Locarno - Italy vs. Germany (SF/HPP)

[Megaherz]

Wow Italy vs Germany,Benito vs Adolf,Mussolini vs Hitler, and the border between the two are the Alps..... But hey the bright side is that the Alps are good for defence(for both sides....).

Any ways goodluck,Read your Portugese,Siam and German AARs and by that I can say that you wont dissapoint

[misterbean]

subscribed, though don't be surprised if I start talking about Sardinian Dreadnoughts in this AAR

[Krogzar]

I'll be following this ofcourse.

Just started reading imperio novo, wanted to read Sforza but got a bit overwhelmed by the number of pages (and it not being finished either) As soon as I catch up with Imperio, I'll start reading Sforza, and I'll be following 4 RensAArs

[Rensslaer]

this looks pretty cool, gona be following this one

Thanks! Welcome, King50000!

Yes, this is another intriguing concept! And I assume you will actually plan on a fighting a war this time...

Welcome, SSmith! It's one I've been very interested in, ever since I learned how Mussolini really felt about Hitler until he was forced into the alliance. Yes. You may expect combat!

You can at least stay neutral ... until axis threat goes through the roof and pushes you afar!

Welcome, Sprites! Yes -- no one forcing me into alliance, fortunately.

I played Dragonrealms too, back in the day -- many many different character names, couldn't give you just one Anyway, enough OT stuff, I await your next update with bated breath.

Really?! That's fascinating. I played for 2-3 years, and had 3 major characters, a Warrior Mage (Rensslaer), an Empath and a Barbarian. I miss those days! It's still running, and frankly if I had time to play and money to pay I'd still be there.

Another Rens AAR, something more to follow I'm looking forward to the next update!!! (Also looking forward to seeing what's going to happen in your German AAR)

Great, Tallfellow! Welcome!

Hi Rensslaer,

I read your Portuguese AAR the other night and thoroughly enjoyed it. A brilliant use of scarce resources. This is one is going to be mad, battleground - the Alps

Good luck

Excellent! Welcome, Hardradi! I just posted an update for Portugal today. Yes, I'm looking forward to combat in the Alps -- should be interesting.

You know what annoys me is that it seems like it would have been pretty easy for the king to prevent Mussolini from rising to power in the twenties, but it didn't happen.

Welcome, J. Passepartout! Boy, it's been a long time since I've gone over Mussolini's history, but I seem to recall he came to power because the King wasn't sure what to do and called upon the most able administrator and politician he knew. Kind of like how Hitler came to power too, slightly.

An AAR by Rensslaer, a very interesting idea,... two huge reasons to be following this !

Great! Welcome, Gigau -- glad to have you along for the ride!

Wow Italy vs Germany,Benito vs Adolf,Mussolini vs Hitler, and the border between the two are the Alps..... But hey the bright side is that the Alps are good for defence(for both sides....).

Any ways goodluck,Read your Portugese,Siam and German AARs and by that I can say that you wont dissapoint

Great! How very flattering! Welcome, Megaherz! Hey, if you like my writing, you might be interested in my V1 AAR Fire Warms the Northern Lands, too. The game is obsolete, but the story (both narrative and historybook) is just as good.

subscribed, though don't be surprised if I start talking about Sardinian Dreadnoughts in this AAR

Yeah! With 5 AARs going simultaneously, you shouldn't be surprised if -I- start talking about Sardinian Dreadnoughts either! Welcome, Misterbean!

I'll be following this ofcourse.

Just started reading imperio novo, wanted to read Sforza but got a bit overwhelmed by the number of pages (and it not being finished either) As soon as I catch up with Imperio, I'll start reading Sforza, and I'll be following 4 RensAArs

Great, Krogzar! Welcome! As I mentioned above, I just posted an update for Imperio Novo today. Also, you might like Sforza, but it's of limited utility if you're wanting to learn the game, because it was based on a very, very early patch of EU III.

I'll get another update for Locarno up soon! Probably this weekend sometime. Should get fairly interesting quickly. And, as I mentioned, you'll actually see combat before 1943! (i.e. unlike my Kriegsgefahr experiment).

Thanks for reading, and for your kind comments!

Rensslaer

[J. Passepartout]

Welcome, J. Passepartout! Boy, it's been a long time since I've gone over Mussolini's history, but I seem to recall he came to power because the King wasn't sure what to do and called upon the most able administrator and politician he knew. Kind of like how Hitler came to power too, slightly.

My understanding is that this is basically correct, and that they then made the stupid decision of not really doing anything about the problem and letting Mussolini get to Rome and do his stuff, when they could have just sent some soldiers or something, arrested him and dispersed the mobs, and said "Let's not have that happen again, everyone go to the ballot box next time you want to complain."

[Cybvep]

Subscribed. This author's AAR is bound to be interesting

[WhisperingDeath]

Sign me up! In for a penny....

[G.K.]

I'll be following this, too... The main idea is just great.

[Hallongren]

Good start. I see you haven't taken advantage of Italy's unique position in '36 in that it has transport planes in the OOB and can build paratroopers. Only the USSR and Italy can build paratroopers in '36. As behind as Italy was overall, Italy was the first nation in the world to train paratroopers, with the first training drops occurring in 1927. The USSR followed suit in the '30s, with Herman Göring witnessing as a guest observer one such exercise, leading to the creation of the Fallschirmjäger. While the Germans and Americans took the spotlight in this area, the Italians were still the first to field such soldiers and used them in North Africa. Unfortunately in '36, there weren't enough paratroopers for either Italy or the USSR to warrant giving them even a single paratrooper brigade in-game, which is why you have the transport plane but no paratroopers.

As far as I know France had several paratrooper schools created in 1935, so by all right they should also have the ability to train them in-game IMO.


Nice to see another Rensslaer AAR

[Rensslaer]

My understanding is that this is basically correct, and that they then made the stupid decision of not really doing anything about the problem and letting Mussolini get to Rome and do his stuff, when they could have just sent some soldiers or something, arrested him and dispersed the mobs, and said "Let's not have that happen again, everyone go to the ballot box next time you want to complain."

Yeah, Victor Emmanuel strikes me as a very weak person, all in all. Either that, or he appreciated what Mussolini was doing, and was glad he didn't have to take credit for it.

Subscribed. This author's AAR is bound to be interesting

Thanks, Cybvep! Welcome! How flattering! Glad you've got your AAR going again, too.

Sign me up! In for a penny....

Welcome, WhisperingDeath! Always good to have you along!

I'll be following this, too... The main idea is just great.

Welcome, G.K.! I'm afraid I'm not going to do so well as you have with Austria-Hungary!

As far as I know France had several paratrooper schools created in 1935, so by all right they should also have the ability to train them in-game IMO.

Nice to see another Rensslaer AAR

Welcome, Hallongren! Glad to have you along!

Thanks for all your comments! I just posted an update for Siam (V2) and for Kriegsgefahr today, and Siam is almost finished (3-4 updates, so within 2-3 weeks). After it wraps up this one will begin to move more quickly.

I actually have the second update almost written and ready to go -- will post in about 10 hours, I think.

Rensslaer

[Rensslaer]

To be honest, I never figured I’d ever see a “blitzkrieg” strategy work in the mountains and deserts of Ethiopia… But I managed it!



I moved forward quickly from the south, and rapidly won those battles and forced them to retreat. We never stopped. While one division “held” each of these Ethiopian defenders, once they’d shifted backward, my other units began to slip around their flanks.

The northern front was more “blocked up,” and so my advance there was not so rapid. But I was still able to manage to go around and flank some of their units.



Once past the border units in the south (they had retreated, so were no longer on the border), instead of attacking from the flanks, I advanced beyond them and attacked Addis Ababa directly. My “holding” units were still keeping the border divisions busy, so they couldn’t come to the aid of their capital.

We had completely surrounded the units in the south – having forced both into the same province, and then bypassing them.



By the end of January, I was attacking Addis Ababa from the north and south. Surrender was inevitable. Five weeks of war (plus whatever time had been spent before I took command on January 1), and Ethiopia was annexed.



I immediately demobilized, in order to save the costs. Of course, it doesn’t have any effect upon my IC, as in the HPP mod those economic consequences run by different rules.

We also quickly begin transporting units back to Italy from Ethiopia. Needless to say, I’m worried about what Germany, and its volatile leader, might have in mind for Austria, his homeland. Austria is currently a fellow traveler with Italy, with a pro-Italian Fascist leader.



When asked to sign the London Naval Treaty in March, Italy quickly accedes. This improves our relations with those countries who we don’t want to antagonize, and perhaps makes them more likely to consider Germany the threat to watch, repairing our relations which were damaged over Ethiopia.

I’ve been working on building a Light Armor division, but since armor is not especially more important to my defenses than close air support provided by Light Bombers, I swap them out for a time so that I can get a little progress done on both. If I go to war soon, I will increase my economy so that I can hopefully build both at once.



I’m gradually building IC to improve my economy, but there’s little chance of sweeping economic changes. It will be good enough to add three or four IC to what I already have. Anything more than that is surely impossible if I’m to build a military also. The airbase is being built to extend my aircraft’s range north to protect Austria from Germany, should that become necessary.

In June, I achieve two tech advances which are of considerable importance to me. The Small Arms and other Infantry techs are critical to my survival against Germany, should it come to that.



The Industrial Production improves my miserable IC base (slightly). By about 2 IC as it turns out. We also improve our radio detection tech, which means we can use Radar stations as Signals Intelligence stations, the benefit of which I tried to demonstrate in my Kriegsgefahr AAR.

We add another couple Mountain divisions to our Queue. The initial combat, and much combat in general, and assuredly any defensive moves we might have to make should Germany prove too strong for Italy to successfully invade, are dependent on the barrier of the Alps -- we'll be fighting and refighting over the mountains of Austria. So Mountain troops are very important to our strategy. I wish I could throw more in there. We'll see.



I love to throw artillery into any divisions I create. Artillery is wonderfully good at increasing my soft attack, and even hard attack to a degree. Toughness and Defensiveness also benefit -- it's an all-around good force multiplier to have around.

Everything happens in October, 1936. Well, not everything, but most of the major historical events come to fruition. China breaks into civil war, as does Spain.



Italy is walking a fine line. We've signed onto the London Naval Treaties. We refuse to join Germany's Anti-Comintern Pact (though we heartily sympathize with the sentiment, we're loathe to associate with Hitler). But we do send troops and supplies to aid the Nationalists in Spain, because they're Fascistic in nature and there's no saying they'd have to end up as allies of the Germans, rather than of Italy. Sending troops also gains experience and research points for Italy.

I also get a benefit from a random event. By nationalizing the private sector, I gain yet another 2 IC!



At this rate I'll have sufficient IC to challenge Germany by.... 1964 or so. If I can prevent Germany from growing at all. Still, earning an extra 4 IC so quickly is definitely helpful for a low-budget empire like Italy.

[misterbean]

if anyone's interested, this strategy was used by Julius Caesar in the Gallic wars: his (largely infantry) legions were able to move faster and further than anyone else's, allowing him to use Blitzkrieg tactics using infantry. so, I would say Rensslaer is in very good company indeed.

[tommylotto]

You annexed Ethiopia? I would have created a puppet, but I guess if you are going to go against Germany instead of the UK, it does not matter much. Though I doubt it is reflected in the game, I would think that if Italy had set up a puppet instead of annexing Ethiopia, it would have improved relations with the West somewhat. Of course not attacking in the first place would have kept relations even better. I once tried to offer peace to Ethiopia right at the start of the game, but Selassie rejected my offer! IRL, Ethiopia was a diplomatic, strategic and economic blunder, and was just an ego thing for Mussolini. It makes no sense to the rational mind.

Also, to get more mountain troops, instead of raising the Alpini from scratch, you could retrain those masses of militia from East Africa to be mountaineers. It would be quicker and cheaper and the black feathers would be just as black. Anyway, teach that SOB Hitler a lesson!

[mnplastic]

Your army had wings in Ethiopia

[J. Passepartout]

One of my old professors once attended a boxing match in Rome and saw Francisco Franco also in attendence.

You seem to be doing well but HoI is the major Paradox game I am least familiar with so I am forced to cheer utterly from the sidelines.

[Stuyvesant]

I once tried this approach in HOI2, but unfortunately all my cozying up to Austria came to naught as soon as the 'Anschluss' event fired and Germany gobbled up Austria. I hope you'll do better this time, or, if Hitler's brownshirts do end up marching into Vienna, I hope you'll be able to bleed the Nazis dry in the Alps. If nothing else, if you can provoke Germany into war along its southern border and tie down forces there, it should make the job of the British and the French infinitely easier to invade from the west.

[Alfredian]

I read a book called The White War about the Italian front in WWI. There certainly seems to be plenty of potential for bloody stalemate on the Italo-Austrian frontier. I suppose technology has moved on from 1918 to the 1930s, but mountains are always go to slow people down.

[Tallfellow]

tommylotto has an excellent idea there. Retrain your Militia to regular infantry or Mountaineers, as it's both fast and fairly cheap compaired to building them from scratch. I generally do the same with both China and every other nation that has Militia

But another excellent update!

[misterbean]

the main thing that bothers me with Italy is their awful generals. apart from about three of them, in any other major they'd be commanding garrisons. I can't wait to find out how you plan to deal with that.

[Hardradi]

I am interested to see how, why and when you will get into the war with Germany.

More importantly how you will approach the Apline front, a refused centre with strong wings perhaps?