@ kas: I came up with the variant because in regular gunboats people can use the draw button to signal intent, and to me, moves should be the only way to do that.
For instance, if two countries are battling it out in a normal gunboat, they can wait until after the point of no return (my term for the final move before all the minor countries must come together to prevent a solo), and then press the draw button before the next move to signal that they are going to defend against the solo.
Another case of using the draw button to communicate happens when countries that get in to trouble in the early game throw up a draw vote. Sometimes this would lead to another lesser power, or neighbor, doing the same, which at times lead to those countries working together.
Lastly, there are games where multiple countries get stretched out, making the board a total clusterfuck, and instead of playing it out, everyone votes to draw instead of toughing it out.
The Lusthog variant prevents any of those things from happening. I think it also leads to more solos...except in my case.
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