The idea is to introduce anchor points for the fighting, all across the game board. Each nation gets 2 additional production slots, with starting factories in the following 1 ipc value territories…
Russia: Archangel and Yakut
Germany: Algeria and Finland
UK: Eastern Australia and Rhodesia.
Japan: Malaya and New Guinea
USA: Hawaii and Szechwan
Edited to reflect the feedback in subsequent posts
Other candidates for additional 1 ipc factory expansions that I considered might be places like…
Novosibirsk or Evenki, Trans Jordan, New Zealand or Western Canada, West Indies or Central America.
But I think the pairs listed above make the most sense. These starting Facilities are meant to be prestige targets, encouraging players to fight over a broader swath of the gamemap, rather than just in the one dimensional thrust. The suggested territories are all contestable and distributed over a pretty decent stretch of the globe. Axis will have more targets on their attack routes, but Allies will also have an early logistics boost, with a few extra slots at the front.
The orientation of the factories in the Pacific is meant to draw more Axis activity towards Australia and Hawaii and the South Pacific islands. The factory in Algeria allows for another med build location, giving Germany more options there initially, but can also be snatched up by USA for Torch. Allies have a slot in Africa to help hold the center south, but this is also possible for Axis to steal. Allies have a blocker factory up north to help cover Russia in Archangel, and a slot in Yakut for the defensive line up north, but these can likewise be taken by Axis. Szech has an expanded defensive role as well, and becomes a true anchor for China desirable to both sides. Finland can be an especially useful target territory for both Axis and Allies, it gives Germany another build slot up north, but can also be taken by UK or USA, and then supported out of Norway. Most of these 1 IPC territories could go either way, depending on whether Axis or Allies are in the ascendance, but the fact that they’re spread around, means that each Nation needs to dedicate more resources to the conflict around the globe. So basically there’s more pressure to manage your starting resources, since you have more target territories to defend. I think this production spread would work while perhaps producing a better balance by sides.
These factories are a gameplay novelty meant to add some new spice to the OOB game. Their value for production at 1 is not too outsized, and I think there are strong gameplay and fairly reasonable historical justifications for having them at those locations. At least it would create more back and forth.
:-D
Any thoughts?