HOI3 - Neo Turkish Empire - Black Ice 8.4 LP

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Hello Everyone.

I have been running a let's play series in HoI3 as Turkey using Black Ice 8.4. The first episode posted to YouTube back on Jan 1st so I am kind of late bringing it here.

The goal is to forge a new Turkish Empire out of the fires of WWII. As the series is currently 50+ episodes long I will post a link to the playlist as it will take me some time to get all the episodes with synopsis posted here.

Here is the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLksH-r9DqKPf_UM46SfNOYa-tNV8ulNp5
(you can ignore the set of alternate episodes I posted at one point, they didn't really go anywhere)

Episode 1: Neo Turkish Empire
This episode covers most of the initial setup, filling in the research queue, clearing the initial Black Ice events, re-organizing the OOB, and starting production. I leave it up to the beginning viewers what faction we will join. In the interest of keeping things interesting for YouTube viewers, I do use the noneutrality console command to let me get things started quicker. The initial plan is to conquer the Baltic states.

Episode 2: Invasion of Bulgaria
The decision is made by the viewers to join the Axis so we start working in that direction. War is declared on Bulgaria on March 15th 1936.

Episode 3: Annexation of Bulgaria
The war with Bulgaria continues. The Capital of Sofiya holds out valiantly but the city falls on September 9th 1936 leading to the Bulgarian surrender to Turkish forces.

Episode 4: Assault on Romania
Since Greece is guaranteed by both Romania and Yugoslavia, Romania is selected as the next target. Our forces are distributed along the Romanian border while we wait for more infantry divisions to come off the production line. War is declared on Romania on July 2nd 1937. Bucharest is almost immediately put under siege. A communications mishap allows the Romanians to reinforce the city and the battle looks to be a long hard slog. Our forces on the left flank push through the Transylvanian Alps.

Episode 5: Fall of Bucharest
The forces on the left flank clear the mountains and run toward the city of Cluj-Napoca. The fighting in and around Bucharest is fierce. However, we are able to gain the upper hand. The last defenders flee the city on December 28th 1937. The city of Ploiesti becomes the next target.

That's it for now. Will post more episodes when I get some more time.

Later folks!

 

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Hello Everyone. Here are the next few episodes of my Turkish Empire series. Going to continue to link the videos and provide a short AAR/Synopsis for each episode.

Episode 6: Hungary
The city of Ploiesti, Romania becomes the scene of the heaviest fighting in the Romanian war so far. The Romanians try to hit the flank of our assault on Ploiesti from Brasov. They succeed in shattering one of our divisions but the gap is quickly filled and the flank holds. The city of Cluj is put under siege as well but is merely a sideshow to the main battle. Ploiesti finally falls on February 1st 1938. With Cluj also about to fall as well, Romania surrenders the next day.

Wasting no time, the army is pushed to the Hungarian Border. Hungary becomes the next target in our European conquest ambitions. War is declared on Hungary on February 25, 1938. Our forces are able to push across the Tisza River and begin threatening the city of Budapest.

However, our manpower reserves hit 0, an issue that will haunt us for years to come.

Episode 7: Fall of Hungary
The Hungarians provide stiff resistance but are outnumbered and outgunned. The fighting to try to cross the Duna River is heavy but we are able to establish multiple bridgeheads. We move our forces to surround Budapest completely then begin the siege. The Hungarian army is unable to relieve the forces trapped in the city and the last defenders surrender on July 21st 1938 and Hungary formally capitulates the same day.

We begin distributing our forces along the Yugoslavian border...

Episode 8: Keeping the Ball Rolling
We decide to take on Yugoslavia as soon as our army is in position. It takes some time to get spread around the long Yugoslavian border but war is declared on September 15th 1938. It appears Yugoslavia was caught unprepared and unmobilized. We launch an aggressive assault along most of the border.

By the end of November the northern line has been pushed to the Sava River, the eastern flank reaches the Drina River, and our forces are threatening to surround Belgrade.

Episode 9: Fall of Yugoslavia
Our forces close the net around Belgrade and begin the siege. The city falls on January 27th 1939. The country refuses to surrender and we start pushing our army towards Sarajevo. We catch the city mostly undefended. Our troops march into the city on February 12th, 1939 after barely a fight and the country finally surrenders.

We begin preparations to sweep through Albania on the way to Greece. However it appears that Italy has already annexed them so we ignore it and move all our forces to the Greek border. Now that both Romania and Yugoslavia are no longer protecting Greece, we declare war on March 26th 1939.

 

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Hello Everyone, here we pick where we left off on my Turkish Empire series.

Episode 10: Rolling Over Greece
Our forces launch an all out assault on Greece. The Greeks put up a fight in the mountains but we focus our efforts along the Aegean coast. There is heavy fighting in the city of Salonika as the city is reinforced through the port. However the defenders surrender and the city falls on May 5th 1939. Our forces then march down the coast and put the city of Athens under siege by the end of May. We cross the Gulf of Corinth at Patras and swing to attack Athens from the south as well as the north. The defenders of Athens lay down their arms on June 15th 1939 and Greece formally surrenders on the 18th.

Meanwhile we begin constructing brigade attachments to bring our divisions up to maximum number of brigades. We also begin upgrading pre-war brigades to more modern tech. The new air units start coming off the production line and new ships enter the naval service. With the first phase of expansion of the new empire completed and our European holdings secured, we begin deploying the army to the east.

Episode 11: The Calm Between Storms
We move our forces to the borders with the USSR, Syria, and Iraq. We begin setting up construction of infrastructure to the eastern and southern borders to improve supply throughput. We continue adding new brigades to the production queue and upgrading our existing divisions.

Episode 12: Continuing Preparations
We complete the production of new brigade attachments and unit upgrades. New divisions are added to the army.

Episode 13: War Resumes
With unit construction and upgrades mostly complete, we begin the next phase of the expansion of the empire. To that end, war is declared on Iraq on September 21st 1940. Since Iraq is guaranteed by the UK, we end up at war with the Allies. By this time Germany is also at war with Poland and the Allies as well.

We push south into Iraq and Syria. The Iraqi army cannot stand against our now battle hardened troops. The British put up a fight in Syria but they are too few to resist our advance. We simply roll our forces south and are threatening the cities of Beirut, Damascus, and Baghdad by mid November.

 

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Here are a couple more episodes of the Turkey series

Episode 14: Rolling Assault on the Brits
We move our forces in Iraq to begin surrounding Baghdad. Our assault on Beirut begins. The french militia and British colonial forces holding the city cannot hold under a concentrated effort to take the city. Our forces occupy the city on December 9th. Damascus is abandoned by an Iraqi division that was defending it and our forces march in on the 10th. The siege of Baghdad begins on the 17th.

France falls to the Germans on December 28th 1940. Vichy France takes control of the Syria region and "negotiations" begin to transfer the territory to our control. This causes supply issues for our advancing units and forces redeployment of our divisions into the captured British territory where modern Jordan is.

Baghdad falls on January 8th, 1941 and Iraq surrenders. We mop up the remaining British units in Iraq and seize Kuwait. We push into Israel/Palestine. Jerusalem is occupied on February 5th and Tel Aviv falls on the 10th. We are pushing into Sinai by the end of February.

Episode 15: Barbarossa Begins
"Negotiations" with Vichy France conclude and Syria is transferred to Turkish control. We begin putting together plans to take Saudi Arabia. Then the plan is to wipe out the British forces in the Arabian Peninsula along with Oman and Yemen. We delay our push into Sinai to accomplish this.

As we are preparing to annex Saudi Arabia, an invitation is received from Germany to join the Axis. We accept and formally join on March 10th 1941. War is declared on Saudi Arabia on March 25th. Our forces charge straight for Riyadh. Most of our divisions bypass the city and head to engage the British and other Allied forces. A single armored division attacks Riyadh and defeats the defending militia and the city falls on May 3rd 1941 causing Saudi Arabia to surrender. Oman falls on June 12th.

The Germans launch operation Barbarossa on June 23rd. We hold off joining the war with the Soviets for a little while. Yemen falls on July 6th. The Arabian Peninsula is fully under our control by mid July.

 

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Hello guys, Not a lot of time today so I'll just post one more Episode for today.

Episode 16: Joining Operation Barbarossa
With the Arabian Peninsula secured and the threat of an allied attack on our southern flank removed, we cast our eyes to the USSR. The decision is made to join our new allies, the Germans, in their invasion of the Soviet Union. We declare war on July 23rd and join operation Barbarossa. We launch our initial attacks along the former Romanian border with the aim of capturing the city of Odessa. There is some skirmishing in the Caucuses region but the main effort is in the Ukraine. We quickly cross the River Prut and launch an attack on Odessa. The city is largely undefended with only a command unit holding the city. Odessa falls on August 12th. The Germans reach our border and we start rolling our forces east with the German push.

We begin to push along the coast of the back sea on the Caucuses front but the Soviets counter hard. Without the forces holding the Romanian border to reinforce them our Caucuses units are limited in how much they can attack. We are, however able to take the city of Yerevan. The Germans and allied Axis forces are able to push passed the Odessa area and into the Crimea region. We re-deploy our western forces to the east leaving the defense of that area to our allies.

 

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Episode 17: Hold the Line!
The winter of 1941 approaches. Our forces that took the Arabian Peninsula reach their positions in Sinai. We begin our assault into Sinai and reach the Suez Canal by mid November. We hold our positions in the Caucuses and defend against heavy Soviet attacks. The plan is to shift to the offensive there once spring arrives.

We are able to get across the Suez but meet heavy British counterattack.

Episode 18: Stalemate and Breakthrough
Unfortunately due to a game crash when saving the previous episode, things are a little different at the start here as I had to re-play to get back to where we were. First, the push across the Suez was met with overwhelming force and thrown back. A stalemate ensues with our forces and the British unable to break across the Suez. Second, the Soviets made a mistake and left a gap in their Caucuses defenses which we were able to exploit. We were able to cross the Aras River and push into the Lesser Caucuses range.

We begin to roll our forces east using the Kura River as a defensive boundary on the northern flank. Heavy Soviet attack keeps us pinned down on the Black Sea coast. Five new armored divisions come off the production line and are pushed to the front to bolster our attack.

The big problem again becomes our depleted manpower pool.

 

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Episode 19: Fierce Battle for Baki
We continue to push along the Aras and Kura rivers. We are able to cross the rivers as we approach Baki and surround the city. The Soviets counterattack trying to relieve the city and keep the bulk of our assault force tied down. We attack with what divisions we can and put the city under heavy air bombardment.

Our forces surrounding Baki take a heavy beating but the NKVD detachment holding the city cannot withstand our assault and surrender. Our forces enter the city on Jun 22nd 1942. However the win comes at a serious cost in casualties.

Episode 20: Pushing the Soviets Back
We begin an offensive to get our army across the Kura and into the Greater Caucuses. The eventual objective is to take the city of Tbilisi and push north to the Terek River. The Soviets put up stiff resistance but we are able to make progress.

We are able to get some units across the Suez in the south and try to use them to leverage the rest of the southern army across the canal. Unfortunately the British forces prove too tough a nut to crack and we have to fall back across the canal.

 

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Episode 21: Reorganizing the Front
We continue our push north through the Greater Caucuses and towards the Terek River. One of the problems we are having now is that we have available IC but no manpower to add divisions to the production queue. We are now reliant on the Black Ice war hero events to generate manpower to reinforce shattered divisions and add new units.

We begin shifting units on the front line to bring exhausted, disorganized divisions off the front to recover. The units that can still fight are distributed along the line to compensate.

A push is made to capture the city of Tbilisi. We are able to reach the province flanking the city on the north bank of the Kura river

Episode 22: Disaster on the Left Flank
We begin our siege of the city of Tbilisi. We start to take some losses on the Black Sea coast. Germany fully occupies France and free France annexes the colonial territories held by Vichy France. Soviet counterattacks force us to break off the siege of Tbilisi. We are able to fight off the counterattacks and renew our attack on Tbilisi. We take the city on December 26th 1942.

The Americans land in Egypt as part of Operation Torch.

The Soviets begin another heavy assault on our forces at the Black Sea coast. Several of our divisions are forced to retreat. Also we are suffering a shortage of men in several divisions that we simply cannot reinforce.

 

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Episode 23: The Soviets Drop the Hammer
We continue to endure assaults on our left flank by large numbers of Soviet armor. We move reinforcements to the flank and start trying to cycle units in and out of the battles to keep fresh units in the fight. However the Soviet attack is relentless and our lack of manpower takes its toll as division after division shatters. We are eventually forced to retreat and hope that we can surround and contain the enemy breakthrough. However things are starting to look very bad.

The German front stalls, but the Japanese are making progress. Though they have had the city surrounded for months, the Germans have been unable to take Leningrad.

Episode 24: The End is Nigh
And it all goes very wrong very fast. In the pre-dawn hours of April 4th 1943 the United States begins a massive amphibious landing at Misfaq in Sinai behind our forces holding Suez. Fortunately we do have a couple divisions holding that province. We move reinforcements into the province and we seem to be holding. The American landing force takes heavy losses.

Just as it looks like we might be able to hold them off, the Americans begin another amphibious landing at Gaza. This time we have no response for it, all of our available divisions are tied down at Misfaq (my viewers dubbed this massive coordinated American landing as "Operation Canaan"). Once landed the Americans transfer their forces to British command and break out from the beachhead.

We have no choice but to fall units off the Soviet line to rush south to try to counter the American attack. Our Sinai forces are quickly cut off and in danger of getting wiped completely out. Seeing their opportunity with our units distracted by the Allied landing the Soviets push hard against our defenses. Our compromised lines cannot hold and break into retreat. More divisions begin to shatter. It appears to be the beginning of the end for the fledgling Turkish Empire.

 

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A little busy today so just one episode for now.

Episode 25: Retreat!
After the last episode I was pretty much convinced that we had lost the war. Nearly half of our divisions were shattered, the Soviet line was collapsing, and a massive American invasion had cut off our southern army. However, with some encouragement and suggestions from my viewers and some thinking on my own, I came up with a plan.

We begin a complete shift in strategy. Instead of trying fruitlessly to hold the lines, we issue a general retreat order. We start setting up a defensive line across the middle of Turkey, using rivers and mountains as natual defenses. Construction of a line of pillbox fortifications begins at the chosen fallback position and planning for a last line of defense begins across Bosphorus. We also send requests for assistance to our allies to help hold our defensive line.

Those units that cannot retreat are intentionally thrown against the British lines so that they break and re-form rather than get overrun and removed. We loose a couple divisions to overruns in the retreat but are able to get most of them back to our new line.

It is the Finns who are the first to respond to our call for aid by moving a few divisions into position.

 

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Episode 26: Finland to the Rescue
We start getting the forces we were able to retreat to our hastily formed defensive line. The last few divisions arrive at the fallback position and get set up.

The Finns set some divisions forward of our line and delay the soviet advance. They also secure the flanks or my last retreating units so there is no threat of getting overrun. The delay the allied units provides give our units a reprieve which allows them to reorganize and reinforce somewhat.

Episode 27: The Soviets Test the Line
Reorganization of our defense continues. The Soviets begin launching attacks against the section of the line without the benefit of a river or mountains. We weather the storm and line holds.

We also do a little rework of our tech priorities.

 

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Episode 28: Gifts from Italy
Italy, who has also sent some infantry divisions to assist us, transfers those divisions to our command as expeditionary forces. These divisions are larger and stronger than our current units. We send these Italian divisions to the sites of the heaviest fighting to bolster our defenses.

Our shattered divisions are slowly reinforcing back to fighting shape. We start working on some upgrades to the brigades in some of our older divisions that are still shattered and unable to fight. We are also pushing ahead with technological upgrades.

Episode 29: More Manpower!
It is now January 1st 1944. While we are still not in great shape we have proven that we have sufficient strength remaining to hold the Soviets and Allies at bay. We begin researching the brigade strength increase techs. This will consume more manpower but is necessary to get our units powerful enough to fight the soviets on even footing.

We get a war hero event that we convert into a large infusion of manpower. We use the opportunity to add five heavy armor divisions to the production queue. They will help counter the massive amounts of armor the Soviets have been throwing at us. We then get another of the same events that adds even more manpower to the pool. This is then funneled into our depleted divisions.

 

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Episode 30: Pushing Back
After the manpower infusions from last episode many of our shattered divisions are getting close to combat strength. We begin moving these units to the front in preparation for a counterattack against the Soviets.

On May 3rd 1944 we begin our offensive to push the Soviets out of Turkey. The goal is to push out on the southern flank then swing around behind the soviet forces in the north and cut them off. We are successful in pushing them back in the south but encounter resistance in the center. However, overall, the beginning or the offensive is a success.

Episode 31: Regaining Momentum
The Soviets have put a large number of units in one of the central provinces we had planned to push through. So we adjust and decide to bypass it instead of attacking it. We shift our forces and continue the assault. The beginning of June, 1944 comes and goes with a distinct lack of allied forces landing in France.

The forces in the mountains on the northern flank of the advance provide stiff resistance, so again we bypass them. Our new heavy armor units finish production and they are pushed to the spearhead of our attack as it begins to turn north east of the mountians. The Soviets, now realizing they are in danger of getting cut off in the mountains begin retreating.

 

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This is where things start getting interesting (in my opinion). Not only have we survived being pushed nearly to the brink of defeat, but now we are back on the offensive...

Episode 32: Challenge From the Brits
As we continue our offensive against the Soviets the British forces to our south attack. They are trying to take advantage of our thinned lines as we stretch out to encircle the Soviets. The Soviets also counterattack the spearhead of our advance hard. We shift what units we can and press the attack. Several of our smaller divisions shatter in the process. We work to try to trap a stack of Soviet units in a small pocket at Silvas.

The fighting in the mountain provinces at our center is heavy but we are able to cut off a large number of Soviet units. Our forces in the South fall back to better defensive terrain in the mountains. We reduce the Soviet forces in Silvas and continue our push north, with our new heavy armor joining battle for the first time. The battle of Bayburt sees a massive clash of Soviet and Turkish armor. The Brits continue to press the attack in the south and we keep shifting fresh forces in to try to hold the flank.

Episode 33: The Ordu Pocket
We continue our push north to the Black Sea. We are forced to drop more units back to the mountains in the south, yielding another province to the Brits. Our 4th Armored Division reaches the Black Sea on the 6th of September and cuts off a pocket around the Pontic Mountains and the city of Ordu. We start collapsing the pocket from the west.

The 4th Armored Division comes under heavy attack from both inside and outside the pocket as the Soviets try to break out. We try to get reinforcements to them but the Soviets launch attack after attack against the reinforcement units, delaying their arrival. The 4th Armored holds out for 9 days of heavy assault before reinforcements finally arrive to relieve them. Ordu is liberated on September 20th and the last of the cut off Soviet forces surrender on the 22nd.

While the British are still attacking in the South, we have been able to move enough reinforcements into the area to stabilize the flank.

 

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One episode today.
Episode 34: Putting the Italians to Work
We begin reorganization in preparation for the next offensive. We move the larger Italian divisions to the point of our planned attack. The British continue to poke our southern flank but cannot make any dent in our defense.

In the early morning hours of November 25th 1944 we begin the next offensive to liberate our home territory. The massed Italian Infantry begin the attack to try to cross the Euphrates River on the south side of the front.

 

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Episode 35: Recovering the Homeland
The battle to cross the Euphrates continues. The battle rages for 3 weeks before the Soviets are forced to retreat and we can establish a bridgehead. With the bridgehead established we move our armored and motorized units forward.

We press the attack with the Italian units northeast to try to establish a bridgehead across the Tigris River. We roll our mobile units east along the south bank of the Tigris. The exhausted Soviet units trying to hold the Tigris break and retreat allowing us to cross the river. Our attack continues to roll northeast as the new year 1945 dawns.

The Soviets realize that we are trying to outflank them and pull back preventing us from cutting them off. While this is not ideal for us, we will happily take the territory back as the Soviets pull back.

Episode 36: Getting my Airbase Back
We continue pushing north as the Soviets retreat. They try to counterattack but are outflanked and disorganized. We approach the province of Narman from 2 sides. We are also able to push out a little bit on our southern flank at Aleppo.

The Japanese conduct a successful amphibious landing at Karachi and open a second front on the British forces in India.

Our units arrive in Narman on the 23rd of March. The province is the location of one of the large airbases we started building prior to the war with the USSR. It is an important strategic win that allows us to move our air force forward

 

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Episode 37: Pushing the Soviets Out
We come under Soviet counterattack at the province of Narman. The Airbase there is badly damaged from the fighting and we need to end the Soviet attacks to repair the base and get it working again. We get a couple events that give us some manpower. We put the manpower to use by getting some more motorized divisions queued up. The rest goes into reinforcement.

Once we are able to throw the Soviet Counterattack back we go on the offensive. As we push north, the Soviets realize they are in danger of getting cut off and again choose to retreat. This is fine for us as we then push to retake our territory and push our northern border back to the 1941 pre-war location.

 

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Episode 38: Back to the Border
The northern offensive continues as we push back to the pre-war borders. The Soviets provide stiff resistance but we keep pushing them back. We are actually able to push into a Russian province for the first time in a couple years. We request assistance from our allies in re-taking Syria.

Episode 39: Gifts from Germany
Finland has returned to our front line with large numbers of units. We start pushing to the center and southern border areas. The Germans transfer a few infantry divisions to our command. Finland takes a province in the hills on the Black Sea. This creates a wedge in the Soviet lines that we take advantage of.

Heavy fighting ensues on the Black Sea coast. We start pushing into the mountains around Lake Van. We are also able to pound a sizable dent in the Soviet line in the North and get up the southern foothills of the Greater Caucuses.

 

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Episode 40: Emergency in Italy
While we were busy pushing the Soviets out of Turkey, the Allies were not sitting idle. We noticed that United States was in the middle of a big invasion of northern Italy. With the entirety of the Italian army deployed to North Africa and the Soviet front, there is nothing stopping the Americans from blasting through Italy and into our undefended western territory. We have little choice but to shift to a defensive posture and rapidly redeploy whatever forces we can spare to meet the new American threat. I also put down flags for my allies to move forces to assist.

We also begin shifting the MP units we had suppressing revolts and partisan activities in our European conquests into a makeshift defensive line. The Soviets continue to counterattack and we shift units around to defend against the attacks. Again it is the Finns that are the first to respond to the crisis and begin engaging the Americans in Italy. However by this time a large portion of the Italian Peninsula, including the city of Rome, has fallen. But it appears that the American force is not overly large and the Finns plus the few Italian forces that are able to respond are able to re-take a lot of territory pretty quickly.

Episode 41: Operation Dragoon
Our diverted forces begin arriving in the Italian theater and we start deploying them to meet the Americans. Then on the morning of December 4th 1945, the United Stated initiates Operation Dragoon, an amphibious invasion of Southern France. Now we have 2 American invasions to deal with. We shift priorities, leaving the American forces in the Italian peninsula to our allies, and bringing our forces to push towards France.

By the new year we are deployed and engaging the Americans around Torino. We also start using our spare IC to send lend-lease to Italy now that a lot of their industrial centers are occupied. While there have been some sporadic skirmishes with the British forces in the South, the eastern front with the Soviets has fallen strangely quiet.

 

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Episode 42: Bringing the Fight to the Americans
All remains quiet on the Eastern Front. On the Western Front we start shifting our forces towards the Italian Riviera. Our plan is to push along the coast towards Nice. We need to cut the Americans off from their ports on the French Mediterranean coast to prevent them from receiving supplies and reinforcements. Our allies have the Americans in the Italian Peninsula bottled up. We call more divisions from the east to the west to reinforce.

The Finns are able to push the Americans out of Torino and then move into the city on February 21st 1946. We move our units that are nearby into the city as well to assist in holding it. Meanwhile our forces on the coast are fighting in Nice. We force the Americans to retreat and take the city on February 24th. We continue to push along the coast. Our allies show up to help and are able to push the whole front forward. The American 9th Armored Division gets cut off and we attack and destroy it.