It is possible to double the values, and that’s something I tried early on. I used that exact method because like you I favor simplicity. The main issue you will encounter through doubling is a production one, where it becomes a lot easier to simply build infantry walls. The issue is not insurmountable, but what it does is basically transform 1941 into the infantry grinder.
My suggestion if playing that way, is to separate production from income.
What we did was to say that for income purposes the values printed on the map count at double the value, but for production purposes you go off the printed number. So for example, under that rule Moscow would count for 6 ipcs at collect income, but with only 3 production slots at unit placement.
Doing this you can get a playable game, I’ve seen it in action, and it doesn’t take all that much longer to play, and you don’t have to actually do anything to the map to get it up and running.
There’s a bit more simple addition involved at collect income, but nothing too terrible, it doesn’t increase the value of “valueless” Zero Ipc tiles, but that might not be an issue for your group.
I’m in complete agreement with you, from a design standpoint I have always favored simply increasing the values printed on the map as opposed to introducing rules that have to be memorized and tracked (eg. The NO system.) I’ve made the proposal several times on the Larry Boards, that my ideal A&A game would be one that used a base 1 ipc system for all territory tiles rather than a base Zero ipc system (i.e. every territory on the map is worth a minimum of 1 ipc, and then build out relative values/totals based on those numbers as the floor.) I regard IPCs as abstractions, or game points, and so for me it makes sense that any territory drawn on the map would be worth at least 1. Some of the rules I like to play with have tried to achieve something along those lines without requiring direct map modifications, though my preference would of course be to simply have an official map with the numbers printed for all to see.
But if you want a big money game for 41 and don’t want to introduce more complexity, I’d say this is the easiest way to do it…
**Double the printed map values at Collect Income.
But keep the map values as they are OOB for Purchase/Placement.**
Ps. Hi Panic! Nice to see you man!
Haha good call Marc! That would surely be a crazy kind of game to play!