Stale meta is BS, play more games and you'll experience a ton of different players/mods/rulesets.
Just looking at Axis in vanilla you can see the range of options. You have to have the early conversations on what each team member is doing. I'd say vanilla meta is: Germany - MT, inf, fighters; Hungary - AC, TACs or fighters; Romania - fuel refining, marines, arty 3; Bulgaria - mech2/amtrac2 rush, tanks for Ostfront; Italy - inf, coastal defense, rush fighter 2; Spain - HTs, mech/amtrak, tungsten, take Portugal and send vols.
But that can vary quite a bit. Bulgaria gets the same 10% air superiority high command as Hungary and so does Romania. Romania can get fighter 2 earlier but doesn't have a second bonus. Italy and Hungary can get fighter 3 faster, Germany is going to have to license produce and hard research regardless. Italy can also choose to go naval bombers, Hungary could build CAS, Bulgaria could be AC and making TACs. Germany can also air control for himself and that makes the ground support expert even stronger but with more micro required for Germany. Spain has a 15% air superiority expert but that would require rules on him joining the war early.
Then look at the land meta. Bulgaria has cav and inf leaders, he can go mass mob 6-5 cav-inf divisions which get buffs from cav/inf high command and both sets of leader traits. These are exactly 20 width and make great coastal garrisons; Bulgaria produces mech and Germany lend-leases guns. Bulgaria can also go Grand Battleplan left and take German expeditionary force tanks to stack planning bonus. Romania can go mountaineers instead of marines and can go AT if Russia/Allies do mediums. Depending on who rushes fighter 2, Romania can clear his debuffs and have a decent eco at the cost of Italy taking Yugo later. Hungary can specialize in SPGs (though SPGs are trash) or mech/amtrac or heavy tanks. He can have 4 mech heavies for Barb if he builds his economy correctly and doesn't have to air control. Germany can go heavies or mediums, surface or sub raiding, air or no air, mech or amtracs, arty or no arty, and there's a ton of ways to make the focus tree work (as long as 4 year plan is 4th, you're good to go). Italy can go fighter heavy or land heavy, has 4x100% armor research, and a bunch of research for arty. That can rush arty/RA/AA tech and get way ahead of time, I've even seen 8-7 inf-AT from Twix Italy to counter South Af heavies. Italy also has a variety of naval builds and can make naval bombers. Spain can go mediums if Germany goes heavies or could choose a type of special forces to specialize in. Depending on rules about joining the Axis, they can make an impact in Africa or on the Ostfront.
This is just the Axis in a total vacuum. When you start to respond to what Japan/UK/Russia/USA are doing, there's a massive array of possibilities.
