How to get Russia and Japan at war

[Rubblestone]

in my last game as both the WA and Russia i found a way to get eastern russian zones unfrozen. if, as the WA you can either capture indochina or luzon (north philippines) then send some heavy bombs there. from these bases they can reach Manhuria, from there you just keep bombing them until there are fewer than 3 units left (this will cause eastern russian zones to become unfrozen) then the russians can take to resorse rich manchuria

now i have not tried this with a AI russia so i would be curious what it would do (would he declare war on japan?)

also is this a possible bug? according to the manual "If at the end of a Japanese Player turn, Manchuria contains less than three Japanese infantry units, the Soviet Eastern Zone is immediatlt Unfrozen" The way I read it is the th Eastern zone becomes unfrozen only at the end of the japanese turn, thus they should get a chance to reenfore the area if above strategy is used. but in my game as soon as the WA turn ended the zones became unfrozen

[Harrybanana]

Very interesting. Perhaps you should post this in the "bug" Forum.

[Rubblestone]

Just tried this again, this time i captured Ryukyo island (south of japan), stationed some heavy bombers, killed one of his infantry in manchura, and the russian zones became unfrozen though this time japan actualy suprised me and attacked the russians first

[daskomodo]

I don't think this is a bug, but working as intended. I do the same thing as China all the time.

Historically, Russia and Japan has been fighting in 1938 and were at peace only because they each had other fish to fry. Russia was ready to pounce the moment it spotted weakness.

If Allied attacks whittle Japan below its garrison level, one could assume Russia decides that the moment of weakness had arrived and tries to grab Machurian territory before the Allies get their hands on it.

[Rubblestone]

i still dont know how to ready the rules from the manual properly, it could go either way... maby this is a ai issue, the ai always seem to garrison the min 3 units all the time, maby the ai need to be tweaked to add 1 or 2 more?