@cheezhead1252 I enjoy playing with NOs, so I very rarely play without them, but I really don’t think they make much difference to who has the advantage – on a typical turn both players will earn about the same amount of money from NOs.
For example, on turn 3, you might get something like this:
Germany – $5 from original W. Europe territories, $5 from Leningrad
Italy – $5 from clearing the Med
Japan – $5 for Chinese seaboard, $5 for money islands
USA – $5 for heartland US territories, $5 from central Pacific islands
UK – $5 for an original Japanese territory (US can grab Carolines to help the UK out)
Russia – $5 for Archangel / xenophobia
So on average we’re talking about a $5 difference; it’s not game-changing. And on turns 1 and 2, sometimes the Allies will get more NO money than the Axis, because Leningrad is still holding, the UK might earn its $5 for Gibraltar/Egypt/South Africa, the UK might be able to trade France, and so on.
That said, the solid and reliable Axis strategy for out-of-the-box 1941 Anniversary on turn 1 with no bid is for the Germans to sink 2 out of the 3 British fleets and take Baltic States, Belorussia, and Ukraine, paying careful attention to where you send the tanks so that the tanks aren’t lost as casualties or in a counter attack. The Germans build a carrier for the Baltic Sea and land both fighters on it; this defends it very well against early British airpower and puts enormous pressure on Leningrad, because next turn it can be hit with ~3 inf/art from Baltics, ~6 tanks from eastern europe, ~2 more land units from Berlin via the Baltic transport, a cruiser bombard, and the entire German airforce. The Russians usually have to pull out of Leningrad on their first turn or lose it; once you start trading Leningrad, you rapidly get to the point where the Russians can’t afford to keep attacking it. Other than the carrier, Germany mostly buys infantry; the infantry march into Leningrad and sit there. Once the Leningrad factory is operational, you no longer need the carrier to survive; if the British want to trade their air force for it, great, that’s that much more money they’re not earning by trading France. With Leningrad in German hands, you can trade Scandinavia, France, and eastern Europe for the rest of the game and play defense.
Meanwhile, Japan takes over the world based on an extremely aggressive first turn. Japan can and should sink the Indian British fleet while also doing Pearl Harbor, taking two money islands, and seizing the entire Chinese seaboard. Sink the US Philippine fleet, but save the actual conquest of the Philippines for J2, especially with no national objectives. Land at least one transport in Burma to put immediate pressure on India. Like Leningrad, Britain will have to evacuate India on its very first turn or lose it. Once the Japanese are in India, they can build a factory there, which puts enormous pressure on the Caucasus and the 2-IPC russian territories in central Asia. Don’t build a Manchurian factory; it’s a waste of space because you have troops sitting in Japan that are waiting for sealift, and you can’t afford to build 11 units a turn anyway until after you’ve conquered most of Asia. Instead, build mostly transports, with maybe one destroyer if you need it to cope with Allied subs and a few infantry to make sure the transports stay full.
It is unbelievable how quickly and reliably Japan can expand in this game with no bid. You should be in both India and Australia by turn 3, and in Egypt / Caucasus / Hawaii by turn 5. Germany can afford to play defense because Japan will win; there’s nothing the US can do about it because the entire US economy is smaller than Japan’s starting on turn 2, the Allied Pacific fleets get crushed on J1 before they can move, Japan starts with a huge advantage in air/sea power, and the US is too far away from Japan’s most valuable territories anyway, so by the time they can rebuild a fleet worth moving west, Japan is outproducing the US by 50 or 60%.
