OK, we started another game last night, and in our discussions we came up with another question. If Italy doesn’t get into the war before the US comes in, the rules state that it goes neutral. If it should subsequently be attacked, do we use the set-up given for the start of the war? Our thought is that we would just leave whatever had been built by Italy previously on the board, though I guess an argument could be made that without Italy getting into the war (because of the fall of the Mussolini government?) there would be a draw-down of the military. I’m also assuming the general prohibition of the Western Allies to declare war on a neutral would apply to Italy as well, and thus Italy could only be attacked by Germany?
Another issue came up in our discussions as well - namely, the economic values given to certain territories relative to one another. For example, Madagascar has the same value (1) as each of the presumably more industrialized territories that make up Spain. Was there a conscious reason for this, or was this for game balance purposes?
We wondered also about why the territory of Slovakia is not a production territory for Germany, given the presence of the Skoda Works, which was used by Germany to produce tanks, assault guns, artillery, and AT guns through the course of the war (perhaps these last two questions more properly belong in the Game Design thread?).
Stay tuned for the results of our session next week, where we will continue to try to present you with more of the improbable, imponderable, impossible, inconsequential, and/or idiotic.
Bob