Thanks for the responses! I’m still not quite convinced…
On spending the 30IPC on ground forces against Russia:
While I agree that ART/MEC/ARM are better ground forces against Russia - I think INF are a better first turn build. ART can be built on G2, arriving in time for Moscow but kept safe from the small attack/counter attack battles that take place in pushing Russia out of Leningrad and Ukraine. ARM and MEC are best built on G2-5, since they can catch up. I digress though: the important aspect here is spending on land forces against Russia vs spending on naval units.
Any inf/art placed down in Berlin will take an additional 5 turns to get to Moscow. That means any G2+ inf/art buys in Berlin will arrive after the Soviet Far East forces could potentially return home. Unless economic parity is attained and maintained, the axis chances of victory will decrease each round they fail to win. IMO, the axis must be in position to win by Rd 8 or very shortly thereafter. While they are cheap, I don’t really think Germany can afford to be buying slow movers to push into Moscow past G1 unless you’re building them in captured factories.
Germany does start with a bunch of infantry, so I’m not sure more infantry are needed. If nothing else, get arty to boost your existing infantry plus all the planned mech builds that will be rolling off the factories G2+.