@trig said in The FAQ Thread:
@generalhandgrenade said in The FAQ Thread:
@hbg-gw-enthusiast said in The FAQ Thread:
The moving player’s intent need only be declared upon entering a sea zone, sea zone by sea zone. The announcement is something like, “My fleet enters this sea zone and intends to keep moving to this next sea zone. Do you want to declare war before I leave?” Then say the British fleet reaches the final sea zone they want and they announce, “We now declare war on Japan and are going to try to perform an amphibious assault with these ships/units.” [If there are enemy naval units, then add, “These units are my screening force.”] So yes, they can move through a Japanese-occupied sea zone peacefully, only to immediately declare war and conduct combat in the next sea zone all within a single turn.
None of this is correct if neither of us has declared war on each other yet. Other than maybe some canals or straits, my naval movements are not restricted while I’m not at war with you. That’s why you have to put some thought into when you decide to declare war on your turn. In some cases, you might want to make some moves, declare war, then finish your moves. The reason is you would move your ships unimpeded, then if you needed to fly your planes over certain territories, you can declare war on those nation(s) and thus complete your moves (you can’t fly over a neutral nation).
Why not? That is what happens. You move through the sea zones, and a nation may declare war with you at any time as you are moving though. This is just the slow way of doing it, for instance if you had a really important turn like Japan’s sneak attack or something. There is nothing in that that refers to restricted movement, just giving the other player a chance to DOW. I find it a much more elegant explanation than “you can declare war at anytime, and then figure out what happens”
(Also, your previous post implied that someone would make their moves while everyone else wasn’t paying attention, or was off doing something different, and then be immune to a preemptive DOW. I find that that just rude and impolite. GW Enthusiast’s interpretation removes that obnoxious loophole.)
I was giving a literal interpretation of the rules. I wouldn’t wait for someone to go to the bathroom or out for a smoke to declare war on them. As you point out that would be rude. We don’t play our games that way. That said, I’m not going to tell you what my plan is nor am I under any obligation to do so. We explain this quite clearly in the rulebook on page 25. We even gave an example of what I said;
The example that was given in this thread by the OP was a rare occasion that I’m not sure I would put myself in as the British player. If I was making that move chances are I’m doing it just to bait the Japanese player into declaring war on me. You can bet that I’ll be sure and give him every opportunity and latitude to do that. If he doesn’t take the bait I might just change my move before I announce any combat. A more appropriate example that would be common would be moving past the American boats on my way to assault the main part of his navy. I would be doing so before he has the ability to declare war on me so I don’t have to form a screening force. Once there I would declare war on him.
Declaring war in GW 36 is very easy. So easy it takes up hardly any space in the rulebook as you can see from my screenshot. However, it is the most difficult decision to make in the game with consequences that could decide the fate of the game. I have work to do on GW 14 today and other stuff that needs doing. If I have time I’ll make a video on Declarations of War later. If not then I’ll get to it some time after I get home from the lake this weekend.
