i think a bid around 16ipc balances the game.
the following are units and places i think are good for placing the bid
usa destroyer in sz36. gets usa into the game much quicker. j can not just send a sub to kill the transport anymore, because usa can scramble two air units from hawaii aswell as the newly placed destroyer. j will leave the usa transport alive or have to commit enough to win a battle against 3 units thus resulting in a trading and chipping away of js navy right away.
usa infantry in philippines. just 2 infantry placed in phil will cause j to forego phil saving usa a fig and bomber. if j does attack phil j1 then they have to bring all three loaded transports(and take several land units as casualties), which means j has to use kiangsi units to attack kwangtung reducing the j2 attack on burma road.
chinese artillery and infantry in kweichow. this will help china1 counter attack in yunnan and in hunan. if both battles are won on china1 j will hold the burma road for a whole round can can start producing artillery china2.
chinese infantry in yunnan. if entire bid is used in yunnan to create an infantry stack china can hold the burma road.
uk mechanized infantry in burma. assuming china1 had counter attacked yunnan, uk can send mech inf to hunan and french-indo-china along with 5 air units to kill precious j ground forces.(i think this is the strongest bid)
uk aagun in burma. can move it into yunnan so j has to deal with aagun starting from j2.
uk transport in sz39. can be used to take money islands.
anzac inf in new guinea. take dutch new guinea on anzac1 to get 5ipc national objective bonus.