@marechallannes:
@special:
By the way, doesn’t Japan taking Britisch Columbia bring USA in the war in turn2?
It’s in the Pacific Rules.
If Japan takes control of an “american territory” (not only US) the US are imediately at war with Japan.
I assume you refer to page 8 AAP40 bottom section, first paragraph under “The Political Solution” last sentence: “However, any combat movements against the British, Dutch, ANZAC, or American territories, troops, or ships by the Japanese will bring all the Allied powers into the war.” Note: page 6 of the above manual top of page first sentence also states the same.
I refer you to the third paragraph(page 8 as above), first sentence beginning with “If Britain or ANZAC attack Japanese…” and ending with “…powers, but not bring the U.S. into the war.”
British Columbia is a UK-pacific territory, not an American territory. I suspect you confuse the continent of America with American territories. For game purposes an American territory is a territory with a USA control marker printed on it, on the map. To avoid such confusions, the game designers wisely printed nation specific control markers on all territories that start the game under control of the major powers in the game.
British Columbia has a Canadian control marker, and thus is controlled by UK-India. See page 8 AAE40 manual top of page end of first sentence parenthesis section: “… at the start of the game (the United Kingdom controls the Canadian territories).” See also page 34 same manual, UK first National Objective, second sentence: "This includes the territories of Canada."Also, I refer you to “Global United Kingdom Rules” section on page 32 AAE40 manual that refer to IPC generation (and thus control) on each board (pacific and Europe maps) and on the same page, four paragraphs lower clearly defines British Columbia is connected to Alberta. It is interesting to note that I had to list the above references from the Europe manual as I searched the Pacific manual and did not fine a reference to Canada being controlled by UK, however, a comparison of the starting IPCs and the Map IPCs infer that British Columbia was controlled by UK india in AAPacific.
Therefor, once at war, Japan, Italy, and Germany are all free to occupy Canada while keeping the US neutral during the first three turns of the game, assuming Japan holds back and does not provoke the US into war by attacking first and UK-India or ANZAC declared war on Japan first.
Incidentally, a reread of the sentence with the phrase “American territories” indicated that the word territories refers to the 4 nations listed before that word. That paragraph spells out what attacks Japan can make that will result in all out war. It continues to list troops and ships attacks as also bringing the Pacific into all out war. This paragraph does not apply when UK or ANZAC declare war first, thus you should use the 3rd paragraph to determine that the US will remain neutral until the US Collect Income phase on turn 3, assuming Japan does not declare war on the US prior to that turn.
Also, it is important to refer to page 31 AAE40 manual top of page second sentence: “These rules replace their counterpart rules in Europe 1940 and Pacific 1940.” and thus you should use the political situation rule on page 35 of the same manual under the United States section. The last two sentences of that paragraph define when the United states can declare war on the axis powers. It clearly calls for an “unprovoked” declaration of war by Japan on UK or ANZAC before it can declare war “early”. Clearly, if UK or ANZAC declare war first, there is no “unprovoked” declaration by Japan.
I hope this helps to clarify my position. Note it is possible for Germany to seize British Columbia on turn 4 to permit the Japanese to move there during non combat, however it would not matter as the US can declare war by then anyway.
