At the end of the year, a local incident along the border with France causes sudden concern. Revanchists are insisting that Italy should retake the land Italy gave up in its formative years to France, which had helped with… and then welched… on some deals with Sardinia-Piedmont. It’s a complicated story. But Mussolini decides it’s a minor distraction with great potential to cause trouble with the people he most wants to please, right now. So he buries it, and sends troops to underline his order.
We’ve been building a couple of advance airfields. One in Storo, near the Swiss-Austrian border, and another in Trieste. Venetia has a large, full-service airport which we can use for our bombers and long-distance fighters. But our shorter-range fighters and light bombers will need bases close to the front, especially if we advance into, and out of, the Austrian Alps.
More Industrial improvements come as welcome relief to our military planners, who are trying desperately to bolster Italian defenses in light of growing tensions around Europe. You’ll also notice a hidden history note at the bottom of the screenshot which I didn’t otherwise highlight – CAS pilot training increases the organization of our light bombers.
Here’s our technology priority list at the beginning of 1937. It might seem odd that Combat Radios is such a priority, but at game start Italy has very short radio range, which means that we can’t advance very far at all without leaving the range (and the bonuses from higher-command leaders) of our HQs. Must change that – it became obvious in the war in Abyssinia, though that was such a simple war it didn’t matter much.
You’ll notice we’re emphasizing light tank techs, and even armored cars. But some of our aerospace techs have been shoved down in the list – they’ll be moved back up soon enough, after we’ve gotten some progress done on infantry and other priorities.
We’ve been keeping tabs on the Spanish Civil War. Italy has chosen to back the Nationalists, and they seem to be doing okay, but it’s slow going. Near the end of 1936, the Republicans surged north from their southern bases, threatening central Spain. And yet the Nationalists were able to use that shift in emphasis to make more trouble in the south, with fewer Republicans defending.
The north, near the Pyrenees, remained confused until the Republicans consolidated their gains there in January. This was dismaying to us, but meanwhile the Nationalists were regaining their territory in the center and south. It made us hopeful that they might consolidate the south and be able to shorten their front against the Republicans, which could be all that was necessary for victory. We shall see.
Our first new Alpini divisions, fortified with artillery (ColtSyme, tell me more about why artillery gives mountain divisions a disadvantage – is it a matter of speed, or does it erode the specialist bonus? – I should know this, but it’s been a long time since I closely studied HOI 3), finally finished training in April, 1937, and we deployed them to the Austrian border. If Hitler’s machinations over Austria were really a sign that he intended to annex his former homeland, more strength along this border might be the only way to show him we mean business and would not tolerate such interference.
Our sources on the ground in Austria indicate there’s little support for Hitler among the Fascist Party, and the Nationalists are not gaining strength fast enough to indicate any desire among the people to unite with Germany. If Hitler means to have Austria, he will have to do it by force. We hope we will be ready to turn him back, if he does.
Here’s our Production Queue and Industrial outlook in April:
Remember we started at 79 IC, and had expanded that to 83 by October of last year. Now we’re at 85 because of IC builds and increases to Industrial Tech (plus there was that Nationalization event). By May, as you can see, we’ll increase yet again, with 3-4 more increases to come. That will be all the IC we probably have the ability to build, as I expect we shall be “in the thick of it” once the middle of 1938 comes around, and will need to devote all our IC to military purposes.
In April, we also changed our Education Policy to provide higher rates of accumulation for Leadership Points. This helps both our Research and our Officer ratio.
I mentioned I was keeping a close eye on the Spanish Civil War, and I mean close, because I noticed when the border didn’t really shift between April and June. I found this odd, of course. When I investigated, I realized that I must have missed the end of the war – I’m obsessive with taking screenshots, and I can tell you with certainty I didn’t get a popup when the war ended. I must have had the settings wrong. I do remember seeing a “moving the capital back to Lisbon” event, but that didn’t exactly mean to me that the war was over.
This is probably the first time I’ve ever seen the Spanish Civil War end with a negotiated peace! The first time since release, anyway. That’s a screwy map! If the war ever starts up again, I could see ways that either side could get the jump on the other and really end things decisively.
Through the summer of 1937, you can see the list of tech advances we made – each one critical to Italy’s survival in a hostile Europe, should it come to that. We finished the aircraft techs, our light tanks are becoming more advanced (we can research medium tanks now, but what’s the point – we wouldn’t be able to find IC or Research Points to make that line of tech/production fruitful). Infantry (thanks to the HPP mod this advances Mountain troops too) techs have advanced, especially defensive ones.
In late August, 1937, Japan declares war upon Nationalist China. This turns out to be the major world event of the next year or so. By the end of October, the Japanese had pushed quickly south from Manchuria, declared war upon Shanxi as well, and were also making progress in advancing from their invasion sites along the east coast.
Still lots of China to go, but the Japanese seem to be getting everything they want.
At some point in playing this game, I realized that my Message Settings had some serious problems. This is why I’d missed the end of the Spanish Civil War. I also must have missed the Reoccupation of the Rhineland, because by the end of 1937 Germany’s Threat was obviously higher, and the UK and France were really starting to pay attention! The Rhineland also couldn't account for such a rise in tension, so I expect the Germans were massively expanding their military.
Mussolini had always considered Hitler as a dangerous man, though he had his doubts about Hitler’s ability to accomplish the crazy things he talked about. By the beginning of 1938, Mussolini and the Italian leadership cadre were all coming to realize that Germany posed a serious threat to Austria, and through her, Italy. What had been a casual buildup of military strength as a means of geopolitical showmanship turned into an expectation of war, and the attending headlong commitment to do something about it.