[WarInEur] East vs. West Play in WiE, aka Stalin's Nightmare

[Carl Rupp]

I recall that Hitler had some delusions about getting the Brits to join 
him in a grand alliance against the Bolsheviks, and Stalin had some 
paranoia that such a thing might happen. But has anyone ever played the 
game with any sort of special house rules where the German, Brits, and 
French team up against the Russians?

I and another beta tester for CWIE2 have done that with the program, and 
it is turning out to work out fairly well, and the brave soul we played 
this trick on has been a good sport and is playing it out.

Shortly after the fall of Poland zI reached out to the Brits and we 
agreed on this course of action. He transported his British and French 
units to Iran and let me sweep through the Balkans to get Greece and 
free up the Italians to transport into the Black Sea, once Turkey came 
on my side.

Then we waited until the first clear weather turn in cycle 5. He did 
some diplomatic tricks by having the Western Allies declare war during 
his air allocation phase on Norway, Sweden, Finland. Italy, Turkey, 
Rumania, Bulgaria, and Hungary to get all their armies mobilized and on 
my side, and off we went.

There are only two problems. First, that the computer won't count the 
Western Allies air as being against the Soviets when the airpower is 
transferred to the east (after the Brits build a supply line into the 
eastern theatre.) So the British air is useless, though it is required 
to be built at a minimal rate. Second, the ZOCs between the Russians and 
Western Allies don't work as if they are enemies. Other than that, the 
Western Allies can attack the Russian, they can cut the RR supply lines 
in the Caucus, cutting off the resources and the like.

Anyway, seems to play out like an interesting variation. Something to 
add surprise and spice to the game, as long as the Germans and Western 
Allies can get over the trust issue.

Carl