@Vance:
Ummm so if some of these oddball gamey things like USSR taking Ireland will only happen some of the time (perhaps rarely), then doesn’t that kind of suggest that they are exceptional things that exceptional players might do, rather than flaws with the game itself?
No, because any player that realizes the cost-benefit to taking Ireland will see it as a beneficial strategy - in most cases, that is.
It’s not even remotely an exception. It is too easy for Russia to do and pays off too much. The pay-off doesn’t make much sense anyway. It’s extremely gamey but is too worth it for Russia to overlook as an “exceptional” thing.
For the game, it counters some of the really pro-axis things in the latest version (i.e. setup changes in france, loss of airbases in med).
Hardly. Russia will get +3 for the rest of the game for Ireland, but realistically won’t attain any other bonus for the rest of the game. That has no relationship with the amount that UK has been nerfed. Balance doesn’t work like that.
The removal of those airbases serves only to be an entirely arbitrary change in an attempt to “balance” a pro-Allies set-up.