Matrix Games Forums

is ther any rules or known house rules to simulate Pearl HArbor?

Read Section 15 - Surprise.

However, I have seen Japan get surprised on the way to do Pearl so what's even more important is how US Entry works.

Also, all countries that don't start the scenario at war, can be surprised.

But the US fleet could be anywhere

It could be, but the US has several incentives to maintain a fleet in the Honolulu hex, once it has passed the appropriate US entry option. The fleet, per the rules, must be at least 2 CVs (other than USS Langley) and at least 8 battleships.

First, it's easier for the US to manipulate the tension of its entry options against Japan if the fleet is in port. This means the US has an easier time getting the tension levels it needs for its gear-ups and for declaring war - or reducing tension if it wants to pile up entry (say, to pass the oil embargo, or the option that lets the Commonwealth reinforce Rabaul).

Second, the US suffers a penalty to attempts to declare war against Japan if the fleet isn't in port.

This means that, if Japan sails a fleet out during the turn, and the Allies get an intervening impulse, the US will sail out the two carriers and maybe one battleship, and the other BBs will get pounded during the surprise impulse.

If Japan gets lucky and, say, sails the fleet out late in a turn, and the turn ends before the Allies go, and the Axis goes first the next turn, there could be carriers sitting in port when the Japanese carrier planes come calling.

ORIGINAL: freeboy

But the US fleet could be anywhere

Perhaps but if they are not somewhere that is garrisoned then really bad things can happen if they are surprised and Japan invades their port hex.

Plus the above mentioned advantages for keeping the fleet at Pearl once you have sufficient US Entry to pass that Entry Option.

this game is amazing...
Im still super vague/hazy on why stuff happens but I ordered the physical add on with printed rules and eagerly await sitting on sofa reading the rules
Joy.. I have watched enough of the videos and tried out the scenarios to realize its going to take sometime....

thanks for the help

What happens if the US tries to DOW Germany and / or Japan and fails?

If the US fails an attempted declaration of war, obviously it is not at war with its intended enemy.

Further, the US loses one chit from the entry pool and one chit from the tension pool of the power group (Germany/Italy or Japan) it failed to declare war against.

... and it can try to do it again later again.

Once it has to lose a chit and doesn't have a chit in that pool, it can never DoW the associated major power(s) for the rest of the game.

True but, was that the case? Didn't see anything saying it was the last one. To be true, it would be pretty strange that USA would try to get in the war with only 1 chit, the odds should be from bad to impossible.

I don't think that was the case. I was expanding upon the explanation because this is the WiF School sub-forum.

ok

What does the Terrain Effects Chart mean when it says "Either's choice"? Can't find an explanation in the manual.

It means that picking the table is handled by the "standard" method of checking who has the armor (or mech if no arm are present) advantage.

As opposed to say, mountains or cities, where the defender picks no matter how many tanks you have hitting the place.

Should this attack be automatic?

It looks like it's not actually shifting down the odds levels for the weather. If it was in fine weather it would be straight up correct, but it isn't.

If you haven't reported this as a bug already, report it.

The 4-3 shows a status of disorganized. If it is not in supply it only has a defense strength of 1. It is 3 hexes from Pskov and can only trace 2 to a supply source, although there could be an HQ under the 4-3 Mil or 2-5 Mech.

The odds being shown are 5-1 with 29 attacking 4 which doesn't jive with the unit being OOS, though.

The closest HQ is 3 hexes away. So is the unit out of supply? If so, the attack was correct, but the odds shown aren't? Still a bug?

Definitely an auto attack then, but displaying the incorrect info is a bug.