Here are the house rules we use with this game
we use the mongolia rules from G40
Germany has to be making 50$ at the start of their turn before they can try to influence Spain/Portugal into joining. Otherwise Spain is neutral.
Germany must be making 55$ before they can try to influence Turkey into joining.
(This prevents Italy from walking in at the beginning of the game and also keeps SZ 43 out of the game for a while)
When Germany controls Egypt they can try to influence Iraq into joining.
When Axis control Egypt, the UK can try to influence Iran into joining.
Influence spend $5 and roll a d6 on a 1-2 you influence the nation into joining. One roll per turn only, done during the build tech step.
Also when someone attacks a neutral that neutral should it not be taken over automatically join the opposing side.
Same with attacking a pro leaning ally of the opposing side. This automatically actives the pro leaning ally.
to represent this on the map i do the following.
nations that can be influenced into joining the axis are yellow until said time the join, then they become black.
Iran is a light green then it becomes tan
Siam is pacific RED
Pro axis / axis minors are (classic Germany grey which becomes black when activated)
Finland (is xeno blue)
Pro allies (light blue)
Dutch (orange)
true neutral (white)
Mongolia (light grey)
Another reason I do this is I agree the ability to not really build up minor axis does more harm then good.
Unless I am reading the rules wrong (and that could of course be the case) minor axis keep there own money but only collect money for the territory they start with. So my understanding is if Finland takes over Karelia the 2 collected gets added to Germany.
If Hungary should take over Greece the 2 collected goes to Germany.
The way the rules are (unless I am wrong on this) there really is no point in even taking the minor nations outside their home country because they would not gain anything. They would expend troops taking over the new territory but not gain extra money to help rebuild the lost troops.
As for convoy. We never use them, because I have to admit I liked the way convoys where done on the Global map with the convey in the middle of a single sea zone makes it easier to figure out.