Sorry to answer such a naive question. I’m new to A&A.
What does “bidding” mean in the context of these games ?
An auction-style way to decide wheater you play axis or allies and to level out imbalances of a game. The “bid” is an extra amount of IPC that can sometimes be placed in extra units pre-game (i.e. you add units to the starting setup).
Any number of new Chinese infantry can be placed in any Chinese territory. However, they can’t be placed in territories that already contain three or more Chinese units.
Just to clarify: can you place units in territories that you have conquered this turn?
E.g. China retakes Hupeh with 1 inf. Can you place another two there at the end of your turn (assuming that you have at least 4 chinese territories)?
because Germany may hold Gibraltar until the end of the game.
Sorry, this is complete nonsense. Gibraltar borders sz12 (AZO) in the new map and therefore it is easyly accessible for both UK and USA. You would loose it very quick!
Well, in Revised, the standard victory condition in tournament play became 9 VC out of 12, which is 75%. With the actual 18 VC, 75% would mean 13,5 CV.
It may depend on what you play for. With the standard 15 VC you could ignore the Pacific as allies. But can you really afford to ignore the Pacific, if you play to 13? This “minor victory” basically means 7 VC for Japan in Asia-Pacific, Germany-Italy must hold it starting 4 VC in Central Europe and the axis powers must conquer both Stalingrad and Leningrad. So the axis could win without taking a single capital. Nevertheless, this is quite an impressive goal to hold all continental european VCs besides Moscow if all three allies go for Germany and Italy.
Imho it is more likely that Japan will conquer Caucasus if you ignore them in the Pacific, so the question is wheater the western allies are quicker taking Italy (or even Germany) out of the game than the Japs taking Moscow.
Ignoring Pacfic in a 13 VC game may be the wrong strategy as besically Germany-Italy only have to defend their 4 VC in Central Europe and let Japan do all the rest. And if they take all Pacific and all Asia, they accumulate to about 70 IPC in total (with 15 IPC bonus) and this really is a lot!
Japan
- (Hawaiian Islands+Australia+India) =5 IPCs
I think this one sounds very reasonnable, but is it also true?
As you get a bonus for conquering Baltic, East Poland & Ukraine, it`s obvioius to attack all 3 territories. Karelia certainly is not a good idea as you need the airforce for something else.
The biggest questin is really Egypt. With the bmb, you have a 61,3 % chance of taking it with arm, bmb (74,6 % to win). But in 19,4% you even loose and the UK-fgt survives and you certainly loose the trn. The trn can be whiped out in any case if UK sacrifices the bmb that lands in TRJ.
What you gain by EGY is 2 IPC fot the territory and UK looses a bonus of 5 and the average gain is 4,7 IPC in unit (calculated with Revised price of bmb, so it`s even more).
The opportunity costs are that you miss the bmb in other fights, that you have a 19,4% risk of loosing the trn “cheap” (with UK-fgt) and a certain 100% risk of loosing it anyway if UK desires.
If you do not attack EGY, attacking cru, des at Azores is a must as otherwise your Italian fleet could be attacked by des, cru AZO + fgt EGY + bmb GBR which has a 53% chance of winning and therefore whiping out both the german and italian trn.
*(Hawaiian Islands+Midway+Marshall Islands+Wake Island+Okinawa+Iwo Jima)=5 IPCs
How correct is this one?
Taking into account that bonuses cares a lot in that game I would say that entering the Mediterrannean with the Royal Navy is most necessary as it already prevents an intalian bonus.
Next, invading France will force the Italians to retake it to prevent a US bonus. Additionally, France is the key to the other italian bonus as Gibraltar is out of reach if UK-navy is in WMD (assuming that axis could take both EGY & TRJ) and important part a german bonus. So in no way the axis could afford to loose France!
What does all that have to do with the IC in India?
Well, I think that UK forces are much more needed at another battleground, namely the Med, West Europe and North Africa. Next, the IC in India would be a real target for the Japs. If they concentrate on that, they imho get it very quick. I don`t think you can hold India longer without soviet support.
Actually I assume the game will be split in three conflicts:
And certainly “game” no. 2 (UK vs. Italy) is the one that could be decided first in one way, i.e the fall of Italy.
Yes, the additional territoy should be called Buryatia and the coastline province e.g. “Amur”, “Khabarosk” or “Primorsky”
Some more infos about the national objectives today? Probably the total number of them and the figures for each country?
On a day where the US (markets) create so much turmoil, one should release some good news to satisfy the world 
!