Need Clarification on Declaring War

I believe you are correct.  The “bonus” 30 the US gets when it’s attacked early is to compensate for not having extra money while “at war during collect income”, for example:

The US is attacked turn 2, gets 30 IPCs immediately so they have that to spend when it becomes their turn.  If this were NOT the case, then the US would only have their initial 30 IPCs to spend during “war time” which wouldn’t make sense.

This is how I understand it.

Welcome to the forum, Travelman.
You have understood correctly. You will discover that the U.S. needs that extra income, as 17 is not sufficient to prosecute a proper war, once Japan gets going.

@Dylan:

@calvinhobbesliker:

Wrong board

They can declare war on each other whenever they want; and there’s no war if they don’t

How is this the wrong one, it’s on the Pacific 40 board.

There needs to be a AAG40 board.

Because in P40, USSR doesn’t exist.

I agree, but for now europe includes global

@Lozmoid:

So - I trust you pay for the upgrade during the Purchase & Repair Units phase, and then the upgrade actually takes place during the Mobilize New Units phase. Is this correct?

Yes.

@Lozmoid:

If this is correct, then I assume that the newly upgraded IC (now a Major Industrial Complex) cannot begin to mobilize its full quota of 10 units until the owning player’s next turn. Is that right? It can still only build 3 units during the turn in which it was upgraded. Please advise if I am wrong.

You are correct.

Okay good, that’s what I thought.

If Japan attacks UK, Anzac, or Us units when not at war she will have to fight all three. If Japan is already at war with UK/Anzac then she can choose to ignore the US units if not already at war with them.

The state of war commences at the beginning of the combat move so Japan will have to engage the war ship first.

Moving the Battleship can help some but if Japan is really determined to get the UK and Anzac ships she will. It should be possible to combine them all with the US fleet by turn 2 though (move from West Us-Pearl turn 1 and then Pearl to Queensland turn 2. So much depends on what Japan choose to do though. It is a little overwhelming at times.

It is especially overwhelming when public enemy number one is not an opposing player but a three year old convinced he is Loki. :P.

I have a negative comment on your comment about negativity, but this time I will keep my comment to myself. :-D

Japan needs to do two things on their third turn if possible (assuming they didn’t fall into taking the bait), they need to take the Philippines and try and take Hawaii if possible.  This will deny the US the most income

Unless the US player is asleep at the wheel I dont see taking Pearl as a viable T3 Japanese goal. I agree that PI must fall on J3, but all the rest of Japan’s power should be pasting the Brits and Chinese. There is little the US can do that early to make any impact on Japan or her econ without risking catastrophic US casualties. Given that, Japan should spend her time and force on overwhelming overkill on the Brits and Chinese. Once they are dead, the game is effectively over unless the US is in serious positions to overturn the Japanese econ (unlikely from what I can see).

I do agree that the Brits have to do everything they can to simply stay alive and force Japan to keep her airpower focused on land. I think that is going to mean investing a in a LOT of troops and maybe AA-guns. A few more of those floating around might give the Japanese pause about throwing 4 Bettys and 4 Zekes/Vals into the fray….

If possible, I think it would be understandable to bait Japan with a DD or an unprotected bomber or something.  As long as the US loses less than 40IPCs in the bait, they are fine cause they will get a net +.

Yes and no. If you can get the Japanese to jump before they are ready then maybe, but once the Japanese kick off, the Brits are going to lose both of their bonuses (assuming they got the 4 island one) and probably half their base econ as well. That goes a long way towards eating into that +40 for the US and frankly, as Japan I’d rather the US had the money than the Brits at that point. My goal as Japan is to keep every Allied IPC OUT of Asia as I possibly can.

This will reduce the combined income of the Allies by 20 IPCs.  Japan should be able to close the Burma road and take Hong Kong too.  Now the Allies have lost 30 IPCs.  Things look very balanced at this point.

Except that Japan still has considerably more disposable combat power on the board as well as FAR FAR FAR superior interior positions and coordination. To me, that is the real killer for the Allies at this point.