@Cmdr:
Allies generally need one and a really good shot at another for us to conceed our games. (That one being Italy because they get farmed so easily now.) Which is the primary reason I want to strip the Americans down and force them to pay significant attention to what they are doing. With most of their money in harder to attain (not hard to attain, HARDER) islands in the Pacific they should have less to use to hit Italy with and thus, Italy should have a modest ability to first survive and second prosper again.
I understand the days of a 60 IPC Italy are probably over. Fine. I didnt really like it anyway. However, now we’re at a 0 IPC Italy in almost all of our games. (0 collected, not 0 in holdings necesarily.) And it’s all due to America.
Jenn, it seems your solution to current problems is more changes. Lets examine that for a sec. If a change to the game is made, and problems arise…why not go back and fix the original change instead of making more additions? This development process has been a spiraling set of errors, one is heaped upon another with no clear path to ‘perfection’ or a description of what that would be.
If we are finding that Italy is nerfed due to whatever factors are currently in vogue, perhaps the answer lies in retro changes that put us back at a more even axis and allies. However, I understand the importance of the final rules version, and it is why I wish Larry would dedicate 1 or 2 weeks to iron out some of the peripheral issues and put them in concrete. I am talking about the DOW system and by extension the true neutral camp. No more ‘decide amongst yourself’ rules, if I wanted a game with open alliances I would place Diplomacy. Wed France to UK so that when UK goes to war with Japan so does France. DO NOT allow UK/ANZAC to declare war on Japan. It is not allowed and that pretty much clears the incentive for them to grab free NO moneys.
Go with ‘historic’ neutral blocks, even going so far as to put SWEDEN with the ‘Africa and Iberia’ block. Include Turkey in Middle East, and if time permits make changes to Neutral units by adding ships in specific sea zones in the rulebook, similar to Xeno’s W@W. I believe however that Sweden could possibly be made its own case by tying the Denmark/Norway NO to Sweden…who has the ore after all. Sweden could also join the Axis if Russia takes both Finland and Norway, I don’t think the Swedish population was too keen on being surrounded by communists and this would help give the Western allies their historic reason for wanting to invade Norway. (operation Jupiter)
Lastly, might I add that these ideas are not radical, they are based on history and with an eye towards game balance and game play. Why they fall on deaf ears I don’t understand. These rules layered on A2 with the Mongolia rule and ‘Moscow attacks after Sealion’ and tell me where the problems still lie.
The only areas I would concentrate on then would be NO’s that are more fun and perhaps another Italian ship. NO’s don’t have to be 5 ipcs, and Japan should have like 4 or 5. 2 in Islands and 2 in China/Indochina at least. Russia should have achievable NO’s that are not game winning. Have Russia get extra ipcs for holding territories in Eastern Europe and Balkans, also Korea and Finland. Keep the Russian convoy NO, its the only Convoy zone that affects a territory that is not adjacent to the convoy! Any ideas on good NO’s for USA or UK? I think Italy and ANZAC are fine.