The conversation has gone in a very different direction, but I still want to reply to something Quintus Fabius said on the first page about Austria helping out in Switzerland. If you don’t want to adjust Switzerland’s status, that is probably the best way to minimize the negative effects on the CP’s early game.
I tried something of the sort in the last game my group played before introducing the house rule in which Switzerland mobilizes six units instead of two.
Austria activated the territory on its first turn and Germany reenforced it with the Munich stack. This meant the allies were unable to contest Switzerland without risking the complete anihilation of either the French force from Burgundy or the Italian force from Piedmont. It certainly succeeded in protecting Germany’s southern territories.
However, for the move to work Austria had to send its forces from Trieste into Venice and send at least half of its forces in Vienna to Trieste to protect it against an Italian attack from Albania (which is usually activated by the French unless it was attacked by Austria, which isn’t possible when Trieste attacks Venice). In order to cover Austria’s southern front (Serbia and Albania) Austria had to divert troops from Budapest that would otherwise have gone to Romania and then Russia. While we’re only talking about 6 inf and 2 art this had a noticable impact on the eastern front.
In most of the games I’ve played so far, the CP’s had very few units left in the east by the time Russia fell. In the game I’m describing here those 8 units from Budapest that didn’t go into Russia were sorely missed. It took the CP’s too long to defeat Russia and that gave Britain the opportunity to send reenforcements through Karelia and Afghanistan. While the CP’s eventually captured Moscow (we don’t use RR rules, because it limits CP earning potential. Though perhaps the CP’s would’ve been better off if we had used it in this game) the British army outnumbered them and would have reactivated Russia and driven the CP’s back. Meanwhile the western front had started to crumble as well.
So while the Austrian help in Switzerland saved the western front from early collapse it compromized the eastern front. All that said, I only tried this strategy once. With a little tweaking a more determined and experienced player may be able to make it work.
And on a side note. I like your idea of movement restriction Kim! Because the larger mobilization protects the CP’s early on, but it really screws France later in the game when Austria is making decent money and can afford to send large armies into Burgundy. Allowing just one unit to pass at any one time feels a litte too restrictive though. I’d make it five or six. That way invading Switzerland is still a viable tactic, but its impact wouldn’t be quite so dramatic.