Russia: any point of buying something to attack with?

No, you are correct - if you are playing against a decent player, then buy all Infantry, protect you tanks and fighters as if they were gold, and play full defense. When you are feeling safe, usually a couple of turns into the game, it’s probably a good idea to buy a third fighter. The way I almost always see Russia played is defensive the whole game. By the time things are looking good against Germany, Japan will be knocking at your back door and you will have to shift your troops to Russia’s eastern front.

There is one big exception to this though - you can ‘reverse-roles’ and use the US troops to defend Russia from Japan. Press on Germany with the UK and USSR - in which case you will want to start buying some Russian tanks later in the game. This works well, but I think it’s slightly inferior to defending Russia with Russia and attacking Germany with the UK and US.

“The best defense is a good offense” doesn’t really apply to the Allies in the limited scope of this board game - in general the more defensive the Allies play, the better chance they have of winning. They have time and the economy on their side - the longer the game lasts, the better chance the Allies have.

I’d like to disagree, respectfully. I find that hit and run tactics (also known as strafing among some) can be very useful for the Russians to prevent the Germans from building up, and to a very limited extent on the Japanese. I’d much rather attack a stack of tanks than be hit with it. Of course the Germans will probably buy more infantry than tanks, by taking out a fair percentage of these infantry each turn will effectively stall the Germans’ offensive nearly indefinately. I like to take out a few infantry in Manchuria within the first 2 turns just to prevent the Japanese from making too much headway too quickly.

You are correct - strafing is an important strategy, but against a good German player it won’t be an option until later in the game - at which point Russia is either starting to buy tanks to push after Germany or has shifted back to defend against Japan.

In addition, if the German player has a stack of tanks and you are buying tanks too, it’s going to be easier for him to hit you - infantry en masse is more of a deterant.

I would highly recommend buying all infantry with Russia for at least the first five or so turns, with the exception of the one fighter mentioned above. But I certainly respect your opinon or anyone else’s who would disagree.

I agree that it is foolish to buy anything other than infantry for some time, but I do like to strafe at the begining of the game; it allows me (Russia) to have some control over the front. Not feeling in control is probably one of my worst enemies.