I would go for Norway, just because it is a great way to bleed the Germans of eight IPCs (I believe Norway is 3 + 5 for the NO).  Generally I don’t defend Norway as heavily (relying on a submarine picket to bleed out the English can work sometimes at stalling an invasion, but the US always shows up).
Landing on the continent can be a nightmare as Allies, but when the time does come I ALWAYS spend the lead up turns using the US Air Force to bomb the factories in Normandy, France, and Southern France into rubble.  I then land in Normandy (nostalgia purposes) and it is best to follow up with the British player landing infantry behind you to shore up defense (I’m not sure if you’re allowed to land fighters in freshly conquered Allied territory, but I’ll leave it to the board veterans to answer that).  One time though it may be interesting to see how it works if I pull off a separate British landing in Norway or the Low Lands.
As Germany, I generally defend the continent from invasion by having a few stacks of infantry on the coast and a sizable stack of infantry/artillery (2-1 ratio) and a handful of Panzers in France for a swift counter-attack.

I would probably use it the same way I used it in E’40, and that’s basically screw with Italy’s head and harassing their expansion.
Normally I shuttle a soldier to Greece to pick up the Pro-Allied troops there, and then relocate the navy there as well.  I would not attack the Italian navy immediately because they can scramble the two fighters in Southern Italy, meaning you will probably suffer too many losses.  I also would move the cruiser in SZ91 (if it survives) to join the French fleet, creating essentially two tough nuts for the Italian navy to crack on opposite ends of the Mediterranean.

Well, that Med Fleet did the trick beautifully to be honest, though it certainly did not win the Allies the war! I wound up being able to cut the Burma Road J2, then held out pretty well in Asia.  The naval battles in the Pacific went pretty awful, the Brit player just created a floating ‘fortress’ with the Brit, Aussie, and French fleets in the Pacific around Borneo.  The US player then used his navy to bottle me up while the dastardly Soviet player violated our neutrality pact on J3 and thanks to some atrocious defensive rolling on my part had a 14 unit strong stack of infantry liberate Manchuria, giving the Chinese sufficient IPCs to keep mobbing infantry.
Although I was able to destroy the allied fleet in  the South Pacific, it cost me most of my naval aviation and smaller ships, ultimately leaving me with a pair of crippled battleships and three plane-less flattops by J4.  From that point forward the Japanese fleet was relegated to defensive actions off Borneo and the Philippines while my land forces in Asia fought a desperate holding action against the Chinese and Russian onslaught (thanks to atrocious British rolling I was able to conquer Calcutta though).  The Aussie player spent the rest of the game running submarines all over my shipping lanes and the US player was a massive d*** and just parked his Pac fleet off the home islands starting J4 and launching these massive (albeit suicidal) amphibious invasions every third turn or so.
Granted, in ETO the games MVP/MOTM absolutely annihilated the USSR in the span of a few turns and crushed the Allies’ hapless D-Day invasion…

I feel that if the USSR cranks out tanks and more tanks with its builds, Sealion has the potential to leave you too open in the East.  It has in my experience, however, forced a major commitment in resources from the US player, weakening their potential in the Pacific.

The game I’m running right now (hopefully finish tonight) the German/Italian player did a strict Barbarossa after conquering France and the results (in the Atlantic at least) were awesome.  Granted, there were a few odd factors, like.

-British Med fleet making a run for the Pacific
-Getting Advanced Artillery on G2, effectively making the mass infantry stacks in the East a LOT more dangerous on the offensive.
-Italy effectively assassinating Brit income in Africa/Mid-East.
-Very successful Battle of Britain on G2 (trading fighter for fighter and rolling a 5 and 6 with both strat bombers against the factory)

As far as buys and deployment, the German left a sizable armored force (~5 tanks) supported by infantry and artillery in France with some small infantry stacks along Normandy/Holland supplemented with all of his fighters.  In the East it was all Tanks/Mech infantry builds (I think he may have bought a tac bomber too)
As for the operation itself, the kick off wound up being G4 and there was probably some crazy luck with that too (in the massive initial attacks the Germans lost only three infantry).  Afterward it was a matter of steamrolling armored forces across Russia until Moscow fell.

The war on my front (Japan) has been an absolute shambles though, despite conquering Calcutta…

@Spendo02:

There’s really a lot to consider.  Where did the US focus its US1 purchase?  What about UK-India?  Did you take the Burma Road?  Can you retake it on J2?  Sorta sucks G1 looks like the Russian direction.  I wouldn’t have purchased an AC on J1 if that was the case and would have focused on pushing into Germany instead.  Just a few of my initial reactions and thoughts.

Thanks for the replies, I probably should have mentioned that we are picking up again with G2 tonight (only had three hours last night and first time trying Alpha).
The US player purchased a mix of sea units, deploying a new carrier, cruiser, and destroyer off the western US.  The UK (in the East) picked up a fighter and infantry.  I did not go for the Burma road, and am planning on hitting it next turn with a larger air/ground force in the hopes that I can have a better shot at holding it against counter attacks…I probably should have been more aggressive in China.  Guess we’ll find out tonight.

[First post, haha!]
I guess I should set up some of the background first, currently playing a game of Global with the Alpha rules with some friends.  To better simulate the war, one player is controlling the “Western Allies” while another player controls the USSR.  On the Axis side of the table, I control Japan while another friend is controlling Germany/Italy.
As the Japanese player I now find myself in a bit of a conundrum.  While the German player pulled off a great victory over the French on Turn 1 (completely conquered, losses only to infantry on behalf of some boxcars rolled in the defenses of Normany and Southern France) and was also successful in hurting the British Atlantic fleet (some great sub sneak attacks, claimed the Gibraltar cruiser and the two cruisers near Denmark), he is more or less setting himself up for a massive invasion of the USSR (alas, no Sealion).
As Japan, my Turn 1 was largely prepping for a dual strike on the Philippines/East Indies with the bulk of my surface fleet and preparing a Pearl harbor attack utilizing carrier borne forces supported with destroyers and subs (to that end I bought another carrier and another transport).  I figured my surface fleet shouldn’t have too much trouble with the attack on the East Indies, and recalled the transports to Japan while using the one in Japan to ferry the tank and an infantry unit to Asia.
Cue my conundrum.
The British player ran all the sea units in Zone 98 through the canal and out to the Indian ocean.  Simultaneously, the survivors in his Atlantic fleet absolutely smashed the Kriegsmarine (it helps that the German had poor rolling on defense too I guess) with the loss of a destroyer (the once mighty Kriegsmarine is now a lowly submarine).  In the Pacific the Brit is prepping for a mainland defense and staging his naval forces off the coast of Malaya (the British and French destroyers off Africa are also maneuvering for Malaya).
The German/Italian player, in historic fashion, tried to capture Yugoslavia and was repulsed with heavy losses (lost both infantry and artillery guns while only managing to destroy one infantry).  Although he was able to destroy the remnants of the French fleet and his amphibious supported invasion of Greece was a success, he’s made little headway in North Africa.
Now as Japan I have to contend with this significantly beefed up Royal Navy presence in the East Indies.  How do you guys recommend I handle this?

Oh, and sorry about the lengthy essay!