If Germany holds Egypt with only one or two units I think attacking is easily the best option. Otherwise Ger +3/Br -3 IPC’s on G2 and Ger +5/ Br -5 on G3 and so on. Assume no Russian in Bur. Having Russians in Bur greatly expands the effectiveness of some of these moves but it also forces you to make a tough decision if Germany barely took Egypt.
With 2In/1Ta Germany is 33% to hold on with a tank and ~50% if you don’t want to lose the fighter.
With 1In/2Ta Germany is 45% to hold on and ~60% if you don’t want to lose the fighter.
An attempt mean you lose India on J2 or even J1 without much resistance. Success means you delay the loss of Africa, and by a fair amount if you recapture or if germany can’t send additional tanks. Failure accomplishes nothing since there is little difference between 1 Ta and 2In/1Ta both when Africa is undefended and when America arrives in force.
The point of attacking FIC is to reduce the amount of infantry has on the mainland, slowing them down unless they want to lose fighters and to potentially take out a Japaneese fighter. Japan holds the fighter 43% of the time and the territory 75% of the time. Your fighter survives 47% of the time. Your advantage comes from count and skew, not punch so strafing is not an option. Failure still means a trade of infantry though it might have been preferable to trade on defense (Full Japaneese attack will lose a fighter and and perhaps two infantry. Also your failure will be known to Japan whereas if you defend Japan won’t know how lucky you are until after commiting)
Landing in China makes it more costly to takeout. This would be combined with moving the Indian fleet to SZ 59 to stretch. Usually this fighter move seems to me like a mistake but what if both FIC and and SZ57 succeeded? Full Pearl and a fighter assist BB and carrier in sinking British fleet leaves only two fighters for china. 35% chance to not take unless Japan wants to lose fighters. But even if you don’t hold china it’s dead Japaneese infantry that matter. There massive fighter fleet is idle if there are no 2-3 infantry to cover it. Still your losing your fighter for 1-2 infantry and I’m not sure tactical considerations justify it.
Landing in Sinkiang prepares to make the Japanese pay a high toll for it. It can also fly to fortify Yakut/Burytia fom there . Fianlly it prepares to land in Russian occupied China and defend that since in such a scenario Japan will only have two land units and risks losing fighters if it attacks.
Defending India will prevent Japan from taking it but I’m not sure how important that is. If Japan REALLY wanted to take it through just four infantry, skipping pearl (but not china) and risking planes, they could get the attack to ~80% but they would lose multiple fighters. I doubt a turn two defendable IC in India is worth that much but I haven’t playtested it. If Russia strafed Ukraine, the third most popular opening, it won’t even be defendable.
Finally attacking the sub and landing on pearl. This ups the chance of success from 33% to 66%. With the sub dead even a full 2 ftr, bomber, destroyer, carrier plus battleship your 54% to get two real casualties (destroyer plus bomber unless Japan wants to invite a US counterattack) and a 25% chance of three real casualties. Pearl light becomes a nonoption since without the battleship it’s not even a favorable battle. This would be the best move if you want to set yourself up for a US counterattack against pearl. Yould combine it with carrier, destroyer + transport to SZ 57 in order to avoid and counter to your counterattack. This option also means island hopping (or your counter/ fighter sacrifice to blow up Japaneese ships is pointless)
I am split between 1, 3 and 7.