Again for the record…as an American, my “National Pride” isn’t hurt that an actual NA or Kill Washington First strategy could actually be done in a “game.” This is a game. Yes, what’s written in the rule book matters. But I don’t believe that the creators of the game (it’s not just LH), realized that the way the rule was written Japan can park it’s Navy in SZ26.
Both for gamism reasons, and realism it just flat out doesn’t make sense for an entire enemy Navy to be permitted to park itself right next to the US Navy’s most important Naval Base in the Pacific Ocean. Regarding comments about the conspiracy stuff and the American public who didn’t want to go to war. That has nothing to do with the Naval Commander on the ground and the Sailors, Airmen, and Marines there. AS WOULD MOST OTHER NATIONS, they would have came out ready to fight for their own self-defense and US territory had they known there was an enormous battle group coming. They might not have fired the “first” shots in a full fledged battle…but that’s besides the point. Regarding the size of the sea zones. Yes, they’re huge. But they’re pretty darn close to an area that a navy could patrol; which means for gamism reasons, make no sense that any nation’s Navy could pass through undetected for a very long time. At the battle of midway, navies fought each other with their aircraft who had to locate each from over hundreds/thousands of miles of ocean away without modern GPS and real-time satellite imagery. The Pearl Harbor attack was a significant achievement by the Imperial Japanese Navy. They showed up north of Pearl Harbor right at the early morning hours and then immediately launched an attack and brought the US into the war. They didn’t “sit” in sz 26 for an entire turn like their friends exchanging military attaches.
A rule was written which expressed a PURPOSE of restricting the Japanese from being too close. However, the wording did not meet the purpose because of interpretation. The Japanese CAN land troops on the Western US on turn 2 and or attack the sea zone adjacent to the US on turn 2. What’s the point of supposed restriction then? Might as well have not written it all together. Someone said that the US could put up blockers in like 5 different sea zone. Uh…no they can’t as the US doesn’t start out with a fleet of destroyers. Even if Japan waited till J3 to attack, there’s still not enough blockers. And by the way, the Germans are stacked at Gibraltar. And if you don’t know what’s coming…as in started buying lots of ground/air units on US 1, instead of thinking to buy all ships on US 1 to defend SZ 10 (due to the approaching Japanese fleet), they you’re way behind.
Yes, the rules allow Japan to station their navy in sz 26 or others technically not “within” 2 spaces. But they are still within a travel distance of 2 spaces to Alaska or mainland US. So we have rule intended to keep the Japanese fleet back, but not really keep them back? People saw the worded loophole and correctly pointed out that a fleet can be parked in Sea Zone 26. It’s ridiculous.
Lastly, if someone ever tries this on me again, they’ll lose the game. I did pretty much everything else right, western allies DOW on turn 1, Russia was a monster…ect. except I didn’t buy and position the US stuff right.