In my last game I was able to take moscow on R5 from a G1 DOW. They didn’t have much left, maybe 6 Inf and 3 Art in the South when I was able to can open the lone Inf blocking a stack of 12 Armor and 10 Mech 3 spaces from Moscow. They blitzed through the opening and parked right next to Moscow with only a few Inf and 2 Ftrs there which they reinforced with 7 Inf and 3 Armor.
Ends up I took Moscow with 4 Armor or so remaining, but the Russians were able to liberate it on their turn. Granted Germany had 90+ IPC to spend on the next round, but without any control of a Minor near Moscow to keep the pressure on, Germany was in a bad spot and it felt like the game started over except now the US had the TT rotation landing in Africa, then S.France, and eventually Rome. I felt it was worth the gambit, but the lesson learned is the blitz is only effective if you can keep the pressure on after obtaining the short lived victory.
All in all G1 worked well, but the gambit to take Moscow quickly only resulted in losing my momentum and turning defensive in Europe without maintaining control of the Reds.
On the other side of the board J1 DOW, took FIC and built a minor down in the south. Cleared out the US fleet in Hawaii and even cleared the US homeland fleet later on. China put up a stellar fight as I focused on taking Flip and allowing China a turn to control Burma with the assumption that I’d be able to keep the pressure on with Mechs and my AF until they folded. Eventually they had, but I had to give up the Minor I built on J1 and replace it with one in FIC on J2. Japan actually took Hawaii because the US spent 99% of their money in the Atlantic and I was only one VC away from victory there but could never garner the momentum to get into India even though they were perpetually collecting 12-14 IPC / round compared to Japan’s 45-52. I spent a lot of my Navy and Air Force keeping the US away from any real threat as I tried to keep hold of the DEI, which I was able to hold all but Java and never got that NO. In hindsight I don’t know if taking Hawaii was a better move which kept the US away or if using those units to get Java would have been more beneficial.
Note I told my opponent the general plan a few days in advance so there was no element of surprise - I didn’t want a cheap-o victory if I could secure it. Note we also played from around 10 AM, with a break for lunch until shortly after 8 PM. Even with a G1/J1 DOW the game still lasted many hours.
I look forward to refining the strategy more but I’d say theres more entertainment in the G1/J1 than any other form.