You may be hearing bitter but itsdefeated (as allies). You have done a great job of helping me look at the Allies with some new plans and approaches, and there are several ways that they can win. However, they’ll need 1) the bid 2) some luck 3) very directed and purposeful play in order to even get past turn 4.
We’ve tried everything in Black Elk’s book, and all the suggestions that you guys laid out in the past posts we discussed. The take away is that the Allies can indeed win (with a rational bid not a crazy one) but it takes skill luck and optimal play.
I do play many games, I don’t necessarily think that this one is so wildly imbalanced that it isn’t fun. I play it 2-3 times a week. I’m playing it in tournaments, so crazy bids, house rules, different versions are all out.
I’ve come around the bend again in March thinking that there was some hope that the Allies could prevail, but before I wrote that last post I got shredded again :-(
All im expressing is that any competent Axis player can destroy Moscow with focus, and while there is a possibility of the Allies stopping this, Russia is stripped. We’ve tried every bid and opener to stop this from happening, and it remains possible that Moscow could survive to turn 5 and beyond, its not happened since we began playing this version (though sometimes that’s because the axis gets punched out and gives up before turn 4, that might be one game in four that axis falls apart)
And I also agree that strat bombing isn’t viable as a full game strategy here, partly because of the factors you mention but also because the maximum damage that you can do is limited (eg 16 against Japan when they have 40+$)