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ORIGINAL: delatbabel

Very good post, Extraneous.

I would add one thing. The only time that I have played WiFFE as Russia and been thoroughly thrashed by the Germans was when the Germans did exactly this:
* DOW Yugoslavia on Axis impulse 2.
* CW aligns Yugoslavia.
* Germany used both O chits to take out France (in fact we were using the O point rules, but effectively the same thing).
* Germany concentrated on building O chits throughout 1940 and for the rest of the game.
* Germany launched Barbarossa in M/J 1941 with a stack of units in Chisinau, and lots of O chits in store (I think it was 3 or so), and drove to the Caucasus to align Turkey, and took that route to support Italy in the middle east.
* Italy took out Suez and focussed on the drive into the middle east. Italy and Japan linked up in India after Japan launched a successful assault in India (didn't lead to conquest, but contained the CW units there). Nearly all of the middle eastern minors were aligned to Italy.

The thing to look at next time you're examining the map -- there are in fact only 3 victory cities in European USSR. Leningrad, Moscow, Kiev. There are many more in the middle east -- Istanbul, Suez, Jerusalem, Baghdad, Riyadh, Teheran, Aden. Those 6 come with minimal allied defences. If you're trying to win the game (not the war) as the axis then the victory cities are your focus.