air unit. That a carrier air unit is on a carrier is shown by being positioned directly above the carrier in a stack or in a list. It is also indicated by the status boxes alongside both the carrier air unit and the carrier. The carrier air class determines which carrier air units it can carry. A carrier air unit can fit onto a carrier if the air unit’s class is the same size as, or less than, the carrier’s air class.
Carrier air units have the colored boxes which indicate the air unit’s class. The 7 classes are:
1. Light blue
2. Orange
3. Green
4. Royal blue
5. Red
6. Violet
7. Black
Over time most carrier air units have class upgrades. These are done at the beginning of a year and may occur once, twice, or not at all. The carrier air unit’s initial class is associated with the year the plane enters the force pool. The upgrade classes and the years they become effective are shown with the rest of the information about the unit. When an air unit has a class upgrade, its class drops to a lower number, which means the air unit can fit onto a smaller carrier.
For example, the French add an SBC-4 carrier air unit into the force pool at the start of 1939 and it is a class 3 air unit (green square). Until the start of 1941, the SBC-4 can only fly from a class 3 or bigger carrier (i.e., carriers of class 3 - 7). From the start of 1941, the SBC-4 becomes a class 2 carrier plane (orange square), so it can now fit on a class 2 carrier or bigger (e.g. the Joffre). From the start of 1943 onwards, this carrier air unit can fit on any French carrier (they don't come any smaller than class 1's). The easiest way to remember all this is that small class air units fit on large class carriers.
You can place a reinforcement carrier air unit directly onto a carrier in an eligible port city, assuming the carrier can accommodate the air unit. You may stack up to 2 carrier air units on each carrier, provided that the sum of the size of all carrier air units stacked on a single carrier is no more than that carrier’s air class. For instance, 2 air units of class 2 can fit on a class 4 carrier. Each carrier air unit may conduct missions separately from the other air unit based on the same carrier, and each carrier air unit counts separately against air mission activity limits.
Carrier air units are included in naval air combats in their sea area, without counting against a major power’s air mission activity limit. If they are based on land (instead of on a carrier), then they are treated as if they were a normal fighter or a bomber and even a naval air mission counts as an air mission against the current activity limits.
Carrier air units can never fly a naval air mission from a carrier into another sea area. However, even a passive carrier air unit can take part in a naval air combat in its own sea area, providing it is flying from an undamaged carrier in that sea area. Carrier air units that fly a naval air combat mission do not become passive when they return to base! If it returns from any other mission, it does become passive. Carrier units themselves never become passive because their air units fly missions.
A carrier air unit can fly a mission from a hex just like any other air unit. It is treated as if it were a fighter if it flies as a fighter and as a bomber if it flew as a bomber. If it hasn't yet decided its role (i.e. it is in a sea area), it has the effects of a bomber.
You may not use a carrier air unit to start a naval combat. If you use a carrier to start a naval combat, then the carrier and all the air units it carries become passive.
The naval search number for a sea-box is increased by 1 if both of the following conditions are met:
∙ The weather in the sea area is fine, rain or snow, and
∙ The section contains a naval air unit or a carrier air unit belonging to the searching side. The carrier air unit must be on a carrier, and, if playing with the Carrier Search optional rule, subject to the carrier air unit range.
For the purposes of choosing the type of naval combat, a player is only allowed to choose a naval air combat because he has a carrier included, if and only if the carrier is carrying an air unit. The first step in each naval air combat round is to decide which of your fighters and carrier air units will be flying as bombers and which as fighters. These decisions can be changed at the start of the next round. Instead of adding the usual 0.5, carrier air units add one-tenth of their air-to-air strength as back-up fighters.
When being transported by a naval transport, carrier air units count as half of an air unit.
When a carrier air unit that flew from a carrier returns to base, it must return to a carrier it can fit on in the same sea box section it flew from. It can not return to another major power's carrier. If there is no carrier it can return to, it is destroyed, and its pilot is destroyed too. A carrier air unit that aborts from an air-to-air combat returns immediately to a carrier. All carrier air units that flew from a carrier must return to base after all results against naval units are implemented but before aborting naval units return to base.
If a carrier air unit gets shot down, the carrier is not damaged; it merely is carrying one less air unit. If a carrier air unit is on a carrier that aborts, the carrier air unit aborts with it. They both become passive.
If a carrier is damaged, carrier air units can still land on it but can no longer fly from it. When the combat ends, the damaged carrier is placed in the repair pool and its carrier air unit(s) onto the production circle to arrive in the next turn. If you are playing with the optional rule Pilots, a pilot is added to the owning major power’s available pilots total.
A carrier air unit on a carrier which is destroyed, is destroyed too. If you are playing with the optional rule Pilots, and a carrier air unit is on a carrier that is destroyed, the pilot is also lost. If you are playing with the Bottomed Ships optional rule, a carrier air unit on a bottomed carrier is still destroyed, (along with its pilot if the Pilot optional rule is being used).
During the rebase aircraft step of each turn, you can rebase an active carrier air unit up to double its range, from its carrier to a hex or vice versa (including the cost to get into or out of the sea-box section). You can also rebase a carrier air unit from a carrier to another carrier in the same sea-box section or port or from a carrier to the port hex it is in or vice versa. Each of these counts as a rebase for activities limits. Like all other rebases, the carrier air unit remains active.
Carrier air units may only perform normal (i.e., like other air units) rebase missions when not stacked on a carrier.
When a carrier ends its move in port, it becomes passive. However, its carrier air unit(s) only become passive if the carrier started the step at sea and moved into port during the action segment.
When you reorganize a carrier, its carrier air units are reorganized too, at no extra cost in reorganization points. However, if you are playing with the Oil optional rule, each carrier air unit costs 0.5 oil to reorganize.
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[54][Carrier Planes CV Only][RAW 56 s.]
Included as part of Carrier Planes.
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Steve
Perfection is an elusive goal.
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