First turn surprise house rule

[Courtenay]

Everyone remembers the slashing Allied attacks when WW II started, right? Right? Right. I don't either. The surprise rule works great for Germany and Japan. It is not, however a good description of what the effect of the Allies declaring war on Germany was.

Here are two rules that I have been thinking about; I would like people's opinions of them. I have not played a game using them.

The Allies DoW was a surprise, but it was not a tactical surprise. Instead it was a strategic surprise. I suggest the following house rule:

Strategic surprise: After the Allies declare war on Germany impulse two of S/O '39, no other declarations of war may be made for the remainder of the S/O '39 turn. This means that the USSR may not demand either the Finnish or Rumanian border lands S/O '39, because they can't DoW if Germany does not accede to the demand.

I accompany that rule with this one:

French, um, Frenchness:
Units belong to CW or French countries aligned to the CW or France at the start of the game may not attack or make an air mission against a German controlled hex in Germany or enter the Baltic Sea until one of the following events occurs:
1) A German unit attacks a hex or makes an air mission against a hex in a CW home country or France.
2) Any Axis major power declares war on any Allied major power, except that Japan declaring war on the USSR has no effect.
3) Any Axis major power declares war on Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, or any country in the Americas.
4) Either the US or the USSR declares war on Germany.

Note that this rule does not apply to Poland, or any other minor countries the Germans might declare war on; Poland is free to attack German units in Germany.

It is legal for Allied units to enter Germany if they are allowed to do so without attacking. Similarly, the Germans can enter undefended hexes in France without removing this effect. An overrun is not an attack. Invasions and Paradrops are attacks.

[rkr1958]

My opinion is that Great Britain and France "reluctantly" declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939 after Germany failed to respond to the allies ultimatum to withdraw from Poland. Except for spy stuff the allied direct help to Poland after was anemic. The only direct action that I'm aware of is that the allies helped Poland "evacuate" their gold reserves through the Balkans. Then we had 6 months of the phony war after the fall of Poland. Well, phony on land and in the air but not at sea. At sea the war raged but on land the French hunkered down behind their forts in the Maginot line. The British sent their BEF to France as an obligation and in the hopes that they would deterrence enough against any German "invasion" into France and/or Low Countries.

Even when Germany invaded Denmark and Norway in April 1940 (Operation Wesengbung), I believe that the allies still held out hope that this "second" world war would be contained to the sea and on land away from Western Europe. Let's not forget that the winter war between the USSR and Finland had been raging for several months. In fact, the First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill saw intervention in Norway against Germany also a way to provide direct aid to the Finns against the Soviet Union. A Great Britain DOW on the USSR was avoided only because the Finns sought peace as British and French troops were headed to Norway to fight the invading Germans. If not for that, there's a very high chance that Great Britain and France would have been at war with Germany and the USSR in the spring of 1940. Oh, what a disaster that would have been.

Even after the fall of France both the RAF and Luftwaffe avoided bombing each other cities. It was only after during the Battle of Britain that a German bomber missed their assigned target and dropped their bomb load on London. After which "Bomber" Harris ordered an RAF raid against Berlin. And then in response to that Hitler ordered retaliatory raids against London. This shift by the Luftwaffe, saved RAF air bases and radar sites from future attacks and thus sealed the Luftwaffe's fate to defeat in the Battle of Britain.

I write all this as supporting rationale of why I agree with your assessment that Great Britain and France avoided "tactical" surprise attacks against Germany following their declaration of war. This avoidance, in my opinion, was by design to prevent escalation of the war on the ground and in the air against France and Great Britain. For historical play I do agree with you rationale and attempt to mute Great Britain and France's tactical surprise following their DOW.

FYI. WIF CE, have addressed the general strategy of sending French subs to raid the Baltic on the surprise impulse of CW & France's DOW on Germany.

11.4.4. Naval movement restrictions. While Germany is an active major power you can’t move naval units between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea (even via Frederikshavn or Kristiansand) if:
• no major power on your side controls any of Oslo (W0549), Copenhagen (W0442) or Kiel, or
• one or more major powers you are at war with control the other 2.