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| - East & West Goalie35's House Rules Introduction I will list my complete set of house rules. So far they seem to balance out the game and things seem to be pretty even with them in effect. Feel free to try them out and use the ones you like. Good gaming... The House Rules Straits. The rule in the back of the book regarding straits are in effect. We use Gilbraltar, the piece of land between Turkey and Romania and the corridor between Norway and West Germany for our strait zones. You must own BOTH land territory's for naval units to pass through. Subs are immune to this rule. No more 2 hit Battleships. This rule only favors the Allies, the Russians don't have any Battleships nor will they ever be able to afford one. One hit and your Battleship sinks. Neutral Alliance getting active. If one of the Major neutral's point counter get pushed BEYOND the max. IE. 16 for China or 12 for the Arab League or the OAS then that neutral joins the war allied with the country whose counter it is pushed towards. If and when an independent neutral comes into play they become an Ally of the other country they are outraged against. The example I will use is China giving Russia 16 IPC's. During the American turn they drop a nuke and on the dice complication table Chinese outrage is the result, this pushes China OVER the limit. At this point they no longer contribute the 16 million IPC's to the Russians, instead set up the Chinese army and they join the war as an ally of the Russians acting independently. The Neutral alliance's can also of course be brought into the war with a little help from the spies. (just a little side note, before we used this rule every minor neutral was influenced at some point during the game, now nobody seems to be going after countries like Iran or Spain.Trying to keep China under control becomes a major focus with this rule in place.) Russia get it's first 2 spies for free. They get one at the beginning of the first round which they can use immediately and the 2nd one is out for the beginning of round 2. If either of them get assassinated then Russia has to purchase them to replace them. Technology rolls. Only one attempt for each category is allowed per turn. The prices are as follows. Sub tech 3, Armor and Aircraft tech 4, and Nuke tech 5. Russia gets one free tech attempt at the start of the game for each category. Could come out something great or they could get zonked. At any rate this gives Russia a chance to gain an extra random power-up at the start. Every game will be different, that's for sure. Note In a previous version of these house rules the USSR started with SuperSubs. Remark by Goalie35 So far our games have been much more balanced with these rules in place. It may seem as if Russia is getting a huge boost with all this but it really is quite fair. Remark by ImpGames I really like these house rules. Let me respond by points: Straits...the most important strait in East & West is the Dardanelles, because Turkey changes hands most often. I like straits rules because they give the Black Sea Fleet a chance to stay alive in protected waters. I understand your point about 2H battleships. Unfortunately, the high cost renders a battleship a useless purchase if it only can absorb one hit. I think if battleships have only one hit, they should be substantially cheaper (i.e. 15 IPCs). Otherwise, neither side will ever buy one, and this just means one less interesting piece on the board. This rule is the cornerstone of your house rules, and definitely the most innovative. I will probably never make it an official rule change because of its complexity (and because I'd need to include so many more units and control markers). Still, I really like the idea of neutral nations as pesky little independents. Question: when you play this way, doesn't the Soviet Union just gobble up China to help out its own economy? The independent Chinese would have a limited power to resist because of their low economy. I guess re-supply from the USA, maybe? Certainly this rule is an answer to previously proposed "bids" of 20 IPCs. As such, I think it is very appropriate and adds considerably to the intrigue of the game. Good, very good. Especially the pricing. Does this result in too much technology, do you think? This rule is likely to end up in the "second edition" set of rules. I like this rule, although I think I prefer the flexibility of a bid, allowing the Soviet player to choose to take the risk or not. It does force the Soviets into the technology race, however, and may give them the edge they need in the early game. These rules first appeared in the discussion forum of ImpGames.com.
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