Russia falls within 5-8 turns against a good Axis player. Russia starts with a horribly small army and has the lowest income by far which gets cut every turn. Once massed they force Russia out of the caucas to defend moscow. Germany challenges the Atlantic with subs/ships to hold off invasions for about 4-6 turns while slow marching infantry and artillary to backup the tanks. They all play by the same playbook at the high level.

I don't see much variation between Axis players. Go look on the Larry Harris forums and you'll see a bunch of ideas to fix the problems. What i've learned while being in the best skill bracket is that the game is unbalanced in the Axis favor when played by skilled Axis players. but as cool as that was, it doesn't make up for the times where I have had 6-8 aircraft pounding me turn after turn without losses.

There was one really fun exception when a German player lost all three of his bombers in one raid on London. I also noticed that many of the Axis players at Platinum level seem to love aircraft much more so than I would have expected given the cost-and, somewhat irritatingly, they often seem to beat the 1 in 6 odds of a loss when using them to support ground attacks against AA defended territories or conduct strategic bombing. The only consistent things I have seen at Platinum level is that, unsurprisingly, the Germans almost always focus primarily on Russia after some effort to contest the Atlantic (rarely with a huge buy, typically just with the initial subs, cruiser and air forces) and while trying only a limited effort to make inroads into Africa, while the Japanese almost inevitably go after Russia as quick as they can while also gearing up for a major attack on India by Turn 2 or 3, which then, if successful, turns into columns of Japanese tanks attacking through Iran into the Caucasus until Russia falls or India is retaken. Has anyone noticed any particularly dominant strategies or opening moves being used at Platinum level by either Axis or Allies, or have any that they recommend? I have been experimenting a bit when the opponent does something different or I get thrown off my plan, as I have found the Platinum level Axis players have been using wildly different openings and strategies. I have been Platinum as Allies for a while now after being initially placed at Gold, and have been pleasantly surprised by the level of creativity since I moved up.

Axis and allies