I had another thought which may be parallel to yours, Tekky. What if ICs only cost 5IPC, but could only build units equal to 1/3 of the IPC value of the territory (rounded to the nearest whole number, but always with a minimum of 1 even on Greenland or other non-IPC producing territories). By paying for and placing a white chip under the IC, each IC could be upgraded a max of 5 times (a red chip) with each increase adding another 1/3 production ability, so, the production ability would be as follows:
Cost # of ICs on territory Example -India (3IPC) increase in the territory’s IPC value
5 1 1/3 of 3 = could build up to 1 unit/turn +0
10 2 2/3 of 3 = could build up to 2 units/turn +0
15 3 3/3 of 3 = could build up to 3 units/turn +0
20 4 4/3 of 3 = could build up to 4 units/turn +1
25 5 5/3 of 3 = could build up to 5 units/turn +2
30 6 6/3 of 3 = could build up to 6 units/turn +3 (the maximum increase)
Of course, the original setup ICs should probably start at level 3 (an IC with 2 wite chips underneath), but it would be neat to be able to increase Caucus an additional 3 by spending 15 IPCs, so that Caucus would be worth 8 IPCs/turn and able to produce up to 8 units/turn.
If this would be too powerful (one can only imagine every country upgrading their capital’s ICs, then perhaps the following would be more reasonable.
Cost # of ICs on territory Example -India (3IPC) increase in the territory’s IPC value
5 1 1/3 of 3 = could build up to 1 unit/turn +0
10 2 2/3 of 3 = could build up to 2 units/turn +0
15 3 3/3 of 3 = could build up to 3 units/turn +0
20 4 1 & 1/4 of 3 = could build up to 3.75=4 units/turn +0
25 5 1 & 1/2 of 3 = could build up to 4.5=5 units/turn +0
30 6 1 & 1/2 of 3 = could build up to 4.5=5 units/turn +1 (the maximum increase)
I realize that this does increase the complexity of the game, but adding a slight economic diminsion to the game could be interesting. Another thought would be that the Axis setup ICs start at level 3, but the Allies setup ICs start at levels 1-2. At least for America anyway.
Good/Bad? Tell me what you think.
P.S. In the current game, we tried the +1 IPC value to all new ICs, and it is definantly helping the Allies somewhat (with UK having 1 in S. Africa and 1 in India and US having 1 in Sinkang) by keeping Japan tied down and UKs being able to hold Africa quite handily. Although Russia is having quite a time of it trying to hold off the Germans.