I have a few logistical questions:
1. When it say players bid for Axis that means the player offering the lowest bid plays as the Axis powers, correct?
Correct. You want to bid the lowest possible IPC you think you need to win with the Axis, or, if you really want to play the allies, bid an incredibly high number of IPC for the axis so you will be relatively assured of getting the allies.
Ex: Player 1 feels he needs 3 infantry in China to win with the axis, so bids 9 IPC. Player 2 feels he needs a transport in SZ 33 and an armor in China to win, so bids 13 IPC. Player 1 would win the bid and would place his 3 infantry prior to conducting Germany’s first turn.
2. Is zero the lowest possible bid, or could a player bid negative?
Theoretically you could bid negative IPC, but I would like to avoid that situation. For one, I do not feel that the axis can afford to remove any of their starting units from play to satisfy the negative bid, for another it may lead to confusion (I might read it incorrectly due to how you format the text of your bid and see it as a positive bid, not negative) and lastly, I want to keep it as simple as possible - bids are already a house rule and one some tournament players may not be experienced in as it is.
3. If a negative bid is permissible, then would it be removing units or starting IPC or either?
Historically, there have been two methods of negative bids: 1) Removing starting units to satisfy the bid (as would have been the case in the tournament, but I want to avoid this situation) or 2) removing starting IPC so you have less to spend on newly purchased units.
Sorry if the answers seem obvious, but I’ve never played with bidding. Thanks :-)
For the record, I WILL allow the bid of negative IPC, I just personally do not feel the bid is wise and wish you would refrain. I will not tell you how to bid, however, so if you wish to bid negative, it must be in a manner such that you can remove whole units from the board (no negative bids of 1 or 2 IPC since there are no units worth 1 or 2 IPC you can remove.)
I would also like to clarify, bids (positive or negative) are for full unit values! If you bid an amount, you must purchase units with that money and place them prior to Germany’s first round of play, any left over IPC is lost to the ether. Example: Player 2 wins the bid with 4 IPC and elects to put 1 Infantry in Norway. The remaining IPC is lost, he may not use it in his next round’s purchases.
However, if player 1 won the bid with -4 (negative four) IPC then he must select an Artillery, Mechanized Infantry, Armor, Fighter, Tactical Bomber, Strategic Bomber, Transport, Submarine, Destroyer, Cruiser, Carrier or Battleship to remove (with no change, so the battleship would be lost and that would count as the negative four IPC) and may not select an infantry.
Lastly, you are bidding for units (Inf, MI, Art, Arm, Fig, Tac, Sbm, Trn, SS, DD, CA, AC, BB) not facilities (AAG, mIC, MIC, AB, NB)
