To speed up playing of the game, especially over internet, one could try to make it fully turn based,
as the decisions made in other players turn are not huge (assigning casualties).
I was wondering whether you guys would think that assigning casualties according to some fixed rule would greatly mess up strategy and/or the balance of the game.
I.e.,
- always take casualties in from high IPC value to low IPC value (except maybe lose bombers before fighters.) The first hit on a BB would of course have IPC value 0.
- break ties by sacrificing US first, then UK, then Russia (as russian units typically have more strategic value).
The biggest issue seems to be submarines, and when to submerge them? I have not come with anything satisfactory for that, it often depends on the specific situation and the dice.
A possibility to mitigate this is to use the above fixed rules, EXCEPT when a player declares some other order in his own turn. But maybe this defeats the whole purpose of speeding up the game.
I guess the greatest mess-up would be the beginning of the game, as submerging US sub near hawai and the UK fleet + R sub above UK are better done dynamically based on the number of attacking units. Later on, both sides would adapt their unit placement based on the static rules.