Old topic, i know…just wanted to state my experiences here. In general, playing with NOs and out of the box, the axis seems far more favored than the allies. I modified some tactics, coordinating the axis-moves more than usual. First u can afford to buy some bombers as german too, if u do not press too hard to russia in the beginning. U still can press a lot, but russia can stay in the game for some turns without being a serious thread. Germany will always be able to secure the frontline. Bombers to attack UK for economy proved a great advantage. It brings the UK in a more defensive position. Japan can still attack China/eastern russia and make island-hopps in the pacifik (depends a bit on american strategy). So in general u can just “bleed out” russia. Africa i just land some german troops (if u can land 1-2 fighters, that makes it really hard for the UK). Just enough to be secure. I always let italy ignore africa, stocking italy with ground units to be able to invade africa, but using them mostly to counter-attack invasion of france directly. "After 1-2 rounds italy is strong enough to counter an allied attack on france, freeing the german troops to march east (depending how well it worked out for Japan it is often not even necessary to push with full force, freeing more german troops for africa). Axis win easy 80-90% of the time this way. Only working strategy against seems to go full pacifik with US, leaving UK in a really weak position (often pressed by Japan in asia, just able to hold india and perhaps parts of africa). The key seems (in my opinion) using the underestimated italian forces to secure the western part of europe and wait for the germans to sweep africa. I tried to stop that as ally-side once with a massive invasion of US/UK troops in africa instead of france. This meant, Japan grew strong really fast in the pacific. In this game the position of germany grew weak, but Japan was so strong it seemed unstoppable.
To mark the point: Playing out of the box favors Axis totally, leaving them all opportunities. The allies mostly only can react to that, not really able to turn the game until they get a really good dice roll or two. Tech seems a good way to counter that but germany can afford tech too early in the game if it does not sacrifice too much troops in the beginning (easily makeable by not pressing to russia with full force).

Old topic, i know…just wanted to state my experiences here. In general, playing with NOs and out of the box, the axis seems far more favored than the allies. I modified some tactics, coordinating the axis-moves more than usual. First u can afford to buy some bombers as german too, if u do not press too hard to russia in the beginning. U still can press a lot, but russia can stay in the game for some turns without being a serious thread. Germany will always be able to secure the frontline. Bombers to attack UK for economy proved a great advantage. It brings the UK in a more defensive position. Japan can still attack China/eastern russia and make island-hopps in the pacifik (depends a bit on american strategy). So in general u can just “bleed out” russia. Africa i just land some german troops (if u can land 1-2 fighters, that makes it really hard for the UK). Just enough to be secure. I always let italy ignore africa, stocking italy with ground units to be able to invade africa, but using them mostly to counter-attack invasion of france directly. "After 1-2 rounds italy is strong enough to counter an allied attack on france, freeing the german troops to march east (depending how well it worked out for Japan it is often not even necessary to push with full force, freeing more german troops for africa). Axis win easy 80-90% of the time this way. Only working strategy against seems to go full pacifik with US, leaving UK in a really weak position (often pressed by Japan in asia, just able to hold india and perhaps parts of africa). The key seems (in my opinion) using the underestimated italian forces to secure the western part of europe and wait for the germans to sweep africa. I tried to stop that as ally-side once with a massive invasion of US/UK troops in africa instead of france. This meant, Japan grew strong really fast in the pacific. In this game the position of germany grew weak, but Japan was so strong it seemed unstoppable.
To mark the point: Playing out of the box favors Axis totally, leaving them all opportunities. The allies mostly only can react to that, not really able to turn the game until they get a really good dice roll or two. Tech seems a good way to counter that but germany can afford tech too early in the game if it does not sacrifice too much troops in the beginning (easily makeable by not pressing to russia with full force).

Ups, my fault. Gibraltar is not considered a canal, so in theory u can pass with transport, but only to be stopped by the destroyer as mentioned earlier in this topic.
BTW: We play Gibraltar-Morocco as canal as a house-rule, perhaps that explains my post above.

Perhaps it is not the case in all versions, but at least in my version it is not even possible to move the transport from the south of france into the atlantic, cause you first have to free Gibraltar, which is under british control. It is not possible to do that without this transport, cause Spain is neutral and so the only way to get a unit to Gibraltar is an attack from sea.

@DouchemanMacgee I know it is a quite old post, but here my experience:
I tried it out yesterday, playing germany real defensive. Just attacked the eastern front to alert the soviets a bit and landed some ground troops in Africa to support the italians a bit (playing the latest anniversary edition). I was also lucky in first round, opening the sea at Gibraltar. Really lucky dice rolling…germany did not loose even 1 unit in the whole round. Japan followed your advice, pushing to asia. After building a fleet the americans chose to attack, but the fleet was totally slaughtered by the Japanese player, leaving him with 3 Air carriers in advance of the americans After that it was a homerun, germany able to build up a good airpowe and a small fleet, capable of holding back the british attack.
Sure, lucky rolling for the axis, especially in turn 1, but playing germany defensively in the beginning seems a good advice to hold out longer. Good advice!

It is really unlikely that you take the british isle like that. As noted above even if you would succeed the allies would easily be able to conquer the territory back. This would leave the germans in a very weak position. To avoid getting pressed between russian and english/american forces you would have to rely heavily on Japan throwing forces to russia. This would leave the americans unchallenged…i think it comes close to suicide…