ASW threat

[Maynard James Keenan]

Hello, I have a question regarding the new ASW threat rules. I am slightly puzzled after looking the war at sea Olympic thread.





PDF says:

The presence of ASW Ships and Aircraft interferes with a Submarine's ability to attack.
A Submarine takes a -1 die penalty to Torpedo attacks (to a minimum of 1 die) for each
of the following:
• Each enemy Aircraft that makes an ASW attack against the Submarine during the Air
Attack phase (place the Aircraft so its base straddles the targeted Submarine or use a
marker to keep track of Aircraft attacks);
• Each enemy Ship with an ASW value of 1 or better that is local or adjacent to the
Submarine during the Submarine Attack phase.
ASW threats stack; if you have several destroyers nearby, you can reduce a Submarine's
attack to 0 dice or less. Special abilities apply normally, however, and abilities such as
Wolfpack or Destroyer Killer may offset some of the ASW Threat attack penalty. Even if
a Submarine's Torpedo attack rating is reduced to 0 or less after all penalties and bonuses
are assessed, its Torpedo attack is always a minimum of 1 die.


Richard Baker says:

The ASW Threat rule *should* say "minimum of 1 die". No matter how many destroyers are boxing in your sub, you always get a 1-die attack.

So who/what is right?

Situation 1:

A uboat is adjacent to 3 fletchers.

Does it get a -1 or a -3

Situation 2:

A uboat is adjacent to 1 fletcher and a swordfish attacked it with ASW.

Does the uboat get a -1 to a -2 to its attack dice?

Situation 3:

a uboat is attack by 3 swordfish

does it -1 or -3 ?

If a uboat is adjacent to a fletcher and is attacked by one (either a same or a different fletcher)

does it get a -1 or a -2 or -3 ? (the negative 3 is in there if there are 2 fletchers and not 1)

And does the wolf pack ability apply after all the negative ASW threats? If the ASW threats go to a minimum of 1 for torpedoes that would mean that the uboat would get 2 torp. Dice correct?

[Y2UAsk]

I don't think there's any contradiction. Both the PDF and Rich indicated that no matter how many minuses a sub takes from ASW threats, it never has its torpedo attack rating reduced below 1. In your first example, the u-boat would have a -3 penalty. U-510 only has a torpedo attack value of 3, however, so the penalties reduce it to 0. It could still make a 1-die torpedo attack despite the -3 penalty.

The Wolfpack bonus is factored into the overall equation -- "Even if
a Submarine's Torpedo attack rating is reduced to 0 or less after all penalties and bonuses are assessed, its Torpedo attack is always a minimum of 1 die." With -2 from ASW threats and +1 from Wolfpack, a u-boat would get 2 dice at close range -- 3-2=1, 1+1=2. If the ASW threat was -3, the u-boat would get 1 die -- 3-3=0, 0+1=1. If the ASW threat was -4, the u-boat would still get 1 die -- 3-4=-1, -1+1=0, but the attack gets a minimum of 1 die.

I believe that the PDF contradicts an earlier ruling in this regard* (which allowed the Wolfpack bonus to be added to the 1-die minimum no matter how many penalties were applied). The PDF takes precedence.

Steve

* I haven't searched for it extensively, so I could be remembering this wrong.

[Maynard James Keenan]

Thanks a ton Y2U