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I'm curious as to other players thoughts on whether hitting Pearl during the surprise impulse is a given, or whether they use their fleet to help speed up the expansion and defense of the Co-Prosperity Sphere?
Granted, a shot at 2 carriers is great, but isn't the danger of an unlucky search die roll by Big Green during their response a pretty risky gamble at being gutted before you really begin? If they happen to have land based to throw in to mix that is.

Port strike happens before naval move though. If you're taking a supercombined (usual for that initial big push), you will get away. You move out, in impulse 1, wait. Impulse two, you port strike and run back home.


I almost always Pearl, and will strike at the west coast if the U.S. leave something important there. The only real reasion not to, is that IMO, making sure you neutralize Manila, Singapore, and Batavia is more important, and you might want your carriers there instead.

I have been working up plans as the Japanese are about to cut loose with the big offense. Some notes have come to my attention on it.

First, while the US needs to have 8 battleships and 2 carriers at Pearl in order to get the bonus/threat to declare war, the Japanese should not see the carriers there in most cases.

As mentioned, the Japanese need to preposition their carrier strike force where they plan on dropping the hammer so they can port strike when the war starts. The US will get a chance to move 3 ships before this happens and 2 of them should be the carriers stationed at Pearl. The carriers can be in a position to return to Pearl at the end of the turn so the US gets its bonus to declare war.

The other issue for the US is the Japanese have 4 of their 6 big carriers capable of reaching the US west coast along with the 4 Kongo class battleships, provided they start in Truk. This could catch a unsuspecting US player with transports/amphibs/carriers stuck in port and a Japanese player may be tempted to come take a shot at those far more juicy targets instead of taking shots at 8 old battleships at Pearl.

Just a minor note: Most U.S. entry actions are done at the end of turn, but the big declaration of war is done in the Declare War step.

If I'm Japan, and I move to threaten Pearl Harbor, and you as the U.S. player send the carriers away, you've got a +2 to your roll until they come back. Depending on where you are with entry, and what Japan thinks you're at, that might in and of itself be a victory.

Very true, but the US get a shot at declaring war before moving the carriers out. If the Japanese wait to the point where the US has a good shot to declare war, then send a fleet to do a "Pearl Harbor", they are really taking a very heavy risk. The US could succeed in declaring war, not only removing any surprise the Japanese may have enjoyed, but if the other US carriers are around, they could show up and just deliver a crushing blow to the Kido Butai and the Japanese would never get a chance to respond.

The US should always move the two carriers and the best BB out of Pearl, if the Japanese are on the doorstep. And to make sure the targets aren't that juicy on the US west coast, simply move the CV's together with the TRS and the AMPH's into ports next to the Caribean Sea. The US usually can handle the loss of a couple of BB's and cruisers...

the other way to do it is for Japan to leave a fleet adjacent to Pearl at the end of a turn, and then bank on winning the Initiative...