Axis & Allies Revised: Rule Book FAQ/Errata

Below find Axis & Allies Revised rule book corrections and FAQs, as pulled from the PDF posted on the Axis&Allies.org forum. Have questions or comments about it? Please comment at the bottom of this page.

Errata

UK Reference Chart: Replace the fighter cost of “12” with “10”.

Page 4, How the War is Won: Check for victory at the end of a complete round of play (after the U.S. turn), not at the end of each power’s turn.

Page 12, “air units” diagram: Delete the “no entry” symbol from Kazakh S.S.R.

Page 13, Transports: Delete the sentence “A transport may not load or offload in a territory adjacent to a hostile sea zone, unless the enemy units consist only of submerged submarines (see the rules for submerging submarines in Phase 4: Conduct Combat).” Replace it with “A transport may not load or offload if it is in a hostile sea zone, unless the enemy units consist only of submerged submarines (see the rules for submerging submarines in Phase 4: Conduct Combat).”.

Pages 20-21, Rocket Strikes: Delete the sentence “Choose an industrial complex within 3 spaces and roll one die for each gun; however, each gun can inflict no more IPC loss than the territory’s income value.” Replace it with “In each territory, one antiaircraft gun may attack an industrial complex within 3 spaces, though each industrial complex may be attacked by only one rocket launcher in a turn. The maximum loss each rocket can inflict is the target territory’s income value.”

Page 21, Strategic Bombing Raids: Delete the sentence “The opponent must surrender that many IPCs to the bank (or as many as the player has, whichever is the greater amount).” Replace it with “The opponent must surrender that many IPCs to the bank (or as many as the player has, whichever is the lesser amount).”

Page 25, Weapons Development – Rockets: Delete the sentence “Choose an industrial complex within 3 spaces and roll one die per rocket launcher (the maximum each rocket can inflict is the territory’s income value).” Replace it with “In each territory, one antiaircraft gun may attack an industrial complex within 3 spaces, though each industrial complex may be attacked by only one rocket launcher in a turn. The maximum loss each rocket can inflict is the target territory’s income value.”

Pages 33-34, A Sample Turn: Replace all text and diagrams referring to the antiaircraft gun in Russia with an antiaircraft gun in Caucasus.

Map

Q. Does sea zone 14 connect to the Balkans? Does sea zone 35 connect to French Indochina?

A. No in both cases.

Q. Is Gibraltar a Neutral Country or does UK own it? It does not seem to match any color, UK or Neutral?

A. Gibraltar is the same color as all the other UK territories. It looks lighter because it’s surrounded by very dark territories, but it’s the same as the UK.

Q. Can you sail south of Australia?

A. Yes. Sea zone 40 is one space that connects to sea zone 39 on its left and 41 on its right.

Q. Is the Suez canal between Egypt and Trans-Jordan? Do the same channel rules apply as in 2nd edition A&A?

A. Yes to both.

Q. Can the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea be closed if Gibraltar and Algeria are both controlled by a single power or alliance?

A. No, the western entrance to the Mediterranean can’t be closed under any circumstance.

Q. There are regions in Africa (French West Africa, French Equatorial Africa, and Belgian Congo) that are labeled “Free French (or) Belgian Forces”. What does this mean?

A. It’s just a tag to explain why territories labeled as French or Belgian begin under British control when France and Belgium begin under German control.

Submarines

Q. Subs have always been confusing. Can you summarize the changes?

A. Here’s what you need to remember about subs:

1. Every sub, regardless of whether it’s on the attacking or defending side, fires in the Opening Fire step of combat. That’s the only time a sub ever fires.
2. Losses caused by attacking or defending subs are removed at the end of the Opening Fire step, before normal attack and defense rolls, unless the enemy has a destroyer present.
3. If the enemy (attacker or defender) has a destroyer, then hits caused by your subs aren’t removed until the Remove Casualties step (step 6) of combat.

In other words, subs work exactly the same for the attacker and the defender. Nothing, not even a destroyer, ever stops a sub from rolling its die (attack or defense) in the Opening Fire step. What a destroyer does do is let you keep your units that were sunk by enemy subs on the battle board until step 6, allowing them to fire back before going to the scrap heap.

Q. My sub attacks an enemy destroyer and hits it in the Opening Fire step. Does the destroyer get to shoot back?

A. Yes.

Q. My sub attacks an enemy destroyer and aircraft carrier and scores a hit in the Opening Fire step. What happens?

A. One of the two enemy ships is designated as taking the hit (moved to the casualty area of the battle board), but neither is removed from the battle board yet. Both get to shoot back. Let’s say they both miss (rotten luck). In step 6, the casualty is removed. If the destroyer is removed, then the sub has a chance to hit and sink the aircraft carrier in the next round before the carrier can return fire. If the carrier is removed, the sub may hit the destroyer in the next opening fire step but the destroyer is guaranteed a return shot no matter what, because it’s a destroyer.

Q. Assume that my attacking submarine submerges and then the surface ships of my attacking fleet are sunk. What happens next?

A. The submarine surfaces at the end of the noncombat movement phase, regardless of what’s in the sea zone. The opponent can shoot at it again during his or her next combat phase, or move away from it during the combat move. (Nothing prevents the beginning of movement during the combat move, not even the presence of an enemy unit in your units’ space.)

Q. Can submarines attack or defend against fighters? What happens if a lone fighter attacks a sea zone that has four enemy subs in it? Can the subs defend themselves and destroy the fighter, or are the subs just sitting ducks until they submerge?

A. Submarines can only hit sea units (page 15). They must suffer a round of fire from the fighter before they can submerge.

Q. My sub attacks an enemy battleship. Can I sink it with my Opening Fire if I roll a 1 or 2, or does it still take two hits to sink a battleship?

A. It always takes two hits to sink a battleship. Two subs attacking a battleship could sink it in Opening Fire if both hit. If only one sub attacks, the battleship is guaranteed to get a return shot no matter what because a single sub can’t cause more than one hit per round. If the battleship was hit in the first round and its return shot missed, then the sub could sink it by hitting it again on the second round. The battleship would not get an attack on that second round because it sinks right after the sub’s attack.

Q. An enemy sub attacks my sub. When can I submerge?

A. In the Press Attack or Retreat step, same as always.

Q. An enemy sub attacks my sub. If I shoot back during the Opening Fire step, can I still submerge in the Press Attack or Retreat step?

A. Yes.

Q. Submarines are part of a large naval engagement. Do they get to fire during the Opening Fire step of every round, or only the first round?

A. Every round.

Q. On the UK player’s first turn, he attacks my German sub with a fighter. He rolls and misses. My sub submerges. When does it resurface?

A. At the end of the UK player’s noncombat movement.

Transports and Carriers

Q. Pieces were loaded onto a transport in a previous turn. This turn, the transport moves into a combat situation and survives the naval battle. Could they unload into a friendly territory during non-combat movement?

A. Yes.

Q. Is it legal to blitz from transports?

A. No. See page 31: “Being carried on a transport counts as a land unit’s entire move.”

Q. When transporting an ally’s land units on my transports, the rules state that “Land units belonging to friendly powers must load on their controller’s turn, be carried on your turn, and offload on a later turn of their controller.” Does this still apply if the transport doesn’t actually move into another sea zone (e.g., the transport is “bridging” the English Channel)?

A. Yes, the restriction always applies.

Q. What happens when two opposing transports are in the same sea zone with no other units? By itself, a transport may not attack. Is there combat?

A. The moving transport can’t attack. That doesn’t mean it can’t make a combat move by itself into a hostile space. When it does, if it survives the defensive fire step, then it can retreat. If for some reason the transport isn’t willing to retreat, then it’s doomed, because eventually the opponent will roll a 1.

Q. Can a transport carry a tank alone or must it have an infantry with the tank?

A. A transport can carry less than its capacity.

Q. Must I offload all the units from a transport?

A. No. Units may stay on board when other units offload. For example, one unit may offload during an amphibious assault, while another may offload into the same territory during the noncombat move.

Q. A fighter leaves an aircraft carrier and attacks a transport in an adjacent sea zone. After the battle, the fighter returns to the aircraft carrier. Can the aircraft carrier then move its two spaces with the fighter?

A. No. Fighters land at the very end of noncombat movement. To land on the carrier, the fighter must fly to the sea zone where the carrier will be at the end of noncombat movement.

Q. Consider a carrier with two fighters, all belonging to the same player. He wants to send the carrier into battle but wants to send the two fighters to a different territory as a noncombat move. Can that be done?

A. Yes. The only time fighters need to be “on” carriers is at the end of the noncombat move. During the combat move, the carrier can move and leave its fighters behind in the sea zone (consider them to be in the air). Remember that you can never move in a way that leaves planes with nowhere to land, but this doesn’t qualify as an illegal move under that restriction because it’s reasonable to hope that your carrier will still be alive at the end of the battle. If you’re sending in the carrier without planes to serve as a landing platform for two other planes coming from further away that would have no landing place without the carrier, then this is a legal move only if the carrier’s two original planes have an alternate landing place within range.

Combat

Q. Can a transport move out of a potential combat situation in one sea zone into a friendly sea zone, load a unit, move to a third (also friendly) sea zone, and offload the land unit into hostile territory for an amphibious assault?

A. This move is legal. All of the transport’s activity takes place in the combat move. At the moment it moves out of the first sea zone, it’s not yet in combat (this is in fact what allows it to move at all), so it can load in another sea zone, then come back and assault.

Q. Is antiaircraft fire targeted against specific aircraft?

A. Yes. In practice, you can roll a handful of dice against all enemy fighters, then roll another handful against all enemy bombers. The reason for this rule is so that bombers will be forced to take hits from AA guns.

Q. Can a fighter take part in a naval battle in a sea zone and then in a battle for the island in that sea zone?

A. No. The island is not part of the sea zone; it’s a different map space that is adjacent to the sea zone but not part of it.

Q. Why must the defender assign casualties before his units fire? Wouldn’t it be easier to assign all casualties on both sides during the casualty removal step?

A. The answer delves into game design philosophy. Some games make use of “false simultaneity”. This occurs when all players do the same thing at once but information flows during the action so that decisions can change. Choosing casualties is like that. If both players choose casualties at the same time, then each wants to know what the other is doing because it can affect their decisions. As a result, they stare at each other until someone says, “This is stupid … I lose the bomber.” To avoid that, the game is set up so that the defender must decide first which units to lose. That’s a slight bonus for the attacker, and we like it that way.

Q. Battleships that participate in an amphibious assault without engaging in a naval battle get to conduct bombardment in the Opening Fire step. Does a battleship (and, if researched, destroyer) get to fire in every Opening Fire step of an amphibious assault?

A. No. Battleships are removed from the battle board after their first Opening Fire attack. The same thing applies to antiaircraft guns. Subs are the only units capable of firing in the Opening Fire step that are not removed from the battle board after the first round.

Q. When does a battleship that took one hit get turned right-side-up?

A. When it’s taken off the battle board and placed back on the game map; in other words, at the end of the combat in which it was damaged.

Q. When attacking with both infantry and artillery, the artillery allows the infantry to score a hit on a die roll of 2 or less. In this case, does the artillery also get its own attack roll?

A. Yes. The attacker gets to roll two dice, one for the infantry and one for the artillery, and each die hits on 2 or less.

Q. When I blitz, can I blitz through a hostile territory and then move into a friendly territory?

A. Yes. That would end your combat movement for that tank.

Q. What happens if I make a combat move with my aircraft carrier and I have another power’s fighter on board?

A. The fighter must remain on board as cargo. It can’t take part in combat, and it is destroyed if the carrier is destroyed.

Q. An enemy sub attacks my aircraft carrier with one of my ally’s fighters on it. The carrier sinks. What happens to the fighter?

A. The fighter must land in a safe place after the combat phase ends. In effect, the fighter has a movement range of 1 to reach a friendly land space, island, or aircraft carrier during the attacker’s turn. This territory or sea zone must not have been contested during the current turn.

Q. I know combat in each territory or sea zone is resolved separately, but can I partially resolve one combat, move to the next, and so on, bouncing between combats before they’re completed?

A. No. Each combat is resolved completely before moving on to the next.

Q. If I have a destroyer in combat and my defending submarine fires during Opening Fire and then is itself destroyed during Opening Fire, will it be able to fire when defending units get to fire?

A. No. Submarines can only fire once per cycle.

Q. If I have multiple air units in an amphibious assault, can I retreat each of them individually during separate rounds of combat?

A. No. They must all retreat at the same time.

Retreats

Q. An amphibious attack goes bad and loaded transports retreat from the naval battle. Can the transports unload in a friendly, adjacent territory during noncombat movement?

A. No. Offloading isn’t allowed during the Press Attack or Retreat step, and transports that have been in combat cannot load or offload if they have retreated from combat. The cargo is stuck on board.

Q. Can only part of an attacking force retreat, leaving other units behind to keep fighting?

A. No, with one exception – all planes can retreat from amphibious assaults during any Press Attack or Retreat step, leaving any remaining land units behind. Otherwise, this is never allowed.

Q. Can I retreat if I’ve eliminated all the defending units or if all defending units have submerged?

A. No. You can only retreat if enemy units remain on the battle board.

Q. When land or sea units retreat, may they retreat to a territory from which an attacking air unit flew, but from which none of the land or sea units came?

A. No. Land units must retreat to a space from which at least one of the land units came. Sea units must retreat to a space from which at least one of the sea units came.

Q. Say a fighter uses its entire movement allowance to move to a battle in a sea zone, either along with a carrier or with the intent to move a carrier there in noncombat movement. What happens if the attacking force retreats while the fighter is still alive?

A. The retreating fighter, with no remaining movement and suddenly no carrier on which to land, is lost.

Strategic Bombing and Rockets

Q. I don’t understand the limitations on rocket attacks. Please clarify.

A. The limitations are:

• An AA gun can fire one rocket attack per turn.
• Only one AA gun can fire rockets out of a territory, no matter how many AA guns are in that territory.
• An industrial complex can be hit only once per player turn, no matter how many enemy AA guns are within range. Under the right circumstances, however, an IC in Germany could be hit by a rocket once in the Soviet player’s turn and again in the British player’s turn.
• The maximum range of a rocket attack is three spaces.

Q. IPC loss from strategic bombing is limited to the territory’s income value. Is that per bomber or per turn?

A. Per bomber.

Movement

Q. If I capture an enemy territory that contains an antiaircraft gun, can I move that gun out of the territory during noncombat movement on the same turn? Does it matter whether the gun fired at planes during the combat (i.e., can I move it if it didn’t fire but not if it did fire)?

A. You can’t move it at all on the turn that it was captured. If it was there in the space when combat took place, then it is considered to have participated in that fight whether or not there were planes to shoot at.

Q. Can an AA gun move in noncombat movement if it fired a rocket in the preceding combat phase?

A. No.

Q. I attack and capture an enemy land territory in combat. Now, during noncombat movement, can my tanks that weren’t involved in combat move through the newly-captured territory and enter a second friendly territory on the far side?

A. Yes, this is legal.

Q. Technically, when do planes “land”? Is it at the end of combat, the end of the combat step, or during noncombat movement?

A. Regardless of whether they do combat movement or noncombat movement, planes don’t technically land until the very end of the noncombat movement phase, after all other units have finished their movement.

Q. Can ships move across the southern coast of Australia?

A. Yes. Sea zone 40 is one space, which connects to both sea zones 39 and 41. You can make a two- zone move from sea zone 39 to sea zone 41.

Q. Say I were to move an infantry from one side of the Panama canal to the other. Would that cost me a movement point?

A. No. Panama is one territory: No movement points are required to move on land from one side of the canal to the other.

Q. Can I land my fighter on my aircraft carrier that is now in a sea zone that was hostile at the start of my turn?

A. Yes. Fighters can land on aircraft carriers in “cleaned” sea zones.

Q. If Germany takes over Persia, can Japanese planes land there on Japan’s very next move?

A. Yes.

Q. When can airplanes fly over neutral territories?

A. Never.

Mobilize Units

Q. A newly built fighter can be placed directly on a newly built aircraft carrier. Can a newly built fighter be placed on an existing carrier, or can existing fighters be placed on a new carrier?

A. An existing fighter that is in the territory containing the industrial complex or that is in the sea zone where the aircraft carrier is built can immediately be moved onto a newly built carrier. New fighters, however, can’t be placed directly on existing carriers.

Q. What about my ally’s fighters? Can they be placed on newly built carriers if they meet the position requirement?

A. Yes. For example, if the UK builds a carrier adjacent to England, US fighters in England can immediately redeploy onto the carrier.

Q. What happens if I forget the production limit and build, say ten infantry when my only industrial complex is in a territory with a value of eight? Are the two leftover infantry destroyed?

A. Technically (which means, in a tournament), yes. In a friendly game, tell the player he’s making a mistake and let him take it back or refund him the money. You don’t want to win that way.

National Advantages

USSR

Q. If the Nonaggression Treaty rule is in play for the USSR, what happens if the Soviet navy is attacked by the Japanese fleet? Where would the four promised infantry be placed?

A. This situation can’t happen. The Nonaggression Treaty rule is called into play only for an attack against a land territory.

Q. When is the Soviet Union considered to have broken the treaty – when they attack an orange territory under Japanese control, any territory controlled by Japan, or any Japanese unit?

A. Any of the above. The only exception is an attack against Japanese naval units. The combat must take place in a land territory to qualify.

Q. Japan is considered to have broken the treaty when it attacks a “red territory”. What if the USSR has pieces in China and Japan attacks there? If that doesn’t trigger the treaty stipulation, is the treaty still in force – i.e., can Japan attack USSR troops in China without breaking the treaty, then attack them on a later turn in a red territory and trigger the rule?

A. It may seem odd but yes, that’s the case. Japan could attack USSR troops in non-red territories without breaking the treaty, and the treaty would still be in force so that later attacks in red territories could still break the treaty.

Q. The Nonaggression Treaty allows the USSR to place four units in the territory Japan attacks first. What if the Japanese player attacks two or more red territories on the same turn?

A. In that case, the Soviet player chooses which of the territories being attacked gets the four infantry.

Q. Can Mobile Industry move every turn?

A. Yes.

Q. Can new units be mobilized in a mobile industrial complex that moved during noncombat movement?

A. Yes, if the Soviets owned the industrial complex at the start of the turn and also owned the territory that the IC moved into during the turn.

Q. Can mobile industry be moved aboard naval transport?

A. No. Transports cannot carry industrial complexes.

Q. When exactly can I use the movement bonus for the Trans-Siberian Railway?

A. Only during the Noncombat Move phase.

Q. Can the Trans-Siberian Railway be used to attack an occupied Soviet territory?

A. No. It can’t be used to blitz, either.

Q. Can I gain the movement advantage of the Trans-Siberian Railway if my units started their move not on one of the three railway spaces?

A. No. To get the movement bonus, the moving piece must begin and end its movement on the listed spaces and can’t leave those spaces during the move.

Germany

Q. If “Blitzing Panzers” take their extra move during noncombat movement, can they move into unoccupied enemy territory?

A. No. Normal noncombat movement rules still apply to Panzerblitz.

Q. Does the Panzerblitz rule allow German tanks to attack an occupied territory, and then after combat is resolved move into a second occupied territory and resolve combat there?

A. No. The Panzerblitz rule allows you to make a noncombat move with the tanks, and during the noncombat move phase you cannot move into hostile territories.

Q. Does the Wolf Packs rule apply only during the first round of combat?

A. It applies throughout the entire battle. Even if the attacking subs are reduced to only one or two survivors during the fight, the wolf pack bonus still applies if there were three or more when the battle started.

UK

Q. Under the Joint Strike optional rule, can the US player use UK pieces that moved during the UK noncombat move, or those that mobilized during the UK turn?

A. Yes. The US player may move any UK piece during his or her combat move.

Q. When reinforcing with Enigma Decoded, can reinforcing units be brought in from more than one adjacent territory?

A. No. For more clarity, replace the word “an” in the second sentence of the rule with the phrase “any one”.

Q. Does the Enigma Decoded rule allow fighters to move into an adjacent sea zone? If so, could they then move one more space at the end of noncombat movement in order to land, like fighters that have lost their carrier?

A. No to both.

Q. Enigma Decoded allows me to reinforce a naval battle if German ships move into a space containing British naval units. What if, say, German ships and transports move adjacent to England but the sea zone they enter contains no British naval units?

A. The “friendly space being attacked by Germany” includes any sea zone, regardless of whether it contains British units (see page 12). British naval units in sea zone 3 could immediately reinforce to sea zone 6 if German naval units enter it, even if that sea zone was empty before the Germans entered.

Q. Can a US or Soviet unit satisfy the Enigma Decoded requirement that a unit must be left behind?

A. Yes.

Japan

Q. If Japan is using the Tokyo express rule and it has developed combined bombardment, can Japanese destroyers haul troops into an amphibious assault and still bombard in that same assault?

A. Yes. Under Tokyo express and combined bombardment, Japanese destroyers get to act in all ways as both transports and destroyers simultaneously. They don’t need to choose to between them.

Q. Can Kamikaze Attacks hit subs?

A. Yes. Air units hit defending subs as normal, because the subs can’t submerge during your combat move.

Q. When Kamikazes and Kaiten Torpedoes attack, who chooses the casualty?

A. The defender. He must choose a naval unit.

Q. Does the automatic loss of a Kamikaze or Kaiten Torpedo also absorb one of your opponent’s hits that round?

A. Basically, a Kamikaze or Kaiten Torpedo becomes a casualty the moment it attacks. It can’t absorb a second hit or become a casualty again; that would make it a battleship.

Q. How do Lightning Assaults work?

A. This advantage does one thing: It lets you get around the normal restriction that a transport has to stop when it unloads. So, here’s precisely what you can do with a lightning transport: Load up 2 infantry, say, in Sea Zone A. Move one space to Sea Zone B, and drop off one of those infantry on an enemy territory. Then, move your transport again to Sea Zone C, and drop off the other infantry in a different enemy territory. You don’t get to move the transported land units twice, or have the transport carry double capacity, or anything like that — Lightning Assaults only gives you the ability to “split” your landings between two neighboring sea zones.

Q. Here’s the situation: Japan sends a transport carrying two infantry, along with a battleship, to capture two territories using Lightning Assaults. The transport splits the infantry between the two territories. Can the battleship fire on both of them?

A. No. Lightning assaults affects only transports, it doesn’t give a second shot to the battleships.

Q. Does Lightning Assaults increase the transport’s movement from 2 to 4?

A. No.

Q. Does the Lightning Assaults rule allow you to take only units which participated in the first amphibious assault to the second amphibious assault?

A. No. You can make the first assault, then load the same or different units, and assault again. Your transport capacity (1 plus 1) doesn’t change. Also remember that an assault must be a combat move; landing in a territory that you controlled at the start of your turn isn’t allowed.

Q. For the purpose of Dug-In Defenders, is Japan an island?

A. No. In A&A, an island is a territory that is located entirely inside a single sea zone. Under that definition, Japan is not an island (neither are the UK or Australia). Dug-In Defenders doesn’t apply in those territories.

Q. If a battleship conducts shore bombardment, does that count as another type of unit (i.e. non- infantry) and nullify the Banzai Attack bonus?

A. A battleship is not an “attacking land unit”, so it doesn’t prevent the Banzai Attack.

Q. What about fighters and bombers? Do they nullify the Banzai Attack bonus?

A. Banzai Attacks applies to all units involved in a combat that takes place in a land territory. So yes, the air units prevent you from using the Banzai Attacks advantage.

USA

Q. Does the US get a free Chinese division for every territory, every turn?

A. No, it gets one infantry in one such territory every round.

Q. Can artillery support Marines?

A. No. Marines already attack with a 2. Artillery allows infantry to attack with a 2, not with a +1.

Q. Are Superfortresses subject to antiaircraft fire?

A. No.

Miscellaneous

Q. What are the aircraft movement markers? They’re not referred to in the setup.

A. The markers with fighters on them are described on page 13. They track an air unit’s movement so you know how far it can move if it survives combat.

Q. If I run out of plastic pieces and chips, can I still purchase units?

A. Yes. The number of units is not limited by the number of plastic pieces in the game.

Q. Assume that a player has lost and then recaptured his capital. When can he resume purchasing new units?

A. When he (a) has some IPCs, and (b) has a turn that contains a Purchase New Units phase.

Q. I’ve run across some entries that refer to the “Special Attacks” section, but I can’t find it. Where is it?

A. These are actually references to the “Special Combats” section on page 19.

Q. If I liberate a friendly power’s territory, what happens to the antiaircraft guns and industrial complexes there?

A. They are returned to the control of the original controller of the territory.

Q. The locations of units in the diagrams in Appendix 2: A Sample Turn don’t match the reference charts. Which is correct?

A. The reference charts are correct.

Q. How do canals affect the movement of air units?

A. When moving across a canal by land, air units move like land units do. When moving across a canal by sea, air units move like sea units do. In either case, they may move across a canal regardless of who controls it.