What house rules/setup changes/bids to use to balance the game?

[kenny314]

Hi, I am newish to these forums, I mostly browsed until now, but now I think I finally have the chance to play my Axis and Allies 1940 Pacific/Europe/Global with friends, live (I have never played by email, I have done tripleA in the past but I prefer an actual board). They are first edition and have been sitting around for a while so I haven’t really been keeping up with all the rule changes. When making my game aids I used Bob A Mickelson’s charts for all 3 games, hence all the national objectives are presumably 1e OOB ones. However I did manually change all the setups to alpha 3.9. But I understand that all of the setup and rule changes in alpha was mostly to cater to Global, so I am not sure if the individual games would still be balanced if I use the same setup (combined with 1e NOs). It seems like no one really cares about Pacific on it’s own, they mostly play Global or Europe, with some declaring it pointlessly broken, but my friends and I are keen to play Pacific because it’s shorter and takes less space than Global, and as we are New Zealanders have a special interest in the PTO. I have read many house rules on this forum such as the Manchurian Garrison (or adding Russian troops), beefing up the Chinese/British forces, allowing Chinese forces to move anywhere, or giving the US a one time 30 IPC bonus. I was wondering which of these rules allow the game to be more balanced yet still have enough variety in terms of strategies, and also which rules can be used with each other and yet not unbalance the game to the other direction. This is all taking into account that I have the original unmodified NOs. Also if I employ a combination of said rules would I still need to use a bid? What is the bid if I use alpha 3.9 without any house rules? Thanks.

[Krieghund]

Welcome, kenny314!

Use the 2nd edition rules, FAQ, and setup.  Also use the following official rules change (page 9 of the Rulebook):

The United States begins the game neutral. It may not declare war on Japan unless Japan first declares war on it or makes an unprovoked declaration of war against the United Kingdom or ANZAC. Following any such unprovoked declaration of war by Japan, the United States will receive an immediate one-time bonus payment of 30 IPCs, representing the total mobilization and transfer of military assets within the continental United States. However, if the United States is still not at war with Japan by the Collect Income phase of its third turn, it may declare war on Japan at the beginning of that phase. This is an exception to the rules for declaring war (see “Declaring War,” page 11), which may normally be done only at the beginning of the Combat Move phase.

There were two minor map changes in the 2nd edition.  The first was to correct a 1st edition erratum (Sea zone 5 should not be adjacent to Korea.  The border between sea zones 5 and 6 should meet at the border between Amur and Korea, leaving Amur still touching only sea zone 5 but Korea touching only sea zone 6.).  The second was the combining of Yukon Territory and British Columbia into Western Canada, which should have no effect on game play.

[kenny314]

Thanks! I’m assuming that the one time payment doesn’t occur in Global correct?

[Krieghund]

No, it does not.  It is intended to balance the stand-alone game by offsetting certain factors that are absent when the game is played without Europe, such as a additional income for the US and a Soviet front for Japan.

[Cow]

It is still to your advantage to go to war sooner than later. J1 DOW is the way to go for this unless you trying to take over America, you get pretty good odds for it still.

[theROCmonster]

@Cow:

It is still to your advantage to go to war sooner than later. J1 DOW is the way to go for this unless you trying to take over America, you get pretty good odds for it still.

I disagree with you here Cow. Pacific is a lot different than global. I even think it might even be best to wait till turn 3 to attack allies after they have declared war on you. This will keep America from getting her 30 dollar bonus, and her 40 dollar bonus for two turns. That is a total of 99 less, since you would take phil in a T1 attack. Haven’t played enough games to be 100% sure, but taking India is a lot easier, and your real problem is taking Hawaii. I don’t know how you can ever take Sydney if the allies are competent at all.