Well, the German invasion Barbarossa was halted again before Moscow, with a powerful red army counterattack destroying the main German stack. Italy never really got going and its attempt to defeat Egypt failed spectacularly, and for Japan the dice just got worse and worse. Japan suffered disproportionate land unit casualties in China and south east Asia, and when the Americans got going the Japanese fleet couldn’t hold. Allies win the war.
I think key to this game is that Japan has to break through against UK and China before the USA gets going. They need to be up to 60-65 IPC minimum. Also, a G2 against Russia didn’t work in my game, the offensive peters out, and you need a massive stack of infantry to shield a stack of tanks. A factory in Romania and the capture of Leningrad are advised to make it a two pronged attack. Plus a few Italian tanks and mech inf can really make a difference there, I feel. Italy needs to defeat Egypt quickly, and I feel that even without its western Italian fleet it could be done, in my game it was attempted but failed because of atrocious dice.
The axis were not friends of the dice in my game, pretty much every key battle the dice were lopsided against the axis.
And the axis need to expand quickly, the game starts with 66 IPC for axis (base territories, without bonuses) and 175 for the allies. Build up too slow and the allies will pile up the plastic.
