I’ve been reading through this again and thinking about it now that I’ve had a chance to look at what is going on with the board and rules for Pac40, and I agree that idea #2 (extra Allied bid in the case of a J1 DoW) is probably the best idea, but right now the example is that the Allies just get extra IPCs they can spend on the first turn. While this is good, it still means that the Allies are only limited to having those units T2 and only at IC locations… This means that the bids lack flexibility in placement and could potentially lead to large stacks around the ICs rather than being used in needed areas. It basically amounts to giving the Allies a larger version of the US’ wartime NO. Of course, considering that there might not be many Allied locations where you would want to place a bid except where there already are ICs anyway (except China, which has free placement anyway), it might not make much of a difference regardless.
However, what if we were to implement an incremental bid, where you bid as normal and place units before game start as usual, but in the case of a J1 DoW the Allies get another bid placement of units following normal for the same amount following the Japanese turn (or perhaps before the second Japanese turn)? This could be reduced to a 50% bid on a J2 DoW following the same reasoning. Incremental bidding like this would allow greater flexibility and strategic placement of units, either for a counter-attack if placed immediately after J1 or for shoring up defenses in areas not having an IC, while also allowing bids to remain lower than in the “increased wartime NO” type scenario, thus hopefully keeping the game from becoming a super-long stackfest. If necessary it could be changed to the Allies get double the initial before-game-bid after a J1 DoW or a duplicate before-game-bid after a J2 DoW.
Example:
Player A and Player B decide sides with Player B taking the Allies at a bid of 9. Player B places his bid of 3 infantry split to India and China before game-start. Player A makes a J1 DoW. Now Player B gets the chance to place another 9 IPCs of units on the board anywhere there are already units as usual, and this could be decided to happen before the Allies take their turns so ANZAC might get an extra transport to try to take some of the DEI before Japan gets another chance, or it could happen at the end of the Allies turns so the British could put an extra destroyer with the small fleet off India for extra sea defense or extra infantry at India.
If Player A waits to make a J2 DoW, Player B only gets 4 IPCs (or maybe 5?) to place following turn 2.
This would encourage Japan to put off attacking sooner and allow for the least amount of changes to the current bidding system while also allowing flexibility and limiting the game breaking possibilities, as far as I see it currently.
Thoughts?