Nekro’d
My friends Griff and Oddie, the older kids that lived down the street who I first started playing with in the late 80s early 90s used to have an option rule where Russia could elect to move their Karelia factory to Novosibirsk before the game started, and another version of the Rule where Russia could do this after the first round (restricted opening). It was our favorite because it allowed for a somewhat more dynamic situation around China/South Asia and less boring grind on Karelia. They also had a rule where factories could be destroyed by their owner, at the end of their turn. It was like a final gamephase of the turn, option to scorch the earth.
In general I am fond of adjustments that don’t require people to alter the physical map. So splitting Eastern Europe is somewhat less desirable for me as a solution to the stagnant Eastern Front, because I don’t want to draw lines on the board. I think moving the factory to Novosibirsk was a pretty cool solution that was pretty simple to implement. It didn’t totally screw the Eastern dynamic, since UK could still cover on the shuck, basically it just turns Karelia into a deadzone.
The first map flashman posted looks almost dead on to the games I remember they used to play.
