Nice back-n-forth debate, I’m enjoying it.
Like to add that we have been doing a G2 Barbarossa, and it has been very effective. We have been doing somewhat of a dark sky’s (early heavy German bmr buys) with a pretty devastating J1 (see later). In the last game the Germans didn’t attack Yugo G1, he used the Bulgarians to do it G2. Theory was he generally loses a couple guys in that battle, and he wanted to have more inf at the front. This helps to deter a Russian strafe on your stack, and the Bulgarians are going to be a round behind you anyway. We have found that if the the Germans supper stack they have enough starting units to push the Russians back (Italian mobile units are helpful), and you can get to both Leningrad and Ukraine w/o much of a fight. You will force some tough decisions on the Russians because with the G2 attack you have enough starting units to go straight to Moscow (if they don’t get help). Even with say 4-5 UK air units there, odds will favor Germany slightly (keeping in mind the Luftwaffe is doubled in size by then, and bmr heavy). It’s not in Germany’s best interest to hit Moscow at that time because it will cut them deeply (but it is a real threat). After that you add a minor IC on E Ukraine and start pumping out units on Russian soil from several ICs to finish the job and the Russians are somewhat contained. The Bmrs can pull double duty from West Germany, keeping the allies at bay, and still threaten to hit Moscow. As the Germans you aren’t really looking to destroy the Allied fleet unless they seriously under build, you can double hit using Italy, or you can incorporate navy/subs (to costly, and the allies know that). Instead you set-up to kill the landing party using ground units in key areas (including transports if they go north) with an over powering Luftwaffe.
Our J1 attack is hitting both Phil and Hawaiian fleets (6 US ships sunk+Phil ftr) along with the early heavy investment in German bmrs (and some navy) is causing a lot of problems for the US. Although they are unleashed on the first turn they are finding it difficult to compete with Japan and/or go to Europe. It is up to UK to stall the Germans while the US figures out what the hell they are doing. Next time I’m allies I will look at sending the Russian mob to Amur to see what the Japanese do. It would defiantly put a thorn in their J1 attack so……like I said it is still a work in progress with us.
Just thought I would toss this into your discussion. We are still looking at the above situation over the last few games, but the allies haven’t been able to do much in response.