Interesting thoughts. I’m going through a frustrating exercise myself, trying to determine an Allied path to victory against a skilled Axis opponent.
Some thoughts on your ideas:
Russia - So far not able to really hold out 5-6 rounds unless supported by a flood of troops/aircraft from UK. Which unfortunately means you cannot afford the UK Naval/IC strategy…see below.
UK - On some level the UK factory on Eastern Canada is intriguing, but I’m not a fan of building expensive factories that only will be in use short-term…seems like an economic loss. I mean the value here seems to be exclusively to build a few ships early on that can’t be insta-sunk, but will still need to delay and await USA Navy for a proper escort back to the other side. Once on the other side, there would be no further need for the IC in Eastern Canada so it’s dead money. Also, there is NO surviving UK Navy after Round 1 against a good German player, except for the Destroyer and Transport already in SZ 10, and those can be hit by German Bomber and surviving Subs lurking around in SZ 11 or SZ 7 in Round 2 if you don’t move them. Subs can hit you anywhere you can move to. Your best bet is to run down to the US Atlantic SZ 11 with your Destroyer and Bomber support and hope you can knock out the subs there and park yourself out of harms way. Of course then your Bomber is out of position next round.
The naval buildup you’re proposing in SZ 10 cannot be financed/afforded. UK hovers at around 30 IPCS for most of the game, and you’re proposing a naval force that would cost about 120+ IPCS - over 4 rounds of IPCs being spent 100% on Navy, probably exceeding the IC capacity of 3 units on Eastern Canada per turn, and causing Russia to fall due to lack of a single penny of infantry/fighter support from UK. Also you mention fighters and Bombers in London and I’m not even counting the ground troops you need to buy, so I’m reading about 6-7 rounds of IPC spending and buildup before ANY attack on Europe from the UK. Russia will be gone and Germany will have 30 infantry stacks and 6+ fighters waiting for you, with a healthy dose of tanks pulled back from Russia after she falls.
US - The smartest approach to the US Navy if you’re going for Germany is not to build up a big force but rather to swing your already-existing big force around to the Atlantic. At least, that’s my thinking…you can augment it with some Eastern seaboard purchases, but, most of what you need is already on the board. The downside is, your US starting Navy can’t really swing over and help you against a skilled German player who parks 6-7 fighters and a Bomber on Western Europe and still has some Navy left…until at least round 4. That’s disastrous.
The positives in your strategy are that, all else being equal, an ideal landing DOES begun with the UK, so that the US can reinforce and land valuable air support. But that’s easier said than done, as you can see above.
On your comments about neglecting Japan, you cannot afford the cost of duplicating your US Navy on the East Coast and financing a wall of transports/troops, based on my calculations at least, so I see no avenue but to ignore Japan and hope she doesn’t get funny ideas about attacking the US. And I can’t overemphasize JUST how much Navy you need against 6-7 German Fighters, a Bomber, and a few subs supported by a Battleship lurking in the Med. Especially if Germany decides to be annoying and spend a puny 18 IPCs on some Subs to pre-emptively attack you with and use as fodder. Run the battle scenarios through the calculators and you’ll want to cry.
The real questions here, to me, are: are the Allies hopelessly unbalanced, is it true that one should either go KGF or KJF with no middle ground (your strategy is actually a bit balanced since you suggest maintaining a US Pacific Fleet), or are radically different strategies needed to offset the huge delays that exist with pressuring either Germany or Japan?
I’ve got something a bit unorthodox I’m going to try maybe tonight but I’m not optimistic it can work.
