Reading through the ETO rules - and I am quite concerned about the workaround of 'Card Selection'.
Personally I do not believe it works well in a combined ETO game, that the Axis falls shorthanded in cards as well - especially as they'd still be bound by 1 Large card per season vs 2 of their opponents, and they'd be even more starved if for reasons their enemies pick up on Small cards (which can still be excellent).
Probably to have matching selections per Theather or so, or 'Game' would pan out better, or is just easier to balance and fine-tune. (Card Selection for Eastfront, Card Selection for Mediterranean / Italian front, and Card Selection of the West Front - or at best to bundle the later two together.).
Just expressing a concern - as it seems quite a feature of the game to select cards, and if cards are then bound by 'reacting' to larger events of the other part ... it seems quite unfair.
Axis may have a single stack of cards to pick from, if that helps, to avoid double production bonuses or the like (If they can afford these cards).
But otherwise Italian Large or Medium events may be really short handed as well, especially after Barbarossa hits.
The Axis have interesting choices for cards, even though most of them are weaker than the early Russian cards.. In July of '41, I prefer to select two Small cards from Roll Bahns (ETO), Tank Aces, German Officers Show Initiative or Prepared Crossing. Or, if I want a fast start, Army Organization is ideal--after Blitzkrieg, it is the most powerful Axis card in '41. The Russians have some very strong cards in '41: EM, Militia Mobilized and Conscripts..., but they need them. [The cards have changed a lot in six months. I wonder if I should or even know how to delete posts like this.]
I've read of that in the new rules. That is what it triggered my post.
I stand by my case there - as somehow I can already perceive that in TITE Germans use 2 small cards or so at the start of JUL / AUG.
Oh - but they need to pick one Large as they're limited to 4 already (Such as some Italian bomber program or the like! That was in the Middle Sea Vassal and it was Large).
On the paper I do not see that working.
By what I saw from TITE too, many Soviet cards are superior to German ones.
I am not sure of how many cards Italy has - but a viable alternative I believe is (ontop of the 'Echo' for Germany) to allow Italy to pick 1 Large Card at the start of the year, 1 Medium Card at the start of Season, and 1 Small Card at the start of each month. (Limited to Italian Cards only - and it would do good to envision a longer standing Italy, be it RSI or regular Italy in case the game steers to a delayed surrendering of them.)
Not every detail of combining the games has been finalized. There is thoughts of a card echo. When the Aiiles play a large card, the Germans get to draw a medium card, Allies play a medium and the Germans get a small. Same for the Russians playing cards. The Germans may still be limited to four large cards a year but their hand size will increase and they could have nice card choices.