Also about the navy, I think I was being too cautious but let me give you more details. Germany has 3 bombers by G3 and 3 ro 4 fighters stationed in Karelia. At that point, if I take Norway, I need enough navy to defend against that airforce which can attack at 21 to 24. Do you think just defending at around a 21 with about 7 pieces is enough to deter attack by Germany? He would have 60 to 70% odds but would be left with 2 bombers usually. And maybe it’s a good thing if Germany loses most of it’s airforce taking out that fleet since I can replace the navy (UK/US combined) faster than Germany can replace the airforce? Or is it smarter to bring more US navy and make sure the transport chain is secure?
Against that kind of airforce (3 ftrs + 4 bmrs) then you definitely need more ships than the ones I mentioned, since the most important is to protect. Be glad your dad hasn’t discovered yet the wonders of bringing the entire Japanese airforce to Europe, since he seems to like a large Luftwaffe (I do as well ;) )
Lastly, about holding off Japan with Russia. Japan was very well played. They took a slow road to Moscow with 3inf, 3art landing in Buryatia every turn and heading on the northern route to Russia while 3 tanks per turn produced in FIC stationed themselves in India for a few turns along with a few inf, art thrown in. Sinkiang was held with 4 inf and 3 of the tanks from FIC. From there Japan didn’t advance for a couple of turns while the forces slowly built up and soon an IC in india was producing tanks as well. By the time they were in range of Russia, they were too large for the attack to be worthwhile and they were able to storm into Caucusus and then build mix of inf/art/tanks there. Do you think Russia should extend itself early on to help UK hold India or perhaps stack allied forces in Persia?
Thanks again, I think I have a much better grasp of allied strategy now with these discussions.
Yup you should definitely have pressed Germany harder. But you can also prevent Japan from building those single large unit stacks on Yakut/Sinkiang. The problem with Japan is that the 3 routes (northern, chinese and southern) can’t support one another while advancing and they have long communication lines. Thus if you see Japan starting to advance stacks over the 3 routes you can move an infantry stack to Novosibirsk to create dead zones in Sinkiang/Yakut. You shouldn’t usually actually attack if he only leaves 1 inf on those territories (Russians liberating Sinkiang gets no money to the US since Japan will retake it afterwards) but as long as you keep the larger stacks away you’ll gain more time to finish Germany.
Basically for Russia (and the UK/US) against Japan is let it advance and punch and destroys its units piecemeal without allowing it to concentrate. And if G is not advancing then Japan can suffer some severe punishment from the Allies: US retakes Russian territories taken by Japan. Russia retakes more and/or uses a tank stack to crush Japanese reinforcements behind the original frontline. UK reinforces the position taken from Japan with more tanks and fighters. It isn’t easy to pull it off but it can be done.