Bidding is a good way of choosing teams and compensating for the expectations of the players, since they may see one team as biased or not.
However, the game is pretty balanced in general play, with regular experience levels. If you have any new players or even new-ish, its probably better to play without the bid because it changes what openers work well and which ones don’t. Plus, many people dislike or don’t understand the bidding process, its better just to play on and let them develop their perceptions based on the group you play with.
On the other hand, if you are playing against pretty veteran players, a 3 team crush on Russia and/or deployment of waves and waves of Axis bombers can defeat the USSR, largely before the other Allies can bring any game-changing power to bear, so typical bids there range from 12-18. A sub for the UK with med fleet is popular, since it lets you turn Taranto Raid into more of a blowout and they probably wont scramble if you bring it all. Buying a few infantry here or there doesn’t tend to be game changing, so until you get those bids up to 16+, you may not see much compensatory effect, which can also be based on gameplay; if Germany and Russia play optimally; its a pretty hard-fought toss up to conquer Moscow by turn 7-8. If they don’t, then the bid isn’t really necessary in the first place.
And in league play, our contributor AB Harris says that the Axis still wins over half their games even with a considerable allied bid (12-30), however you have to remember that AAA has unlimited play time and people tend to have a much more plodding, conservative gameplay style because they can play for as long as they like, whereas in live play, you’re getting 8-12 turns in max, and something or someone has to give, stalemated games in either setting can grind on for many, many turns and will likely only end by concession or total defeat…