by HeyJoe
Rather than say which is best, I will give comments on common set-ups:USSR Setups:
Standard:
4 Poland, 1 E. Germany, 1 to Yugoslavia.
This is the standard setup for the USSR. Overcontrol of E. Germany and Poland solves two problems:
1. It prevents East European Unrest from removing enough influence to uncontrol the bg countries. (If you only put 3 inf. in Poland and left E. Germany alone, then the US could headline EEU, and possibly score large points with the Europe Scoring Card if you do not immediately add more influence, denying you a Turn1 AR1 coup.)
2. It deters the US from merely placing influence in E. Germany to start a bidding war. (A 4-op card placing influence in an E. Germany controlled at 3 influence would bring the total to 3-3, add in Truman Doctrine and you can easily lose an East Europe battleground in the early game. (Although most US players will wait for Warsaw Pact to be activated before trying this.)
Influence in Yugoslavia threatens placement of influence into both Italy and Greece and is more effective than influence in Bulgaria. (A line to Turkey is already provided from Syria, so there is no need to have another.)
Independent Reds Variation:
4 Poland, 1 E. Germany, 1 Austria.
This is useful if you start the game with Independent Reds in your hand. The event can be triggered and discarded harmlessly. Also if I am the US player and I see the USSR start with this variation, I will consider playing Romanian Abdication if I have it. (Although this risks giving the USSR an early amount of influence to place with De-Stalinization.)
The only tactical disadvantage is you cannot threaten Greece, but Austria is a good country to control for realignment benefit purposes so there is some balance.
Comecon Trap:
4 Austria, 2 Yugoslavia.
Headline Comecon, all of a sudden USSR has control of Austria and Yugoslavia. Assuming the US starts the game with a standard 4 in W. Germany, 3 in Italy, you have a +2 to realignment rolls in W. Germany and Italy while the US has only +1. The aim is to realign all of the US starting influence out of Europe while the defcon is at 5.
It's a nice gimmick, but the US has many ways to counter it, including Defectors, East European Unrest, Duck and Cover, and putting at least 2 US influence in Austria to keep Comecon from allowing the USSR to gain Austria control. Also, even if it does work, the USSR then needs to spend a lot of ops to control W. Germany and Italy, make up the deficit in Poland, and France.
US Setups:
Standard:
4 to W. Germany, 3 to Italy.
Simple but efficient. No influence is put into France to neutralize Suez and DeGaulle Leads France. 3 Influence in Italy ensures that if the USSR headlines Socialist Governments, then the US will still have 1 inf in Italy and won't be totally kicked out of that region.
However this setup does carry the caveat that you should prepare for use of Blockade against you by keeping a 3-op card in your hand until it is used and gone. (4-op if Red Scare is on you.) If Blockade is played and the US has not spread out to France, Austria, or even Benelux, then it cannot refill influence in W. Germany lost to Blockade in one AR.
I-am-going-to-headline-Marshall-Plan:
3 W. Germany, 2 Italy, 1 Greece, 1 Turkey,
If you're holding Marshall Plan and want to headline it, use this setup. The extra starting influence in Greece and Turkey will bring them to control. This setup will (usually, anything is possible) destroy the USSR's hopes for Europe Domination and threaten US domination once France can be reasonably controlled. The extra three influence from Marshall Plan can go wherever you like. Except for Norway and Sweden, there's good arguments to put them anywhere in W. Europe. The only problem with this setup is it makes absolutely no effort to hide your intentions, and the USSR can select his own headline knowing that you will not play Defectors or something like CIA created.
Subtle-Headline of Marshall Plan:
3. W. Germany, 3 Italy, 1 Canada.
This I think is a good non-obvious setup that is followed up by Marshall Plan. The extra influence will allow control of Canada and set the stage for NORAD, and you can choose from boosting Italy even further to 4 influence or placing them elsewhere.