@Make_It_Round:
Italy’s orange units look to be the same shade as the Japanese in '40.
These could be used to represent early war (inferior) units, to be supplanted by the late war (superior) units… This would work better with a 1d12 system, however, rather than the standard 1d6 one.
Of course, minor powers could also be represented by the colors with no correlate in the '40 game. Standalone Canada is a no-brainer!
Actually, it was kind of the reverse for Japan, at least as far as the people aspect goes (soldiers, pilots, etc.) While some improvements were made in equipment, particularly fighter aircraft, the quality of their troops and pilots went down over the course of the war. Early in the war, the Zero and their pilots flew circles around Allied planes and Japanese ground troops attacked with such ferocity they seemed nearly unstoppable. Later on, as Allied pilots learned the hard lesson of not underestimating the skill of Japanese pilots and improved Allied plane types started appearing on the front lines, the Japanese started to lose a lot of their more experienced, veteran pilots and had to rely on less experienced rookies.
The same is true for their foot soldiers. In the early part of the war, most Japanese positions were only taken by totally annihilating the entire garrison. Zero prisoners. As the war dragged on, they actually started having Japanese soldiers surrendering to them. Perhaps these soldiers weren’t so much “lesser quality” than soliders killed in earlier battles, but they at least didn’t have so much zeal to fight to the death and “die for the emporer”. That could be viewed as a reduction in quality.