Hi guys, thanks for bringing me in,
Panther is an official Q&A man, too, and his answers A, B, C, D all look correct to me.
My goal is to answer the rulebook questions you have, so I may not explain every angle unless you ask follow up questions.
I need to say I am not sure what GeneralDisarray meant, at times, like with the phrase “creating and leaving a hostile zone”, so I am not really responding to everything you each have said but I think my answers will take care of your needs.
I am using the Europe 2nd edition rulebook and I think Daaras posted 2nd edition Pacific which is fine, same rules, but my page number won’t coincide.
The end of page 13 and beginning of page 14 covers “sea units starting in enemy-occupied sea zones”.
The page 12 blue box explains how to apply this rule when you first declare war.
I’ll just try to clearly apply these rules to your situation here, and if you have additional questions I’d be happy to help.
I see GeneralDisarray moved an ANZ cruiser to New Hebrides and a destroyer to Paulau/Carolines. In each of these zones, Japan has ground units on islands and none on transports.
This creates issues for Japan.
Of course if Japan does not declare war J2, then the ANZ ships are neutral, not at war, and have no effect.
But of course the question is if Japan declares war against UK/ANZAC on J2, what are the effects of these ANZ ships.
The Page 12 rules apply since Japan is declaring war. “During your Combat Move phase in which you entered into a state of war, your transports that are already in sea zones that have just become hostile may be loaded in those sea zones (but not in other hostile sea zones). In effect, transports may be loaded in their initial sea zones for amphibious assaults before war is declared, while the sea zone is friendly.”
So, the rule page that Daaras posted.
Cruisers act as transports in PtV.
So in each of the sea zones ANZ intruded upon, you have the same situation for Japan if Japan declares war on UK/ANZ
(Bullet points on page 14) These are Japan’s choices:
- Stay in the zone and conduct combat
- Leave zone, load units if desired, conduct combat elsewhere
- Leave zone, to load units or to establish a retreat route, return to zone and conduct combat
- Leave zone and don’t conduct combat
Then you add in the rule for a new DOW,
Japan can load ground units in the zone, which is normally not allowed, but only for amphibious assaults.
The other 4 bullet points of page 14 still apply.