Vichy is a must in my opinion, even if you get the worse case situation and get nothing. Southern France being Vichy blocks Italy from being conquered through France. This is a good reason why you may not want to take Switzerland as the Axis.
i like the convoy zone optional rule, however i believe there should be a qualification that the axis still only gain the income on an actual roll of a 1. this would represent the fact that subs can’t steal cargo, their sole goal was to destroy merchant ships not seize them.
Japan can build an IC on any of its original territories. Since Japan begins the game possessing much of North East China, it may build minor ICs on those territories which have a value of 2.