@djensen pretty good start; thanks for reaching out. Probably most important thing to fix is getting more rigorous about what happens when people break the rules. Even if the answer is “Dave has total discretion to punish or not punish or fix or ignore any rule violation he wants however he wants,” you should still wrote that down. It’ll cut down on drama.
Some specific examples:
What happens if neither player has made a bid when game start is called? Do you just roll to see who plays Axis with 0 bid?
What happens if bid is called but not placed 5 minutes before game start?
What happens if a player makes an illegal move that is not discovered until later, e.g., sent a plane into combat that has nowhere to land?
What happens if a player forgets to declare their purchase until combat begins?
What precisely does “complete your purchase and place it immediately” mean in the “out of time” section? Do you have 30 seconds from when the buzzer goes off? 60 seconds? Do you just place whatever you already bought and spend any remainder on infantry? Does it matter whether your purchases were clearly marked in the purchase zone or just sort of in your head?
What happens if the game board is not set up in time? Do players reduce the time on their clocks, or does the round run late, or what?
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One more issue is that with chess clocks, you probably need a rule for what happens when your opponent is taking their sweet time to, e.g., roll defensive dice, or decide on defensive casualties. Do you pause the clock? Hit the clock? Call a referee? I wish I were kidding but I’ve seen defending teammates break out into an argument about whether to lose an infantry or an aa gun while the attacker’s clock is running.
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Finally, for a short AA50 game, my play group likes to count Cairo as a victory city. Cuts down on ties and better reflects the importance that people usually assign to attacking that region.
