Switch and I are very alike when it comes to tactics. :P All I have to do is convert him for politics and he’ll be a better man! :)
Anyway, AA Guns are not scary anymore. If you put an AA in Ukraine, I’ll probably still attack it because the odds of success are not drastically different. You have less then a 3% chance to shoot down both Russian planes and only a 17% chance to get one of them. Meanwhile, I have good odds of taking Ukraine and getting an AA Gun to shoot at your planes, which means, you’ll have to use tanks or divert an extra plane from somewhere else.
First few rounds, Germany cannot afford a mistake or bad dice. Well, no one can in the first three rounds, but especially Germany and Japan. IMHO, 90% or more of the games are decided by the dice in the first three rounds of play.