Russia - no matter what the end is the same?

I think the USA non-combat turn zero pretty much balances the game 50/50! If you want, you can give the Axis a bid of 3 to 6 IPCs, but I doubt it’s necessary.

I don’t think Russia gets erased by Germany. Russia actually starts with a healthy number of troops even out of the box, and because Russia goes before Germany, Russia has a chance to shape the European map in its favor. With an USA turn zero, the Allied Atlantic fleets will survive, which means much earlier Allied pressure on Norway/France/Morocco, which really limits Germany’s ability to secure a permanent economic advantage against Russia. In other words, in my opinion, the problem with the OOB 1942.2 setup isn’t that Russia is too weak – it’s that the US & UK are too weak. Giving the USA a zero turn helps protect both US & UK assets, which fixes this problem.

Related to #2, if you haven’t already read Black_Elk’s sticky thread on Russian Openings, you really need to. It will totally change the way you see the 1942.2 board.
https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=35487.0

It is always good to start by playing triple A, USA8, as a way of learning the basics. That is how many of us started out.

Of course you can now play other members of the forum using triple A. If you ever want to do that and need any pointers at what to do then just ask.

It may be hard to find an opponent who wants to play 1941 however.

I thought about trying a Vichy French and Italian Civil War situation, very unlikely of happening but plausible. Vichy France is easy, if Germany takes Southern France, all Vichy French comes into power. Southern France becomes the new capital, all original French territories join Vichy France, if French Indo China is under Japanese control by this time, Vichy France does not take control. All units on French territory join Vichy, all French naval units in the Med join Vichy France. Vichy France join the axis but becomes neutral.

Italian Civil War, if southern Italy is taking control by the allied powers, all Italian forces outside of Europe or Russian including navy join the allies controlled by the British, Italy must surrender all battleships and carriers to the allies. Italian forces in the North, Europe, and Russia remain part of the Italian Axis forces.

Adding a bomber or fighter IMHO would be a great thing to add variety to Russia strategy and increasing its attack power in a long term.

National Objectives

Germany NO
+5 IPC’s not at war with spain 5

+5 IPC’s atleast 1 german land unit is in egypt

+5 IPC’s germany controls Denmark Zweden norway and finland

+2 IPC’s germany controls Iraq

+2 IPC’s germany controls Persia

+2 IPC’s germany controls North west persia

+5 No allied warships in the Mediterranean sea

+5 if the Axis control at least 3 (Gibraltar,S-france,Greece,Egypt

Russia
+9 IPC’s if russia controls Novosibrisk and is no longer neutral

+5 IPC’s SZ125 is free of allied warships and they control archangel

+3 for every caputered territory ,Turkey,West India,Egypt, saudi arabia

US
when at war
+25 IPC’s if your control all of its orignal territories

UK
+5 IPC’s if your control all of its orignal territories

Italy

Spain
+?

The “Propaganda value and spread of communism” NO from the rulebook says:
3 IPCs for each original German, Italian, or pro-Axis neutral territory that the Soviet Union controls.

Replace that with this:

Red Spread
3 IPCs for each originally German or pro-Axis neutral territory that the Soviet Union Controls, and for each of the following when at war on the Europe map: Novgorod, Volgograd, Moscow.

I bumped this up because there is a similar thread to compare with.

@gredert:

One of the realism rules I want involved in some home brew rules Im working on is to have russia place 1 infantry in each of their northern territories leading to moscow the turn Japan invades, to represent the partisans rising up to pick away at the invaders, slowing down the final attack on moscow.

Can’t we all just play the game and not make things up as we go?