Explorations in Strategy - Italy at War

[Stuyvesant]

Didn't you have some smart comment about battles in space and battles in time a while back (I might be mangling the concepts here - mind's a little rusty). Definitely, time is not on your side in Spain. Sure, overall you're bigger and better, but to get those forces and get them to Spain (and without denuding your frontiers) is going to be tricky. Now imagine if the Brits do a Wellington and land expeditionary forces in Spain... Nah, they're not that good.

It'll be very interesting to watch: this is the first time you really have to respond to events, rather than setting the pace yourself (Turkey's surpise entrance into the war didn't count).

Let's see how well you improvise.

[Evil4Zerggin]

All I can say is, ouch. To make matters worse, they probably have 100% unity...

[quetzilla]

All I can say is, ouch. To make matters worse, they probably have 100% unity...

They most certainly do :P. Which also means he'll need to venture out into the big scary Atlantic to take the Canary Islands.

[AreoHotah]

It is not nearly as scary when you have A huge chunk trapped in the med.

[Gladiator]

Wow!!! You can probably face Spanish offensive, but you've to let eastern fronts undefended.... Not easy to decide the best moves now. Germany never tells its allies what it wants to do. I hope Barbarossa will not start soon...

[Myth]

sneakey pete: That's no land fort, it's a radar station!

shepherd352: I suspected that I'd not get anything from helping the Germans. I probably won't do too much to help them.

quetzilla: Yep.

EvilFishtank: Hehe, let's not get ahead of ourselves here! The Med Fleet will have to wait a bit.

anweRU: Hehe thanks.

Ahriman: Oh yes, of course. And I'm quite weak in Spain at the moment. For once, the AI made a strategic calculation that makes some sense. What they do with it, however, is another issue.

Maj. von Mauser: Well he's taught me one lesson already: if you want to keep someone as a buffer state, keep him sweet with diplomacy. Especially if he thinks some land you have is actually his.

Stuyvesant: Concentration in space/time, yes. The former is typically the purview of the power with interior lines, the latter for the one with exterior lines. Britain could be seen as trying to concentrate in time by hitting me in multiple places at the same time and trying to get me to vastly overstretch my forces. But then, they'd have to hit me in multiple places to do that. As for my improvisational abilities, I think they're pretty good.

Evil4Zerggin: Hehe, it was a bit of a surprise. And they may or may not have had 100% unity, I don't recall atm.

quetzilla: The Atlantic isn't that scary. Certainly no scarier than the Med would be if the RN there actually left port and fought.

AreoHotah:

Gladiator: Hehe yeah, there's always a danger to the east.

[Enewald]

I knew that you would eventually come to conquer Iberia.

[GrenadierSchube]

why would fascist Franco ever help the British, its like asking the Swiss to invade Germany, but i do see a problem here, if he captures Gibraltar wouldn't that leave an exit for the British fleet? or possible an entrance for the rest of her majesty's ships to attempt a rescue ? treed carefully Il Duce im sure your brilliance will win this one just yet.

[slugo]

and really, do you need all that land in spain, besides gibralter and cartegena(only cuz you already invested in the radar station. can't you just fall back and dig in?

[quetzilla]

The Nationalists have a sizable army, most of which is non-reserve so they are already at full strength. Just falling back and digging in is not a feasible plan without reinforcements.

[Gen. Hillier]

The last post I saw with a production screen was back when you had two carriers hogging up most of the que.
Is there a new corps ready that can resolve the Spanish situation?

[womble]

Wow!!! You can probably face Spanish offensive, but you've to let eastern fronts undefended.... Not easy to decide the best moves now. Germany never tells its allies what it wants to do. I hope Barbarossa will not start soon...

Barbarossa will start in early April... probably.

And the "Bitter Peace" event is aptly named from an Italian POV... "Me? Bitter? After Russia surrendered to Germany, and my good friend Adolf neglected to even offer me a single province in return for doing all the heavy lifting, just like when he settled with the French. No, I'm not bitter. I'm furious." The only reason I'm bothering in Russia is because I haven't had a decent fight all game; at least the Russians are giving me a bit of hassle, not least by their miraculous ability to "retreat" into enemy territory and to continue to operate without supply. I didn't think that was allowed.

[Myth]

Enewald: Not by choice! I was forced upon me!

GrenadierSchube: Because in the end ideology is trumped by pragmatism. That's why Franco and, err, Baldwin are bedfellows. And yes, if the Spanish make too much trouble, that is a fair bit of trouble for me.

slugo: No. That leaves my fate hanging on Franco's whims. It gives the enemy the initiative, which is rarely good (it is only good when the enemy is making a mistake, for as Napoleon says you should never interrupt him when he does so). Defense may be the stronger form of warfare (according to Clausewitz) but, in this case at least, the drawbacks of the offensive are outweighed by the drawbacks of the defensive.

quetzilla: Even with reinforcements, it's a bad idea. I'd be basically occupying two armies or some other sizable force for no good reason.

Gen. Hillier: No. And besides, a single corps wouldn't do much good here. It'd just get caught up in the defeat. I'd need a truly sizable force to defeat the Spanish.

womble: Deep breaths.

I'll have an update for tomorrow evening!

[Sokraates]

This was somehow predictable. Good luck!

On the bright side, now you no longer have to worry about what to do next.

[Jemisi]

I'll have an update for tomorrow evening!

Looking forward to it. Thanks for the consistency.

[mimi21]

Always follow u, Myth. I come from Vietnam and so difficult for me to understand all of your AAR but when i read it i have an unlimited desire to do job with Itaian Empire........

[Myth]

Sokraates: Yeah, it probably is predictable, but I was a bit surprised at the time. The captions for the last two screenshots are more or less what I thought at the time.

Jemisi: Yeah, I try to be more or less consistent, otherwise I'll probably just forget about it!

mimi21: Hey, welcome! I'm glad you're enjoying my AAR!

I'll have that update for tonight!

[Lapce]

Myth, you're doing a great job!

Nice turnaround in Spain, I just hope those latinos wont destroy your entire army. It is opportunity to paint western med green and bring further glory to duce, and to keep gibraltar under your control.

Theoretical speaking, if barbarossa would start in few months and germany drags you in, plus somehow uncle sam joins the war, then what?

In slovenian language, we have an expresion "screwing the hedgehog". This is what you will be doing if that occurs. Anyway, good luck! :P

[Sokraates]

Sokraates: Yeah, it probably is predictable, but I was a bit surprised at the time. The captions for the last two screenshots are more or less what I thought at the time.

Really? And I thought those captions were taken from Mussolini's official Biography.

[quetzilla]

Nice turnaround in Spain, I just hope those latinos wont destroy your entire army.

Technically they aren't 'latinos'. I'm pretty sure if an actual Spanish person read that they might be a little offended .