I think it would be cool if the game Global map board had 6 possible set ups or scenarios by year, all printed as a set up chart addendum to the rulebook. Same core rules, just different territory ownership and starting unit set ups.
1940: Expert difficulty. Longest scenario, slowest build up, with the most involved rules and most deliberate gameplay pace.
Focus primarily on the Political dimension and Declarations of War between players. Designed as the “all night” or “multi-session” scenario. Realistically a scenario at this scale should be designed with the 1v1, head to head style of gameplay in mind.
1941: Moderate difficulty. A slightly accelerated version of the above, but beginning with total war conditions. Still a long scenario, with a fairly slow build up, just at a slightly faster pace than the 1940 game, on account of no DoW rules and more starting units. Focus on mobilization and early purchasing. Again designed to work well in a 1v1, head to head match.
1942: Moderate difficulty. Moderate length scenario. Fairly involved unit start, but a somewhat faster build up than the two earlier scenarios. Representing the Axis at their greatest extent, with roughly balanced starting forces. As the basic 1942 scenario proposed in this thread attempts to do. The familiar A&A game, modeled on the Classic experience. This game should be designed with a more free form team-player experience in mind, such as the 2v2 or 3v3 match.
1943: Moderate difficulty. Similar flavor to 1942, but with a different unit set up and a more accelerated pace. A many-headed-hydra sort of match, with the scenarios that follow focusing as well on the multi. I think this game might be fun if designed for the uneven-match 1v2, or 2v3 etc.
1944: Wild difficulty. Short scenario, fast set up. Focuses heavily on technology. The fast pace of this should make it ideal for quick games, either head to head or multi player.
1945: Wild difficulty. Shortest scenario, fastest set up. Focuses on the Post War balance of power. This last scenario might be conceived in such a way to allow the war to continue beyond its historical end-date, and to build a certain Cold War flavor into the game. Perhaps returning to the Political dimension, like a funhouse mirror reflection of the 1940 scenario, except here it is a “cold” DoW between the USSR and the Western Powers. This one would probably be fun as a 3 player game, Free For All, 1v1v1. Or perhaps as a head to head match, with some sort of cascading technology feature, or mechanic whereby the contest is really Allies vs Allies, and the Axis are there mainly as an hour glass in the competition. Or perhaps both ideas in mind, for the short 1v1 and the multi. This game might include strategic weapons as a resolution mechanism: the ABCs. Though maybe we don’t want to go there with A&A? People seem to have a fascination with the Atomic since the Allies achieved it, but the Bio-Chem not so much, even though that was where the Axis had the edge. Its the dark side though either way, and a hard sell. Probably best to just leave it alone and pretend the war ends on conventional terms. It would still be cool for the Soviet player to have a 1945 start date, since we could build them out to be at their zenith, war with Japan etc.
A game map like that would have substantial replay value, and a better statistical chance that 1 out of the 6 scenarios will score a hit, and be balanced by sides OOB.
:-D
Clearly the most complex and rules intensive year would be 1940, since this pre-dates Soviet and USA entry, and the Pacific war versus Japan, but all the rest could be designed with a more moderate difficulty level. Basically, as the war goes on, with each scenario you can strip things down a bit, to put the emphasis on a different style of gameplay. Keeping the same Total War situation and rules, just with a different flavor in each year. I think 6 years would be cool, since you could do the whole 1d6 analogy. And the basic 6 player ideal. I mean, you could probably print a set up chart for each year on just a couple pages at the end of the rulebook. I still pine and dream for a 3rd edition printing of 1940 Global, that might include such a concept.
