New version…

[zosima]

This may have been done already, but Im not sure.  Looking past any historical inaccuracies at the start of the game, My roomies and I and have fond a fun way to play. 
Lets say history was different and Russia was not attacked by germany (becasue of the 5 yr(This is how we played it) non aggression pact and they also could attack japan(which actually happened). 
My room mates and I played a game where russia could not attack Jap and Ger, nor BE attacked by jap and ger.  They also only collected 50% of the IPC’s they would have collected (this way they dont build up massive forces unchecked.
So after turn 5 it turned into a normal game of A&A.
it was rellay fun and the axis came REALLY close to taking UK on turn 3, and the japanese were taking it to the US pretty good, but then russia came into the fray and turned the tide.

thoughts?

[Bashir]

Could Russia help the UK with air support???

Another thing is that I think the game is pretty unbalanced this way:

1. Ger does not have to defend their eastern border for 5 whole turns… So they can easily build up their troops, not really fearing the UK or the USA. After 5 turns Ger sledgehammers into russia => GG
2. The Allies lose a lot of income really fast this way without hope of retrieving it fast… Germany can commit a lot of troops to africa for at least 3 turns means the UK is down 9 pretty fast. Japan takes India, Aus and NZ means another 6 down, leaving the UK with a grand income of 15 without hope to retrieve this anytime soon.
3. Easy build up for Japan, they take sinkang and China pretty easy and gain a head start against mobilizing inf to the Asian mainland. So when turn 6 begins Russia is under even more pressure than normal…
4. A little math, Russia starts with 19 inf, 3 arms, 2 figs in Kar +24 inf (6 turns = 72 IPC income = 24 inf) So they have 43 inf, 3 arms and 2 figs. Lets say Germany builds on average 10 inf per turn (rest they save or invest in arms/figs/bombs from their extra income Africa provides) Means they have around 55 inf, 10 arms, 5 figs and 1 bomb (even a low estimate, but ok) to invade Kar with on turn 6!  Game over… The point is that Germany and Japan don’t have to go for the UK and the USA, they can use this time much better to prepare pawning Russia on turn 6.

All you do with this variant is to give the Axis a lot more time and one opponent less to take care off. It is to easy for the Axis to just gain economic supremacy and build up huge stacks then to go for Rus. Going for the UK is a suker bet… just wait 5 turns, have way more inf than Rus, kill Rus with a one two punch and it is over in like 8 turns total… IMO a waste of my time…

[rjclayton]

Could the allies reinforce Karelia before turn 6?

[zosima]

Yes, we played that the allies could “dump” units into Russian territory all of the 5 turns before russia would go active.

[losttribe04]

I would think that once Russia allowed allied troops to stage there thier loyalties were in the sand and that should make them fair game for the axis at that point. Norway’s still an option.

-LT04

[Bashir]

What did you guys do with the Russian fleet. They obviously could not go to the UK seazone because they are not allies at that time. So the UK sz is defended by a tran and a Battleship, which is easy for the germans…

Zosima if you are willing to play against me, I will try this ruleset and see if my theory is working…

[zosima]

I would love to play against you.  We only did it once on a whim…and we were drinking…but it was interesting.  Ive acxtually never played against someone online.  How would that work?

[Ddraiglais]

How about use this idea for a new bidding system? Let people bid between 1-6 on what turn the Soviets can enter the war. Low bid plays the Axis.

[losttribe04]

What if you followed the "command and conquer: red alert” scenario and put the Germans on the allies side and beefed up the Russians and made them bad guys?  :evil:

I always thought that would be a cool twist to the A&A world.

-LT04