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In our first full playtest of this, Germany went the traditional route against the USSR, spending 10 diplomacy points to break neutrality and initiate Operation Barbarossa. So the land war went ahead as usual, at least at the onset...
Then Japan then went all in, spending 20 points to break neutrality with the UK and US and soak up some victory cities, also a traditional move. However, after some nasty skirmishes in the Pacific, the US player sued for peace and agreed on an informal neutrality with Japan. When Japan could pony up the extra diplomacy points (possible partly from seizing the Phillipines' VC!), a formal neutrality between the two nations ensued.This situation, combined with the USSR being busied on their western front, and no other player now in control of 5+VCs, meant that Japan had basically already bought its seat at the winner's table with only the UK as an antagonist.
Before such a win would be possible, however, some ally-dumping had to happen. Japan bumped Italy down from 'ally' to 'neutral' status in order to make room for an ally with more VCs than the Italian player for the win. Just then, Italy saw that fighting a two-front war with the UK and the USSR had left Germany weak and unprotected, and so spent all of its 20 diplomacy points to declare war on its ally--striking Berlin from the south, and taking it with heavy losses. Rome now had a full coffer, some fresh diplomacy points, and a new menu of strategic options to choose from. Germany was reduced to a battleship and a transport with two infantry on it from that point onwards, crippled from enduring a three-front assault.
Japan, already in the Med to fight the UK in Africa, similarly paid to break neutrality with Italy and do an amphibious assault on a nearly-empty Rome.It was taken, along with Italy & Germany's combined IPC total for the entire round...
The USSR had made a formal alliance with the UK, but the UK was badly maimed from having no back-up in the Pacific. The USSR had teamed up with a lame duck in this game, and had foolishly paid its diplomacy on that alliance plus a neutrality with Italy when things were looking bad for them. With their only mainland enemy destroyed, less than 5 VCs under their control, and their diplomacy counters spent, the USSR was effectively neutralised as a warring nation.
The final shock of the game took place when the US made the UK neutral from ally status and instead took on Japan and Germany as formal allies (Japan used extra diplomacy points accumulated from conquest to sponsor this maximum-sized three-way alliance).Although Japan and the US had enough victory cities to win between the two of them after the US took over Italy-controlled Paris, the German player was considered worthy of sharing the win with (basically because he was a good sport and stuck around for a couple of turns chasing around the displaced Italian fleet with his battleship and claiming that at least his general staff was able to board the Bismarck before Berlin fell!).
All-in-all, a fun and memorable game. One interesting consquence of using the National Objectives with this variant is that if you become allies with your traditional enemies, you each get your bonuses without having to fight for them
So in this game, for example, both the allies of US and Japan could benefit from their Pacific bonuses, and use the extra IPCs to help them in their fights against other enemies.
In a subsequent game, we've seen the UK betray the US, taking an empty Washington from Eastern Canada for a solo UK player win (because the UK's two allies had enough between the three to let the UK win, but neither were allied to each other and so couldn't benefit from each others' VC counts).In that game, Germany and the USSR were neutral, and the US and Japanese players were locked in mortal combat in the Pacific, which made for a very different dynamic again.
The next time we play this variant will be November. I'll try to take more careful notes of the diplomatic plays next time...
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Please note that a new means of getting diplomacy counters has been added, to aid Victory-City-poor nations.