Oh, you are the Allies. And here I was telling you how to beat yourself, hee hee hee. Sorry about that. I usually tend to play the Axis so in most cases I tend to look at the game with an “Axis” state of mind.
As Russia, you should definitely grab Norway. With the large US fleet there and London getting liberated, it’s very doubtful Germany will be putting any more boats in the water, particularly defenseless transports, so once Russia grabs Norway, it’s pretty much permanently Russian. After that you can retreat any units back through Leningrad for the final push on Berlin. Yeah, it will take a while for them to get there, but they might be of some help if Germany puts up a stubborn defense.
As for the Eastern Front, it sounds like Russia has a pretty good force along there so I would bide my time a little. Germany has the British treasury to spend now but they are going to start losing money pretty soon (England, Norway plus the NO for Sweeden once Norway falls). You already have Romania so that’s an extra 6 points to you per round and minus 3 for Germany. Once the US retakes London, and assuming Germany recalls the Luftwaffe it should be fairly easy leaving the US a fair amount left, I would think the US would want to start hitting Germany in Normandy, Holland and/or Denmark, depending on how strong the German defenses are. Plus I think you said Japan did NOT invade Russia in the east so Russia is not losing any of her IPCs.
Do you plan to liberate Paris if US troops successfully land in Normandy or Holland? When I have played the US, I usually will leave Paris sit so I can use those factories for a while. At least until I have an Axis factory to use, like W Germany or N Italy.
A little trick I have learned when playing Germany is to leave Paris almost undefended, maybe 1 or 2 guys there, but stack up W Germany and Berlin with a strong force. As Germany, I WANT the Allies to liberate Paris.
1 > All French territories that were captured by Axis then recaptured by Allies immediately revert to French control. So that means that the other Allies incomes might go down a little bit which might help.
2 > On France’s next turn, they get to collect money, possibly as much as 19 IPCs depending on the status of places like Syria and French Indo China. At the very least, they will get 15-16 IPCs. Even with the 12 IPCs of new French units, whatever US units survived the liberation and possible UK units sent in to back them up, I will usually have a strong enough force in W Germany and Berlin to take it back, thus gaining some extra cash and destroying a significant amount of Allied units, especially if UK landed planes there as a backup. It’s usually harder for the UK to replace planes than it is for Germany and while it’s easy enough for the US to replace planes, it will take them a while to get over from the US. If necessary, I will order Italy to throw anything it has that can reach Paris in a suicide attack to soften the Allies up a little for the German attack.
3 > If the Allies DO NOT liberate Paris but instead keep using the French factories in Normandy and/or Southern France, then they also have to take Holland and/or N Italy and work them selves around those territories to get at W Germany. We could exchange Holland and N Italy several times before they actually threaten W Germany. Meanwhile, I still get the 4 IPCs for Paris with very little invested there.
It’s not a perfect plan, no plan is totally perfect, but it could create just enough of a delay on the Western Allies for Germany to take Moscow in the east. However in your situation, since Germany is no where near Moscow and the Russians are within sight of the Reichstag, perhaps a liberated Paris might be a good thing. As the USA, I would still prefer to have a European factory so all of my men and equipment doesn’t have to keep being ferried across the Atlantic. Also, if Germany does like I do and has a strong force in W Germany, you don’t want to liberate Paris just yet and give the Germans that extra cash. Then again, if Germany expends troops and material to retaking Paris, that is less defense against the Russians. Yeah, communism may be spread further, but the ultimate defeat of the Nazis is the prime goal now.