@BluGerman:
So my question is, is it better for 9th player to play france?…. or should i make him something like pacific U.K.?
Interesting discussion because the number of actual or potential player nations varies depending on assorted factors. There are nine powers in Global with their own distinctive infantry sculpts (US, USSR, UK, ANZAC, Germany, Japan, Italy, France and China), but the last two are odditities: France because it gets largely knocked out in the first round and China because it essentially has no equipment pieces and because it operates under restrictive rules…so that brings the number of full-scale players down to seven. The number then goes up to eight if you split the UK into separate European and Pacific components (as reflected by the income dual-tracking system used in Global). An added twist, which has been mentioned by several people, is the potential to have all the neutrals controlled by a designated player, since the neutrals have a distinct status in the game. (The concept could even be taken a couple of steps further by distinguishing the neutrals with standing armies from the neutrals without standing armies, well as the pro-Allied neutrals from the pro-Axis neutrals and the strict neutrals…but that’s probably splitting things too finely, unless you’re operating under special house rules for neutrals). With the addition of extra house rules (and pressing into service some of the existing sculpts available from HBG), a minor role could also potentially be assigned to two countries which have no sculpts but which do have their own distinctive map roundels: Canada and the Netherlands.
If you expect to play fairly soon with your nine-player group, under the official game rules, you’ll probably have to go for simplicity – maybe something like this:
1. US
2. USSR
3. UK (Europe)
4. UK (Pacific)
5. ANZAC
6. Germany
7. Japan
8. Italy
9. France, China, and Neutrals
