General Rule

Naval movement is a special kind of movement. Units may be moved from port to port, or from off-map port area to port, or from port to amphibious landing zone during the Naval Movement Phase. Naval movement purpose is to sea lift units from Friendly ports to other Friendly ports, or to amphibiously assault Enemy ports (whether Enemy occupied or not).

There are two sea areas : the West Malayan Coast (mainly the Strait of Malacca), and the East Malayan Coast (Gulf of Siam and South China Sea). Singapore is not located on any of those two sea areas. All naval movements occur within a single sea area.

Naval Capacity

Only a limited number of units may sea move during a Player Naval Movement Phase:

• The Japanese may move no unit at all on the West Coast as long as Penang is controlled by the Commonwealth player. When the Japanese captures Penang, there are 80% chance that the Japanese captures also the West Coast shipping ; if the Japanese Player was forced to attack Penang to capture it, then there are only 20% chance that the Japanese captures the West Coast shipping. If the Japanese capture the West Coast shipping, then the Japanese may move one unit on the West Coast sea area during each Japanese Naval Movement Phase. When captured, the West Coast shipping becomes available two turns later.
• The Japanese may move five units on the East Coast.
• The Commonwealth may move one unit on the East Coast, and one unit on the West Coast. Commonwealth units that sea moves may only move to Singapore.

Restrictions

Stacking restrictions are in effect during the Naval Movement Phase ; due to possible enemy interceptions, naval movement cannot be cancelled, so the stacking limits are always checked on eligible destination ports. Ports that would be overstacked after the sea movement are then not available.

Naval movements are not allowed between the two sea areas.

Armored units cannot make amphibious assaults.

Naval Interceptions

Japanese units sea moving on the East Coast may be subject to Commonwealth naval interceptions due to the presence of the Force Z (British battleship Prince Of Wales and British battle cruiser Repulse). The chance that Force Z intercepts Japanese movement depends on the distance between Singapore (Force Z home base) and the movement destination port, and also depends on the Commonwealth willingness to intervene (See the Commonwealth Decision Phase). If Force Z is sunk, then Japanese naval movements on the East Coast is not subject to interception.

Japanese units sea moving along the West Coast may be subject to Commonwealth submarines interceptions, assuming that CW option "West Coast Submarines" is played. When played, this option is active for the duration of the game.

See Naval Combat Charts for detailed informations on naval interceptions and results.

Procedure

Units to be moved by sea must begin their Naval Movement Phase in a port hex, or on the Japanese off-map port hex (simulating the Japanese ports in Indochina). Units may then be moved to any other Friendly controlled port, or to any other Enemy unoccupied port, or to any Enemy occupied port (the destination hex is the amphibious landing hex of the port in that case). When a unit sea moves to an Enemy occupied port, it will have to engage in combat all Enemy units occupying the assaulted port hex.

A unit that sea moves will be able to move during the next Movement Phase (assuming it is not doing an amphibious assault), but with its movement allowance halved.

• At the start of the Naval Phase, every Friendly unit that is allowed to move is marked as Available
• If no unit is selected, clicking on an Available unit will select it and display its reachable paths
• If a unit is selected, clicking on any hex of its reachable paths will move the unit to that hex. That unit will then be marked as Moved. Interception, if possible will be resolved during the movement.
• If a unit is selected, clicking on it again will cancel its selection. [Esc Key]
• A naval movement cannot be aborted !

(C) 1999 Kamikaze Wargames Designers