GC Italy

[Yozhik]

Take some, lose some: April 10, 1943 - November 29, 1943.

Starting mid-1943 Allies have initiated a series of landings in the Middle East and Africa. Sometimes (e.g., Oman) successful counterattacks would throw the invaders right back into the ocean; sometimes Italian forces had to fall back (e.g., Guinea, Nigeria). By late November as much as 1/6 of Africa was under British rule once again.

In the meantime Italian forces have landed in Spain, breaking their way into Gibraltar; once it has fallen, defenders of Malta were simply starved to death.

 

[Yozhik]

Take some, lose some: April 10, 1943 - November 29, 1943 (continued):

Russian forces finally went on offensive, as 90 divisions from Moscow assaulted Germans in all directions. They got back as many 20 provinces, before Axis was able to counterattack. By November only 6 of the 90 divisions were still fighting...

Addendum, or why I like puppets:

Italian-created puppet states as of late 1943 are adding a total of 27 (!)divisions to Axis force pool. This would have been 4 divisions higher if Ethiopean AI wasn't as suicidal in 1940...

 

[Yozhik]

P.S. Since a puppet retains all the techs from its master, all 27 of those divisions are capable of holding their own against Allies - I've seen org levels of 88 in Egypt, 97 in South Africa...

P.P.S. I am off on a business trip until Friday.

 

[Gabriel Anthony]

Signs up.

This makes for good reading.

 

[Yozhik]

Signs up.

This makes for good reading.

Thanks

 

[Yozhik]

November 30, 1943 - August 9, 1944: Enter Americans

1944 was not a good year for Italy. British forces continued to reclaim Africa despite persistent efforts of Italian puppets to oppose them.

Eventually, an army of 18 Italian divisions landed in Morocco, but did not make it far before getting bogged down.

 

[Yozhik]

November 30, 1943 - August 9, 1944: Enter Americans (continued)

In July Americans have declared war on the Axis and landed in Portugal despite fierce resistance of the defenders. Italians have thrown almost all of their fleet - 90 ships and 8 naval bombers - against 130-some American ships, and still were unable to stop the disembarkment.

Note the Spanish and German divisions frantically rushing across Spain to aid Italians.

A mute witness to the naval battles of July and August: USA went from 350 ships to 142. Italy - from 120-some to 91.

 

[Yozhik]

Political situation in the world in August 1944:

USSR has had bitter peace and is out of the war.

Japan is still neutral.

British Isles have not been invaded.

Balkans are about to be captured as Italy will declare war on every neutral country in that region to use up 100s of bored Axis divisions.

About 12 Italian divisions are stranded in South Africa and 18 - in West Africa; I am still deciding whether to pull them or keep fighting Allies. The attempt to cut Allied shipping lines and then take out starving units has failed.

 

[unmerged(29216)]

Great read Yozhik! It's interesting to watch the ebb and flow of your power.
Don't abandon Africa yet.

Martin IV

 

[Yozhik]

Great read Yozhik! It's interesting to watch the ebb and flow of your power.
Don't abandon Africa yet.

Martin IV

Thank you And I don't know what to do about Africa to be honest. After USA kicked me out of Portugal in a matter of a month (I am considering 10 mechanized/armored divisions a sufficient prerequisite to getting kicked out), I am no longer sure it will suffice to have just 1 division on each mainland beach, meaning I will have to pull back all my 'colonial' divisions.

Americans have initiated landing in Faro with 35 (thirty-five) divisions.

Most stayed on the ships.

No one will ever know how many of them went down with their transports as American merchant marine casualties numbered at least 20 vessels in August.

 

[danoh]

This is a great AAR and reading it has taught me a lot about HoI2. Your current circumstance confronting the American counterattack makes me ask if there were an alternate Italian strategy that would focus on gaining seacontrol of the Atlantic. Italy's naval docrtrine restrictions still allow it to research 3 carrier advances. You've done well with a weak, almost Great Power, but could Italy have redirected research and production into developing a carrier strikeforce that could beat off the Americans? If you can gain strategic naval superiority with the Italian navy, then the U.S. land superiority would become irrelevant as far as Eurasia is concerned. Any second thoughts?

 

[Yozhik]

This is a great AAR and reading it has taught me a lot about HoI2. Your current circumstance confronting the American counterattack makes me ask if there were an alternate Italian strategy that would focus on gaining seacontrol of the Atlantic. Italy's naval docrtrine restrictions still allow it to research 3 carrier advances. You've done well with a weak, almost Great Power, but could Italy have redirected research and production into developing a carrier strikeforce that could beat off the Americans? If you can gain strategic naval superiority with the Italian navy, then the U.S. land superiority would become irrelevant as far as Eurasia is concerned. Any second thoughts?

Thank you

Yes, there are ways for Italians to control the Atlantic. You can always go wild and build tons of ships. You can take Azores and St. Helena and naval-bomb everything that moves in the neighboring zones. But - why? It's rather cheesy, is it not? 3 bombers - that's how much it took to destroy UK and French fleets in 1940. 8 - that's what reduced American fleet in half. Even if it's just ships - how do you battle packs of 30 vessels that have reinforcements standing by? You can't. Your only real weapon is a carrier air strike, and you need at least 12 to achieve a good result... Okay, maybe I am overreacting. After all, one single American carrier with a few escorts chopped down my fleet of 30 cruisers/destroyers in half, scoring 7 kills just by itself before being sunk by a naval bombers called to rescue...

I am very tempted to play Italy that has a large carrier fleet. But you have to understand: this is my first game in HOI2, and I have learned one lesson from HOI1: without good army, you're dead when USSR comes by. How was I supposed to know Russians don't stand a chance against Wermacht?

 

[Yozhik]

August 10, 1944 - February 25, 1946.

British continued to push Axis out of Africa, reaching central Egypt.

Germany and Romania have annihilated Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia. The next target is Persia.

Italians have landed in England, steamrolling all the way through the island only to get stuck on its northernmost province where 36 Italian divisions have been trying to breach through 19 Allied ones.

 

[Yozhik]

Naval forces of the world as of February 1946.

Italy finally got it carriers - all of them are level 1 though. CAGs are level 4.

USA has 13 carriers, 12 of them have just been built. I expect them to be levels 4-5.

 

[unmerged(9240)]

Thanks for the compliment

I liked the Turkey idea and I have entertained it for a while. Unfortunately, once I realized that I had that much spare money, I also noticed my stockpiles going down... let's just say that I'll keep thinking about it. No number of Turkish militia shall make up for 2-3 NAVs that never joined my airforce, you know?

But I did notice a large number of coup d'etats in other countries. 7 or 8 in the first three years of the game? That's a lot...

The tactic I always use as Italy (and I always play Italy) is to go for Spain before civil war breaks out. This really helps out the Italian war effort a lot and it means France has another front they need to defend. It is also helpful when you need to take Gibraltar.
I use to sometimes go for Saudi Arabia too but they are not as resource rich in HOI2 as they were in HOI.

 

[Yozhik]

The tactic I always use as Italy (and I always play Italy) is to go for Spain before civil war breaks out. This really helps out the Italian war effort a lot and it means France has another front they need to defend. It is also helpful when you need to take Gibraltar.
I use to sometimes go for Saudi Arabia too but they are not as resource rich in HOI2 as they were in HOI.

Hm, but once you take Spain, it's at least 75TC off your TC pool - how are you supposed to take Egypt with that? It is definitely something to consider though, I agree. I may have made a mistake of going after middle east and south africa - it stretched out my communications beyond any reasonable limits. The only reason I survived was naval bombers. If I can have them hit anywhere in Europe on a 4 hour notice... it's not good.

I am very tempted to modify their values, especially after a single level 1 RAF naval bomber ran across my 30-ship strong fleet (level 4 battleships, level 4-5 light cruisers, level 5 destroyers) and almost sunk one, getting away with barely any damage. Ouch.

 

[unmerged(41414)]

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