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I would use HQs in the same role as they were used in WW2 - in desperation (Bastogne) mainly. I would be hard-pressed though to avoid using Rommel's (or most top German leaders) HQ in advances as historically he was on the front lines quite a bit.

I think we are starting to see the full payoff value of the carriers and its air arm. Perhaps Il Duce was prescient about their use this far in the future...hrmmm, scary!
 
Looks like your gamble just might pay off.

Small question, how are your supplylines, not too overstretched? Never played HoI3 before, so I have no idea how the supplysystem works here.
 
Not my style though. It's one of those things I'd do out of desperation, against a human opponent maybe. But neither of those are the case here.

Bah.
This is a wargame, HoI3. There can be made no peace between factions.
It is a total war until the weaker side is vanquished.
You use all the means available to win.
There are no rules, no styles. Anything that leads to victory must be used.
Any means necessary. :D

'Style'? Is there something called 'style' on the battlefield? :cool:
 
myth said:
Also, Constanta would disagree! This entire time its been held by an HQ and been under near constant attack by the Soviets, who seem to want that port for some reason.
:eek: , not in Constanta! Hopefully not near the coast?;)

enewald said:
You use all the means available to win.
There are no rules, no styles. Anything that leads to victory must be used.

Depends on how near the historical you want to be in the use of available forces. Myth's 'what-if' game is doing nicely, and would suffer in the telling if he suddenly went out of character. Now, if the Reds made a major breakout, requiring the use of HQ's to plug holes, that would be a different matter. But using them at this point would undermine the command and control they are 'supposed' to provide.
 
womble: Well, they may have some convoys, but if they do, it's probably not enough to supply an entire theater. :p

Forster: Indeed. ;)

Maj. von Mauser: Yep. But that's always how things in war are: they look good until suddenly they don't. :D

Jorath13: Carriers give me a lot more flexibility, yes. I've been saying this for a while. ;)

FlyingDutchie: My supply lines, as far as I could tell, were surprisingly fine, no matter how badly the Germans tried to overload them by sending in more divisions. :p

Enewald: Of course there's style on the battlefield. There are different strategic cultures, different operational doctrines, different tactical doctrines. Different cultures, different countries, even different formations within a single corps or army, fight in different ways. :p

FrodoB: Well, it's hard to say, but the HQ got hit pretty hard. And I agree with you concerning HQs. :p

Update tomorrow!
 
I don't think the Soviets are out of troops. Unless the Germans finally do something from Poland, the Soviets should be pushing troops down from their armies in Finland. Still if the infra is zero in a bank of provinces north of the Dacian neck, it could take them a while.
 
'Style'? Is there something called 'style' on the battlefield? :cool:
Have you seen the German helmets? They're, by far, the sexiest on the battlefield!
 
Not really relevant in this case, since it's only IC in your cores that generate supply.

I stand corrected. :) Thanks for the clarification.

Stuyvesant: The westward side of the pocket can probably be described as RAWR SMASH! ;)
"Hulk SMASH!" Italy is a green monster, after all. :p
 
Jemisi: Quite possibly. We'll see how it goes. ;)

LOLKATS: They are kind of nice, yeah. :p

womble: Hopefully indeed. :p

Stuyvesant: Yeah, but I like rawr. ;)

Update tonight!
 
Update tonight!

really looking forward to it.

I am eager to see how turns your destruction of infrastructure. It helped you to setup the front but now it may work against you to kill the bastards quick. :rolleyes::D
 
alvaro: Aye, we'll see, we'll see. ;)

hoikof: That wouldn't be good. :D

Update coming up!
 
The Year of the Masters of War
Part 10: The Strength of Italian Arms I, August 7 – August 28, 1944

So far, the Italian gamble had been holding up to Mussolini’s expectations, even if not necessarily the expectations of some contemporary commentators. By early August, seven Italian armies and a myriad of miscellaneous German formations probably totaling approximately six hundred thousand men were firmly attached to the periphery and pushing inward from the northwest and, to a far lesser extent, the east and northeast. Italian strategic mobility had already been shown to be unmatched by any other country in the world, at least amongst the belligerent powers. Italian strategic imagination was also a tier above that of both its allies and its foes. From early August onward, Mussolini judged that it was time to finally show the world the true strength of Italian arms.

The Soviets were contracting their frontlines. Perhaps the theater commander understood the Italian advantage due to their ability to concentrate in time, across many fronts. Perhaps he hoped to restore a coherent front from which he could mount a more competent defense and hope for reinforcements to break into southeastern Europe from the northeast. Perhaps he understood that Soviet divisions were now vanishing with alarming rapidity. By the 8th of August, at least one division had been encircled in the Dacian neck, and another two on the south-central Illyrian front. Belgrade was also under attack, though the Soviet defenders had vowed to fight for every street. That battle would rage for five grueling days, costing nearly three thousand lives in aggregate by both sides, yet even as Budapest burned other Italian formations were maneuvering around it, pushing past it. In the south-center area of the Illyrian front, Guzzoni’s and the southern wing of Graziani’s armies were rushing forward, having crushed a pocket, and were in the process of overrunning their foes. From Dacia, meanwhile, Cei’s mobile corps had finally broken free of Soviet formations and was beginning a race westward and southwestward around the tip of Hungary, overrunning one retreating Soviet division in the process. The Soviet forces in the east were beginning to stream southward, abandoning their attempts to punch through the Dacian neck. It was time for Vercellino’s army to move south, in pursuit. The Italian armies were beginning to squeeze their enemies.

114-01-BeginningtheSqueeze.jpg

Italian armies moving in on central southeastern Europe, on the 15th of August.

The Italian armies continued to squeeze the Soviet forces mercilessly. In all except a few locations, the operation had changed from one of breaking through Soviet lines to moving in headlong pursuit of withdrawing Soviet forces, and aiming to encircle them. Seven Soviet formations by this point faced Pintor’s army, which was so used to empty space before it. These formations were but the detritus of battle, however. Furthermore, while Pintor’s army was pressuring their northwestern front, Cei’s cavalry was cutting through their supply lines southward. Another pocket was forming, and it the link up between western forces and eastern forces was on the cusp of occurring. Further east, the rest of Vercellino’s army was hard in pursuit of withdrawing Soviet elements. At this point the greatest Soviet resistance was probably in front of Guzzoni’s, Graziani’s and Baistrocchi’s armies. It was between these armies that the Soviet lifeline to Athens lay, for Mussolini had suspicions that Soviet blockade runners were reaching Athens sufficiently to provide some limited supplies. The resistance Baistrocchi faced was indeed the greatest resistance yet for his army during this operation, as for most of the past month the Soviet defenses on his front had been weak and scattered. Meanwhile, on the southern and central Illyrian fronts, a number of minor pockets had been achieved and were in the process of being cleared. The Italians were not letting up on the pressure.

114-02-SqueezingMore.jpg

The Italians squeezing the Soviets evermore, by August 21.

The Italians were temporarily held back by the need to clear up the many pockets being formed, and thus stayed their executioner’s blade for a short while. The northern pocket was on the verge of destruction, and the pockets being formed on the south-central Illyrian front were all wiped out. Vercellino and Baistrocchi were, however, aiming for an encirclement of numerous Soviet elements around Bucharest, though it was unknown whether Italian infantry would be faster than Soviet armor. Amadeo duca degli Abruzzi’s army, after having waited for a week and more while his elongated flanks became shorter and better protected by Guzzoni’s advance, finally launched his forces forward again, southward into Albania. The Soviet formations opposing his advance were meager and he quickly broke through them. Shortly after this, and with the northern pocket entirely liquidated, Pintor’s army removed from the operational order of battle and instead sent northward into the Dacian neck to begin making preparations for its defense against a Soviet counterattack that had not yet materialized but which Mussolini continued to expect. His aid was not required any more in any case: the majority of the remaining Soviet forces were being herded into an enormous pocket comprising eastern Illyria, southwestern Dacia and northwestern Thrace. South of this forming pocket, probably only about a half-dozen Soviet divisions remained.

114-03-HeavySquashingNow.jpg

The situation on the 28th of August, the Soviets were being herded into an ever tightening space.

Mussolini may have been the only person with complete confidence in the strength of Italian arms even against the largest army in the world, that of the Soviet Union. The Germans certainly had no confidence in the Italian armed forces. They saw only the retreats of the past two years and most likely expected it to occur again. They failed to see the great successes of 1943, or the fact that neither retreat proved fatal to Italy, as both were incredibly well controlled. The Germans saw supposed Italian failures while being unable to perceive their own. With the Soviets being confined to an ever smaller space, the Germans merely saw a greater density of Soviet formations, not the devastating process that had led them to that point. The Germans saw false strength rather than the weakness that really afflicted the Soviet Balkan theater. Thus it was that Mussolini reacted with shock and fury at reports streaming from Germany, that incredible portions of the Eastern front was being denuded of troops. And for what reason? To reinforce the success they could not see in the Balkans, unaware of the terrible mistake they were making. There were already probably forty German divisions in the Balkans, and according to reports it seemed like another forty would be joining them. The Germans were finally moving, but in the wrong direction.

114-04-GoddamnitGermans.jpg

Goddamnit those worthless Germans.

While a handful of significant battles raged during this period, most notably at Belgrade, the actual bloodletting in the operation had been steadily reducing. With the Soviets in no shape to offer the heavy resistance that had marked the previous month of combat, and indeed withdrawing precipitously to the south, the casualty rate both for the Italian and German forces had dropped considerably. Their casualties for these three weeks of August amounted to not even ten thousand four hundred, dropping by over five thousand despite the time period being longer by eight days. The Soviet casualty rate had also dropped, to not quite twenty thousand five hundred, from a number four thousand higher for the preceding period. Combat had obviously become less intensive. Nevertheless, the Soviet losses remained even greater than noted, as a fair number of formations had been destroyed. The total was unknown, but likely to be over one dozen and possibly approaching, and even exceeding, one eighteen. Most significantly of all, the Soviets were rapidly approaching a completely untenable position. If only the Germans could see it that way, and do something intelligent for once.
 
I am once again stunned by the stupidity of the German AI. Makes you wonder how that Germany managed to conquer France. Anyway splendid job in the Balkans the Soviets in that area are doomed.
 
Adolf is just thinking of the good of Italy. :rofl:

Are the Soviets even sending any resources to Athens?
And how could they if you control Marmara?

The famous Ostfront is becoming a Sitzkrieg, on both sides. :rofl:
Fairplay. :cool:
And Finland?

The Germans concentrate more on the flanks, just as the Soviets, the AI is very clever.
You cannot win in the centre if you do not have dominance on the flanks. :rolleyes:
 
myth said:
...even if not necessarily the expectations of some contemporary commentators.
:confused: surely not moi

Italian strategic mobility had already been shown to be unmatched by any other country in the world
Maybe true, but bad form to pat yourself on the back - that's our job :p MUSSOLINI's ego is showing.

Mussolini had suspicions that Soviet blockade runners were reaching Athens sufficiently to provide some limited supplies.
TOLD you, you needed some patrols.:(

The Germans were finally moving, but in the wrong direction.
But it looks as though the Soviets are shadowing them. And looks as though some Germans are movingto Finland.

sent northward into the Dacian neck to begin making preparations for its defense against a Soviet counterattack

Hope you can hold it this time.:rolleyes:

Well done.:D
 
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Your victory in Greece seems assured. Its time to plan another field trip! Sweep north, capturing resources and bail out the Germans? Or sweep east into Turkey and subdue the Middle East?

Where does your technology research focus go from here? Is there room in Italian industry to start producing Italian armour?
 
Your infrastructure bombing (all that has secured you North flank) will mean that an offensive in that direction will not be possible for a while.

Why not load all the german units that are under your control and repeat this operation in the Leningrad rgion. You could cut-off Finland and destroy all enemy forces in that pocket, using german forces all the way! This would give you a new aea of opeations and represents almost no risk for Italy.

If England is in the way, you could use those German forces in a preliminary opeation to capture England.