Mongolia attacked?

All of the strict neutrals go pro-allies. That’s my understanding of it anyway. The rule is on page 39 of the Europe Rulebook.

If Japan attacks Mongolia before they turn to USSR, it is treated no different than invading a strict neutral so Japan needs to think that one though before they decided to turn everything else allies.

I agree that if you attack Mongolia before you invade one of the Russian trigger territories all the strict neutrals become pro allied including Mongolia. However the Mongols don’t immediately turn Russian they would need to be activated like any other neutral by the allies (Russia).

You would also flip all the true neutrals if Japan attacked a Russian trigger territory and Mongolia in the same turn. So if you don’t want to flip all the true neutrals you would break the NAP on one turn (attack a Russian trigger territory), then go after the Mongols on your next turn (it’s helpful to have some mech in place w/air power to track down the Mongolians).

The take away is that you as Japan do not under any circumstances want to directly attack Mongolian territory, ever.

That leaves you with 2 choices;

1. wait for Russia to attack you, if ever, or hide behind a beneficial peace OR
2. attack Russian territory (or Chinese territory occupied by Russians) adjacent to Mongolia, activating Mongolia, let Russia have a turn, then start taking out those no-revenue territories starting on the next turn.

One other alternative might be
1b) attack China and Russia, but never attacking even a single Russian unit in any land territory adjacent to Mongolia or face 6 new russians

I say just attack russia to get the added $ and deal with 6 infantry. If russia pulls men around to the back side of China then those 6 men don’t do much.

That’s pretty wise–especially since if Japan remains at peace with Russia for the whole game, they give Russia 20-40 extra income from the East.  If you trim off the Soviet East from every direction, they are in much worse shape.

However, recall that there are 3 nonadjacent territories that Japan can attack with impunity;  so the decision more hinges on when than if.    All going to be dependent on whether the Russian player hides those 18 men effectively or lets them die for no reason.

Japan wants all that stuff dead so that it doesn’t have to garrison its heartland, either.  The problem there is that many strategies eschew the northern factory placement and argue for either all transports, or a base in Malaya or FiC (or hong kong–this one is very versatile).  Those bases give you more mobility and pressure on India.

And as part of my “5 Spicy Allies” battle plan, Russia is crucial;  it has to pull that attention northwards the whole game.  Every unit/$ that goes up there means a slower Japanese moneygame and endgame development.

@taamvan:

The take away is that you as Japan do not under any circumstances want to directly attack Mongolian territory, ever.

That leaves you with 2 choices;

1. wait for Russia to attack you, if ever, or hide behind a beneficial peace OR
2. attack Russian territory (or Chinese territory occupied by Russians) adjacent to Mongolia, activating Mongolia, let Russia have a turn, then start taking out those no-revenue territories starting on the next turn.

One other alternative might be
1b) attack China and Russia, but never attacking even a single Russian unit in any land territory adjacent to Mongolia or face 6 new russians

Japan is allowed to attack Chinese territories that are adjacent to Mongolia that have Russian units in them w/o triggering the Mongols. It is original Russian territories when attacked that turn the Mongolians into Russians.

They’re are three territories in USSR far worth a total of 3 ICP that Japan and take over and still not piss of Mongolia. I have only ever seen a player do this once but Japan and USSR not going to war is usually very useful for Japan as it keeps a front close and 9/10 times, USSR will be the one to invade which turns Mongolia into a strict neutral.