1. First off, recognize that this is a game about ECONOMICS. Sure, it's built on units and combat, but the purpose of combat is to control territories that generate IPC's you can use to buy more combat units and gain more territories. If your alliance is able to generate even one more unit per turn than your opponents, you'll eventually win.

2. Some territories generate more IPC's than others; it can be more effective to capture or defend the more productive spaces.

3. Sea Zones generate NO IPC's, so unless you have a strategic or operational need to capture or defend one, don't bother. Navies are useful mostly for escorting transports (with some landward power projection ability). Russia will not have a need for a navy, nor will Germany before the late game.

4. The game awards you IPC's for the territories you control at the end of your turn. You purchase units at the beginning of your next turn using the IPC's in your bank. IPC's cannot be shared between allies. If you lose your capital city (Berlin, London, Washington, Tokyo, Moscow), the capturing power loots all the IPC's in your bank, and you can neither generate more IPC's nor produce units until you or your ally recaptures your capital.

5. Only land units can capture territories. If, after a battle, you have no land units surviving, the opponent retains control of the territory.

The game resolves combats by category: strategic bombing first, then amphibious assaults, then everything else. If you have to do naval combat to clear a sea zone prior to an amphibious attack, it will resolve that battle before any of the amphibious assaults. Within each category, if you want to resolve a particular battle next, just right-click on the territory you want to see.

Remember it's a global game. US needs to attack BOTH Japan and Germany, as does the UK. Germany needs to attempt to knock out Russia while defending against UK attacks, and Japan needs to break into central Asia as quickly as possible (both for the IPC and to help Germany with the Russians). Russia should concentrate on holding territories within 2 spaces of its Industrial Centers.

Try to pair as much infantry as you can with your tank attacks; infantry costs half as much to replace. Infantry can be the best unit in the game - compare for example 12 infantry attacking 6 tanks (both cost 36 IPC): Round 1, infantry gives 2 hits and takes 3, leaving 9 infantry attacking 4 tanks. Round 2, infantry gives 1.5 hits and takes 2, leaving 7 infantry and 2.5 tanks. Round 3, infantry gives 1 hit and takes 2, leaving 5 infantry and 1.5 tanks. Round 4, infantry gives 1 hit and takes 1 hit, leaving 4 infantry and 1 tank. Now you have 9 shots at rolling a 1 to capture the territory.
Destroyers are similar; a squadron of DD's will defeat the same IPC worth of battleships almost every time.

Avoid the temptation to snag that unoccupied territory with a single infantry. Infantry cost 3 IPC each, and if you're claiming a 1- or 2-IPC territory just to get overrun the next turn, you lose. Sometimes it's useful for blocking, as with Russia taking Archangel to block a German blitz into Siberia, or with Japan taking Persia to disrupt the flow of UK forces from India, but generally speaking, don't capture territories you're sure to lose with units worth more IPC than the territory.

You can use single naval vessels to block access to key islands if you're desperate. A single destroyer located south of Japan in seazone 60 can prevent an American fleet off Iwo Jima from reaching the Philippines in one move. This could allow you an extra turn to reinforce the target islands or to build up/collect your fleet for a counterattack. Don't use subs or transports tho, as the enemy will sail right over them.

Concentrate forces. It's much more effective to have 40 combat power in one territory than 10 combat power in each of four territories. You're less likely to be attacked, the spaces around you become dead zones, and it leaves your opponent wondering where exactly the hammer is gonna fall.

Use infantry with fighter support to do soaking attacks whenever you can. Losing 5 or 6 infantry to kill 4 or 5 tanks is a winner.

Resist the urge to blame your bad games on the dice. Your opponent suffers from the same dice randomness you do. If you really hate bad die rolls, play in "Low Luck" mode - it doesn't mean you always get bad luck, it means luck plays only a minor role in determining the outcome of combat. If you lost, it's because either you bought the wrong units or failed to employ them properly, or both.

Neither side is better, either can win. Axis can win by turn 3, Allies by turn 8 or 9. Axis is faster since Germany has all this huge land power and there's Russia, under-producing and isolated. Allies take a little longer, but neither the British Isles nor the US can be attacked directly at first, so keep Russia alive as long as possible and build those transports! Send air power early to help with the defence.

Keep "economy of force" in mind. Use the minimum force necessary to achieve your objectives. It's a pointless waste of resources to build a fleet with 40 battleships if 20 will do the job, or to use a dozen loaded transports to kill the single infantry on New Zealand. I'm not saying "don't attack BIG" - sometimes that's very handy, especially if you really want to keep the territory you're attacking. Just remember that every attack has an opportunity cost; if you attack territory A with a unit stack, what it costs you at minimum is the chance to attack territory B with that same stack this turn.

Try to win your battles as cheaply as possible. Capturing a territory is great, but if you lost 27 IPC worth of units to kill 15 IPC worth of enemies, well, let's just say you can't keep doing that forever.

I hope this has been interesting and helpful. You may have different strategies or options, and I'd love to hear them. Enjoy the game!