I would say so!
Right now I can still feel the difficulties I and others have pointed out for Germany already:
- If they start Raiding Russia there will be much less threat against the allied fleet and attacking them (at least at Gibraltar) becomes ‘not an option’. Problematic, although the beaches should be safe.
- If they don’t raid Russia but instead attack the approaching Wallied fleet, Germany will loose so many bombers (~50%) that Russia can break out and start marching west, pushing the Germans back.
Japan is definately weakened by the American early focus. That basically makes taking out India early a paper tiger only. If I’d done that for example, I would have lost Carolines->Philippines->DEI already. Not a good trade I think. Anyway, I daresay Japan is not finished yet, but has a challenging task!
So correct me if I’m wrong but I’d say raiding Russia is a must, that is one. Two, Germany must look for creative options against the Wallies. Three, Japan must fight permanent containment ;-).
The allies are far from being out of the game so far. Our game proves to me once more that an allied bid should not exeed 11, maybe 13IPCs. An allied bid should never allow them to kill both the Italian fleet AND Tobruk. At least there should be a huge risk involved.
And how important a little luck in the opening battles is. Don’t get me wrong; you play it well and I am not complaining (heck, Germany is blessed to have all its luftwaffe still alive!), but it’s just a fact that if Germany can keep its BB (like I failed to take out in our first game) and only 1 more sub (happens quite often as well), this is a set back for the alies in many ways (SZ125 being one of them).