@PanzerPenguin:
More of a personal question this time…
Does it make any sense for UK/ANZAC to DOW Japan on UK 1? I assume they’re allowed to it, but that prevents the US from entering the war (physically) until US 4. And the UK doesn’t have much of an attack on UK 1 so it seems rather silly (yet my friend did this for some reason).
Absolutely it does, and it’s not extremely rare.
First of all, it depends on what happened on G1 and J1. If the Japan player leaves you targets (could be transports, a battleship, destroyers, aircraft on the ground) then it could make sense. Or if China got diced on the counterattack on Yunnan and there are 3-4 Japanese units still standing there?
Don’t forget:
- UK will get +5 for the NO, and ANZ will get +5 also. ANZ will get +10 if claiming the rest of New Guinea.
- China. UK can move into China immediately, and with 3 planes and a couple infantry, this could save the Chinese stack in Sze or Yunnan, and this could be decisive.
- Japan could keep the USA out of the war until round 2, 3, or 4 anyway
- There is a nasty, gamey move where the UK does not declare war, moves a surface ship into the sea zone where Japans’ fleet is, complete with transports that are looking to load ground units and take money islands. Then ANZ does unprovoked DOW on Japan, and then it is impossible for Japan to load any of those transports, because even the exception does not apply (UK did not DOW on them).
This is often most effective on UK2 or UK3
However, this gamey move should be illegal in my opinion because the UK and ANZ politics are married. It should be considered that the exception (hostile sea zone that just became hostile because you DOW’d) should apply, and this loophole (understandably) escaped the consideration of the rulemakers. But now you know.