@Flashman:
From Larry’s report on Germany:
Germany begins the game with no less than 4 submarines. None of the other powers have even one. One way for the German player to exploit this obvious advantage, and the rules help him or her right along, is to declare that Germany will begin unrestricted submarine warfare. This can be done at any time during the game. Once this is declared, Germany will be considered to be conducting submarine attacks against both the United States� and the British Empire�s shipping routes. During the US and British player’s’ Collect Income phases, the German player will roll one die for each German submarine in certain sea zones (there are 3 of them, and they are sea zones 2, 7, and 8- strategically located, I assure you.). For each roll of 1 or 2, the attacked power will deduct 1 IPC from the income it normally collects during the phase. You might ask why Germany would not immediately and always conduct Unrestricted Submarine Warfare. Well… following Germany�s declared Unrestricted Submarine Warfare the United States will immediately enter the war! That might be reason enough to force the German player to wait a few turns before turning the subs loose.
Does anyone else think this is rather weak? Scarcely worth diverting subs from attacking Allied surface fleets.
I might consider upping the damage done, and adding more SZ route targets:
The attached example has one target for each Ally, plus the target in SZ 7 which effects all Allies.
Agreed - it is a horrible move. So what if the Germans have 4 subs? On the odds, they are unlikely to get more than 1 or 2 hits. So you bring the U.S. into the war for only $1 or $2 IPCs? No way is that worth it. Maybe if you could make it more costly, a la the strategic bombing raids from WWII 1942, where the cost is what you roll on the dice. But even then, it’s quite a risky proposition. Oh, and don’t think that you’ll get to do this over several turns. If the Allied player is paying attention at all your fleet will be destroyed by the end of round 2, if not round 1.