Fascists on the Move - an Italy WiF AAR

[VoxToxLox]

New Years Eve 1935, Benito Mussolini, after consuming too much alcohol, promises that the following year will be different. Unlike all the previous times he does not fall asleep and wake up with a terrible headache.

In the first minutes of '36 a massive plan to industrialize Northern Italy is on the way.



Then he has all the WW1 vintage ships of the Regia Marina scrapped.
"Submarines? No-no-no... the Mediterranean.. is Our sea! We do not hide under it like cowards!"
"Cavalry? I thought the 19th century had passed!"

His new found enthusiasm reaches even the pendig invasion of Ethiopa. Mussolini has Grazioli (Chief of Staff) and the Pariani (Chief of the Army) brought to his office.
"Who are these men, that promise to conquer me Ethiopia?" He demands from them.



The southern corps is headed by general Graziani, though a cheerful idealist, hes our only commander who can inspire the troops to skip breakfast and attack with extra fervor.
"Good, but what about the others? General Guzzoni is it?"



An excellent officer, he will get the alpini through any mountain and enemy that stand in the way.
"But common infantry? He will bleed them dry! No, I need someone cold and calculating - a killing machine."


And general Pintor is brought in.

The northernmost armies command had to be fully revamped. Its commanders, though competent (barely-know-what-theyre-doing by world standars), do not please Il Duce.


"I need someone with attitude if Im going to conquer the world!"

Italian intelligence reports that in Addis Abada there lies a shrine, which the blacks worship. Should we get ahold of it, they will bow before us. All three armies race to occupy the site.



And Pintor is successful, his alpini division is the first to arrive. Their skill will not be forgotten.



Meanwhile the jealous Spain does what it can to stop us.


Oh, they will pay!

____________________________________________

My first AAR and first post!

Playing Armageddon with WiF normal/normal, house rules (wait for DoW events). Its a pretty difficult mod, made me resign in terror the last time I tried to play Italy, so lets see where this goes.

[Dagoth Nerevar]

Yay! An Italy AAR! I love Italy.

Good luck. When WWII comes (although a long way off) will you try and hold Ethiopia, or abandon it like the AI always does?

[humancalculator]

Good luck. If you win write an Encyclopedia Italiano.

[Tarsus540]

I also love Italy AAR's. About time we got another one. Plus, it's WIF! Couldn't ask for much more!

[Winner]

This will be hard. The last time I played Italy in WiF, it didn't turn out well, I got stuck in Egypt and the British soon brought in overwhelming numbers of troops.

Good luck, you're gonna need it

[Undead-Hippie]

You're off to a good start, I'll be sure to follow

[germanpeon]

I also love Italy AAR's. About time we got another one. Plus, it's WIF! Couldn't ask for much more!

Indeed!

[carmen510]

Quite interesting. I'll be watching this. (Plus, I may learn how to play Italy more effectively by watching you )

[Arilou]

What does the WiF mod do?

[Tarsus540]

Check my sig. It's an mod that pretty much overhauls much of the game. The graphics are much better, the AI is much more challenging, new events, leaders, ministers, etc. Basically the only thing that has stayed the same is the tech tree. It's a great mod (mainly meant to be played historically). But by far the biggest attraction to the mod (from the point of view of most) is the challenging AI. The AI is very hard in WiF even on the Normal/Normal setting and downright impossible on the hardest setting.

And myself (and others) are beta testing a patch to the current WiF version (called the Platinum Edition) which adds even more changes and much better graphics. Should be out in a month or so.

[VoxToxLox]

Dagoth Nerevar: Fighting the way back from Ethiopia sounds cool, but Ive never learned how to handle the supply properly. So the easy way is for me.

Winner: No kidding, Im building an abusive number of planes just to have any hope of surviving.

Btw the retire old guard event didnt want to trigger. If anyone knows how to manually fire it then do tell.

[VoxToxLox]

The Spanish Civil War breaks out


and the republican goverment, desperate for any support, grant the basque independence. The basques choose the same national color as Portugal, obviously hoping for sympathy. Will it succeed?


The Euskadi goverment is a mysterious one. No one knows who they are, they themselves dont even know it. It is said that the ministers meet once a month in some dark basement, so no one can see each other. And they go by aliases obviously, or would anyone really name their child Jesus Maria?


The sides are not balanced at all.


The nationalists have always preferred Tarragona over Barcelona, so they strike a deal with the enemy.


Italy naturally intervenes, but this bring along a strange encounter.

In the middle of the night Mussolinis baby sleep is disturbed, when a messenger bursts in his bedroom:
"Sir, someone wishes to see you!"
"Who would dare?!" He yells at the boy, almost making the child wet his pants.
"Sir, we.. we.. dont know!"
"What do you mean you dont know, who are they?"
"Sir, they say they hail from Atlantis."

"You must be joking.."
"Sir, I wish it were so.. they told us that they now see we are men of honor, that we stand by our ideals and they wish to aid us in our stuggle."
"Well.. what of their technology?"

"Far beyond anything we have."

Mussolini ponders for a few minutes and then decides: "Lets see how they enjoy the icy waters of the Atlantic!"
And the brave sea people are sold to the germans for some coal.

The civil war rages on


And it seems the Euskadi ploy worked. Portugal, otherwise supporting the nationalists, help the basques cut off some of Francos forces.


The republicans, overjoyed at this prospect, push forward.


If the basques were to win the war, the peninsula would be once again united, by color at least.


But no, Franco doesnt mess around, the basque-republican forces are pushed into the mountains and the war heats down.


While Euskadi is supplied by the basque international, republicans starve.


Yet still they muster the power to be jerks.

[Fernando Torres]

Good luck with this AAR.

(great one about the Maiales from Atlantis ! )

[Tarsus540]

Good update. I've never seen Euskadi take that many provinces in the civil war!

[Winner]

Was it removed from the game in Platinum version? I haven't seen it during my last game.

[Fernando Torres]

Was it removed from the game in Platinum version? I haven't seen it during my last game.

No but perhaps the fascists seized Bilbao before Euskadi could become independant.

[Winner]

Ah, I see.

[Tarsus540]

No it's still there. I just have only seen them own 1 or 2 provinces, not the 3 to 4 they did at one point in your game's civil war.

[BritishImperial]

interesting, i too like italy. though why did you get those amazing submarines, and more importantly why the hell did you get rid of them? they could have wiped out half the british navy by themselves! probably.

[Winner]

interesting, i too like italy. though why did you get those amazing submarines, and more importantly why the hell did you get rid of them? they could have wiped out half the british navy by themselves! probably.

Well, I don't know about that, but I used these superb subs together with some BB's and CA's and I sank pretty much the entire US fleet that was bugging me in the Mediterranean. The fleet contained 5 carriers

But if he wan't a harder game, I am all for it, let's see how it develops...