Good call Veers! I really like the idea of the West India NB. In the OOB game India tends to draw resources from UKEurope pretty much in one direction, for the defense against Japan. It might be nice if, under certain conditions, UKPac could play more of a role in the Mid-East/Africa/Med, to reflect India’s contribution to the war effort in Europe too.
I also really like the proposal of an NB for Algeria.
Right now we have a Vichy mechanic that was fairly well established in the BM mod, but the proposals IL just suggested also seems pretty interesting. I dig the idea of a roll for some variety. I think the best method there is to have a separate toggle for special political HRs. Vichy would fall under that umbrella, and perhaps we could try a few different options there. Under the current BM option (included already in tripleA), Vichy is treated as a pro-Axis neutral if certain conditions are met, which can then be activated by Axis (at least for the TTs.) Though some may also be interested in exploring the idea of Vichy as more of a player nation, or as suggested above with TT’s placed under direct control of G or UK, and perhaps a way for Axis to gain control of the fleet (currently it becomes neutral, and basically frozen in place.) I think there are several ideas there which could be explored. But the Oran NB, has applications even if one were playing with a more OOB treatment of French Territories.
I like this idea of pairing some of the adjacent territories, where maybe one gets the VC, and the other gets a base or a bonus, as a way to spread the love around.
Veers’ suggestion to make Panama the VC, and put the naval base in West Indies is also pretty cool. Not sure if anyone thinks the Fiji NB idea is worth pursuing, but those two would be 3 spaces from each other. This might still allow some flexibility for transitioning between theaters. An NB in West Indies would also connect to an Algeria NB (3 moves), so a fleet stationed there, might bounce either direction. Like a player in this position could potentially threaten Torch or a pacific play from the same location in sz 89. It’s not exactly as optimal as a more forward location in either theater, but gives players a way to keep their cards a bit closer to their chest if desired.
The main point is that none of those locations would ever see an NB purchased. There are relatively few locations on the map where NB purchases would be attractive, so its a bit easier to see them as inclusions in the starting set up.
AB’s are more popular generally, but there are a few locations where those could be fun as well, such as Sierra Leone or perhaps a few other island locations where they are unlikely to ever be built, but which might be cool if they were already in place.