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Not sure if anyone has done this yet so thought I would throw this out and get some feedback from anyone on this board…

One of the aspects of the game is that everyone can see everyone else’s pieces and position. Therefore, any strategy employed is basically revealed upon purchase of the pieces. So we decided to develop a variant. It also works well with the quarantine, since you can play over Zoom.

We have three players. One is Axis, the other is Allies, and I am the game master. We each have our own boardgame at home. The main twist, is that while we set up each of our games exactly the same, after the game begins you can only see your pieces. The only thing you know about your opponent is what is revealed when they battle or when they conduct reconnaissance. This allows each of the players to build up special forces and attack their opponents in unorthodox ways. It also partially mitigates many of the common strategies since you have guard your territories against sneak attacks.

Here is how it works. We set up the board. Then in battle order turn, each player communicates confidentially with the game master on three troop movements before the game starts. This allows each player to somewhat reposition their forces from the beginning. Once this is done, we start. In battle order turn the player communicates their purchases to GM, tells the GM their attacks. The GM brings both players together, announces the attacks in the order the attacker desires, and conducts the battle. Each player knows all pieces in the attacks, what border country the pieces came from, and if an attack is ended before victory, which country the pieces leave through. Then the player tells the game master confidentially where the purchased pieces go. Then it goes to the next country up.
There are some additional rules needed for how to conduct reconnaissance, who can detect subs, how subs are attacked, how naval movement works with incidental contact, etc.

But the benefit is that you may not have any idea what your opponent is up to. This becomes very interesting in the pacific theater where your naval units have lots of room to move undetected, and asian factories may go undetected for multiple rounds.

Thoughts?

@Sgt-Mclusky We tried to minimize rule changes, and in order to do that we stuck with the original naval rules as much as possible. In precombat moves naval forces which hit each other must stop and fight as a blocking action. In post combat moves, naval forces which hit each other coexist until it is the other players turn where they get to choose. Only BB and ACs detect subs. Subs see everything except other subs. We kept it simple. What was really interesting, is that in my role as games master, I could see what the other players were doing and thinking. They could not get out of the box from playing a normal game. The worst play came from the allies. The US has the greatest opportunity for surprise, but he played them very poorly. He had one interesting ploy which ended up with a transport in the middle of the pacific with two infrantry, but wasted it by taking the phillipines for $3. The next round they were eliminated, but Axis had no idea they were there… Im playing next. Will be fun coming up with new strategy.

@Sgt-Mclusky We are starting a new game where I am going to play the allies. Interested in hearing my strategy, my opening moves and giving me some feedback?

Per the rules above, everyone gets three troop moves before the game starts. Mine are:

Russia:

1. 2 tanks, fighter from Moscow to Sinkiang
2. 1 sub from Karelia to sea zone outside of france/spain
3. 1 tank, 1 man from Soviet Far East to Yakut.

GB:

1. 2 men via transport, fighter from India to Egypt
2. 2 men via transport, 2 fighters, BB from England to Karelia
3. 1 man from Syria to Egypt

US

1. 2 men in transport, fighter, bomber from Eastern US to French W. Africa
2. 1 AC with fighter from Hawaii sea zone to Pacific Panama sea zone
3. 2 men and fighter from Sinkiang to India.

Thoughts?