Enthusiast's Three-way Bidding System

This is a proposed bidding system so three players can bid to play each of the three alliances.

Step 1 - Bidding
Each of the three players secretly record three bids:
a) Bid the number of IPP’s you would either want to be given or are willing to pay to play the Soviet Union (i.e. “I will play the Soviet Union if given 20 IPP’s”, or “I will pay 10 IPP’s to play the Soviet Union.”) NOTE: This MUST be IPP’s. No special conditions allowed for this Soviet Union bid (unlike the way you can do below).
b) Submit conditions you would place on the Allied player (i.e. “Any one allied player gets 10 extra IPP’s” or “The Commonwealth player starts the game with 5 less IPP’s” or “The U.S. is guaranteed to roll a perfect 24 on it’s first turn income roll” or “Great Britain starts the game with Jet Fighter technology.”) Have fun selecting conditions!
c) Submit conditions you would place on the Axis player (i.e. “Italy starts with 10 less IPP’s” or “Germany starts the game with 2 extra submarines placed in any sea zone which already contains German naval units.”)

The goal in part a is to make your bid to play the Soviet Union as close as you can to what you think is fair so you wouldn’t mind either playing the Soviet’s with that amount of IPP’s or you wouldn’t mind fighting the Soviet’s with that amount of IPP’s.

The goal in parts b and c is to make your bid as close to even so you wouldn’t mind playing either b or c.

Step 2 - Resolving Who Plays the Soviet Union
Whichever player bid the lowest amount to play the Soviet Union gets to play at that amount. If one player bid 100, one bid 20, and the other bid -10 (offered to pay 10 to play), then the -10 bidder “wins” and will play the Soviets with 10 less IPP’s at the start of the game. This player is now out of the rest of the steps.

Step 3 - Determining Who Will Cut and Who Will Choose
Whichever player bid the 2nd lowest amount to play the Soviet Union gets to look at the Allied and Axis bids for the other remaining player, then decides whether to be the person who chooses which pair will be selected, or whether to be the person who chooses to play the Axis or the Allies.

For example, one b/c pair is: Allies: +100 IPP’s, Axis: -100 IPP’s and the other b/c pair is -10 Allies and 0 for the Axis. The player choosing doesn’t want to offer the other player the first pair (+100/-100) because they will pick the Allies. But he also knows the other player will never offer the first pair to him because it is so obviously imbalanced. He decides to pick to be the chooser and let’s the other remaining player decide which pair will be selected (which is the next step).

Step 4 - Determining Which B/C Pair Will Be the Choice and Which Is Cut
Whichever player is not the “chooser” picks which b/c pair will be offered as the choice. The other pair is “cut.”

Step 5 - Resolving Who Plays the Axis and Who Plays the Allies
Whichever player is the chooser picks whether to play the Axis or the Allies.

If there are more than 3 people, you can have the most experienced 3 pick between the alliances this way, then distribute the remaining players as seen fit. You could say a particular 4th player was going to play Japan without any changes regardless of which of the other three players played what alliance.

This system will help balance games that particular gaming groups have found have become imbalanced. When the same set of people play, there can tend to develop a group think where people come to the conclusion one side or the other is imbalanced. With this system, you can give a little extra help to one side or the other. This system would also work at a gaming convention.

Example:
Chuck loves to play the Axis and believes they are invincible. He is terrified to play the Soviet Union because he is so sure they “always lose.”
Steve loves to play the odds. He believes the game is slightly balanced in favor of the Axis, but he is willing to play any country if given enough of an advantage.
Reginald has a lot of experience playing either the Allies or the Soviets, but feels overwhelmed to play the Axis.

Chuck’s Bids
A) Soviets given 40 IPP’s to play (He doesn’t want to play them).
B) Allies 20 IPP’s
C) Axis -1 IPP (He will pay 1 IPP to get to play the Axis)

Steve’s Bids
A) Soviets given 10 IPP’s to play
B) Allies 10 IPP’s
C) Axis - May reroll failed tech rolls up to three times in the course of the game. This may be any combination of rerolls (three in a row, or three separate rolls, etc).

Reginald’s Bids
A) Soviets given 5 IPP’s to play
B) Allies -5 IPP’s (He will pay 5 IPP’s to to get play the Allies)
C) Axis 5 IPP’s

Reginald is assigned to the Soviet Union because he had the lowest bid of 5 IPP’s. He starts the game as the Soviets with an extra 5 IPP’s. He is no longer involved in further steps.

Steve had the 2nd lowest Soviet bid, so he now gets to look at Chuck’s b/c choices. He has to decide between cutting (picking between the two b/c pairs) and choosing (between axis and allies). The two choices are:
Allies +20, Axis -1 OR Allies +10, Axis 3 Tech Rerolls
Steve likes the idea of getting to choose between either of these pairs, so he makes Chuck the one to cut and pick which pair Steve will choose from.

Chuck believes the Axis will win because he thinks Reginald took far too few IPP’s at only 5, so he wants to offer Steve the choice he believes will entice him to pick the Allies. If he knew that Steve was already predisposed to the Allies, he might pick the Allies +10, Axis 3 Tech rerolls because he’d much rather have the Allies with only 10 extra IPP’s than 20 and he’d rather have 3 Tech rerolls than to lose 1 IPP at the start, but does he want to gamble it? Steve might end up picking the Axis if he makes it too enticing. He decides to pick the pair: Allies +20, Axis -1.

Steve picks to play the Allies with +20. He is very pleased with himself. He has the greatest starting advantage of the three. Reginald is relieved. He got to play the Soviet Union, a country he is very familiar with. He starts with 5 extra IPP’s and his allies start with that extra +20. He’s feeling comfortable. Chuck is delighted. He gets to play with the Axis -1 IPP, and he would have given the Soviet’s and the Allies 60 IPP’s. They are doomed. He’ll show them how little they understand about this game!