@crockett36
This seems interesting. I’ll try it out.
[G40] Minor (France, Italy)-first turn order
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In turn blocks (merge UK Pacific & ANZAC economies):
- Italy & China
- France & USSR
- Germany & Pacific Commonwealth
- Japan & UK Europe
- United States
- Italy doesn’t declare war until Paris falls (France can’t declare war on Italy).
- Paris factory is a minor (can’t drop 6 infantry)
- French Pride dictates that French warships can’t move nor can French land units leave French soil (except by attacking) until Paris falls.
- Give a sub to the Gibraltar cruiser to account for the extra unit Italy’ll build.
- Give a +5 NO to France to account for the 3 tanks Germany’ll probably have to kill. (or don’t, call it a 19 IPC bid).
- Colonial Pride: +5 IPCs if France holds all original territories.
- Optional: add a French Transport in the Channel.
What do you get? No can openers on the Eastern front. No can openers in the Pacific.
G1 has to account for French moves. (Stack Paris, stack subs in the Channel, evac to London, retreat to the countryside, attack Germany).
J1 has to account for Comm moves. (See: 3G40)
I1 gets a chance to determine the fate of its fleet.After playtesting: huge Axis advantage. Recommend upgrading the Gibraltar cruiser to a battleship.
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@hengst this might be of interest and was a while back but I thought had some merit. Tried a few sartups but never any full games.
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Further testing shows some unsurprising results.
*Note: I am playing with the following adjustments to the starting setup:
- +1 Inf in Tanganyika Territory.
- +1 British AAA in Gibraltar.
- +1 British SS in SZs 109, 91, 98.
- Convert the Med & Gibraltar CAs to BBs.
- +1 German SS in SZ 103.
That’s a lot of extra punch. Three subs & two cruisers upgraded to battleships. It may very well be too much.
If France pulls off a strafe on Holland/Belgium, it’s devastating to Germany. They either have to commit their whole air force to hitting Paris (which will now have 3 extra tanks & an extra fighter on it) hard enough that they don’t lose planes (thus completely forgoing a Sea Lion threat), or split their forces and deal with 75% or worse odds in Paris & probably planes dead as well, while still only being able to hit only one British sea zone.
If you play with a Land Scramble, this strafe is out of consideration.
More playtesting… if Germany decides to f*ck around in France & strafe Paris, hoping for a Paris collapse followed by a Sea Lion, it’s really really good for Italy. Since she gets two turns to build up without the Brits coming after her, and then even after that, they still have to bail out of the Med, it relieves a ton of pressure on her. If she takes full advantage to shuck down to North Africa that first turn (since her transports won’t be at risk), it’ll be basically a done deal for Cairo.
However, on the other side of that coin, it’s not great at all for Germany. Unsurprisingly, there’s no way it can ever take the UK except maybe on G4 or G5. Without the Paris money, it just can’t build enough transports, and the extra fighter from France does help. This is a best-case, 20-damage bombing run & shot down two interceptors scenario. So far, we’ve lost 2 fighters (1 to French AAA, one on escort duty). However, with the freedom to navigate the Med, the UK can get its Med fighters back to the UK on UKE2, by staging from the carrier in the west Med. So we’re still looking at 5 fighters in defense & a lot of infantry buys.
So is having Africa & the Middle East wide open worth an angry Russia & a large UK ex-Med fleet (with adjustments, they still have 2 BBs…) about to turn the Gibraltar corner? I can’t say until I’m playing Global; I’m just testing this on the Europe board. My hunch is that it’s not.
My other hunch is I may have swung too far the other way; I might have to remove a sub from 109 & downgrade the Gibraltar BB back to a cruiser.
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Hmm, can openers are fun. Not too bad of an idea though.
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Seems too unbalanced in favour of the Allies. Only time will tell, though.
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@superbattleshipyamato Would you be interesting in helping me play test it? The amount by which it slows Germany seems to be partially counteracted by the amount by which it assists Italy. With Vichy rules & perhaps some bonus income for taking capitals (see the Standard Simplifications) it seems to be well-balanced in the Axis favor.
As always, more tested is required. Currently playing with replacing the US “I own WUS/CUS/EUS” bonus with +1 Strat & +2 Armor instead of the 10 bucks, as a moderate buff that adds more historical flavor to the game.
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No thank you, thanks for the invite though! I’m very busy and your rules seem to take a while to learn (no offence), but I hope you find someone.
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