Hi, I typically participate at the Forumini boards, but I decided to register here because I am very excited about the expansion of Axis & Allies into World War I territory.
To my mind, the biggest flaws that I can see with the game as written right now are the way that the US enters (it seems far too soon and far too arbitrary, and for those who talk about playing the game with seven people, hats off to you - I think the most people I’ve ever gathered for a strategy game has been 4, and that’s rare) and the so-called “Russian Revolution” rules.
The first flaw (US entry) could be tied to the damage done to England (as Tuchman pointed out in The Proud Tower, everyone referred to the country as England before the war) by German submarines. Essentially, let the Germans declare Unrestricted Submarine Warfare whenever they want to without the US entering (which is historically accurate), but be prepared that once a certain level of damage is reached the US enters. If that doesn’t happen, have the US come in on Turn 6. (I am thinking of each turn as half a year, so Turn 1 - 1914, Turns 2 and 3 - 1915, Turns 4 and 5 - 1916, Turns 6-7 - 1917, etc.). What the IPC damage should be is hard to say.
The Russian Revolution rules should be completely and totally scrapped, however. They are FUBAR. The Russian Revolution didn’t take Russia out of the war. It continued to fight until after the Bolshevik coup (later re-named the “Great October Socialist Revolution” in 1928, even the Bolsheviks didn’t call it a revolution for ten years). However, Russia wasn’t the only country that worried about a revolution. England saw the Easter Uprising in Ireland and was nervous about a Labour uprising closer to home. There was a widescale mutiny in the French army (the French Mutiny), and the Austrians were hanging on by their fingernails after 1916. The Germans were close to revolution when they surrendered.
As a result, the way to incorporate the massive unrest caused by sustained war would be to implement a system that substitutes the Russian Revolution rules with universal rules applicable to everyone. Mark Stability Points (SP) at 20 for each country at the start of the game. Then add a new step at the beginning of every turn. First roll two dice. If the result is less than the current SP of the nation, continue to the turn as normal. If you roll the SP of the country by exact count, the country loses a turn due to political instability (February Revolution, French Mutiny, or similar event). If you roll greater than the current SP of the nation, the country is out of the game (use the existing Russian Revolution rules for how to deal with the effect of this). Then reduce the nation’s SP by one if it is at war (i.e., the US doesn’t lose SP each turn while it is neutral). The SP can never be higher than 20 minus the number of turns the nation has been at war.
Then, on the purchase units step, you add two options: 1 - add 1 SP for 5 IPCs (to the maximum SP), 2 - spend 5 IPCs to reduce another nation’s SP by 1 (only one enemy reduction is allowed per country per full round of play, so each Central Power can’t spend to destabilize Russia, but Germany could destabilize Russia, Austria could destabilize Italy and the Ottoman Empire could destabilize England).
Then, when combat results are tallied, for each 5 infantry lost, the country losing the troops suffers a loss of 1 SP. Fractions are rounded down and do not carry over from turn to turn.
Finally, at the end of the turn, for each two territories of your original territory that are occupied at the end of your turn, lose 1 SP (fractions rounded down).