the full germany push to russia is generally the way to go.
I just am skeptical of japan doing early russia play, because the income japan gets out of it is small and he gives up much in his setup. Makes dealing with china / uk pac / anzac / usa really hard especially at a low income.
I am a full believer in a strong japan going for his objectives. It makes allies commit more and makes allies have less income as a whole
We haven’t really run into the problem of Russia attacking Japan Turn 1, mostly because of what Japan starts with in Korea and Manchuria would obliterate the Inf they could use.
Japan usually attacks Russia on their first turn (at least in the group I play with), so it’s almost always Russia getting the fuzzy end of the lollypop.
In my preparation I always loved having the old setup maps (made by Krieg I believe). As there hasn’t been one availabble for any of the versions after AA50, I decided to make one myself. It has been monkswork (as we say in Holland :lol:). And having one, I asked myself: “Why not sharing it with all of you?”