Land combat occurs whenever the active player moves land/air units into an enemy controlled territory containing enemy units. This includes Ports and Industrial Complexes if the defending player opts to have these units defend against the attacking force. Before combat occurs, be sure to any trench or beach landing penalties to the attacking force. Remember that these penalties cannot lower a unit’s attack value below 1. Attacking aircraft can only participate in the land battle if those aircraft still have two or more fuel points remaining after any air battles that took place.
Land combat, like air combat, is resolved in a few quick steps. Firstly, if the defending player has any Anti Air units in the territory, the roll 1D10 for each AA Gun unit now. This is the free roll that AA units get and the attacking force does not get to roll in exchange. Hits scored by the AA units can only be applied to attacking aircraft. Once AA guns have rolled, proceed to the following three steps:
Step 1) Both players roll 1D10 for each unit they have (attackers trying to roll equal to or less than each unit’s attack value, defenders rolling equal to or less than their defense value), adding up the number of Hits they score against the opposing force. Remember that defending fighters in the territory under attack now roll based on their defense value, even of those fighters also participated in an air battle which preceded the land battle.
Step 2) Both players remove 1 unit for each hit scored by the opponent. The defender may opt to lose Industrial Complexes and/or Ports like any other units (assuming they opted to include these units in the battle from the start), but can not lose the city; it merely stops fighting once all other defending units have been destroyed.
