After some thought, I think the G40 paratrooper rule as is… is a very “safe” direction to go for implementing a “regular” paratrooper rule in a lot of ways…
1. It really limits the amount of infantry that can be dropped during a single turn, this should prevent a surprise attack of 10+ infantry overwhelming an unsupported enemy territory from 3 spaces away.
2. Although it’s difficult to picture how games with KNP’s house rule turns out, I’m assuming that an air transport might be the transport unit of choice in most scenarios. So in my uneducated opinion, the limit of 2 infantry per airbase should avoid making the sea transport obsolete (or at least less attractive).
3. Using paratroopers as support for an attack coming from land or sea just makes sense IMO, I can’t imagine that it was often where infantry were dropped into hostile territories alone without any rendezvous with other friendly forces. If there were such cases in the war, it should be an exemption to the rule rather than allowing it to happen all the time during the course of an A&A game.
4. Although the current paratrooper rule is not very sexy, it seems to be more likely acceptable to the casual player who may find it difficult to… or unwilling to… obtain the extra sculpts for a simple house rule. However, Baron’s advise to make each nation pay for the special ability if they want it seems very reasonable.
I’m thinking a one time fee of $5 will give your nation the paratrooper ability for the rest of the game, it can be purchased any time during the purchase new units phase and becomes active immediately. Thoughts?