This one has become common-place in our games and is quite annoying.
How it works
- On the 2nd impulse of S/O 1939, Germany declares war on Yugoslavia.
- During the same impulse, Germany aligns Rumania.
- Because Rumania is now an aligned minor, Russia cannot demand Bessarabia.
Why it's an exploit
The rule takes advantage of the fact that Russia cannot demand Bessarabia on the 1st allied impulse. The earliest the Russians can demand Bess is by the 2nd allied impulse by which point, Rumania is already aligned.
Historically, it makes no sense since the just-signed Russo-German pact included secret provisions acknowledging Russia's interests in Bessarabia. To have the Germans blatantly violate the treaty so quickly after the signing of the pact just weeks earlier with absolutely no consequences is absurd.
The reason Germany uses this exploit is for Barbarossa. Specifically, it allows Germany to ignore the riverline on the 1st impulse, puts them one hex-row closer to the crucial Dneiper river line and also eliminates a city that the Russians can use as a speed-bump. 41-Barbs are all about speed and in our experience, the no-Bess gambit takes away a most precious resource from Russia: time and space. This is easily worth the few crappy Rumanian units that you lose by aligning the Rumanians early.
How can it be fixed?
This is difficult because you don't want to create special rules that disallow, say, an early attack on Yugoslavia with Rumanian help. You also don't want to force Russia to do this as the first thing it does in every game. The most obvious thing to do is just take away the condition that Rumania needs to be neutral if Russia demands Bessarabia. The simplest way to handle this might be something like this:
If Russia demands Bessarabia while Rumania is not neutral then:
- Rumania must accept the claim. Any Axis controlled units in Bessarabia are moved to the nearest hex in which they can stack.
- In the subsequent Axis impulse, the Germans must back Rumania and Rumania becomes a full Axis ally.
- If Hungary is not aligned, it stops supplying its resource to Germany until Hungary aligns with Germany. Germany can declare Hungary aligned with Germany during any Axis declaration of war step after Germany has declared war on the USSR (not if the USSR declares war on Germany). No more than 1 Hungarian unit can ever be outside of Hungary.
- If Bulgaria is not aligned with Germany, Bulgaria can never align with Germany but the USSR can declare it aligned with the USSR during any later Allied declaration of war step.
The rules for Soviet border rectification are complicated so these fixes need to be playtested properly to ensure that they aren't broken or open up new exploits. When they are, we will post our revised fixes.
The USSR may claim Bess if Romania is aligned to Germany before France
Falls (anytime if Romania not aligned). A decline means USSR is at
war with Romania (not Ger). Bulgaria and Hungary are treated as being
in the 2nd group in 5.1 if attacked by the USSR where the USSR must
send Germany an extra oil (instead of having to ship 1 less).
Personally I hope this becomes RAW.
Lane
Just wondering aloud:
Since this Gambit undermines the Nazi-Soviet Pact, could it be played that this "tears up" the Pact, freeing the USSR to pursue whatever foreign policy it would so choose?
In other words, should the German player opt for this Gambit, why not allow the Soviet player to claim the Pact null and void. The German player would no longer have a secured eatern border.
The only issue with this proposal is what happens if Russia never claims Bess? Germany can never align Rumania legitimately (at least, not without Russia being able to declare it "null and void"). You have to be able to distinguish between a gamey alignment of Rumania vs. a legitimate alignment.
Pablonius
I am missing something. My understanding was that Germany had aligned Rumania following a DOW on Yugoslavia on the second impulse of a S/O 1939 turn.
My understanding of the situation was therefore thus: Germany had secured a Nazi-Soviet act, and had sneakily prevented Russia from inroads on Rumanian territory.
Since these actions undermine the essence of the (historic) Pact I suggest that the Soviets be entitled to free to pursue any foreign policy of their choosing. Otherwise, in effect the German player is being allowed to play ahistorically, while the Soviets and Western Allies are compelled to obey the flow of history.
I'm not sure what you mean. Germany can align Romania exactly like they do at present. The only thing my option does is allow the USSR to demand Bess and close the loophole that Harry created- he changed the rules in response to the Denmark gambit and created the No Bess gambit.
Frankly many players already do not claim Bess as standard play. This actually can be seen as a gambit to prevent either A) Germany aligning Romania prior to Barbarossa or B) failing that, by a DOW on Yugo, the axis can not align Yugo. Many players have regarded aligning Yugo to Italy as important and thus not demanding Bess did mean Romania was not aligned prior to Barb.
I do not understand your point that aligning Romania due to a German DOW on USSR or Yugo, a Soviet DOW on Romania, or due to denying the claims after the Soviets claim Bess have any reasonable differences much less why any might be "legitimate" or not? All of these are in the standard rules and my option changes none of them.
As of now Germany can prevent the USSR from demanding Bess by a DOW on Yugo and aligning Romania. This is a loophole created by Harry when he changed the rules to prohibit any allied DOW, except for CW/FR on Germany, on the 2nd impulse of turn 1. This was his response to the Denmark Gambit that he saw at Eurowifcon. All I am doing is allowing the USSR to demand Bess even if Germany DOWs Yugo and aligns Romania.
Interesting stuff.
I played a lot of WIF 2nd through 5th Edition. Then restarted up WIF FE recently. I noticed the Germans DOW Yugo early and often.
I was wondering at that point why didn't the Germans do this back before WIF FE, as the Ahistorical loophole straight away is the German DOW on Yugo? Many rules are diffferent, but it then occured to me that before WIF FE, there weren't any Reserve units, and the effective Starting German army (all armies) were smaller counter mix. In the olden days Germans built INF units early for a complete line, so I believe they didn't have the units in 1939 to DOW Yugo and grab the Lowlands - Weather and Map changes have changed the time table slightly also in Netherlands and Belgium (in older WIF, Germans attacked the Lows asap in all weather).
So, it appears the combination of Weather effects changes, and added units at start has allowed the Yugo War effectively right away. Added choices are good. But it is interesting, that the way Harry first had it designed, the Yugo -No Bess Exploit wasn't as fruitful for other reasons. Making a strategy highly profitable, with less downside is ofcoarse bad, as we don't want to see a gambit regularly. Hence the term "Annoying"
The danger is we do nothing about it, and it become "normal". A house rule fix is certainly in order for this one.
A simpler fix would be that Germany isn't allowed to align Roumania the impulse they declare war to Yougoslavia but had to wait the next impulse (wich isn't very historical either).
A more drastic fix but more historical would be that Germany cant declare war to Yougoslavia if Germany isn't at war with Bulgaria/Greece or Turkey. Would make the Balkans behave more historically.