The game is played in paranoia mode. Only color elimination missions are kept and each player has one other player to eliminate. If that player is eliminated, regardless of who does it, the player holding that mission card wins. Reshuffle and deal the missions if any players pulls their own color.
We feel that this rule makes for more interesting games and keeps all players in the game until the end. Also, the idea of needing to come to the rescue of a player who may be secretly trying to annihilate you is interesting.
To allocate initial placement of units, each player receives the same amount of cards. If there are extras, those territories start as radiation-poisoned territories and have the effects described below. This ensures we all start with the same number of territories.
Each player places 2 units on each territory it is allocated. This makes for less concentration in the usual locations. Once those are all placed, in turn, all players place 2 units on each of 2 territories of their choice (it cannot be the same territory twice). This allows players to define roughly where they want to reinforce at the beginning. We find that this causes the game to take place in parts of the map that often get left behind, like Asia and Europe because they are hard to defend. 2 units per territory also makes initial expansion harder and adds more variety.
At the beginning of a turn, cards may be turned in according to the standard, non-progressive rules.
There is no obligation to turn in cards when holding 5 or more at the beginning of a turn. A player may keep as many cards as desired. We don't feel the need to restrict this because it's natural to want to use cards as quickly as possible. Without progressive reinforcement rules, we don't need to prevent players from trying to attract more reinforcements by waiting.
A player may choose to replace the standard attack phase of their turn to perform a tactical nuclear strike. To do so, the player can use a card from their hand (not a joker) to annihilate all units on the territory of said card. All units are removed from the territory and it becomes a nuclear wasteland until the end of the game. To end the turn, adjustments can still be made even though no non-nuclear attacks take place. A card can also be taken.
A nuclear wasteland has special rules attached to it. Any army moving into the territory loses half of its forces to the radiation. If the territory is empty, an attacking army automatically gains control of it after losing half of its troops. Once an army resides on the nuclear wasteland, no further units are lost. An attack against an occupied wasteland territory unfolds as it normally would. If the attacker wins, half of its troops are lost when moving them into it.
If the result of halving the army yields half armies, the result is rounded down. If 5 armies enter the wasteland, only 2 survive. If a single army enters the wasteland, it dies and the territory is left unoccupied. Only nuclear wastelands can be left without any occupier.
This rule is fun because it makes players wary of placing too many troops in a single location. It can also lightly redraw the map with the effects of radiation-poisoned territories. It also makes the countries on the cards have more usefulness in the game. It felt like there were missed opportunities to use the cards for more than reinforcements.
The end of turn adjustment is broken down into 3 options, and only 1 of them may be chosen per turn:
All adjustments must leave at least one unit in each territory.
This change to the rules allows for a few more options when reinforcing.