We just played a fun game but it was over before it even began basically.
Germany sent everything they could after UK navy 1st turn. They killed 3 UK ships total and damaged 3 capital ships. Germany lost over 1/2 their navy and 1/3 of their planes. Bad rolls can screw Germany.
I’ve never seen this happen and it will never happen again but Germany inherited the entire Dutch navy, otherwise the Axis would have quit.
Italy lost their entire navy on turn 2 but that was their fault for landing in Africa too early and the UK dumped everything into Egypt that could get there the 1st turn.
Japan was let go as usual. They can become a borderline juggernaut with 110 IPC a turn but it’s not enough to get Sydney and Calcutta. The UK builds in the Commonwealths and it bails the Pacific out of trouble. Even South Africa can bail out India. As soon as the Allies see that Japan is too big it’s easy for the Allies to put Europe to the side and dump everything into the Pacific.
Germany is fun against Russia for the first 2 turns but then they get stopped. Nearly every time.
The strategy is the same for every game it seems (more or less). 80% against Germany for the first 6 or 7 turns. Russia dumps everything in the north for the first 4 turns against Finland. Finland fights for it’s life and sometimes falls (unless Germany builds transports). US does maximum lend lease to Allies every turn to whoever is in the war. Allies build fortifications on cities.
The wild card is US getting lend lease captured and when is the US and Russia going to get into the war. I think its the most exciting part of the game. If the rolls stay low it’s definitely to the Axis favor. However, if the Axis don’t get lucky rolls concerning those 2 things or if they get bad rolls the first 2 turns - it’s pretty much game over for the Axis now.
7.1 is pretty lopsided. 6.1 was better because at least the game was more even.
The most experienced player needs to play the axis for sure.