The Alliance that won the Second World War was probably the most successful in history. Considering all the problems they had, internal and external, they achieved all there aims and did it with a economy of effort that defies ready compression. To understand such a alliance it is necessary that we look at each of the three nations.
It is without question that one of the major factors concerning the play of Axis and Allies, (A&A), is the stationary position of the various industrial complexes.
The European Expansion game starts off with each side getting 12 IPCs to place anywhere they have units. What sorts of strategies are there for placing builds?
In my first game of A&AE I played Russia. I did the pull everything back but a speed bump infantry, preserving my counter attack ability for the important battles.
In Axis and Allies Europe, Germany has a lot more naval options and these options have a greater impact on the war than in Axis in Allies.
Here is a Russian strategy that has proven so devastating to the Axis powers that it has forced my A&A buddies and I to a dopt a permanent “no Russian first attack” rule to compensate. Conventional wisdom has the Russians attacking eastern Europe on their first move.
Russia is given the advantage of going first and having the ability to do too much damage to Germany. What is the worst case scenario? I believe it is a move Germany can not immediately counter. A Russian capture of Finland-Norway is such a move and when combined with the destruction of the German Fleet in the Baltic, this would leave the territory and its surviving Russian tanks in relative safety.
In my opinion, Russia is the key to the whole game. At first glance it would appear that Russia is the weakest of the Allies and while that may be true to begin with, Russia has territory and men to burn in exchange for time.
The Allies in particular need to cooperate if they are to win. Every nation must assist every other, especially when the task involves protecting supply lines. I also would suggest that the goal of Allied cooperation must be the utter annihilation of the Wehrmacht.
Germany is definitely in bad shape at the beginning of the game. If Russia did the right thing first round (and had a reasonable amount of luck in rolls), then Germany has no Baltic fleet, lost its Atlantic submarine, faces an additional transport in the UK waters, and lost either Eastern Europe or the Ukraine.