@DarthMaximus:
Infact, I believe in first edition rules there was no cap on new IC prodution and this was a common strat. UK would just buy and IC and it would be game over.
Yep. I played against an opponent MANY years ago (1988) who built a “Persian Tank Factory” every time he played the Allies. UK simply dropped a factory in Persia, and started building unlimitted tanks heading against the German eastern front. It was a 1-2 punch that Germany could not counter. Same player also built a US factory in Sinkiang to build US tanks to kick Japan off the continent.
Putting “unlimitted” IC’s where land forces from US and UK can confront the Axis simply skews the game so far out of whack as to be unplayable by the Axis. Japan can build a “Manchurian Tank Factory” with unlimitted production to go after Russia, but with the US having a third more IPC’s, Japan always lost that head-to-head between Sinkiang/Manchuria. And Germany building an IC in Africa was also pointless with the UK forces streaming into Africa from Persia.
Only saving grace for the axis was a quick strike and win in Karelia, and an unlimitted build of INF to support your attack on Russia. Of course, a Russian invasion/seizure of Eastern slowed this down by a move, allowing the Persian and Sinkiang factories to come online before Germany could take Russia. So the game always came down to that first battle: If Russia failed to take Eastern on round 1 (not common), then the allies lost; if Russia won in Eastern, the allies won.