Italy taking Bulgaria is nice and all, but its on the extreme opposite front you really want those units on. I prefer Strafing Yugo with Hungary, Romania, S.Germany and “retreating” to Romania and then NCM a single Inf into Bulgaria. This sets up a weakened Yugo for I1. You can use the TT on I1 to move Inf first into Yugo to have 6 Inf, 2 Tanks giving Italy Yugo.
Do the same thing on G2 against Greece, blitzing the tanks through Bulgaria and sending in the 5 Inf from Bulgaria. Hit for a round then retreat to Bulgaria. Your tanks are then setup to join the rest of your tanks from France by meeting up G3 in E.Poland. In both cases you weaken the national units, but hand the IPC over to Italy as they will need it to address a US force moving towards the Med.
I also like to give the Italians S.France with the 2 Art, 2 Inf from N.Italy. Net Net the Italians are up 7 IPC for a good while by the end of I2 which translates to at least 3-4 rounds of IPC from those territories. That 21-28 IPC over that time is increasingly valuable to their weak 10 IPC starting value.
I send the Germans like this in the SZ’s: 3 Tac/Ftr, 2 SS to SZ110. I opt to lose Ftr because the Tac pair better on G3/G4 with the 9 starting Arm Germany will be using in Moscow. They are also cheaper to replace and the threat of attacks on Germany are minimal (the real value of Ftr) until later in the game. I then send 1 Ftr/Tac, 2 Bombers, my BB and 2 SS into SZ111. Generally I end up with 3 Ftr, 4 Tac 2 Bomber remaining in the 3 times I’ve done this so far. My BB usually ends up being tipped and subject to a UK counter on UK1 from SZ91, SZ109 and a Bomber from London. Sometimes a SS survives somewhere in there, but my dice rolls have been better than average.
I also prefer trading German Ftr for UK Ftr. Granted you never want to give up your aircraft, but it is much harder for London to survive if it scrambles its Ftrs because they just can’t replace them nearly as easily as the Germans can before G3 Sea Lion. Trading 20-30 IPC to keep the UK on London until probably G5 is worth the investment. It is PARTICULARLY annoying to have UK Ftr en masse around once the US starts landing in Normandy because the UK can just land all its Ftr on top of the ground units that survived, plus land units of its own. I’d rather the UK have 2-3 Ftr instead of 5-7.
I always go after the UK fleet if it lives in the Med, but I1 is always a Ftr purchase and Germany always flies that Ftr that can’t reach the SZ down to Rome so I have 3 Ftr scrambling on I1 if the UK decides to attack SZ97. I’m happier removing the UK fleet in the Med so it cannot reinforce London or block me from Egypt. Further, I don’t want a threat against Rome so I can utilize the starting 6 Inf there. By removing the UK fleet, that threat is generally eliminated.
You can still pull of a Sea Lion with 8 TT if the UK doesn’t go full defensive. Especially if you SBR London on G2 - which I recommend regardless of what you plan to do. Those Bombers are just fluff on G2 for wherever you attack and are better put to use with escorts (for any remaining Ftr in the UK) and “take away” IPC from London. Worst case scenario if two bombers get through is 6 IPC loss for UK although the average is going to be closer to 10 or 11 IPC.