HOLD THE PHONE, Before people start complaining allied strategies are 1 dimentional.
The Axis win by securing a certain amount of victory cities on either side of the board. What cities they choose, where, and how they secure them is their business, the options are almost endless.
The Allies win by STOPPING the unknown Axis plan on Both sides of the board permanently. Hands down, that’s it. If allied “strategies” are accussed of being too simple, or too one dimentional, it’s because the axis builds/attacks are standard. The Allies do not have the initiative for the first few turns. Don’t forget that.
That said, the allies should be easier to play, and are in my opinion, because you just have to make sure your opponent doesn’t win. How hard is that really? Especially in a game, where the economic climb is SO STEEP for the axis, that they can’t reach economic parity easily.
So the next question becomes, how do you play PREVENT against an axis economic equality game plan? Easy.
Spend every nickel, unit, and resource you’ve got in range, preventing italy from scoring it’s NO’s.
With that done, and Italy neutered, Europe is basically solved. Just make sure you build infantry in russia, and support it with allied planes, even if that means you land 10 american bombers there for defense.
That leaves the situation in the pacific. And if you turn ANZAC and HAWAII into super fortresses of allied might, that you launch attacks from, the Japanese are doomed. The bulk of their economy is exposed to you, and you get to pick and choose when and where to strike.
Obviously things can go either way for a number of reasons, but the principle is simple. If you’re the allies, just play prevent, buy time, and watch the dollars.