So I was thinking about how the Soviet Union is not nearly strong enough to beat Germany on their own and got to thinking about some kind of special game mechanic that could belong to them and only them. In the war, the Soviets were provided tremendous support via the lend lease program in which supplies were delivered into different parts of the Soviet Union (i.e through Persia, Vladivostok, Archangel, etc). What if the Russian player, so long as some specific criteria was met by the Allies, got an extra boost in IPC’s or moreso, got to play extra units on the board in the spirit of this idea?
There’s literally a national objective for this situation:
From page 36 of the Europe 1940 rulebook, Second Edition:
“5 IPCs if the convoy in sea zone 125 is free of Axis warships, Archangel is controlled by the Soviet Union, and
there are no units belonging to other Allied powers present in any territories originally controlled by the Soviet
Union. Theme: National prestige and access to Allied Lend-Lease material.”
I’m also not too hot on expanding this, since Lend-Lease seemed to play a pretty marginal role on the Eastern Front. It is weird that the objective disincentivizes Allied support on the Eastern Front, and should be removed.
A more historically accurate idea would be to give the Soviets extra IPCs when at war or simulate winter somehow.
Yes and that national objective is not sufficient compared to the Germans national objectives for every city they take, and I was using the idea of lend lease as an example.
A more historically accurate idea would be to give the Soviets extra IPCs when at war or simulate winter somehow.
And this is absolutely what Im presenting forward. Just some kind of unique mechanic that bolsters their economy to help them stand a fighting chance.
Yeah, but different reasoning. For example, Soviet tank production absolutely soared after going to war:
https://archive.org/details/worldwariidatabo0000elli/page/278/mode/2up
Giving them more IPCs (or more tanks), to represent that (as The Captain has proposed as part of a broader set of house rules), would make more sense as opposed to Lend-Lease that weren’t that important.
Or even just make Moscow worth more. 3 IPCs is quite low. Make it at least 5 like Berlin. Some parts of the Soviet Union were really industrialized!
The “Balanced Mod” addresses this with different Objectives.
Oztea’s 1941 start does with more Soviet units at Game Start.
“Global 40 House Rules” has several Game Options that can be used to boost SSR.
One of the most intriguing, is @Argothair 's "Supply Crate. You have to physical transport a Lend Lease unit and it is subject to interdiction and capture.
The best mod for a strong Russia, imo, is @The-Captain 's House Rule Expansion https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/36945/axis-allies-global-1940-house-rules-expansion
It works best with the “optional” rules activated.
For a simple boost, may just want to pick one or two of the “Global 40 House Rules” options or Oztea’s 41.
BM has a lot of different Objectives, as well as “Marines” which makes it more different than the two listed above.
The Captain’s is significantly different but also the most enjoyable imo.
Anyway, they all work with the Global map.
@TheDesertFox I agree with you, and I’ve been designing my mods accordingly. My Balanced Mod for the Anniversary (ww2v3) map has three explicit Russian lend-lease objectives for Archangel, Persia, Vladivostok, and their respective sea zones, and they don’t incorporate any xenophobia that cancels the objectives if the Western Allies have boots or planes on Russian soil.
I’m expecting my latest map, WW2v3 Deluxe, to come out this weekend. It’s inspired by some of vodot’s hard copy map changes, and it includes direct ‘gifts’ of specific Russian units (artillery, tanks, and AA guns) based on control of the lend-lease routes.
More broadly, do keep in mind that the Soviet Union can’t be reliably powerful enough to beat Germany all on their own if you want a competitive game. If the Soviets are a match for the Germans, then the UK is certainly a match for Italy and the US is a match for Japan, so the Axis will lose essentially every time. The Germans have to be able to kill the Russians in most 1v1 matchups (maybe not easily, and not all the time, but at least most of the time); otherwise the game stops being balanced.
I think that’d be a really good idea because urals factories were genuinely a big contender to the war. Would people ever play with it though is the question?
