So who can have partisans?

[USGrant]

Obviously, Yugoslavia can have partisans. And from other posts by Hubert I understand that Russia can. But what about other countries?

I suggest that partisans could be used to address other issues that various posters have raised. For example:

Robust French partisans that are only activated if Vichy is invaded. Or perhaps a 2% per turn chance of partisans after France is conquered, that rises to 4% per turn after the US declares war (The Resistance) or that rises to 8% per turn chance if Vichy is conquered.

A single Irish partisan might make Brits think twice about invading and disbanding just for MPPs.

Spanish and Turkish partisans to help avoid the COS counterclockwise perfect plan. For those who don't remember - in Clash of Steel if Germany attacked France, Spain, N. Africa, Middle East, Turkey, and Russia in that order they were unstoppable. I can't tell from the demo if this will happen here. Considering the Spanish civil war experience I suggest that they could field dangerous partisans.

British partisans so that if Sea Lion is successful, the game is not quite over (what are the German Campaign Game victory conditions?).

In general I think that partisans could both reflect historical possibilities and dampen some of the enthusiasm for ahistorical behavior. Remember, WWII was total war and if one side or the other chose not to take a course of action that appears to have significant strategic payback, there were reasons. The reasons might not have been concern about partisans, but this might be an acceptable abstraction. They won't typically prevent either side from taking any particular course of action, but might make you think twice.

After reading all this, I am suggesting that any conquered country can generate partisans, and that a table could be used to vary their strength depending on political, historical, and game balance issues. Partisans should be able to oppose whoever conquers their homeland, be it Axis or Allies. Also, I would not make the probablities too high, this game should be Strategic Command, not Partisan! A typical minor country might have only a 1% per turn chance of generating a partisan, so that you might see an average of one per game in a Norway or Greece or Rumania for that matter.

It would also be good if they could somehow be restricted to their own country, but I suspect that would be difficult to implement at this point.

[BloodyBucket]

Good post. French partisans dependent on German treatment of Vichy would give the Germans another reason not to attack Vichy besides increasing the real estate they need to defend and angering the USA. Spanish partisans seem logical, and the idea of giving Ireland a partisan seems good. I wonder what the US entry hit for taking Ireland is?

[Lars]

Anyone have an idea of how large a garrison you need to keep partisans from popping up? Does a garrison lessen the chance at all?

[pzgndr]

Garrisoning capitals with an army rather than corps should make some subtle difference in reducing chances of partisans. They definitely need to be restricted to their own country. I don't think every country needs partisans in this game. France, Spain, Turkey, and maybe Ireland and Greece should be added.

Speaking of country restrictions, there should be some limits on where minor allies can go. 3R has reasonable restrictions which could be considered for SC. Otherwise, we may see Finns in Normandy, Bulgarians in Norway, and who knows what else.