I’m envisioning these Russia rules as part of a set of rules modifications I want to try whose overall effect would be to balance the game out a little more. The rules would also add more historical flavor. Let me share my list:
- Hostile Russia
These are the rules I proposed above in which Russians and Allies can’t mix and Russia treats all types of neutral as pro-Axis. Also, Russia claims for themselves all Axis-occupied territories, empty Chinese territories, and empty territories belonging to an Allied power with a fallen capital.
- Restricted Russia
This rule would balance out the effect of Russia’s possible Chinese expansion. Russia may not declare war on Japan until Berlin has fallen, and moving units into Chinese territory constitutes a declaration of war on Japan. Japan may still declare war, in which case Russia may then begin to claim Chinese territories and fight the Japanese.
- One-theater victory
The Axis or Allies achieve victory by fulfilling the original victory conditions of either of the individual Europe and Pacific 1940 games. Discussion of this idea can be found at this thread:
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=20964.0
- Joint command
If a unit is mixed into a larger group of friendly units, it may use its non-combat move to convert into a unit of the same type belonging to the power that has the most units in that group. If the number of units is even, either side may convert to the other.
I’m considering a few other rules such as Vichy France and focused tech research with less element of luck, but these are the four I’ve decided are good so far.