Italian strategy

[Jedrek]

Axis strategy

OK, since my game as Germany ended as an utter failrue in France, I've decided to take a less challenging country for my next Axis game. Italy has always been one of my favourites in vanilla, but I must admit I'm a bit scared about playing this country in WiF. Do you have any tips or hints on pre-war buildup?

I've noticed that I've got a nasty event reducing my ground defence efficiency, as well as infrastructure in Lybia being seriously reduced when compared to vanilla. Should I spend some IC on improving it, in order to negate the penalty, or those IC should be better spent on other things? What about airforce - is it affordable to go into CAS and FTR, or I should rather stick to TAC, NAV and INT?

Thanks in advance

 

[Lascars]

OK, since my game as Germany ended as an utter failrue in France, I've decided to take a less challenging country for my next Axis game. Italy has always been one of my favourites in vanilla, but I must admit I'm a bit scared about playing this country in WiF. Do you have any tips or hints on pre-war buildup?

I've noticed that I've got a nasty event reducing my ground defence efficiency, as well as infrastructure in Lybia being seriously reduced when compared to vanilla. Should I spend some IC on improving it, in order to negate the penalty, or those IC should be better spent on other things? What about airforce - is it affordable to go into CAS and FTR, or I should rather stick to TAC, NAV and INT?

Thanks in advance

Well, if you want a less challenging country than Germany, don't take Italy, take Canada.
Joking apart, I won't build infra or other fixed installations, but some IC in the first years ( even demobilizing the 1918 troops) in order to get the 5th research team.
After, improve the navy (FC,AA mainly), build some CVs (put them under the best italian adm. you have, they will gain experience fast), TACs, no CAS they're seriously challenged in NA, FTR later, after you will have more than 200 IC. Take Malta and Suez-Port-Said, that should inflict some dissent to the brits, while reducing yours (you will get some if Ethiopia fells).
Take Africa, middle-east, annex Greece in November 1940 and don't share it with Germany (you must share Yugo, if not you're out of the axis), so that you can have a land connection with ME, Africa (for manpower purposes). Take Irak before Iran is puppeted by the british and from there attack Persia, enter in the SU and go for the industries in Siberia.
At Fall Attila, try to take western NA before the Germans or the allies, and take Gibraltar, either with Para's from NA, either from Spain.
Once SU out, from Persia try to take Karachi before the UK build-up there, India (for TC purposes)and after try reunite the pasta/noodles cuisines - China.
Voilà!
The Regio Esercito event will give you again the O.8 GDE later, once you made some progress.

 

[Hollandia]

I tried Italy too and it was very hard. I managed to control the Med Sea, but the Greeks and Brits coulod not be defeated. You need airforce and maybe one or two armored so you can make a spearhead. Infantry alone will get defeated...

 

[Jedrek]

Sounds bad ^^' But guess I'll give it a try. All in all, as Italy I should be able to avoid my greatest fear - Operation Barbarossa ^^'

 

[Lascars]

Sounds bad ^^' But guess I'll give it a try. All in all, as Italy I should be able to avoid my greatest fear - Operation Barbarossa ^^'

Overtake your fears, it's not that awful. Just a bit of adrenaline.

 

[Jedrek]

Bah, I got my ass pwned during Fall Gelb and you're speaking of Barbarossa

It was mostly due to AI concentrating all its airforce on the French front (Kinda frustrating to see "Indian RAF Bomber Command" and such units in '40 France), and my Luftwaffe (divided on into one squadron-sized units in order to play realistically) was unable to stop the 8 squadron-sized TAC monsters vaporising my divisions, simmilar STR stacks f*****g my IC, or a bit smaller stack of fighters decimating every attempt to concentrate my JGs. Plus positioning an offensive has proven to be almost impossible, because I had to keep over 20 divisions on the Siegfried's line in order to prevent the 40 French divisions from overruning my defences.

And the offensive was given up after my army needed two weeks to penetrate the first line of Belgian defences. Every attempt to use CASes or TACs was nullified by concentrated Allied contraction and obliteration of at least one of my squadrons. Since there was little to do to help the situation (with >50% of my airforce around 15-20 strenght I needed more time to reorganize it), I decided to give it up and try something easier

 

[ruckel]

At fall gelb, mass all your armored units in Essen, and focus luftwaffe on ground support in the ardennes, you will reach paris in 2 weeks this way, i did it 2 days ago

 

[Hollandia]

Yeah, or try to pince the armies in liege and such by going through luxembourg to bastogne and from essen to antwerp, reims and the other one. It is possible, you just have to be quick and attack with your infantry where you want the french to get a big stack so you can encircle that stack while they are all being drawn to the fight.

 

[Jedrek]

The problem is that even if I break through Luxemburg, I always encounter a number of French divisions in Sedan, which stalls my advance even without additional Allied reinforcements pouring in. AI seems to garrison the border with Belgium and Luxemburg as well, even though Benelux is neutral before Fall Gelb and thus not a threat to France itself I also tried assaults on Lille and Holland to divert their forces, but they all ended with my units first getting exhausted and then vaporised by Allied TAC stacks.

Now I'm in early 1939 as Italy. I disbanded all my TAC squads and replaced them with CASes, built 4*4 batches of IC to reach 80 base IC, avoided building additional divisions since I'm already low on supplies. I've just begun constructing light armoured divisions and consider building 6 INF divisions to strenghten my Libiyan front. Ethiopia is left only with token defense (8 CCNN '18 INF divisions), to stall the Allies until I get a breakthrough in Egypt. Land doctrines are up to date, '39 INF has just been researched, once my CAS batches are complete I'll start upgrading my Libyan units. My last two games as Italy ended in Libiya (once with my forces getting overrun due to Ground Defence penalty and once because of insufficient firepower to crush the Allies), we'll see how it will work this time

 

[Jedrek]

Mid 1940. Germany has smashed the Western Allies historically, I joined the Axis in late June 1940. Managed to take Malta by a quick amphibious opearation (3*INF+ART divisions), then a series of naval battles took place. No loses on my side, one BB (HMS Warspite) down on the British side.

I transported 20 divisions to Africa (18 INF, 1 lARM, 1 HQ) and managed to seize Sollum. The Allied counteroffensive was pushed back, but I'm worried about my low organisation and even lower recovery rate. Even with my ground defence increased after the fall of Malta it is still a pain in the ass to fight the British. AOI is laid to waste, with its garrison only slowing the Brits down in order for my army in Lybia to destroy as many hostile units as possible. I'm also garrisoning my border with Greece, but I hope only to stall them before Germany invades Yugoslavia.

Any ideas what should I do?

EDIT: Can anyone up there change the thread's name to "Axis strategy"? There's plenty topics with USSR discussed, but little tips on playing other countries...

 

[Garriath]

I've really found that Africa's most easily winnable by a few smart amphibious moves. I generally don't push the Brits much past Tobruk; I mostly just try to keep them there.

At the same time, I keep my eyes on Palestine and the Alexandria region. Every once in a while, the AI will leave a gap on one of the coast lines. Palestine is rarely well defended, and it's fairly easy to establish a beachhead there. After that, taking Suez and ~10-15 allied divisions is fairly easy. The AI often supplies from Suez, too, so you can deny them that. Just keep ~15-20 divisions on Rhodes, if you can spare them, and they'll be ready to invade at the drop of a hat.

Also, keep in mind that there's a bottleneck right at El Alamein. If you manage to take the province, every British division between Tobruk and EA will eventually be forced to surrender. It's with a move like this that you can win Africa.

I actually haven't tried this, but in a recent game, the Italian AI kept a decent army in Ethiopia. While the battles near Tobruk were raging, they actually fought their way down to the South African border- it really seemed to be a drain on allied resources. Just a thought.

 

[Jedrek]

Sadly, I won't have any spare divisions until 1941 - this means, until new production orders begin to leave the factories. All my non-garrison divisions are currently divided between Africa and Albania, with only 3 of them acting as mobile reserve in case of Allied landing in Italy.

It's too late to reinforce Ethiopia, but I guess I should be able to keep the Allies in check in Africa until the end of the year. I'm thinking about leaving Sollum and forcing them to stretch their lines, so that a breakthrough can be achieved more easily.

 

[Garriath]

Not a bad idea about leaving Sollum.

I actually wouldn't worry about defending Albania. Once Germany gets over there, Greece will fall in weeks, and a faster victory in Africa is probably more important than a faster victory in Greece.

Your call, of course!

 

[Lascars]

Not a bad idea about leaving Sollum.

I actually wouldn't worry about defending Albania. Once Germany gets over there, Greece will fall in weeks, and a faster victory in Africa is probably more important than a faster victory in Greece.

Your call, of course!

Greece's annexation in late 1940 is very important for Italy because Italy can refuse to share it with Germany, without leaving the axis, and can have, after Yugoslavia's fall, a land link in the Balkans and with Turkey annexed later, a land link to Middle East and Africa. In this way it can recover additional manpower (with the proper minister) and spare convoys later in the game. Greek IC and resources are also a big bonus. In order to take it a landing in the north (Kavala) is pretty easy, followed by a push to the south (pocketing the Metaxas line). Once Greece over, the troops can go to the Middle East.
Ethiopia doesn't need to be defended in the beginning, it can be taken later, once eastern North Africa and Middle East secured. It's possible to annex South Africa with Italy before Barbarossa.

 

[Eugenioso]

i dont know how you could win as italy, but thats what probably everyone said after their first playthrough of WIF...


what i did at first was forgo the IC construction, and begin to build mountain troops and garrisons. mountain troops are fast, tough and being elite troops have very low disadvantage bonuses from fighting in desert. the garrisons are vital for later. also begin to pump out at least 2 transports with a 99 serial run. the whole point is that you will not beat the UK in either the airforce department or the fleet department even if you try. your airforce and fleet should be used for short operations that never put it at risk, like shore bombardment and using TAC's to support landings.

even before the war starts you should pull all your forces out of ethiopia. holding it is nigh on impossible without supplies.

start massing troops in africa before the war starts. start going for full central planning and then for hawk policy, then go for full army. change for ministers which give you IC bonuses.

once the war starts (depending on wether you allied with germany or not) you should IMEDIATELY go on the offensive, since the forces the english will have there will be nearly nothing, but that will quickly change. if possible (only if possible), do a landing behind alexandria and use your fleet and TAC's to support your advance. if alexandria falls you have just set your stepping stone into building an empire. man the african coastline with your garrisons (did you build them?) to stop any rear landings, which are the doom of italy. cover the italian peninsula fully with troops, even the places without beaches or ports, to stop any landing attempt or a sneaky paratrooper invasion. also, have about 12 divisions bordering the french line to dissuade any assault by them. anything less than 12 usually makes them attack, especially if you allied early with germany. as for the yugoslavian border, you can leave a small force to stop any of their attacks. besides, why risk more troops there when germany is gonna wipe the floor with them anyway?

if youre good, you should have broken through to port said. if you hold it, you are secured for the time being. leave some infantry divisions to spare there, and begin to move south. why south? because if you dont the brits will begin to deploy huge numbers of troops there and break your hold on port said. you cant allow that.


throughout all this time you should be bribing the Nationalists in spain to get your relations to 200+. ask them for military access, and once thats done, go take over gibraltar. the brits will get a dissent hit and you will have secured your flank (at least until operation Torch).

begin to push south. if you can destroy brit divisions by encircling them then gj, if not, just keep pushing south.


thats about all the advice i can give you. afterwards, its up to you