@Krieghund:
The only time that you can declare war is at the beginning of your Combat Move phase. The only exception to this is the US’s automatic declaration of war at the beginning of its turn 3 Collect Income phase.
Krieghund, I bring this matter before your attention please:
I think there may be a discrepancy in the Pacific 1940 rulebook. On page 2 it says “On turn 3, due to the realities of the global situation, the U.S. will switch to a wartime economy. On the U.S. player’s third turn, whether attacked or not, the U.S. will boost its income by 40 IPCs per turn.”
So, it would seem that the U.S. wartime economy automatically kicks in at the beginning of the Collect Income phase of their 3rd turn. But then on page 8 in the revised Political Situation section (taken from the official FAQ/Errata) it says “However, if the United States is still not at war with Japan by the Collect Income phase of its third turn, it may declare war on Japan at that time. Representing a switch from a peacetime to wartime economy, the American player collects an additional 40 IPCs. This wartime economy takes effect during the first U.S. turn in which it is at war with Japan, regardless of the event that triggered the state of war.”
So what is going on here? The phrase ‘it may declare war on Japan’ infers that the U.S. has the option to go to war with Japan or not, but that its wartime economy will automatically kick in either way. How can the U.S. have a wartime economy if she chooses not to declare war? Surely she can only have a wartime economy if she is at war.
Perhaps the wording on page 2 should be amended to “On the U.S. player’s third turn, whether attacked or not, the U.S. will automatically declare war on Japan and boost its income by 40 IPCs per turn.” What do you think of that?
Just so I understand correctly - the U.S. may not declare war on Japan during turns 1 and 2, but automatically declares war on Japan at the beginning of her Collect Income phase of turn 3. Is that right?
If that is correct, then how does it affect/is it affected by the European situation (sorry to bring this up here.) Or, are the Eastern and Western U.S. treated as seperate political spheres in terms of going to war with different Axis powers? In other words, does the U.S. being in a state of war with Japan have any effect on its state of play with Germany and Italy? I would be grateful if you or anyone else could just explain how that works to me.
Thank you very much, Krieg, for all your hard work.