@Carnage:
@Gamerman01:
@Young:
When ships are able to disrupt convoys, must they? Or is it the choice of the player who owns the ships, to refuse to disrupt convoys if they wish?
I’m not up on the Alpha3 changes, but up until then if ships were in position to disrupt convoys, there was no choice. That is, yes, if ships are able to disrupt convoys, they “must”. But I haven’t even read the Alpha3 changes yet. If it’s just a change in methodology (people are talking about dice rolling!?), and if there is no statement saying that actually raiding convoys is an option of the attacking player, then I wouldn’t think the answer to your question would have changed.
I always assumed it was the players discretion. I wouldn’t want to find myself declaring war on a nation simply because my ships are in his convoy space. I don’t see anything in the OOB that suggests they’re obligated to make those attacks. I don’t see anything that says they’re optional either though.
You can only disrupt a convoy if you’re already at war with the enemy power. And you can only declare war on your turn, so unless they declared war on you during that turn or unless you started at war with that power there would be no way to disrupt their convoy.
So, there’s no condition where you could find yourself declaring war on a nation simply because your ships were in his convoy space.
Once at war, there’s no way that you would not disrupt convoys if you’re in their convoy box, but, once at war, there’s no reason you wouldn’t.