Some tournament rules that work very well are also useful for "fun"
single games with your friends, and involve no restrictions on the
game as is.  If you've seen an interesting or unusual tournament
rule or system, let me know.

Bidding System I (reported by Will Wible (wodan@genie.geis.com)):

    Russia can attack, and the Axis aren't given any free weapon
    developments.  Players register with the GM as a team of one or
    two people, submitting a secret bid for the privilege of playing
    the Allies.  This bid is a number from 0 to 10.  Once all the
    bids are received, the GM then ranks them in order from highest
    to lowest.  The top half are the Allied teams, the bottom the
    Axis teams.  Pairs are highest to highest, and on down.  For
    example, with six teams, bidding as follows:

        A bids 3, B bids 0, C bids 5, D bids 3, E bids 2, F bids 1

    They are ranked: C 5, A 3, D 3, E 2, F 1, B 0.  Ties are resolved
    randomly -- just roll a die.

    Games are then set up as follows:

                 Allies   vs   Axis
      Game 1 --     C     vs     E
      Game 2 --     A     vs     F
      Game 3 --     D     vs     B

    Now, this is just an assignment technique, as good as any, and
    perhaps better than most.  However, where the numbers come in is
    with economic aid to the Axis players, which they can spend in
    any way they wish.  This is income not represented on the board
    which cannot be taken away from the Axis players, except through
    loss of their capital as normal.

    Each Axis nation receives IPC bonuses equal to the _difference_
    in bids between them and their opponent.  Using the example above,
    in Game 1, both Germany and Japan for Team E receive 5 - 2 = 3
    extra IPCs _per turn_.  At the start of the game, Germany receives
    35 IPCs, and Japan receives 28.

    It's a wonderful system because it has feedback built into it.
    In addition, it works for a casual game just the same as in a
    tournament situation.  For tournaments, the further selection of
    the eventual winner is still up to the GM -- the above system
    doesn't enforce a particular method.  Single elimination, double
    elimination, Swiss and other methods can all be used.

Bidding System II (reported by J.C. Hamlin (J.C.Hamlin@born.com))

    Like the Bidding System I, this involves 2 players bidding down
    the Axis economic victory conditions.  The player who bids the
    lowest gets to play the Allies, and the Axis player only needs
    to get the number bid by the Allied player to win by an 
    economic victory.  Conservative bids were in the 76ish range,
    and aggressive bids were at 71-73.  This was used at the A&A
    World Championships at GenCon.

Bidding System III (reported by J.C. Hamlin (J.C.Hamlin@born.com))

    A new method introduced at GenCon in 1995 involves bidding
    up IPCs for Axis initial placements on the board.  These IPCs
    are spent on builds for both Germany and Japan, and are placed
    on the board anywhere the Axis wants them to *before* the game
    begins.  The highest bidder gets to play the Allies, and the
    other player must play the Axis but gets to build and place
    using the other player's IPC bid before the game begins.
    This leads to a much more balanced and usually longer (>4 hrs)
    game, and more interesting because the initial setup can be
    different every game.

Increasing Unit Costs: Reid Gagle (reid.gagle@pca.state.mn.us)

    One idea from the New Crusades that could be used in A&A is that
    of increasing unit costs.  I find it boring when Russia builds
    all men most turns, Germany all tanks, and the US all aircraft,
    even though it's often the best strategy.  Increasing unit costs
    means each additional item of one type produced per factory
    costs one extra.  If you have two factories, and want to build 8
    men, they cost 6 for the first two, 8 for the second two, 10 for
    the third two, and 12 for the seventh and eighth men, for a total
    of 36 rather than 16.  If that's too strict, you could have it
    kick in after 2/factory -- 8 men then costing 12 for the first
    four and 16 for the second four.  This provides incentives to get
    a mix of forces that would make games more interesting.  With
    these rules in effect, the less expensive items would no longer
    be available in quantity, and the normally more expensive items
    would actually become a better value!  This is a far-reaching
    rule that merits at least one attempt!

Blind A&A: David Bedno (dbedno@cisco.com)

    Use 2 boards and a referee, and essentially the Axis and Allies
    can't see what's in an an area unoccupied by them until they
    they either fly over it, attack it, or move into it.  Planes
    that get shot down note what's in the space they get shot down
    in, but not what they saw on the way there.  The 2 sides can
    be separated by a large screen, or they can be in two different
    rooms, and the referee resolves what is seen.

Tournament Award Ideas:

    Put a country card in a nice frame with non-glare glass and
    a small plaque at the bottom.  It makes a relevant, inexpensive
    award!

*The A&A Multi-Player Mega-Variant has now been removed, and it
can be found at the A&A FTP site listed in section 14.