AARHE: Phase 2: Neutrals

@ando101

I wasn’t saying that your idea was bad.

But yes, that makes sense.

NEUTRAL ITALY Variant:

Italy was clearly in the middle of everything at this time in world history.  Their strategic location in the Mediterranean Sea gave them a particular and peculiar place on who or how they would join in the coming war.  Italy chose neither side at the start - but events and pressures would soon change that course.

Use this rule to handle a weak and indecisive Italy  - which side will they JOIN?!

New power sequence:   (preferred but not necessary)
AH - Cannot attack Italy and must attack SER turn 1.
IT - Neutral turn 1.  Cannot move or build.
RU
GE
FR
OE
UK
US - Neutral until turn 4.

Procedure for Italy entering the war:
Italy was in the Triple Alliance (of 1882) at the start of the war; Austria, Germany, & Italy.  The Triple Entente; England, France, & Russia did much to “buy” Italy’s allegiance with promises of any territorial gains they may take in Austria, the middle East, and Africa.  If not for the death of the pro-CP Italian Foreign Minister, the Marquis di San Giuliano, the auction for Italy may not have occurred, and Italy may stayed out of the war longer, if not for the duration.  The Triple Entente had much to offer Italy, the Triple Alliance, very little.

Turn 1 - Italy cannot be attacked.
Turn 2+;  
a) At start of turn, roll 1d6.  1-2 = to CP; 3-4 = stays neutral;  5-7 = to AP; 8+ = stays neutral.
b) The Triple Entente can spend IPCs (from any treasury) to adjust that die roll.  For every 6 spent, add 1 to the roll.   This money does not go the Italian treasury.
c) While neutral, Italy will collect 50% of IPC values into their treasury.
d)  If the Italy joins a side due to this roll, the owning player can immediately spend 50% of treasury on units to be placed in any European Italian territory or sea zone adjacent to Rome.
e) While neutral, Italy can be attacked by any power, in which they would automatically join the other side.  1; If this occurs, they will mobilize 2 x IPC value of territor(ies) under attack, and regardless of the number of units mobilized, 50% of the treasury will be expended.  2; Mines are active against any amphibious or sea attacks.  
f) On Italy’s first active turn in the game, they can spend 50% of their treasury minus any amount that was pre-spent in step d.

If, instead, you allow US player to simply  built up to 2 Infantry per turn on any Allied chinese territory

That works OK, Baron – I’d prefer to the OOB rules. The problem with building infantry is that it doesn’t create an interesting choice for the US player, and if Japan kills the Flying Tiger on J1 (as it always should without an American bid or a radically intense Russian reinforcement gambit), then China never has any offensive potential no matter how much Japan under-invests there. Right, like let’s say on turn 1 I kill just Szechuan, leaving you with 4 infantry. You build 2 more infantry, now you have 6 infantry. So…so what? I’ve got something like 6 infantry, 2 artillery, and 2 fighters in the region; you don’t have any interesting counter-attacks.

With an IC, America can choose to build infantry (standard play) or something aggressive like a tank or fighter (Chinese gambit) or build nothing at all and save the IPCs for the ocean (Atlantic gambit).

Here’s how I would do it:

Don’t think of the new power as just “Italy.” Instead, think of the new power as “all minor Axis powers.” The starting territories would be Italy, Southern Europe, Algeria, Libya, Rumania/Bulgaria, Finland, French Indo-China Thailand, and Argentina (!). You can actually leave the starting unit setup as is – that will give the new player 2 fighters, a battleship, and a transport to start with, while still leaving Germany and Japan with a bomber and five fighters each.

Open the Turkish Straits.

Put Italy first in the turn order, e.g., Italy - Russia - Germany - UK - Japan - USA. This is OK because Italy’s not really in position to mess up the Russian starting units too badly.

Leave Italy at 3 IPCs, and create a new 2 IPC territory out of neutral “Peru Argentina” that starts out empty, under Italian control, just as Brazil starts out empty and under American control. This will give Italy 14 IPCs at the start of the game – enough to buy a carrier, or a fighter, or a bomber, or a cruiser.

It’s OK that Italy has only three production slots, because Italy’s going to want to drop some expensive air/sea units. For example, if on turn one Italy builds 3 infantry and saves 5 IPCs, then on the next turn Italy might have as much as 22 IPCs to spend – which is really easy to do; you could buy a fighter and a bomber, or a transport, a destroyer, and a tank. Having only three production slots doesn’t really cripple the Italian player, and it wouldn’t be realistic anyway for Italy to crank out enormous armies of infantry; Italy’s population just wasn’t that large. If you really want to, you can probably build an Italian factory on turn 2 in Rumania.

Other than the Russian bomber added to the setup, I highly doubt any of my group will want house rules for a game that we just started playing… especially with my history of changing the Global rules… LOL. Nice idea, but I probably won’t be able to introduce house rules until my group gets board of the game in a year or 2 (maybe even 3).

we have a house rule that captured majors turn into fully damaged minors and captured minors are destroyed.
i have also seen rules that when you capture IC you role a D20 for major and D6 for minor to determine how much damage it received during the battle.

@Warplayer12:

My house rule is simple: if someone invades a strict neutral, then the other strict neutrals are not pro-allies or axis. BTW: sweden is in the game strict neutral, but they give iron ore to the germans.

Sweden sold Iron Ore to the Germans, Ball Bearings to both sides, licensed the Bofors gun to the US and the UK, supplied the Allies with a V-2 that landed in Swedish territory, and sold spare aircraft engine parts to Finland for US and UK aircraft that were operated by Finland with the tacit approval of the US and UK.  In my house rules for the original Europe game, Sweden has 3 IPC that go to whoever controls Norway, while remaining neutral.

I am working on a set of rules using the Political Action Cards of the first Attack Expansion to influence neutrals one way or the other, with Turkey being the main neutral that I was thinking of, along with Thailand, and possibly Spain.

I do like the idea of grouping the neutrals into geographic blocks, as they would be most interested in intervention by one side or the other near them.  However, Brazil entered the war in August of 1942 on the side of the Allies, and the US was using Brazilian air fields for Trans-Atlantic aircraft delivery to the UK in the Middle East prior to 1942, so I am putting that in the Allied camp as soon as the US is in the war.

@oldsalty:

Bierwagan:

How would you have played your example if it were a bomber instead of a ftr?

Moin OldSalty!

I haven’t had a lone bomber defending a territory yet.  But, it wouldn’t really change anything.  Air units only get full attack strength when coupled with ground forces on a 1-to-1 basis.

@AAHRE:

Air Supremacy
When only one side has air units at the beginning of
combat cycle, air units fight with normal combat values
when matched 1-to-1 with a friendly land unit. Excess
air units fight at combat value of 1.

So, the bomber would have Air Supremacy but would only get a parting shot at 1 (n.b., bombers don’t get to select targets it is just carpet bombing) – then it would have to withdraw due to:

@AAHRE:

Land Combat: Retreat Decision
At the end of a land combat cycle, if only one side has
land units the other side must retreat.

TTP (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures) insight for the day!
This becomes tactically significant later on in the game when you don’t have many ground units left.  I’ve seen people attack what looks like a solid defense in Berlin by tying up all the airplanes in the sky.  Then all you have to do is blast away the few defenders on the ground and “voila!” the vaunted Luftwaffe is forced to retreat because they have no land units, giving you the country and victory!

This really causes you to re-evaluate defense on the ground.  You have to watch UK as well because normally it’s just used as a non-mobile aircraft carrier – but NO MORE!

It’s all about balance… and aircover!  IL & Tekkyy have done a wondermus job of levelling the playing field and making it a real slobberknocker of a tactical puzzle.

Enjoy the day!