@General:
Ok, so I guess what i’m asking is…
Is there a way to stop the usual playout of Japan moving to take russia, and Germany/italy can stand and win on their own without Japan’s help.
Does a non aggression rule for Japan/Russia imbalance the game?
There’s plenty of ideas that vary from modifiying the rules for the Chinese, to adding an IC for UK in India/Australia to tweaking NOs (making up some like an NO for the non-aggression rule) or just a pure bid for the allies.
The most commonly used is a bid. If you give UK 2 inf in Egypt on UK1, the whole Africa dynamics will change as it is then easy to pin Italy’s Med fleet in the med for a kill shot by UK in round 3. Does this change the playout that you described above? It can… if the usa player now realizes that less axis africa = more UK power = USA can really go after Japan, and it’s a winnable situation.
Which mod is best?
Check the house rules section for discussions. http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?board=41.0
Try a few out.
Have you exhausted the permutations of the optional rules?
By that I mean have you tried adding the optional escort rules or the closed dardenelles?
How about no National Objectives (that really changes the game)?
Tech is always a crap shoot in it’s OOB form.
I do believe that as the game approaches it’s second year of ‘life’, more and more players will realize that the play-out / strategies will predominantly be the allied KGF - Axis Turtle and Jap Tank dash to Moscow. First one to take Berlin / Moscow wins!
A bid balances the game. what does that mean? I think it means that BOTH sides have about an even chance to win the game.
…but it only stands to strengthen the allied KGF plan, and that accelerates the races to capitals, it will not open up the pacific as a truely viable theatre of war, IMHO.
Kick the tires in the house rules section. For your goal, specific mods geared directly against Japan have the best chance: (china mods, UK IC, no new Island IC’s, etc)
Modified to correct a mis-worded sentence