Empire Deluxe

My brother and some friends of mine will spend hours building our arsenals from scratch and then attempting to destroy each other playing a computer game called Empire Deluxe by New World Computing. What if... Axis and Allies started the same way, with few or no units on the board? Well here goes.

Setup

All territories, except for capital cities have a value of 3 IPCs, including neutral territories. Capital cities (which will be selected at the beginning of the game) have a value of 10 ipcs.

Each player starts with: 1 IC, 1 AA, 2 Infantry, 1 Armor and 12 ipcs.

All territories not chosen at the beginning of the game as capitals, will be considered "hostile" territories to all players. Each hostile territory will have one garrison (infantry) unit placed in them.

Selecting Capitals and Determing Turn Order

Each player will roll a die to determine who will bid first to select a capital city. The player who's rolls highest must bid at least 1 IPC to start the auction. Player's will bid in order until the highest bidder buys the right to choose the first capital city. The other players will repeat this process until every player has a capital city and has marked this city with his/her initial starting units. Note: a capital city can be any territory on the board, not just the historical capitals used in traditional A&A.

Once each player has selected capital, the players run through a similar auction to determine turn order. Afterwards, the garrison units are placed on the map and the games proceeds as most any other A&A game.

Example Game Start

Bob, Mary and Kelly have rolled a 2, 4, and 1 respectively to start the auction process.
Mary bids 1 IPC.
Bob passes.
Kelly bids 3 IPCs
Mary bids 4 IPCs
Bob Passes.
Kelly Passes.
Mary selects Egypt for her capital city, pays 4 IPCs to the bank and places her starting units (IC, AA, 2 infantry, and 1 armor) in Egypt.

Bob and Kelly roll again. Bob gets a 6 and Kelly a 2.
Bob bids the mandatory 1 IPC.
Kelly bids 2 IPCs.
Bob passes.
Kelly selects Eastern Europe, pays 2 IPCs to the bank and places the starting units in Eastern Europe.
Bob then selects Eastern United States, pays 1 IPC to the bank and places the starting units in Eastern U.S.

Each player will now roll a die to determine who goes first in bidding to start the game. Bob rolls a 3, Mary a 2 and Kelly a 6 to start the auction.
Kelly bids 3 IPCs (1 is the minimum).
Bob bids 5 IPCs.
Mary Passes.
Kelly Passes.
Bob pays the 5 IPCs to the bank and will go first, now Mary and Kelly must roll and bid to see who will go second. Mary rolls a 3 and Kelly a 2.
Mary bids the minimum 1 IPC.
Kelly bids 2 IPCs.
Mary passes.
Kelly wins the bid, pays 2 IPCs to the bank. Kelly will follow Bob. Mary pays the minimum 1 IPC and will follow Kelly in turn order for the rest of the game.

Bob will begin the game with 6 ipcs, Kelly with 8 ipcs and Mary with 7 ipcs.

Now that the capitals have been placed and the turn order decided, the remaining territories each have one infantry (garrison) unit placed in them.

From this point forward, with the exception of garrison units, the game will proceed as usual using the standard A&A rules.

Garrison Units

Garrison units are placed in each territory to act as non-aggressive neutrals unaligned with any player. These units cannot move and cannot attack. They defend as normal infantry. These units must be destroyed before a player can take control of the countries they occupy. Should a player a attack one of these units, one of his/her opponents should roll for the garrison unit.

Winning the Game

A player wins the game by controlling more than half the capital cities in the game at the beginning of his turn. Just like in regular A&A, a player is not removed from the game, when he loses his capital. He turns over all his cash to the conquering player and cannot purchase units or generate income until he liberates his capital.

Alliances

There are no formal alliances in this variant. Players can arrange deals to try to gain an advantage on their opponents, but they may never occupy the same territories. These alliances cannot be enforced in any way.

Optional Two Player Rules

In two player games, an excitiing dimension can be added, by allowing both players to start with two capitals and two unique armies. Once again, the two armies controlled by the same player cannot share territory with each other. However, they can attack each other! Sometimes capturing your own "other" capital can give the economic/military push to overcome your opponent.