I have been a long time player of the oob setup in 1940, which is alright except for that when two equal players are pitted against each other the axis will lose 90% of the time. So I began to play with the alpha +.2 setup and here are some things that I believe must be done as the axis to ensure victory.
Germany-
As germany you need to grab the balkans (bulgaria, yugo) along with Southern France and Paris the first turn. Most importantly though, you MUST completely annihalate the British Isles Fleet (also the gibraltar cruiser). If the British fleet is allowed to survive, even a small portion of it, then the british player has some breathing room and can rebuild. Use all available aircraft and ships to destroy them no matter what the cost, perhaps send a couple of aircraft to Paris but I dont think this is neccesary if you ignore Normandy (which I highly suggest), you may even be able to spare a few planes to knock out the french ships in the med. But above all else germany needs to destroy Britain’s ability to wage war starting with its navy. Turn 1 and 2 builds should be mainly transports and ships to defend your invasion fleet. If nothing else this keeps the British from building a fleet or building in Africa, which is extremely important. Put alot of your tanks and infantry on the russian front but DO NOT attack until the fourth or fifth turn, Russia can be dealt with once Britain is hopelessly crippled.
Japan-
As Japan you want to do 4 things
1. Kill India
2. keep America/Anzac at bay
3. Harass Russia
4. Move fast
To do these things you must send a sizable fleet to india and either take it directly or seize so much of its islands and land that India is useless. Then convoy whats left. To keep America at bay you need to keep a sizable fleet back at Japan/Caroline islands probably half your fleet at India Half in Japan. Also you should be building ships ever turn adn do not attack Uk/Anzac/america until the 3rd or 4th turn. Japan should leave the far east Russian Posessions alone, in fact leave very minimal forces in Korea/Manchuria to try and bait him into attacking you first. If Russia does not do this, you must race through Northern China as fast as you can and hit russia with as much as you can while also keeping pressure on INdia with ground forces. Probably build at least one minor complex in china to help speed up the process.
Italy-
Little Italy…So much to do…Italy’s prime objectives should be to
1. Seize Egypt
2. Harass Southern Russia via Caucases/Persia
3. Keep allied ships out of the Med.
To do this Italy must be constanly bulding ships and Germany has to fulfill its obligations, otherwise the brits will drop a complex in Egypt and when this happens Egypt it VERY tough to kill. Usually the Italian fleet is battered pretty bad the first turn. So it will be tricky to predict what the buys should be so play it by ear. Gibraltar is nice to have but egypt first, and try to take Greece as fast as possible. Italy needs national objectives to get any amount of income to start rebuilding her fleet. Mare Nostrum!