The main difference between v5 and Revised is the amount of time it takes for Allies to do anything meaningful. With UK you’re looking at either fighters or tanks for a while. Basically it takes three rounds minimum before you can move out safely.
Often times I like to buy 3 tanks in India with UK and save 13 ipcs for the second round. This gives you a chance to see what Japan does and where Germany puts their air. In old boards G based air out of France, but in v5 NW Europe or Skandinavia is better, because it allows you to cover sz7 with fighters. If G buys a bomber in the first round, there is basically no way good way to build naval out of UK in the first two rounds (even if your Canadian destroyer survives and you manage to sweep all the uboats.) So I usually plan for a third round entry into the game for the Royal NavyAtlantic. This gives you just enough time to be in sz 13 with your Australian carrier deck. Unlike Classic or Revised, where you could shuck into UK or Africa from Eastern Canada v5 really requires 2 fleets to properly manage an Atlantic crossing, one in sz 13 and one to go somewhere else.
In Classic positioning an Allied fleet by Brazil was fairly pointless and pretty much a losing proposition over the North. In v5 Brazil staging or launching to sz23 is a somewhat stronger play, but it still requires a build up, because G has a lot of air to set up their defense coverage vs fleets.
India is very hard to hold when Japan is Burma pushing, but if you can get 3 tanks out of it to support Caucasus in the first round I find this gives UK some teeth early on. The alternative of buying armor out of UK just isn’t as effective as in Revised. It takes twice as long as earlier boards, and there aren’t all that many places for the tanks to go. Africa takes a round longer to push across (even with the blitz) and Karelia and the North is much easier for Germany to cover with air (since there are no shucks up into Archangel and the transports provide no fodder cover when parked up there.) By contrast, India with the starting factory will let you get 3 into Russia quick style, and maybe more if the Japanese player is being cautious and conservative with their air. I posted a game last night showing how you can use India tanks for a KGF set up in the AI dev thread. Trying to use them against Japan is inviting disaster. Better to use them against G. The only question is how long to hold India before bailing. A human will force you out faster than the AI. Basically 3 tanks is all you really count on, anything beyond that is dependent on Japan’s moves.
USA is slow on the uptake, in Classic and Revised you could set up for a round2 move out. In v5 if you move out in the second round, you usually just get stalled. Round 3 is much safer since this will let you get the Battleship ready to launch, and you can have your pacific Carrier by Brazil with UK ships to support it.
The main reason your friends are probably frustrated is the Russian set up. There just really aren’t many safe ways to destroyer German units on attack without totally screwing your second round position. And we’ve all seen how easy it can be to dud out with a Russian Yak or miss a critical deuce with a Russian artillery piece. I would urge caution in the first round and sending them immediate support from all quarters. You’ve got 4 UK fighters and 1 US fighter that can back up the Russian position, provided you protect Szech, and Stalin needs basically all of them to hold against the initital German advance.
I’m a big fan of the six unit buys with Russia
4 inf 2 tanks or 6 artillery. The former if you want to try to hit Ukraine, the latter if you don’t. The second round I generally do the same, and purchase strong attack/counter-attack capable units. All infantry is kind of a worthless buy in the first two rounds, it just gives Axis a green light to move forward and stack since they know you can’t threaten them with anything.
Here’s a good example, say you have 26 ipcs as Russia, which is fairly standard in early rounds. How would you spend it?
Would you buy 6 Infantry and 2 artillery?
or 2 infantry and 5 artillery?
Your instinct from classic will tell you to spam infantry, but the latter buy is actually much better in v5. Basically you are sacrificing a single hit point on defense fodder, to effectively double your counter attack potential.
After the first 2 rounds, UK should have provided some cover to make up the difference, and that’s when you start spamming infantry, which is now more effective since they’re activated by extra artillery you invested in early on. You can make the same argument with tanks. Sacrificing a hitpoint to get the extra reach out of Moscow on counter attack. in either case, at least Stalin will be able to fight if you invest in more artillery or armor. The Alternative is just defensive Soviet infantry turtle, and since UK USA take so much longer to move out, Russia will usually just get slammed before the Western Allies can prop them up, and then Russia won’t have enough offensive units to trade territory anymore.