Yes, the Support Hold would work because F Aegean Sea is not moving.

Support holds work only on units not moving. So the unit that is getting the support hold can hold, support a hold, support a move, and convoy. If the unit moves, the support hold does nothing.

In your case, the support hold WOULD work on the unit that is supporting a move.

Yep, all orders *except* move can be support held. The only order that can receive move support is an actual move. Additionally, any attempt to move, even if you know it will bounce, counts as an attempt and cannot be support held.

Sorry for the sidetrack, but when I read "even if you know it will bounce" from Draugs reply, it reminds me of my FAV thing to do in a game to really get the goat of an opponent: Supporting one half of an opponents self bounce.
IE: During the fall phase Mars is empty, but my opponent has an army in spa and pie (and a build coming next turn and he wants to build in mars)... and I have a fleet in lyon and an army in venice. What would my opponent like to do? Bounce spa and pie in mars (spa-mar, pie-mar) so that it is empty for him to build, but he still has his advantage in pie. So what do I do?
Lyon S pie-mar, ven-pie.
Now pie has 2 on mars, spa has 1, so pie actually succeeds in moving to mars (even if my opponent didn't want that), and I gain pie. Now he can't build in mars and I took his advantageous position from him.

Note that this only works on two units bouncing in an empty province. You can't support an opponent's unit into one of his other units and succeed (if, say, mars had a unit in it already, I can't force him to displace a unit with his own attacking unit), but it is a nice trick that a lot of players don't consider it when making moves.

fortknox: Can you list the moves by both France and Italy so I can try to understand your example? I thought Piedmond was empty, now you say you have a unit in Lyon, Piedmond and Venice, later you say you say you gained Piedmond, then you do a Lyon S(support move) pie->marseille. Can you list the commands so I can try to understand?

France has A Spain and A Pied
Italy has F Gulf of Lyons and A Venice

France:
A Spain move to Marseille
A Piedmont move to Marseille

Italy:
F Gulf of Lyon support move Piedmont to Marseille
A Venice move to Piedmont.

I recently did something similar when one opponent was bouncing a SC with his ally. I supported the unit of the power that did not currently control the SC so that it changed hands, screwed up their builds, and lent askance to their "alliance."

France:
army in spain (spa)
army in piedmont (pie)

Italy:
Army in venice (ven)
Fleet in Gulf of Lyon (lyo)

France's moves:
spa-mar
pie-mar
The idea is to bounce in mars, both pie and spa stay where they are and keep mars empty so he can build there.

Italy's moves:
lyo support move pie-mar
ven-pie

I 'force' pie into mar with support and take pie with venice to counteract france's intentions.


The 'exemption' I mentioned was that you can't force france to displace his own troop, IE:

France:
Fleet in Spain-North Coast (spa-nc)
army in marseilles (mar)
army in piedmont (pie)

Italy (same as before):
Fleet in lyo
army in ven

This isn't much of a realistic example (or maybe we can just call it 'misorders'), but if:
France's moves:
pie-mar
mar hold

Italy's moves (same as before):
lyo S pie-mar
ven-pie

We end up with a big bounce. I can't 'force' france to displace his own mar unit, so even though pie-mar was a 2-on-1, it doesn't succeed because you can't displace your own units (or my opponent, France can't displace his own unit in this example).
Make sense?

@SacredDigits:
Yes, a GREAT variation on the move. Not only do you screw up the builds and such, but you claim that the support was asked for and the alliance is on terrible terms (if it is still an alliance at all) :D

fortknox: Yes, I understand! That would be a nice move indeed. :)

@Chronoz:
Maybe I'm using too many 'diplomacy' terms. When we talk about 'bounces' (or 'stand offs'), we are talking about the exact moves I mention with france (though it doesn't have to be just one country for both units):
A spa-mar, A pie-mar
Purposely standing off the armies to prevent an opponent from sliding into a province, or purposely setting up units in touching provinces so that no one tries anything tricky, IE: A/T sometimes setup a ven-tri bounce in spr1901. This prevents italy from setting up a 2-on-1 by moving ven-tyr, rom-ven. While the ven-tyr move will work, the rom-ven move will bounce with tri. It gives both countries a piece of mind that neither will try anything aggressive with the other.

Another big term is DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone), which is an agreement between allies to not occupy a particular province with a unit (E/F usually try to DMZ the english channel in 1901).

I know that when I setup a E/G alliance, the goal is to DMZ the north sea, then setup a bounce with a fleet in the english mainland with a fleet in, say, holland over the north sea each turn. That way there is no fear that either country will get into the north sea, so you don't have to focus heavily on border defense in case of a stab.

sorry, I typed that up before your 'I understand' reply. Oh well, it's good info for any newbie that stumbles onto it.

You know, let me spell out how that one works.

The territories are being changed since it is an ongoing anon game.

We'll say I'm France with a A Piedmont. Italy has an A Tuscany, Austria has A Trieste. Italy is likely to go up an SC, and A Venice would be a great build for him, so I suspect there will be a bounce.

Austria
A Trieste to Venice

Italy
A Tuscany to Venice

France
A Piedmont S A Trieste to Venice

It's then my word against Austria's on whether that was planned or if I'm just that cagey.

And if it fails, players will only know by going into the order history, so it is (relatively) safe to try if you have no other use of that piedmont unit.

Really an England Germany alliance with a DMZ in the north sea? As England I would never give up the North Sea, if I could help it.

I would never DMZ the North Sea either. It's vital for England.

How one could force their way anywhere onto the mainland without either the North Dea or English Channel, I don't know. And considering the French scream if you occupy Eng, that means using Nth to advance into Nwy.

Well the fact is, because of the Heligoland Bight holding the north sea is nowhere near as threatening to Germany as occupying the English Channel is to France. And arguably England is the strongest northern power (depending on how Russia plays) Scandinavia is key to England's success, my point is, the North Sea is essential for England, and not terribly threatening to Germany or France.

geez, guys, really?

if you have an E/G alliance, one of two things is happening:
You are in a western triple (E/F/G), or you are opposing france.
So england holds norwegian and/or the channel, and convoy out into mainland france and/or russia and fleets into the med if you can crack it.
E/G is a tough alliance. From england's standpoint, they usually 'demand' the north sea, but all the north sea is good for is invading germany. Yes, I don't want germany there, either, but from germany's perspective, for the E/G to work, he needs to not worry about bel/hol/den and england ripping up his back while he faces east or south. The best solution is to dmz the north sea and setup a bounce there. It gives england freedom to build and move about as he pleases, but safety knowing that germany isn't going to storm into your backyard... and it gives germany a ton less paranoia about his back.

And all you players calling me crazy... it's diplomacy, there is give and take. I don't want to play in games with you guys until you loosen up a bit!! ;)

I was in a E/G once as Germany and demanded that England leave the North Sea empty, unless previous consent from Germany was given. England reluctantly accepted and it worked pretty well for a while, but then the game kinda stalled and England ended up stabbing me (without really gaining from it in the end). If I remember correctly, Ursa was playing England and the game ended in a many-way draw.

Turns out my memory is even worse than I thought... The game was a Public Press only PPSC and ended up with France soloing after it wiping Italy and England off the map and then just rolled North-East taking Scandinavia, StP and two German centers...