I always thought Milton Bradley had favored the Allies ability to win in the game by orders of our Gov’t. To keep moral high and its good propaganda. This is the only way to explain the Allies adantage. Then when the broken move came in –> the UK AC and USA fighters Round 1. It almost always ends in Allies victory. The Axis has to really roll out the dice to win.
That being said–Yakut is the key to the game. I heard an old gamer say that once and I laughed, until I played the game for what seems like a 100 hour weekend. Japan has got to go through here with the much discussed strategy of “baby steps to Moscow”. Be patient-move men to Manchuria and then the IC in round 3 or 4. Theres nothing worse then having your early tanks in either Kaz, Novo, or Evenk destroyed and have to crawl back again. This is why the posts all point to Jap men. The hidden ideal --> to hold every Jap fighter as flying tanks until they are needed to defend Germany.
Side Bar: Xeno world at war was strictly created to have gamers argue the rules until the wee hours in the morning only to look back and say they forgot to do one thing that puts the game totally in question and thus not official. People who make it through the Vichy rolls are serious gamers but the simple A@A is the best game still.