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Hmmm, wierd. I thought if you launched a attack from a allied country that country gets whatever territory you capture, and i though that they had some form of alliance with Germany, but i could be wrong.
Don't think Germany is allowed to move via Vichy in any case, so they'd have to fight through their 2-province land border with Spain, or fish some transports round to land at Cadiz. But you're mostly right; the exception being when your ally is also your puppet. Then you start taking territory for yourself once you cross the line.
 
Quite some action in the last update. You really seem to live by the credo: The best defense is offense. A full blown one with amphibious landings, too.

Hopefully your forces in Gibraltar will be able to hold. Are you planning to reinforce them?
 
You are going to PWN Spain! Go after the British isles once you have finished spain off. Once in HOI2 I invaded so much as italy and then I invaded Brazil and tried an amphibious invasion of florida and georgia and while I made it onto the shore hundreds of divisions showed up out of nowhere and pushed me back. If you attempt invading the us later hopefully you wont have to deal with the superstack bug, I wouldn't want to see you have to fight the thousands of brigades defending washington.
 
looks as if all is going to plan...soon franco will face the military tribune of Mussolini and have to bear punishment for his traitorous actions towards the Italian people :)

are you going for entire Iberian peninsula? might as well include Portugal, they want to be part of the new roman empire
 
Tomatoes: Thanks! I've got Cei's mobile corps in Palestine still on the Iraqi border, though I'm not planning on invading Iraq. I just don't have anywhere else to put it yet. :p

womble: Don't forget La Caruna, Spain's northern port. ;)

Sokraates: Hehe, well I'm basically abandoning defense because, as the Spanish DOW proves, my position wasn't really tenable in the long run. Not with a hostile neighbor. So I'll break Spain, and then set up a new defense. And no, I'm not planning on doing anything with my Gibraltar forces except have them sit and wait. :p

EvilFishtank: Hehe, all in due time, all in due time. ;)

GrenadierSchube: I try not to antagonize too many states. So I'll leave Portugal alone. At least until quieter times. ;)

Red_Communist: Thanks, I'm glad you like it! :D

I'll have an update for tomorrow evening, guys!
 
but with HttT out, there's no way.

... which is why I haven't purchased HttT yet :).

@ Myth: My Italian campaign is waiting for you. I actually have two divergent campaigns going on, one in which the regular SCW events fired, and the other that I modded which had the SPR DoW Italy for certain unfriendly actions... That was for the AAR I briefly fantasized writing.... :wacko:
 
Chief Savage Ma: Thanks! :D As for HttT, I would buy it but I don't actually play EU3 anyway so I can't help but think that it's a waste of money. On the other hand, I already own the other two expansions...:p

anweRU: Hehe. Much difference between your two campaigns? :p

Update coming up!
 
The Year of Strategic Crisis
Part 3: Operation Valeria Victrix II, January 27 – February 19, 1941

During the three weeks that covered the last days of January and the first nearly twenty days of February saw Italian efforts in Iberia producing results as they brought large amounts of force to bear on their opponents. With three armies in Iberia and the Spanish too incompetent to take advantage of their greatest, or indeed any of their, chances the end was not in doubt.

Fighting in the south was largely limited to Roatta’s front, where at Vicar his corps routed the Spanish defenders and inflicted heavy casualties upon them before pushing on further to thrash the Spaniards again at Guadix. In the north, Gambara’s corps met resistance at Lleida but relatively easily overcame it. By the 2nd of February, however, the Spanish had, however, managed to throw two or three divisions-worth of troops northward in an attempt to hold Gambara’s expansion, which by that time had established an all-encircling buffer zone around Tarragona. The Spanish dedicated numerous units to an attack on Messe in Cambrils, though this would peter out in four days with heavy Spanish casualties. Gambara was dedicated to enlarging his bridgehead, though logistical limitation precluded him from operating in his preferred style of maximum maneuver. Instead, his logisticians operating Tarragona’s port could never guarantee more than was necessary to reach the next major town. This was a difficulty that the Italians would run into everywhere in Spain, not simply in the north.

062-01-NorthernBridgehead.jpg

Gambara’s corps, having established itself around Tarragona.

Also, only on February 2nd did Bastico’s army finally pry the Spanish out of Valencia. This battle, thus far the most difficult of the Second Iberian War, resulted in over five hundred Italian casualties—more than all other engagements so far combined—and over one thousand Spanish deaths. However, his 2a Armata was finally ashore and could begin influencing events. This he began doing the very next day. He ordered one corps, under the command of Aymonnino, to attack toward Requena, and the other under Ago to begin heading northeastward toward Gambara’s corps. His army was, by virtue of its placement, to take the central and central-north stage against the Spanish forces, with Gambara in the far north and Grossi and Roatta in the central-south and southern reaches of the front. Italy now fielded three armies in Iberia, all falling under Nasi’s command as part of his army group. This army group totaled twenty-two combat divisions and ten headquarters of various levels and represented more than half of Italy’s entire army.

062-02-BasticoAshore.jpg

Bastico’s 2a Armata ashore and on the move.

By the 6th of February, the Italians were fighting for Segerbo on Bastico’s front and Ponts on Gambara’s. In the south, Roatta was in the process of throwing a division toward the sea, in what would be a successful attempt to isolate, encircle and then finally destroy a Spanish mountain division against the coast. Despite these successes, if the Spaniards had a competent high command they could still heavily damage Italy’s effort. Spanish forces were still poised like a dagger, pointing toward the heart of the Italian position in Spain: Cartagena. They were, indeed, nearly at the very door of the cluster of headquarters around that city. There was no front there; Grossi’s army was split by this penetration, three divisions north of the divide and two south (and, of course, two in Gibraltar). A determined Spanish thrust could throw Pintor’s and Grossi’s army headquarters into complete disarray, as well as Nasi’s army group headquarters and result in the capture of Cartagena, Italy’s most important port there—as Valencia’s harbor had been sabotaged by the withdrawing Spanish and earlier damaged in the fighting—and indeed held Italy’s western Mediterranean radar post! A determined push would isolate Roatta’s corps and two divisions of Gonzaga del Vodice’s corps south of Cartagena with no supplies, and would place the one and a half armies north of Cartagena on what thin line of supply could be wound through Valencia’s broken port. Fortunately, the Spanish did not seem to have the intrepidity to attempt such a common sense operation.

062-03-OverallSituation.jpg

The overall situation in Iberia, with the potential to be ruinous for the Italians.

Also by the 6th, the Germans were throwing a collection of units southward down the thin strip of French littoral which they own and which would constitute their own long and tenuous line of supply into Spain. by the 7th, two German divisions were already in Spain and another five were milling about the French littoral. The war had become a race between the two major Axis powers to see who would the most of Spain. If nothing else, Germany’s contribution had the salutary effect of drawing off Spain’s reserves further, though by this stage it amounted to only a single brigade.

062-04-GermansIntervening.jpg

German formations intervening in the Second Iberian War.

More battle won and further gains made everywhere by the 10th of February, Grossi felt secure enough in his tenuous position to move out of it. He had decided upon straightening out the frontline, in removing the dagger poised at the heart of the Italian position in Iberia. Thus, one division of Gonzaga del Vodice’s corps would cut into the undefended southern base of the salient, while the entirety of Pirzio Biroli’s corps would break through its northern base. This would have the effect of encircling a Spanish brigade outside Cartagena, the remains of what once might have been a terrible danger to Nasi’s army group. As Grossi was eliminating this salient, to the north Aymonnino’s corps was pushing forward and had broken through the Spanish main line of resistance. Indeed, he was exploiting his position by, on the one hand, throwing forces forward to keep the Spanish unbalanced and, on the other, throwing forces southwestward in an attempt to being an encirclement of the Spanish main line though by the 19th the Spanish had begun redeploying their forces to some effect. Finally, in the central-north area, units of Ago’s corps had linked up with Messe’s division, though this connection was not to last. In the far north, Italian units had reached the Vichy frontier.

062-05-MainSituationFebruary19.jpg

The main situation on the 19th of February.

By the end of the 19th, the apparent danger situation in which the Spanish could ruin the Italian bridgehead in Iberia had disappeared and, indeed, the Spanish line seemed on the verge of a catastrophic break. Despite this, they still had a large amount of valor left within them and would continue the fight.
 
All I am going to say is you better take Madrid, before Germany does. Let's hope Spain decides they are the biggest threat.

Good work though.
 
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Let's hope that the Germans capture some of the coastal provinces in the northwest of Spain - could provide some garrison relief for you. Just make sure you end up with the choice bits. At least grab another decent port and connect your southern holdings.

The situation appears to be well in hand. I'm surprised how quickly the appearance of a crisis gave way to the already visible collapse of the Spanish. Guess that's what they get for conceding the initiative to you.
 
A great update! :)

Mussolini has to fight on two different fronts now (Africa and Spain). I believe Franco will surrender soon. Who's going to capture the atlantic naval base at La Coruna? I'd not let Germans get it... After destroying Med fleet you could move the naval war on atlantic sea if you have a base... ;) And that could be excellent for an Italian Sea Lion. If not too busy with Barbarossa, of course.

There's a little bug on Barbarossa. When Germany declares its limited war on Soviets, Italy is automatically at war with them. Maybe, event is programmed to get this when Italy is run by AI, so player has no choice about it. Good luck... :D
 
Maj. von Mauser: Hehe, well at the moment my forces in Spain are exactly eleven times the size of German forces in Spain. 22 divisions to two. ;)

Jemisi: Well those Germans haven't been particularly good at blitzkrieg yet, so I wouldn't hold my breath on them becoming any good at it now. ;)

EvilFishtank: Well, the fighting is relatively hard. Certainly harder than Bulgaria or the British in North Africa. Total casualties so far are probably about 4000 for the Spanish and a thousand for the Italians, so there's a fair amount of fighting going on. ;)

Stuyvesant: Yeah, the Spanish had me by the balls but didn't do anything with such an advantageous position. And now they're reeling back after I've kneed them hard in the face. *nod* :p

Supervixens: Yep. Mussolini is going to want a summer house in every Mediterranean port by the end of the war! ;)

Gladiator: Yeah, La Coruna definitely has some potential for me, once I have the resources to really take advantage of it. ;)

bunkerbuster: Thanks! :D