Japan DoW on USSR?

[ThunderLizard11]

ORIGINAL: redrum68

Those are balance issues (or maybe not), but there is also an etiquette issue. Call me (very) naive, but I strongly believe players should refrain from abusing engine/scripts, because it simply destroys gaming experience and forces both players to play artificially, even in anticipation of weird things that may occur. You may of course house rule many things out, but soon both sides will come for a game with their lawyers. There are things like:
1. Usual ELO rules - no diplo on majors, no ussr dow in 1940, no Bulgaria diplo
2. Bringing all RN to Pacific and attacking JAP while they load troops on transport
3. Scouting with JAP fleet for other Axis powers
4. Blocking Red Sea with japanese ships
5. Bringing JAP SF to Africa in 1940
6. This new STR Bomber in Syberia 'strategy'
7. Atacking neutrals in Pacific by Allies to prevent JAP from taking them for free
8. 'All of France strategy' by dropping paras near Algiers (or was this fixed? That was serious issue, but not heard of this for some time)

Agree. Most of the naval "scouting" issues can be fixed by putting more naval restriction zones for a few of the nations. For example:
- Italy should have a more restricted naval zone (essentially the Med) until they join the war (so they can't scout for Germany in the Atlantic)
- Japan should be restricted to just the pacific until they are at war with UK/US
- US should be restricted to just near its east/west coasts until they join the war

ORIGINAL: petedalby
Thanks for the explanation Taifun. I've just started a new game as the Axis and in December '39 I already see 2 UK armies in France with probably more to come. Your rationale on 'Action / Reaction' makes perfect sense.

I have no problem with the tactic if it's also combined with a land attack on the USSR by Japan to trigger the gain in US mobilisation.

To have a DoW without increasing US mobilisation is where it seems wrong to me.

Actually the Siberia bombing strategy is very powerful regardless of France being weakly or strongly defended. And actually the earlier you start Barbarossa probably the more impactful it is as USSR will have less units so the HQ + 5 units are even more essential though you'll need to make sure you prioritize getting long range air with Japan early enough.

And yeah while the tactic itself is very strong, the gamey part is the not invading Siberia by land to avoid the US mobilization penalty which I think is really meant to represent Japan DoW on USSR since as Bill mentioned you can't check that 2 nations are at war with each other just whether they are mobilized.

I may try this next MP game. Never heard of it before it seen it done.

[redrum68]

In the end, I think probably the best thing to do until changes are made is to add a house rule to not allow Japan to DoW on USSR until they are at war with the USA.