Map sea zones clarification

@yazoinkergrapft Yes, the United States is allowed to declare war. If it does, the sea zone immediately becomes hostile, as there are enemy surface warships in it. However, since the United States is not declaring war until the Collect Income phase, during the Combat Move, Conduct Combat, and Noncombat Move phases the sea zone is still friendly, so the United States can still occupy it freely. On Japan’s next turn, its units in the sea zone will be starting the turn in an enemy-occupied sea zone, so the normal rules for that situation apply (those units must either move away in combat movement or attack).

@LewisClark You’re welcome. Enjoy the game!

Its a pretty straight forward setup:

Attacker declares ALL combat moves and then you request defender to decide on Scrambles/Intercepts.  This indicates you have concluded all your combat moves for the turn.

At this point, the Attacker has passed the point of no return and is stuck with all the decisions just made.

You’ll get a lot of mileage out of requiring the attacker to request scramble decisions with the understanding it indicates they have concluded all their combat moves.

In the case where there are no scrambles, just require the attacker to announce something along the lines of, “That ends my combat move phase.”

Generally it is VERY important when playing in person to make sure you announce the transition of the phases and don’t muddle up combat and non-combat moves.  Not saying people all cheat, but it sucks when you lose track of unit movement and end up double moving something that impacts the game dramatically (like moving a bomber to Hawaii in your combat move phase and then non-combat moving it in the same round to one of the smaller islands and now being in striking distance of unprotected Japanese TT which should have been safe but now are not).

Is there a Pacific map like this?

Here is a simple steamroller plan for Japan to go all-in against USSR before USA enters the war:

J1 invade Amur with EVERYTHING available (activates Mongolians in alpha 3 but that’s ok), build major IC in Korea.

Spend everything on tanks (J2) and mech infantry (J3 and J4) built in Korea.  Spend on Pacific needs J5 onward (perhaps hunker down in Japan & Korea and wait for European win)

Move the whole horde 1 space westward each turn, with tanks and mech infantry moving 2 spaces per turn to catch up.  Bring bombers.  If USSR infantry are retreating, chase them.  If they stop, kill them.

The 4 waves (infantry/artillery, tanks, mechs, mechs) will catch up at Novosibersk on J6

Moscow falls J8.

I started working on a rule change aid since I’ve had some requests from a bunch of people on it.  I wanted to post my wording for you guys to confirm accuracy before posting the chart.  I’m trying to keep it all to one page which is proving difficult.

Note:  I did not add the IPC shift for UK, nor the reduction in AA gun cost as that is reflected in the Game Aid already completed.  The text will be as follows:

1.)  AA Guns are removed from play if a territory is captured.
2.)  Major Industrial Complexes are reduced to Minor Complexes upon capture.  Only the ORIGINAL owner may upgrade it back to a Major if the
      territory is liberated.  Major IC’s cannot be built on foreign territories. 
3.)  The Soviet Unions Neutrality is not effected on opposing maps when only at war with European, or Pacific Axis powers.
4.)  Scramble Rules have been changed to the following:
              1.)  Takes place at the START of the Conduct Combat Phase for powers AT WAR ONLY.
          2.)  If there is an active Air Base a total of 3 Fighters and/or Tac Bombers  located on an island or coastal territory may scrambled to the adjacent
                    Sea Zone.  Rare Sea Zone cases that are adjacent to multiple active Air Bases can scramble 3 planes per Air Base.
              3.)  Can help friendly naval units under attack or to resist an Amphibious Assault even if the Amp. Assault is on a different territory. 
5.)  Victory Conditions are as follows:  AXIS - 6 of 8 Victory Cities on Pacific Map OR 8 of 11 Victory Cities on the Europe Map
                                                    ALLIES - Control of ALL Axis Capital Cities
6.)  Unites States’ Minor Industrial Complexes are upgraded to Major when the US is at War.  These IC’s can be upgraded for the 20 IPC’s while Neutral.
7.)  Strategic Bombing Raids now follow the following order of Combat.  (Note:  Strat Bombers can attack IC’s, Air or Naval Bases.  Tac Bombers can
      attack Air or Naval Bases):
                1.)  Any Escorts (Fighters) attack at 1 against any enemy Interceptors (Fighters).  Casualties are removed IMMEDIATELY.
                2.)  Strat and/or Tac Bombers attack at 1 against any enemy Interceptors.  Casualties can defend.
                3.)  Interceptors attack at 2 against attacker Bombers.  Escorts may only be taken after ALL Bombers have been destroyed.
                4.)  Surviving Bombers declare which facility is to be targeted.
          5.)  Facility AA Gun Defense hits on 1.  Roll one die for each Bomber attack the facility.
                6.)  Bombers attack.  Strat Bombers add +2 to the dice rolled.  Tac Bombers hit on dice rolled.  Damage removal is on a 1:1 ratio.
8.)  The United States may declare war on the Axis if London and/or any North American Territory is captured.
9.)  Subs no longer can fire a ‘sneak attack’ at unescorted Transports.  Transports cannot unload from a Sea Zone with an enemy Sub unless a friendly
      warship was also present during Combat Movement.
10.)  The United States Navy, while Neutral may only occupy Sea Zones adjacent to their territories, excluding Sea Zone 102 (No transports) on the
        Europe Map.  On the Pacific Map the Navy may not end movement in Sea Zones adjacent to Japanese controlled territories.
11.)  Kamikaze Strikes can be used in any of the marked Sea Zones where an Allied player conducts Sea Combat or an Amphibious Assault is to take place.

@Dark_Destroyer:

The Russian player needs a destroyer to lift you from the convoy zone because you have a sub there.  Submerged sub in a convoy zone works.

“Submerging” is a term that can occur only in a battle as an option for Submarines to “retreat” while remaining in place.  After the battle is over, they are no longer considered “submerged”.  “Submerging” has no bearing at all in any other turn phase.

In addition, if you have any warship in a convoy zone during the collect income phase of the enemy’s turn (that controls territories adjacent to the convoy zone) they deduct their income REGARDLESS of whether they, or ANY another ally, have ships in that zone.  Japan could, for example, mobilize as many ships as they wanted in seazone 6 but it would NOT prevent convoy interdiction if an Allied power had ships in that space.

@buicksuper:

Anyways well find out tonight if u.s. will be speaking japanese or german.

Or Italian.  If that ever happened, Germany and Japan might never recover from the embarrassment.