Neutral Russia

In order to delay a German crush on Moscow you will need the help of US/UK.

The Allies need to at least threatening a landing on S.Fra, Normandy, Norway, Denmark, N.Ita or S.Ita. Everything else is bogus. If you can’t Force Germany to build some ships then they will have free hands on Moscow and it will not matter what they do or how they die.

And, when Germany captured Moscow, they will be in London/Cairo in No Time!

Germany has to send all his assets towards the East. Everytime Germany has or needs to build ships is one to two units less who can march towards Moscow.

If you want to delay a German march towards Moscow, then build up a JFK devinsive line.
J= Novo,Bela,W.Ukr, Ukr, Bessa
F=Bela,Smolensk, W.Ukr,Ukr, Bryansk
K=Smolensk,Bryansk,Rostov and Russia from where you refit and supply your troops.
You have to time it and have to be powerful enough to knock out any Ita Canopeners.

@variance:

This is not a comprehensive list, but as far as I know the following list probably accounts for ~90% of games and is pretty much the RUSSIA PLAYBOOK as I understand it:

build all infantry (optional: bid soviet infantry), march everything to Moscow, fly in Allied fighters, die slow. Hope the allies can save the day elsewhere.

same as #1 but send some units to Iraq or (not ‘and’) Finland to try and increase income.

build inf and mech R1 (optional: bid soviet infantry), buy time at Belarus, march far east troops home, fly in Allied fighters, check your battle calculator and buy artillery when its time, counterattack

build tanks R1 (optional: bid artillery on Eastern front), threaten counterattack to delay Barbarossa, take no sh!t from Italy, march far east troops home, counterattack opportunistically

build 3 mechs R1 and send planes to Yunnan (optional: bid fighters in moscow and stalingrad, and/or inf in yunnan and artillery in suiyuyan, shensi, szechwan, kweichow); far east troops go to Buryatia then Amur then Manchuria (optional: bid artillery out east), die, but watch Allies kill Germany

Gargantua, Cow, and others have discussed these in the past

This is actually a really good post; with a pretty complete breakdown of viable options.  Those are the primary concepts.

Selection of casualties could also come into play if AAA and/or air units controlled by another player have moved into the territory.

The only scenario where I would consider attacking neutrals is if I had a big army (either Axis or Allies) that needs to go through Turkey and isn’t mobile enough to go around Turkey.  I’ve never actually seen that scenario though.

In general the downside to attacking neutrals is way more significant than any perceived upside.  It’s hard to justify a move that is going to gift 15+ infantry to your opponent.

I am always tempted to use this strategy with the allies. There is however always one thing which holds me from doing so: the Mongolian forces - if Japan can activate these units, I think this will tip the balance on the pacific board in favor of the Axis.

Nevertheless, It would be a disaster for Germany to defend another border, which is so close to france and the US at the same time…

I just want to say, that in real life in 1944 the US produced 3x more planes than all other world powers combined. If you make it historical, you have to give the US an income of 200/turn. The idea is that it be an entertaining game and that it jog your memory of history class.

Yes.

I was thinking (if players agree) to have Russia & Japan put 1-2 ipc’s in a NAP fund. Let it grow, and the player that breaks the agreement (with an actual attack) forfeits the NAP fund to the other player. Allow Russia to declare war in name only (no attack) so it can invade neutrals (which is a silly loop hole anyway, Russia should just be allowed to invade neutrals from the get go).

Make a list of things that would be a deal breaker, like Russia in China or UK Pac tt’s, or allied attacks on Jap from Russian land ect…