Russia + 9 NO

As much as it seems in theory that Allies have the advantage (this is my opinion also), on the TripleA lobby Axis seem win just as much as Allies or more.  Maybe this is due to Allies being harder, or maybe the Axis strats are more advanced.  Either way, the game results seem pretty even (slanted towards Axis if anything)

Still, if one is of the opinion that the game favors Allies, the +9 NO is part of the imbalance, since it makes a Sea Lion strategy alot harder to pull off, in addition to making the Soviets bigger and badder in general.

Where does this NO come from?

If you read the OOB rules it is the same for Europe 2nd edition and global 2nd edition, Russian NO are the + 5 for leningrad and the sz, the +2 for the axis territories and the +10 for Berlin (the most useless NO in the history of man kind)

Then yesterday I play triple A 1940 europe (1st time, although play global on a regular basis) and suddenly there is a +9 for novosibirsk when Russia is at war, but this is not in the global set-up

why?

Look again. Europe rulebook page 25 lists the Soviet National Objectives, the first of which is “When the Soviet Union is at war: 9 IPCs if the Soviet Union controls Novosibirsk”, whereas in the Global section on page 36, this National Objective is absent.

Even with the +9 NO Russia is still worse in Europe than Global though, because you only get it at war, as opposed to Global when you collect the 9 IPCs from your Pacific map territories even when not at war.

thanks! My bad for not reading the rules clearly

Just played a game with the updated rules (previous games we played were from 1st edition).  Soviets were nearly impossible for Germany to take down.  Germany waited until round 4 to attack Russia (thinking they could use the time to bring more troops to the front line), and by Round 9 had all it’s troops ready to take Moscow.  But by that time Russia had built only infantry every turn and had 70inf, 5 tanks, 2mech, 3 planes built up (Germany had 30 inf, 25 tanks, and 5 planes).  By the time all the dice were rolled Soviets still had 30 infantry and all their tanks, planes, etc.  Game was over at that point.  Did we do something wrong?

Germany needed some Artillery to have any chance. Had it taken the money territories to the South, so starving Russia of money?
Italian Ground units can be used to open up territories for the Germans to follow up, thus moving AA and Air units for further defence. You have to push Russia and make one stack, it can’t attack.
It’s not easy playing the Axis in Europe alone. It has many enemies.

Ok one year later.

So I’ve tried to attack Russia earlier thinking they’d have less troops in the long run.  Bought mechs to catch up to the front line and some artillery to help in the assault.  I either BARELY win with a very thin Western Europe line (because I’ve sunk a bunch of money into Russian attack) or I lose and pretty much resign.  I also tried bringing Italian mech/tanks to facilitate (which was fun).

Maybe I’m missing something somewhere else on the map but I just can’t seem to hold my own against the Allies when playing Axis.  It’s like nerve-racking trying to make every play count.  If there’s another thread on here with strategies that I’ve missed maybe someone can point me to it?