As a recent new player to AA50 I would respond to this old post with a nuanced strawman approach (heavily based on my pref for Allies) but useful for Axis. I have wrestled with the math optimization of how to win OOB as Allies no bid in 1942 with NO and tech both on. I have been pondering how much income to send from US in particular to either coast. I’ve read almost all of the posts under AA50 and a few revised. Some say to launch a dedicated SBR campaign against Italy or Ruhr. Others go into a crazy naval build in WUS and do an arms race with IJN. The one post talked about parking an attack fleet with subs and caterpillar from Iwo. Others use the money island gravy train with surprise optionality to attack the Italian boats via the Suez (or repair one of my newb blunders if losing India by a relief invasion from Nimitz).
Particularly for the Allies I have two ways to think about this.
Turn 2+: What about when the subs chew apart my EUS DD and TRx2? Or smoke my Brit BB and I have to start building air and fleet from scratch? I use the other part of the strategy of not what to kill first, but when to kill it with US and UK. There is a delicate dance in build order for US against a good Axis. See what they give you and dance carefully. Maybe a sub and bomber campaign off WUS. Or run the torch playbook or just Bomb the tar out of Rome. My personal favorite.
As a newb I read the Essays. Shuck shuck is unfortunately no longer a viable option. I think the equation is now a generalized formula of a combination of pips per ipc, time needed to bring a given unit to a front, covering fleet per unit moved, and other considerations. Don Rae shuck shuck is like a limited form of a generalized cost benefit analysis including things like power projection and timing, and cost for the surface fleet needed to get that one guy from NY across to Eurasia. It’s just not as easy as inf push mechanic.
My Soviet strategy is again about timing with the timer being East Poland. Once I start seeing a given massing of tanks and inf I go turtle in an orderly and planned way, socking in spitfires and p51s in Moscow. Again it is a cool timing to the game that makes it fun. Where I see a lot of these posts go into a spin cycle is that they are looking at a static playbook that missing the point of when to make the important decisions
A. When to build pacific fleet
B. When to sbr
C. When to invade Norway and so on.
D. When to build the Indian IC. Or not at all. Or wait until Turn 3. Yes that once happened where it was best to wait.
