Bump.
I just finished my first game for a good month or so, though I’ve been playing it every weekend with my brother for 4-5 hours. I, as the Axis, won after a good 20 hours of play. We aren’t exactly great at Axis and Allies, which might explain the Axis victory, but both of us made pretty big mistakes. The first few turns were filled with a failed Sea Lion, an explosively powerful Italy (my brother pulled his navy back to defend England, rather than taking Italy’s navy out) and an average Japan. It was a G2 attack on Russia and a J3 attack on the Allies. Germany was worst off through the early game, only taking the border territories of Russia, but when Italy put pressure on Stalingrad and Japan marched through Siberia, the tide turned. I put a lot of money into Japan’s navy after taking India mid-game, and not quite enough into the mainland.
As a consequence, China rose up from near destruction, and managed in a few turns to take Shanghai. It was right around there that Russia fell to Germany, and that Gibraltar was retaken by the Allies, never to be taken back. Italy had built a tank force in Stalingrad earlier, and was pushing eastwards into China, while Germany built sub after sub to sink the American/British navy at Gibraltar without having to fear the British air force. America was pushing through North Africa, and was close to taking Cairo when Honolulu fell. Only one more VC was needed, and all the while Italian VCs Rome and Cairo were threatened by an intimidating American force. Despite this, Italy was the one to take the last VC, by pushing through China with tanks and taking Shanghai.
Italy won the game by taking Shanghai. Awesome.