Romania as it’s own team..?

@linkler I don’t know how many real playable rules like this have been put out there.

I’ve long loved the idea of having like an “Axis Minors” sort of expansion idea, having Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Finland being separate playable powers. I personally like the look of having a ton of different nations shown on the map and not just absorbed by their major power overlords haha. It obviously can make the game take longer, but could be fun!

I’ve toyed with ideas for a while, but I’d say one of the biggest things is balancing the changes made (at least in the way I’ve viewed the possibility of them being separate powers).

Anyways, my general thoughts are somewhat broad right now. Romania would keep it’s own IPP of course, but there would be some kind of trade agreement with Germany too. This way the major power of Germany maybe doesn’t lose out on too much money, and the minor power Romania can have a bit more to supplement building units. Maybe something like Germany gets +2 IPP and Romania +1 IPP a turn for trade or something.

Romania would buy, move, attack, etc. on the same turn as Germany. Romania/Axis Minors can’t conquer territory (i.e. anything they might capture becomes German).

Germany can Lend-Lease to one Axis Minor power per turn. I feel like the potential of allowing Germany to Lend-Lease to all Minors every turn would become a big boost for them to get units on the front line quickly. Maybe limiting to one minor a turn would make them have to pick and choose where to put it.

The biggest thing here is rebalancing though. In what I’ve talked about, you’re giving the Axis more IPP via Germany-minor power trade, and the ability to build units directly on the Eastern Front lines more or less. To me, this most negatively affects the Comintern, so maybe you have to add X amount of militia/infantry/something to the Comintern starting units? Something like that, not really sure.

I’ve also thought about putting limits on each Axis minor too. For example, Finland won’t attack any farther than Leningrad. Historically speaking Finland wasn’t too enthused with major pushes into the USSR, so limiting them to Murmansk, Leningrad, Karelia, etc. would be interesting and sort of hamper the Axis that way. Same with the other minors. I think of Romania in terms of their oil fields a bunch, and needing to protect those. I’ve thought of a rule where if Turkey is non-neutral/non-Axis controlled/Aligned (i.e. it’s controlled/aligned by the Comintern or Allies) then Romanian units will not attack into the USSR until the Turkish threat is eliminated, and all units currently in the USSR would move back towards Romania each turn until Romania is safe again. Also, Romania units can’t move any further west than Yugoslavia, some things like that.

Again, nothing here is fully fleshed out, but all thoughts/ideas I’ve had!

@chris_henry

Did you check out the Version 1 game 39 ? It has the minors as separate powers with income.
I did have different colors for every minor in game while we played and tested.

@general-5-stars No I never did! When I first discover the Global War series/HBG, they were just rolling out V2 of 1936. The 1939 map didn’t appeal to me nearly like 1936 did, so I saved my money until I could get 1936 V2 haha. That’s cool they had them as separate playable powers though! Now I wish I’d seen the rules to get an idea of what it looked like!

Yeah, I’m right there with you. I just think it’s fun to showcase the powers and see how long any can survive in the course of the war haha.

@chris_henry rules for 39 are downloadable on HBG’s website!

@mark-the-shark Really? Where at? I looked at the 1939 game, and there’s a link to the rules that says it’s on Board Game Geek, but the link appears to be dead!

EDIT: As I typed that, I tried to go the Board Game Geek directly, and it appears their servers are coincidentally down at the moment! I’ll have to take a peek at those rules when I can!

@chris_henry well I will admit I haven’t looked at them on the website since I downloaded it about 6 months ago or so…

I can post them here in a bit

Global War Complete Rules v7.1.pdf

@general-5-stars Thanks for sending! Interesting rules there! A lot of what I was thinking too (glad I was on the right track haha).

Yeah, I think the idea is a lot of fun to have them added in! I think it’s ripe for expansion possibility, but who knows!

@Linkler I don’t remember where I heard this, it might have been one of Doug’s Youtube updates, but I had heard somewhere that they didn’t really have any immediate plans for really any expansions for a little while. They’ve been focusing on Meltdown (which just released) and 1914 so much, as well as Midway earlier this year, that I think any expansions have really taken a back seat! I’d personally like to see expansions as well, since the 1936 game is really the one that interests me haha.