Its not really a drastic change. I have used the rule for like 5 years now and it only changes those kind of battles that are basically bogus attempts at grabbing IPC. They are flimsy attacks looking for the big payoff. Then the other gaff occurs when its possible for Germany to takes Moscow gets the cash, but does not hold it to have it fall to UK ( back to Soviets), then Japan retakes it ( money now to japan), lastly, America joins uk from Karelia and takes Moscow for a 5th time…and everybody has had a nice time collecting—(germany gets 8, Russia gets 8, Japan gets 8) for a total of 24IPC on ONE TURN!
It also happens in France alot with at least 12 IPC generated a turn.
Its a huge deal and it happens not in Moscow, but in France, Southern Europe, Africa, and especially in places like UKraine and western Soviet territories.
If you add up these trading zones, you can easily get like 15-40 IPC in extra plastic being ‘generated’ each turn which takes more time to destroy in combat…more dice rolling, longer turns, more downtime…longer game
Player one goes in with 2 inf and 3 planes, kills 3 inf collects 3 ipc, player two does same nearly every turn with a total of 6 IPC collected from one territory. This is dragging on the game because its artificially generating inflated income from the map and the perfected technique of this type of player can extend the game for more turns. The game should be shorter not longer. Its a huge deal and simple to repair. The other thing that really shortens the game is all axis- all allies turn sequence…but its a further step.
It happens alot in games because its a proven busted trick that does not get fixed. At least AA50 got rid of transport stall and some improvement on sub stall.
North West will be a trading zone making for the reality of a “Dieppe a turn” and turning a decent game into extended cat and mouse antics