After many years of playing and watching how easy it can become to get weapons development, and how easy they can change the game i decided to make it a little harder but also wanted to add some historical accurate weapons development and an old favourite.
So here is what I use now:
Get a D10 (10 sided dice) and the first 6 original Weapons development stay the same, along with the cost and researching the technology.
Add these 4 weapons development:- Industrial Production, Paratroopers, Heavy tanks, Fighter patrols.
Now the chart looks like this:

1. Jet Power - all your fighters defend on 5 or less
2. Rockets - Your AA guns fire a rocket at IC’s
3. Super Submarines - your subs now attack and defend on 3 or less
4. Long range aircraft- Your fighters fly 6 spaces, Bombers fly 8 spaces
5. Combined bombardment - Your Destroyers can now do a 1 shot support in amphibious assaults
6. Heavy Bombers - Your Bombers now roll 2 dice to attack.
7. Industrial Production - Women have now entered the workforce and your production costs are reduced by 1IPC
8. Fighter Patrols - You can now designate fighters to patrol the skies and detect any strategic bombing raids. Then your fighters will defend your IC rolling a 4 or less vs the attacking Bombers rolling a 4 or less for 1 round only. Any surviving fighter land and surviving Bombers can continue onto their original target.
9. Tank Armor - Your tanks are now equipped with sloping 45 degree armor effectively increasing their protection without sacrificing mobility. Tanks now take 2 hits to destroy and can repair damage similar to Battleships.
10. Paratroopers - You are now able to train specialized paratroopers units. Your Bombers can carry 1 INF and drop them over friendly or enemy territory. The INF unit then ends it movement. If the territory is enemy a battle ensues. If the territory is enemy owned but unoccupied then follow regular rules for infantry capture.

Lemme know of any ideas you guys have

If playing with National Advantages and using Colonial Garrison it can be quite effective.

Example: I play with 4 others each monday at my home, we use 2 national advantages (decided by dice rolls)

If I am playing UK and get colonial garrison, I place it in Australia immediately before Russia goes and on my turn I buy 1 Battleship and 2 infantry. Move India fleet to west coast Australia, with AA gun on transport down there also. Move Australian sub and transport to same sea zone 38. If the fighter in Egypt survives (unlikely) then fly it on the carrier as an extra bonus. So after the UK turn I have 6 (maybe7) units in sea zone 38 and Japan has 8 within reach. If Japan uses all 8 units to attack, then they limit their attack on Pearl Harbor. If they go with the usual Pearl Harbor attack (Battleship, Carrier, Destroyer, sub, 2 fighters, Bomber) then that leaves Japan with only 4 units to attack sea zone 38 and UK holds the distinct advantage.

Ideally this puts Japan at the hard decision of where to send their only destroyer. Pearl Harbor or Australia? Either choice will leave one of their fleets vulnerable to the defending subs opening fire stealth shot, which if successful they will have to take on the Battleship to avoid losing an important casualty before the battle even starts.

The way I see it, the UK pacific fleet is not there to overpower the Japanese fleet, but when combined with a strong USA push in the pacific they can create headaches for Japan. Since Japan only earns 30IPC at the start, whatever naval units they lose they find very expensive to replace and at the cost of land units for Asia.

If Japan still goes ahead with a complex in French Indo-China, then the Australian Complex is threatened, but the same goes for Japan. Each complex is only 2 sea zones away and UK goes before Japan, and Japan’s Kwangtung transport is not within reach of Australia until turn 2.

To help defend India, move the Infantry from Persia and have Russia move 2 Infantry from Kazakh to Persia and 2 tanks into Caucasus for a counter attack, should Japan go all out for India. This also gives Japan another tough decision: Attack China with the Asian troops or attack India? They could attack both, but with a weakened force in India that would not hold the territory from a Russian Counter-attack. Or a gamble on the dice attack in China that might not destroy the Fighter which can then go attack Japan’s unguarded transports or defend Caucasus/Australia.

Although this is not a Guaranteed win Strategy (few are) with some good dice rolls you can quite easily pickup those 4IPC islands from Japan, which are hard for Japan to recapture and be landing more Infantry/Fighters in Norway/Karelia or Bombers in London sucking the money away from Germany. This complex also can support Africa if needed.

I have used this quite a few times, it has worked well and I have been destroyed at other times. The good feeling I have is that if it all goes wrong and I lose it to Japan, it is so far south that they have a hard time making it really useful, all the while the USA is island hopping its way down to liberate it.

If your tired of the same old strategies, give this a try, at the very least its exciting.