Delta +1

@Young:

1. Make a condition in one of Germany’s NOs that the Baltic sea must be free of allied ships.

EXACTLY!! The Swedish Iron Ore NO should definitely include this. I just had a game last weekend with a very odd situation. Russia decided to be very aggressive and purchased some naval units in SZ 115: 1 CA, 2 DD and 3 Transports in addition to the 1 CA and 1 SS they start out with. The idea was to try a sneak invasion of Berlin to end the war quickly. Well, Berlin had too many units but they did manage to invade W Germany and Denmark. The invasion of Denmark was successful but Germany repelled the invasion of W Germany by the skin of it’s teeth (1 fighter left).
Germany got Denmark back and also took Leningrad next round so no more naval invasions were attempted by Russia because they had no way of getting more land units for their transports. With Denmark retaken by Germany, those Soviet ships were stuck in the Baltic sea.
Now, the German NO states: 5 IPCs if Germany controls Norway and Denmark and Sweeden is not Pro-Allied or Allied controlled. Well, Sweeden was still strict neutral and Germany did control Norway and Denmark so this was technically true. However, here is this rather large Russian fleet sitting in the Baltic with nothing really to threaten it. Germany’s navy was almost non-existant at this time and what Luftwaffe there was were needed in other area and couldn’t be risked by attacking Soviet warships that were basically not hurting Germany at all. Don’t you think a sizable Soviet fleet like this would disrupt commerce between Sweeden and Germany?
One other note: Before Barbarossa occurs, or Russia’s Combat Movement phase on Round 4 (when they can declare war on Europe Axis), Russia is considered neutral so those Soviet ships in SZ 115 would also be neutral, not Allied. Therefore, Germany should be able to collect the Sweedish NO during the first 4 rounds even with those Russian ships there in the Baltic. However, once Germany attacks Russia, or Russia declares war on the Axis, then those Russian ships need to be dealt with by Germany for Germany to continue getting the Sweedish NO for the rest of the game.
This would force Germany to deal with them and not simply ignore those ships, which often happens in our games. What do you think? Good Idea?

The Allies ( except Soviet Union) cannot enter the Baltic unless they control Denmark at the start of their turn right?…these are the straights rules already in the rulebook?

Same with Gibraltar and the Medd.

Damaged Battleships can not bombard during an amphibious assault.

yes right. Good idea. But remember Cruisers now have an advantage ( in a way). People might be more inclined to buy 2 cruisers than 1 Battleship because of this change.

Then those Russian ships need to be dealt with by Germany for Germany to continue getting the Swedish NO for the rest of the game.

I don’t see the need for this change. The Russia fleet was much smaller than the German fleet and Germany had the area mined for defense to protect her Iron Ore. The Soviet Baltic fleet was mostly mothballed and used for coastal defense, which the game already in a way accounts for this. The Allied ships the NO is talking about are UK/USA. After turn 4, the Soviet fleet should have no effect on this German NO.

The game is already balanced, this change just helps the allies with no compensation for axis.  House rules should try to add options and realism without imbalancing the game.

I don’t want to see free french and vichy french units the same color blue, and fighting for both sides.
Its going to get confusing.

Honestly I think it would be a better stop gap measure to replace the French units in UK with ANZAC counterparts, and add a UK unit in africa somewhere, and lock all French units in place after France falls.

On a related note, any plans for having Canada as a separate power?
(Merging ANZAC and Canada to form “UK commonwealth” that has 2 separate economies)

I don’t want to see free french and Vichy french units the same color blue, and fighting for both sides.

Well the Free French could be replaced with UK pieces, because essentially they were financed by UK.

Vichy stays blue and note attacking one Vichy does not make the others go pro. They operate independently in a quasi loose association.