As I said above, here’s my (current) debate on whether to choose Leningrad or Stalingrad as the USSR’s second victory city:
Karelia has an industrial complex, but can be attacked by a maximum of 9 inf, 7 tanks, 5 ftrs, 1 bmr, and a transport from Germany or Western Europe on Germany’s first turn alone (although whether that would be a GOOD idea is a totally different story). However, Caucasus doesn’t have an industrial complex, but can be attacked by “only” 3 inf, 3 tanks, 1 bmr, 3 ftrs (5 if the German player decides to risk AA fire), plus a battleship and a transport from either Southern Europe, Eastern Europe or Libya.
If Stalingrad is chosen as the victory city, the Soviet player has to split his forces, dividing his attention between the industrial complex in Karelia and the victory city in Caucasus. But losing Karelia is bad enough as it is - perhaps it’s too much of a blow to lose a victory city with it?
Also, having an industrial complex in the same territory as a victory city means you don’t have to take a turn to shuffle infantry to the victory city. But maybe that’s not a problem anyway, since you could clear out Karelia every turn and just fill it up again when you place your units.
Stalingrad as the victory city would prevent the German player from focusing his forces on Karelia, so maybe dividing up Soviet forces wouldn’t be so bad.
Not to mention that Stalingrad has GREAT historical implications - but that REALLY doesn’t matter ;). All that means is if there’s ABSOLUTELY no difference between using Stalingrad and Leningrad, I’d choose Stalingrad - but it’s much more important to pick the better one.
Finally, choosing Stalingrad as the victory city may deter the Soviets from attacking as much, since there would be two very important territories to watch out for. But I don’t really know … obviously if the game is Russia Restricted anyway, that wouldn’t make a difference (on the first turn at least), but if not it may help the Axis if Russia is more scared of attacking.
So that’s what I’ve come up with on my own. I don’t know which arguments win out. And, if you can come up with any more arguments, please do. Thanks again, in advance :)