Possible free For All?

Is it possible for this game to be set it up so that every country could fight on it’s on; with one country destroying everyone else as the only victory condition? Say, combine Italy and France (with Spain and Portugal?) and let them go first? Britain goes 2nd? And perhaps add about 1 guy to every Chinese territory? What would the outcome of THAT game look like?

My friend and I have been developing some rules for a Free For All on the Global 40 Board. Each country has a special unit and unique national objectives. Here is a rough outline, let me know what you think:

Countries:
Germany - 30 IPCs - Blitzkrieg Ability
Russia - 37 IPCs - Movable Factories & Factories placeable anywhere (movement of 1)
Japan - 26 IPCs - Yamato (24 IPCs, 3 hits to kill, 4 - 4 combat value)
America - 52 IPCs - Marines (4 IPCs, 2 - 2 combat value, +1 attack during amphibious assaults, destroyers & cruisers have can carry 1 each similarly to a transport)
Communist China - 4 IPCs - Cavalry (4 IPCs 2 - 1 combat value, can move two spaces, no blitz)
China - 9 IPCs - Cavalry (4 IPCs 2 - 1 combat value, can move two spaces, no blitz)
United Kingdom - 21 IPCs - Commando (5 IPCs, 2 - 3 combat value, can be paradropped by a bomber in which the first hostile territory the bomber goes over it has to be dropped, or can just be a noncombat)
Italy - 10 IPCs - Armoured Car - (5 IPCs, 3 - 2 combat value, can blitz)
ANZAC - 10 IPCs - Commando
Canada - 7 IPCs - Commando
India/FEC - 17 IPCs - Gurkhas (4 IPCs, 2 - 3 combat value)
France - 19 IPCs - Fortifications (5 IPCs, up to 3 per territory, +5 IPCs for every existing fortification in the territory, enemy armies cannot blitz through and enemy infantry cannot pair with artillery)
Netherlands - 12 IPCs - Colonial Infantry - (3 IPCs, can place in any originally owner territory)
Middle East - 8 IPCs - Jihad - Does not have to wait a turn after declaring war
Nordic States - 5 IPCs - Finnish Winter Soldiers - (3 IPCs, 1 - 3 combat value, no enemy blitz)
South American Federation - 8 IPCs - T-Boats (4 IPCs, can carry 1 unit, 3 movements)

Rules:
Ideally each country is controlled by one player.
All nations begin at peace; war takes 1 turn to declare.
Each country has its own national objectives.
Some units have been changed around with the setups; however, the majority of the setups have remained the same.
If you conquer a country you may choose to puppet a portion of it.
There are no pre-established alliances.
When two nations are at peace they gain a trade bonus.
Countries may form alliances, non-aggression pacts, request military access, declare war, and lend lease.
Oil derricks give the controlling power 1D6 roll of IPCs.

Thanks for the input guys, I made some adjustments and changes, and will republish a new version with some updates based on your suggestions as I integrate them.

BEF:  I agree that putting them in London is easy.  I think those two UK pieces on Paris are some of the fluffiest on the entire board, yet they are always killed on turn 1.    I wanted there to be a flexible choice;  keep the pieces in france and make taking france a bit harder (thus altering the basis of the G1 opener), or put some pieces somewhere else to keep them guessing.  This is different than a bid because part of the purpose is to make France a bit riskier to take, and to make a new reason for Germany/Italy to want to kill it quickly even though there are 4 UK units there.  Also, UK can counterattack Paris on UK1…

French Guiana;  a friend mentioned this; I added the concept that they can place naval units offshore.  However, I didn’t want to give the French the ability to place infantry there because I don’t want them to be able to simply walk to brazil and take it over.

New Hebrides; isn’t a territory.  New Caledonia is.  I wanted FIC and new Caledonia to be potential new places to put a small French thorn in Axis’ side

Cruiser vs Fighter;  Great point; 12 is pretty much their entire budget.  I didn’t think it was very apt to give them fighters, because armor, fighters and tacticals are bread and butter offensive units.  I wanted to make France more like China, where its choices are limited and it cannot build an attack stack in the same manner as a regular power.  If we permit the French to have fighters, we would have to come up with a different explanation of why they get them (not assorted naval forces but secret aircraft factories?) and they are extremely gamey (fighters do a lot.  adding them in means that I would choose them over anything else.  Id buy fighters wherever I was allowed to and send them on desperate defensives and sorties).

Part of my thinking here is that France already has 2 cruisers, which occasionally live.  This and the single fighter from UK would be their only “3” attacks, and then only during an amphib, and therefore be the only offensive contribution france could make.  I didn’t want to give the French the full range of choices because I like the idea of them remaining a nerfed power, but one that could raise a force of infantry and even transports, but not much more punch or mobility than that allows.

Thanks for the discussion and please continue.  Taam.

Hello there.  I’ve really enjoyed reading up on those these rules and I’m sure I’ll have fun implementing them as well.  A couple questions though.  With the Free French I read that they’ll be implementing the “China mechanism” where I get no industrial complexes are used.  My question is “does that mean they can only place infantry and artillery?”  Also i assume that Germany can collect tribute IPC’s from ANY Vichy territory with German units occupying it.  Thanks for any clarifications.

my group has toyed with something like this. It was fun, but some countries get so overpowered its ridiculous.

Absolutely knp. I guess I should elaborate. :-)  A research team is actually just a single die roll that is expended once rolled, but the result is permanent.

Example:  Germany goes after Jet Fighter construction that has a breakthrough value of 18. The German player buys 3 research teams (die rolls) that result in a 3, 5, and 2; for a total of 10. The 10 points is not enough to gain the tech, but the points rolled are permenant. On the following turn, the German player buys 3 more research teams towards Jet Fighters. This time the results are 6, 4, and 3 for a total of 13. With the previous balance of 10 the German player would have a total of 23 which exceeds the breakthrough value of 18 thus granting the player access to the Jet Fighter Tech.

We play that purchasing tech teams, and the tech rolls happen prior to purchasing units, so new techs would be available for purchase the same turn it was achieved.

As for what techs are available to each power, it’s nearly identical for each power except that each power receives a country spacific tech.

Germany: Jet Fighters
Britain: *Landing Craft
Japan: I-400 Subs w/ Aichi Bomber
Russia: Kaytusha Rockets
US: Flying Fortress Bombers

(* Although not really a British tech we find this has the best in-game application for the unit)

Hopefully, that sheds a little more light on the topic. If anyone is interested I can email some additional detailed info. Just message me with your email.

@Gargantua:

I like 1B, that’s not bad.

But it’ll make things like 8 transports 1 destroyer a HELL of a force to deal with. I’m not convinced…

Maybe they could operate like AA for eac 2 you have paired or something…

Well with 1B, then only the destroyer and 1 transport would get to defend, and the transport could only hit air units.

I see your point if your talking about 1A though.  So maybe 1B?  I just don’t think having transports have absolutely zero defensive capabilities whatsoever is neither historically accurate or fair.

For 2, i think I’ll leave them at 6.  It seems allies are a little bit behind in this version, and the 6ipc tank rule hurts germany more than anyone else.

No… Except when I have moved 30 Tanks Vs. 1 Infantry and that is all you got left