Veritas, thank you for reminding me of the only anime I watch. I still need to finish watching GuP. Basically WoT animated ha.
Getting back to the topic, I find Axis to win about 60% of the time. Interestingly, statictics repeatedly show that the Axis do better with reduced luck variants. For some reason, it always seems that getting diced on an attack is worse than a poor defense (assuming the attacker is not purposely going against odds). Theoretically, as long as the Axis don’t make any mistakes and the dice come out 100% as expected, the Allies will lose every time. Now that is a long stretch because we are all liable to make mistakes, but the lower the luck, the more I see Axis winning. A j1 attack that swings out of Japan’s favor is much more influential than a J1 attack that is overwhelming in Japan’s favor.
The Axis advantage is largely based on concentrated force and straightforward goals. It takes a certain discipline and cool-headedness to play as the Axis. It’s hard to ignore the same temptations that ruined those great powers. We never use bids here but rather add house rules. There is a pervasive mentality in my group that it is no fun to win with a typical Axis strategy. This results in unique and interesting wars that aren’t as imbalanced as OOB. Am I saying that the Axis purposely play poorly and that is how the game is balanced for me? Well, yes. The script for Axis victory is very precise, but the real fun is finding out how you can alter or (from the Allied perspective) halt this.
And then there is the dice—the gem that makes those georgous messes.
I have never been a fan of letting players add a unit of their choice (a bid). I need to have a firm foundation to build strategy on, not just a reaction based upon a pre-game unit placement. If you feel the game is out of balance, a very simple and easy way to fix that is by adjusting NOs, particularly the U.S.'s.
I should also note that alternate setups are the best thing you can consider. There is only so much you can do with OOB. Larry’s 1942 made Russia need an entirely new approach.