Declaration of war for the US

@lotuk said in US IPC Bonus (Looking for Affirmation):

But why wouldn’t the US then also get the 30 IPC bonus income for holding western US at the start of their turn? (getting 60 bonus IPC).

The 30 IPCs for controlling Western United States, unlike the one-time bonus for an unprovoked declaration of war by Japan, is from a National Objective. It, like all National Objective income, is collected in the Collect Income phase (at the end) of the power’s turn.

The rules for declaring war state that it’s technically not required if they declared war on you “as the two powers are already at war” (see below extract from page 11). Though I feel like this must excludes the US and they must “declare war” during their combat move despite already being at war?

No, it’s not necessary.

Yes, my bad.  I was mixing in with the Global rules by mistake.

I wouldn’t imagine building an mIC there ever worth it, but that’s just me.

Crockett36, just an FYI this is a Pacific 1940 thread, NOT a Global 1940 thread. So keep in mind your parts about defeating Germany are invalid in this particular situation  :-)

To sort of piggy back off of crockett36’s post though, for those that apply to a Pacific 1940 game, you’ll definitely need to look at how the whole game plays out. By that I mean, you’ll probably need to be prepared to be semi-aggressive with ANZAC and UK both with an Alaska strategy. As Crockett36 points out, you’ll be throwing most of your force that way presumably, so that leaves Japan to (also presumably) focus efforts north as well. If that happens, you’d want to be ready to pounce as ANZAC and UK, wouldn’t you? Attack the Caroline Islands, fortify the Philippines and DEI, etc.?

That all said, the other tricky thing about this strategy is knowing you start out on the second foot to Japan. they get to go first, so will dictate play a lot. Also depends on when Japan attacks. They start out with an obviously significantly larger naval force than the US, and could potentially leave enough force to deal with Alaska, and also continue to strike south. If a J1 happens, I think an Alaska build up is rather difficult.

But, if it’s delayed to J3, with a US entrance to war on US4, then you may reasonably be able to have built up a decent size force to do this. Again, assuming you coordinated with ANZAC and UK as well. This might all be pointless to do if ANZAC has only built defensive ground forces, or UK gone all ground force to help China, etc. You’d essentially have an empty theater in the south where Japan isn’t getting hit in that case. Or, by staying defensive, might allow Japan to still do what needs to be done in the south pacific without jeopardizing it’s Alaska force much.

A strategy to get right in Japan’s face is to build an industry and naval base in Alaska. A strong fleet positioned in SZ1 is an immediate threat to SZ6 and can receive reinforcements directly. To create a highway to be able to help ANZAC and get to the DEI quickly, build a naval base in Johnston Island. Establish Allied control of Dutch New Guinea and build a naval base there. This extends the highway to India and allows (potentially unopposed) amphibious landings in China. It should also tie up Japan in the DEI and make it commit units to defend the Philippines. If Japan can’t commit enough units against China or India the latter will start winning on that front in which case Japanese defeat is inevitable.

Let’s support this effort.

Are there any updates?  Are they working on this now?

Do you mean half of 57 or half of 17? If it’s half of 17, that’s a greater disadvantage to the allies.

Japan needs to do two things on their third turn if possible (assuming they didn’t fall into taking the bait), they need to take the Philippines and try and take Hawaii if possible.  This will deny the US the most income

Unless the US player is asleep at the wheel I dont see taking Pearl as a viable T3 Japanese goal. I agree that PI must fall on J3, but all the rest of Japan’s power should be pasting the Brits and Chinese. There is little the US can do that early to make any impact on Japan or her econ without risking catastrophic US casualties. Given that, Japan should spend her time and force on overwhelming overkill on the Brits and Chinese. Once they are dead, the game is effectively over unless the US is in serious positions to overturn the Japanese econ (unlikely from what I can see).

I do agree that the Brits have to do everything they can to simply stay alive and force Japan to keep her airpower focused on land. I think that is going to mean investing a in a LOT of troops and maybe AA-guns. A few more of those floating around might give the Japanese pause about throwing 4 Bettys and 4 Zekes/Vals into the fray….

If possible, I think it would be understandable to bait Japan with a DD or an unprotected bomber or something.  As long as the US loses less than 40IPCs in the bait, they are fine cause they will get a net +.

Yes and no. If you can get the Japanese to jump before they are ready then maybe, but once the Japanese kick off, the Brits are going to lose both of their bonuses (assuming they got the 4 island one) and probably half their base econ as well. That goes a long way towards eating into that +40 for the US and frankly, as Japan I’d rather the US had the money than the Brits at that point. My goal as Japan is to keep every Allied IPC OUT of Asia as I possibly can.

This will reduce the combined income of the Allies by 20 IPCs.  Japan should be able to close the Burma road and take Hong Kong too.  Now the Allies have lost 30 IPCs.  Things look very balanced at this point.

Except that Japan still has considerably more disposable combat power on the board as well as FAR FAR FAR superior interior positions and coordination. To me, that is the real killer for the Allies at this point.