Re: [eia] evasion attempt off Naples

[Michael Gorman <mpgorman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:39 AM 12/11/2002 -0500, you wrote:
> As regards interceptions, I would
> assume that a stack ending its movement in 
> the same area as an enemy stack, declaring an attack upon the enemy
> stack, 
> could be intercepted in an _adjacent_ area by that enemy stack, but not
> in the 
> same area where the attack is being declared.
>
> In other words, a would-be attacker could be ambushed on the way to the
> naval 
> battlefield, but once the sea area where the battle will take place is
> reached, 
> an interception is no longer possible since a battle will already take
> place.
>
> I am not trying to say that once an attack is declared, the defending
> stack 
> cannot intercept other stacks moving nearby, since the rules seem to
> allow that 
> for some reason.
>
> Would everyone agree with this interpretation ?
>
> -JJY
No.

6.2.3.1 INTERCEPTION PROCEDURE: When a phasing stack enters a sea
area occupied by or adjacent to one or more enemy stacks, those enemy
stacks may attempt to intercept the moving stack. An "enemy
stack" is any stack containing fleets at war with any fleet or
fleets in the phasing stack and/or at war with any corps that the phasing
stack may be transporting.

        

This is
before the regular naval combat phase.  The interception is declared
upon entering the adjacent or the same space and the interceptor does not
know if the stack will opt to continue movement or stop.  I suppose
if they're on their last movement point you know they will stop, but
otherwise there is no compulsion to declare this is the end of your
movement until after the interception attempt.  If you win the
interception battle, you might decide you want to keep moving even if you
had not intended to before the combat.

        

The
regular naval combat doesn't occur until after all the movement steps so
that's why an intercepting fleet might move away.  During the
movement phase, the regular naval combat has not yet begun.  If a
target fleet intercepts and moves away, then it means they slipped away
before the regular naval combat could be declared.

        

I would
say that since 6.2.2 says that all the fleets of a major power, or of
major powers under combined movement, are considered one stack when in
the same area, that an interception of an arriving fleet would also allow
already present fleets to fight so long as they meet the who may fight
rules in 6.3.1.  Those rules saying that you have to be at war with
the attacking stack in order to fight it with one exception that won't
matter in this turn.

Mike