Un nuovo impero romano?
1 January 1936 A.D.
The beginning of 1936 was quite peaceful, compared to New Year's of 20 years prior, or of nearly any year prior in the history of Earth. Granted, at the moment Italy was at war with Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and the Chinese Republic (ROC or Nationalist China) was at war with some Communist rebels holed up in the mountains around Yan'an. There probably were other conflicts going on somewhere in the world, but most likely they were on a local and unimportant basis not fitting the grand scale of international Machtpolitik.
Benito Mussolini, former schoolmaster, veteran of the Great War, and current "Head of Government" of the Kingdom of Italy, had abstained from alcohol on New Year's Eve 1935. Later they would say that it was because he didn't want to be unfit to analyze the war in Abyssinia, or perhaps he just didn't want to deal with a hangover, but regardless he awoke that morning in a cold sweat, having seen images in his mind's eye of massive battleships and aircraft carriers, firing salvos and launching their aircraft, and... Flying the Italian flag. He then sat up in bed, struggling to remember the rest of his dream... Thousands of aircraft bombing cities to pieces and the Emperor of Ethiopia speaking before the League of Nations... And then a picture had popped into his head of the same Emperor of Ethiopia being shot by Italian troops somewhere in what looked like Ethiopia... Il Duce had dressed and seen a map before the final part of his dream burst into his memory - Italy, the Iberian and Balkan peninsulas, Turkey, the British and French mandates of Syria and Iraq, and Africa from Egypt to Morroco... All the same color. Written on the map in his mind's eye was the words - The Second Roman Empire.
Il Duce then made some phone calls and by 2 January Italy was arranged as follows...
Regia Esercito (Royal Italian Army)
With the exception of the divisions in Italian Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, most divisions are at 70% of their strength, which shall be remedied as soon as some industry is freed up.
Most of the 103,400 men in East Africa at the moment are auxiliaries, another word for militia, or in short "barely-trained recruits most likely from the colonies or the Fascist militia".
Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy)
The Regia Marina consists of 4 battleships, 8 heavy cruisers, 12 light cruisers, 18 flotillas of destroyers, 11 squadrons of submarines, and 6 transport divisions. A cruiser, two battleships, and submarine squadron are currently being produced, with the cruiser tentatively being named RM Eugenio di Savoia and the battleships tentatively named RM Littorio and Vittorio Veneto The battleship is expected to be finished towards the end of 1937, but hopefully the rest of the class (projected to be a class of 5) will have been laid down by then. Also research is proceeding on an aircraft carrier.
Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force)
The Regia Aeronautica consists of 3 squadrons of interceptors, 3 squadrons of tactical bombers, 1 of transports, and 3 squadrons of torpedo bombers. No current air force development is currently planned, perhaps after one of the current research projects is completed...
Well, I was going to post a screenshot detailing how I plan to go about regarding the Conquest of Abyssinia, but I didn't press the correct button as it turns out and it's very late, so I need to get to bed. However, let's just say that it involves surrounding Addis Ababa (no troublesome Emperors going to escape to the UK and speak before the League of Nations...) and a corps reaching Addis Ababa in February. That of course assumes that there's no resistance, and I've already bombed some Ethiopian militia that happen to be right in my path. I think I might post it next time.
And by the way, suggestions are open as to what exactly I should do with Ethiopia - should I annex it or puppet it are basically the two options. I was reading Mare Nostrum earlier, however, and liked the idea of making Ethiopia a puppet and giving them my East African colonies, but I don't want to do that because then I feel like I'll have just ripped the author of that off, which I don't want to do.
This will be played in 1.3 with Normal/Normal settings.
1 January 1936 A.D.
The beginning of 1936 was quite peaceful, compared to New Year's of 20 years prior, or of nearly any year prior in the history of Earth. Granted, at the moment Italy was at war with Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and the Chinese Republic (ROC or Nationalist China) was at war with some Communist rebels holed up in the mountains around Yan'an. There probably were other conflicts going on somewhere in the world, but most likely they were on a local and unimportant basis not fitting the grand scale of international Machtpolitik.
Benito Mussolini, former schoolmaster, veteran of the Great War, and current "Head of Government" of the Kingdom of Italy, had abstained from alcohol on New Year's Eve 1935. Later they would say that it was because he didn't want to be unfit to analyze the war in Abyssinia, or perhaps he just didn't want to deal with a hangover, but regardless he awoke that morning in a cold sweat, having seen images in his mind's eye of massive battleships and aircraft carriers, firing salvos and launching their aircraft, and... Flying the Italian flag. He then sat up in bed, struggling to remember the rest of his dream... Thousands of aircraft bombing cities to pieces and the Emperor of Ethiopia speaking before the League of Nations... And then a picture had popped into his head of the same Emperor of Ethiopia being shot by Italian troops somewhere in what looked like Ethiopia... Il Duce had dressed and seen a map before the final part of his dream burst into his memory - Italy, the Iberian and Balkan peninsulas, Turkey, the British and French mandates of Syria and Iraq, and Africa from Egypt to Morroco... All the same color. Written on the map in his mind's eye was the words - The Second Roman Empire.
Il Duce then made some phone calls and by 2 January Italy was arranged as follows...
Regia Esercito (Royal Italian Army)
With the exception of the divisions in Italian Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, most divisions are at 70% of their strength, which shall be remedied as soon as some industry is freed up.
Most of the 103,400 men in East Africa at the moment are auxiliaries, another word for militia, or in short "barely-trained recruits most likely from the colonies or the Fascist militia".
Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy)
The Regia Marina consists of 4 battleships, 8 heavy cruisers, 12 light cruisers, 18 flotillas of destroyers, 11 squadrons of submarines, and 6 transport divisions. A cruiser, two battleships, and submarine squadron are currently being produced, with the cruiser tentatively being named RM Eugenio di Savoia and the battleships tentatively named RM Littorio and Vittorio Veneto The battleship is expected to be finished towards the end of 1937, but hopefully the rest of the class (projected to be a class of 5) will have been laid down by then. Also research is proceeding on an aircraft carrier.
Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force)
The Regia Aeronautica consists of 3 squadrons of interceptors, 3 squadrons of tactical bombers, 1 of transports, and 3 squadrons of torpedo bombers. No current air force development is currently planned, perhaps after one of the current research projects is completed...
Well, I was going to post a screenshot detailing how I plan to go about regarding the Conquest of Abyssinia, but I didn't press the correct button as it turns out and it's very late, so I need to get to bed. However, let's just say that it involves surrounding Addis Ababa (no troublesome Emperors going to escape to the UK and speak before the League of Nations...) and a corps reaching Addis Ababa in February. That of course assumes that there's no resistance, and I've already bombed some Ethiopian militia that happen to be right in my path. I think I might post it next time.
And by the way, suggestions are open as to what exactly I should do with Ethiopia - should I annex it or puppet it are basically the two options. I was reading Mare Nostrum earlier, however, and liked the idea of making Ethiopia a puppet and giving them my East African colonies, but I don't want to do that because then I feel like I'll have just ripped the author of that off, which I don't want to do.
This will be played in 1.3 with Normal/Normal settings.