Pacific 1940 2nd Edition

@Stumne:

Ok, the US start with 17, once at war with Japan is the 17+30 each turn, or just 30 (not including rest of bonuses)?

Also, and I suppose this applies to all games, does a country not at war at the start of the game, in case of Pacific UK  and ANZAC do they still get IPC, can purchase and move pieces?

Welcome to the forum, Stuart. :-)

Your first question:

@rulebook:

The United States begins the game neutral. It may not declare
war on Japan unless Japan first declares war on it or makes an
unprovoked declaration of war against the United Kingdom or
ANZAC. Following any such unprovoked declaration of war
by Japan, the United States will receive an immediate one-time
bonus payment of 30 IPCs, representing the total mobilization
and transfer of military assets within the continental United
States.

Those 30 are granted at the moment the scenario occurs.

@rulebook:

National Objectives and Bonus Income
…
When the United States Is at War:

30 IPCs if the United States controls Western United
States. Theme: Major shift from peacetime to wartime
economy.
…

So when at war the USA receive +30 IPCs during every US Collect Income Phase.

Your second question:

Actually UK and ANZAC “… are both at war with Japan’s allies, Germany
and Italy, on the other side of the world, so they are not completely neutral.”
(Rulebook, page eight)

When it is their turn, they act as every other power, however they have to respect some restrictions given by the rules:

@same:

When not yet at war with Japan, in addition to
the normal restrictions (see “Powers Not at War with One
Another,” page 14), neither power may move units into or
through China.

HTH :-)

My thinking is as a separate game this setup is flawed, but I’m betting anything that the Global game (the one we are all going to play from here on out for the most part) is pretty balanced with the addition of all those Russian infantry to the North of Manchuria. Something tells me that India crush strategy will take a beating.

UK/ANZAC and Japanese air units may fly over each other’s territories (outside of China) when they’re not at war.  The rules at the top of page 8 that apply to neutral territories apply only to neutral territories, such as the Mongolian territories.  Neutral powers have different rules, as outlined in the political rules.

Technically, Japan, China and UK/ANZAC are not neutral anyway, as they are each at war with someone (Japan and China are at war with each other, and UK/ANZAC is at war with Germany).  Only the US is truly neutral, as it is at war with no one.  That’s why its rules are even more restrictive than other powers’ rules.  While the US remains at peace, its air units may not fly over other powers’ territories, and vice versa.

Not really a ‘trick’, but inexperienced players seem to miss some crucial sea zone connections around Australia. It’s amazing how quickly the US can get into the DEI through that route.

If you at the Aussie naval base you can hit almost all of the DEI as well as PI and can even land in Burma (!) in one turn! It’s things like that that Allied players miss that give th Japanese a bigger advantage. Once you see those, it’s MUCH harder on Japan IMO.

@Admiral_Thrawn:

Just got the game today. Very cool. I’m not really complaining but, does anyone else wish the game started Dec. 7th ‘41? Or had a 40’ and 41’ scenerio? It seems it would keep it simple for one thing. Not a lot of new rules about when how you go to war. The game is about war. Just cut out the first 3 rounds of the game and get to it. The games are long enough. I feel you lose historical flavor as well without the sneak attack of the Japanese. The surprise attacks was the main reason the Japanese had a silver of a chance in WWII. There whole philosophy was based around it. In the original AAP this was captured nicely with the defend on 1 rule for the surprise attack. Now we have this artifical the U.S. and U.K. just automatically go to war if not attacked. Just like the real war in AAP 41’ you wanted revenge for those easy attacks.

Don’t count out the Brits (probably never ANZAC though) attacking Japan first! In our last game Japan had Yunan on J1. China reinforced and sat in Szechwan, so on J2 Japan reinforced Yunan with even more units, and some planes (not all). In all Japan had I think 4 inf, 2 art, 1 tank, 1 mech inf, 4 figs in Yunan, and the BRITS rolled up in there to save an early conquest of China on UK2. They blew Japan out of the water actually with I think, 6 inf, 1 art, 2 tanks, 1 mech inf, 4 figs and a tac bomber. The Brits ruined Japan! It was an exciting move, and big for the allies!

If you can wait until tomorrow, I’ll explain it all in my next article about the rules.

That’s the reason why I try not to pre-order but wait until the shops get it.  By the time you add in shipping to the discounted pre-order prices, it usually costs more than MSRP.  Damn shipping.  To make it worth my while, I would need to pre-order like 10 to go below MSRP.

Also coolstuffinc.com doesn’t offer free shipping to Hawaii or Alaska!

Ebay sometimes is cheaper even with shipping costs, but you need to hunt for the bargains.

Don’t be sure of anything when you have chimps making all the decisions.