Oh... I think somebody needs to take a basic training course in Naval (and aerial) warfare. So many CVs sunk by DDs should not be able to happen. I can't see more than one end to this game, unfortunately.
-
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Oh... I think somebody needs to take a basic training course in Naval (and aerial) warfare. So many CVs sunk by DDs should not be able to happen. I can't see more than one end to this game, unfortunately.
Thanks. I wish I could be as confident. I seem to learn new things at every turn. Playing RM is quite different from playing RN I have noted... And having the theoretically best fleet-combo might not be the most "playable" in MP.
OOC: Captain, bear in mind that those screenshots were official releases from the Japanese government. While the actual number and name of the carriers sank has not been altered, the accuracy of the information about the composition of the fleet and boats that sank all of said carriers has not been able to be independently verified.
The Allies just surrendered in our game. So I will publish an AAR 7 relating the latest events, and an Aftermath AAR, to discuss some issues, like RM vs RN. More soon, We could exchange on this if you'd like too.
AAR #7
ITALIA
NEW POST FEBRUARY 14th
NORTH AMERICAN MP GAME
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?573357-North-America-Series-FTM/page1
During the period of June 24th to October 1st, 1941, there were multiple Naval Battles in the Med, the Italians putting forward their plan to gain a clear supremacy over the Allies fleets before the Fall. Gaining that supremacy was a clear prerequisite to the successful invasion of Sicily. Originally planned for late July, than August, the invasion of the island was postponed to late September, due to the intensity of the combats with the Free French fleet. Sicily invasion was a success. During the whole period of time, the English Fleet stayed in the port of Alexandria. Its aircrafts were all mobilized to counter the German invasion on the Suez Channel.
In the rest of the world, Germany forces were stopped at the Suez channel by determined Brits. Also, an air invasion of England by Germans troops was repelled, with the help of Americans expeditionary forces. The relation between Germans’ and Italy’s High Command kept on deteriorating, as the war was reaching its climax. Germany, already upset by the chaotic invasion of Switzerland by Italy, couldn’t understand why the Italians were so cautious in their attempt to retake Sicily. While, at the same time, Il Duce did not bother to properly inform the Germans of Italy’s war plan.
In the Far East, Japanese authorities continued to convert more and more ex-Commonwealth countries, as South Africa was the latest country to join the Greater Pacific Co-Prosperity Sphere. Progress in India was steady as the British Empire foundations shown they were crumbling under the Axis pressure, all over the world.
On October 2nd, the Allies surrendered to the Axis, proposing an unconditional peace.
The World in Summer and early Fall of 1941
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=e6af355183388b4a#cid=E6AF355183388B4A&id=E6AF355183388B4A!128
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=e6af355183388b4a#cid=E6AF355183388B4A&id=E6AF355183388B4A!129
[SIZE=](1) Click on the link to see the picture[/SIZE]
OPERATION “ARCHIMED CLAWS”
Il Popolo d’Italia
Summer 1941
“Neutrals never prevail over the events. Blood ignites the movement of History”, Mussolini, 1914.
As Il Duce, our Beloved Leader, was acknowledging publicly Armata General Messe success in Cagliari, the General, the Hero of Switzerland and Cagliari, was already reinforcing its troops in order to catch the next prize which would restore the Roman Empire to its full strength: Sicily.
But in order to successfully invade Sicily, the General knew that Chief Admiral Cavagnari would first have to clean the Med from any opposing forces, as a Sea invasion of that magnitude would definitively met a great opposition of the Brits.
Even if the invasion of Cagliari gave way to many naval battles, the Italians did surprise the Brits with their offensive and as such, they benefited of the initiative. Throughout the Cagliari campaign, Canadians and British forces were only reacting to Italians actions. It was anticipated that this would not be the case for an invasion of Sicily, or at least, Italy’s High Command believed so. Plus, since the forces garrisoning Cagliari were half those occupying Sicily, more ships and cargos would be exposed to a British counterattack and, as such, ensuring a naval supremacy was seen as a sine qua non condition to the success of Operation “Guerre Puniche II”. Otherwise the operation could have meant the destruction of the last pieces of the Regia Marina.
_______________________
NDLR: By Summer 1941, the Regia Marina operating forces were minimal. Nonetheless, better use of the fleet and better tactics led to 1941 Spring, Summer and Fall sequence of victories. Those forces were the following:
Regia Marina I, under the Command of Campioni I:
Littori - BB Class IV
Vittorio Venetto - BB Class V (newly introduced)
Flottiglia Torpenidiere 14a, 15a, 21a, 34a, 36a - DD Class III
Regia Marina II, under the Command of de Zara:
Impero - BB Class IV
Guilio Cesare - BB Class I
Cavour - BB Class I
Bande Nere - CL Class II
Flottiglia Torpenidiere 27a, 12a, 32a - DD Class III
Recognizione Flottila, under the Command of Lachino:
Duilio - BB Class I
Muzio Attendolo – CL Class III
Flottiglia Torpenidiere 24a - DD Class III
Incursionne Flotillas I & II (cumulated):
Gorizia - CL Class II
Bolzano - CL Class II
Flottiglia Torpenidiere 13a - DD Class I
Flottiglia Torpenidiere 21a, 28a - DD Class III
7 cargos
And, following the Cagliari intensive naval battles, the average strength of the 3 battles formations (Regia marina I & II + Recognizione Flottila) was roughly 30%-50% among all ships. These forces were replenished by the end of July but their state of overall weakness prevented a quick operation in Sicily in July.
Adding to that, the fact that all air units were also averaging a 30%-50% strength after the Cagliari campaign, the ability of Regia Aeria to effectively counterstrike any British CTF was limited until late July in that case too.
Propaganda effort throughout 1940-1941 were, we hope, efficient enough to bluff the British and Germans on the real status of Regia Marina but, our mismanagement of the fleet in 1940 [see next AAR: The Aftermath], had consequences on the ability of the Regia Marina to sustain extensive campaign. There was a clear need to be cautious as anymore error would deprive the Regia Marina of its ability to stand toe to toe with the Royal Navy.
_______________________
As such, in early July, Admiral Cavagnari ordered the Recognizione Flotilla to patrol the area West of Sicily, and then in mid-July, Regia Marina Fleet I & II joint the Flotilla with the explicit order to seek and destroy enemy naval forces in the area. Aeronautica Flotillas I & II (600 naval bombers), plus all Cacciatore Squadrones (around 600 planes) were ordered to stand by and intercept any British CTF that would try to close in the Tunis-Naples-Cagliari triangle.
Knocking down the Greek Fleet
The 1st target was the Greek Fleet stationed near Palermo. Composed of 1 CL and 2 DD, that fleet was seen as easy prey. And it was… On July 19th, Recognizione Flotilla confirmed the fleet position South of Palermo. 2 hours later, the Aeronautica I launched a naval assault on the fleet, while the Flotilla was closing in. Regia Marina I, reinforced by the newly arrived NAME Battleship, set course to Palermo set the same time. On July 20th the Italians engaged the Greek Fleet. At the end of the day, Regia Marina I joined the fight. By dawn, the battle was over as the 3 Greek ships were sunk. No British forces tried to intervene in the fight. There were almost 10 British air squadrons stationed in Palermo at the same time. But none of them was ordered to rescue the Greek forces.
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=e6af355183388b4a#cid=E6AF355183388B4A&id=E6AF355183388B4A!130
( (1) Click on the link to see the picture
Playing hide and seek with the Canadian transport Fleet
On July 21st, the Canadian transport fleet was detected by Sommergibili Squadron 11a near Alger. The Regia Marina II and the Recognizione fleets were immediately ordered to set a course to intercept the Canadians as soon as possible. Reports were clear: the Canadians Fleet was alone. The British CTF was still at bay in Alexandria and the Canadians Fleet had no escort (except for 2 Netherlands DDs who tried to joined the fight but were sunk doing so).
After 3 days of a game of hide and seek South of the Baleares and Algerian Coast, the Regia Marina II was able to intercept the Canadians. The naval battles – 2 were reported – were swift. After an initial engagement in Baleares Sea zone with the Regia Marina I (led by BBs Littorio/ Vittorio Venetto), the Canadian Fleet fled to Algerian Sea Coast, where they were intercepted again, this time by Regia Marina II. The Cesare, Duilio, Impero, Cavour (4 BBs) and their screen fleet wreaked havoc on the Canadians. Overall, the Canadians lost 4 cargos. The remaining Canadians Forces retreated in the port of Alger where they hid themselves in hope someone would come to free them from the Italian blockade.
Alger was too far away for the Regia Aeria to come in and finished off the Canadian Fleet, to the great frustration of our beloved Leader, Benito Mussolini who let Air Marshall Bono know his anger at the lack of action of the Regia Aeria: “Why? Why? Why? The Regia Aeria did not invest in some additional fuel tanks on their planes? Where were you Air Marshall Bono?. Air Marshall Bono tried everything he could to get his naval bombers in range of the Alger port, even asking and getting a transit rights from Spain. But none of this could be used to launch an attack on Alger.
The waiting, for the Canadians, had begun.
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=e6af355183388b4a#cid=E6AF355183388B4A&id=E6AF355183388B4A!131
(1) Click on the link to see the picture
From early skirmishes to a ranged naval battle: fighting the Free French Fleet in the Med
The help the Canadians were hoping for came under the form of the Free French Navy. Yes, indeed, the Free French. The AI suddenly decided to rescue the Canadians and launched an attack on the blockade on August 3rd [NDLR: at that time, Free French were still under AI command]. The 1st naval battle that followed was quickly won by the Italians, as the Regia Marina I was fully rested and had the firepower to repel the air attack of the Free French CTF. But, on the 4th day, as the Free French came back for a new battle, the blockade was broken, as the Regia Marina I quickly depleting its reserves [NDLR: Italians organization level was very low], had no choice than to retreat in Spain, where it found a safe haven against the Free French attack.
Canadians Fleet was free to flee the area, which it did without any delay.
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=e6af355183388b4a#cid=E6AF355183388B4A&id=E6AF355183388B4A!132
(1) Click on the link to see the picture
On September 9th, Recognizione Flotilla I was intercepted near Cagliari by a Free French SAG Fleet [NDLR: at that time, Free French were under the command of former South Africa Player]. The battle, a light skirmish at first, quickly turned into a full engagement between the fleets as the Free French had superior firepower. The Free French Admiral won the first exchanged (damaging most Regia Marina II ships but losing Light cruiser Emile Bertin in the process) but massively underestimated Italy ability to counter attack, as its fleet remained in the Tunis channel Sea zone.
Regia Marina II, led by Littorio and the newly Vittorio Venetto, was dispatched in a hurry to save the day and repel the Free French forces. Admiral Campioni I outmanoeuvred his Free French counterpart and, as down was coming, the sea was full of wrecked French ships, quickly swallowed by the Sea. During the battle, the Free French lost the Provence, Lorraine and Ocean BBs, the 11a DD and the Foch heavy cruiser. The remaining Free French ships (Dupleix and Colbert heavy cruisers) retreated in Tunis.
But Tunis was not Alger. Air Marshall Bono, still suffering Il Duce’s critics on his failure at Alger, ordered Aeronautica I & II to follow the naval battle with a massive strike of Tunis Port. After a day of bombing, the Free French Fleet, facing a complete destruction in the port (the Colbert was sunk in the port), chose to come out and face the Regia Marina. As soon as the remaining Free French came out of the bay, the Littorio and Vittorio Venetto opened fire on them and sink the heavily damaged heavy cruiser Dupleix, the last ship of the French 1st Squadron.
There were no traces of the Free French CTF during the exchange even if recon indicated that a massive redeployment of the Free French Fleet was underway in the Med (15 subs were spotted in the Western Med and a second SAG Fleet was approaching from Alexandria). Nor of the British CTF, which stayed in Alexandria.
OPERATION “GUERRE PUNICHE II”
Il Popolo d’Italia
September 1941
“Revolution is an idea that found bayonets”, Mussolini, citing Napoleon, in November 1915.
Because of the Free French unexpected operations near Tunis, the Operation Guerre Puniche II was postponed, twice. Originally planned in July, the Italian high Command had to push back the operation to August, and then September, as the Fleet needed some rest to recover from its recent battles against the Allies.
This delay contributed to another dispute between the German leader, Adolf Hitler, and our Beloved leader, Il Duce, Benito Mussolini. This time, it was the lack of aggressiveness from the Italians in the Med that ignited Hitler’s anger. Basically, Berlin was upset by the fact the Italians did not invade Sicily as soon as July, to take advantage of Germans operations near Suez Channel. Hitler’s anger grew mightily when, in early September, the Italians announced that the invasion would be delayed further (to mid or late September)… since at the same time, a German air invasion of Britain was underway. Our Leader, Benito Mussolini, Father of Fascism, did not say a word, looked at Hitler’s envoy and smiled.
But, on September 24th, Italy claimed back what was rightfully hers: Sicily. Preceded by a Fascist uprising in Sicily, which secured the ports of Trapani and Catania, Armata IV landed 2 corps in Sicily: Corpo Armata Celere, with 3 divisions equipped with 2 brigades each of the newest Pz III and Tank Destroyer squadrons, and Corpo VI (5 infantry divisions). Corpo VIII (3 infantry divisions) joined the assault, attacking from Reggio Calabria. The partisans having secured the port, the armor brigades were able to quickly progress inland and take the British from behind. After 5 days, 75% of the Island had fallen in Italy’s hands. The British Fleet, contrary to the High Command believes, did not commit itself to break the assault. The Regia Marina was in control of all the surrounding sea zones without any fight.
The invasion of Sicily
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=e6af355183388b4a#cid=E6AF355183388B4A&id=E6AF355183388B4A!133
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=e6af355183388b4a#cid=E6AF355183388B4A&id=E6AF355183388B4A!134
(1) Click on the link to see the picture
NDLR: Now that we know what happened, we could accuse Italian high Command of having misread the overall context of the Sicily invasion. But, Brits, given the whole picture and notably the German’s invasion of its home soil, could have decided to abandon Suez and bring back its troops in UK. By doing that, the Brits would have freed their CTF, which would have been available to potentially crush the Regia Marina, or at least, seriously damage it. Given its current IC production, and the overall Axis dominance of the war, exposing the RM to being crippled in a naval battle would have been a silly choice. There was no need to hurry up an invasion as getting back Sicily was not a question of weeks. So, the cautious approach of Italy was quite easy to understand under the prevailing circumstances (and taking into account previous misfortunes).
ITALIA
NEW POST FEBRUARY 14th
NORTH AMERICAN MP GAME
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?573357-North-America-Series-FTM/page1
During the period of June 24th to October 1st, 1941, there were multiple Naval Battles in the Med, the Italians putting forward their plan to gain a clear supremacy over the Allies fleets before the Fall. Gaining that supremacy was a clear prerequisite to the successful invasion of Sicily. Originally planned for late July, than August, the invasion of the island was postponed to late September, due to the intensity of the combats with the Free French fleet. Sicily invasion was a success. During the whole period of time, the English Fleet stayed in the port of Alexandria. Its aircrafts were all mobilized to counter the German invasion on the Suez Channel.
In the rest of the world, Germany forces were stopped at the Suez channel by determined Brits. Also, an air invasion of England by Germans troops was repelled, with the help of Americans expeditionary forces. The relation between Germans’ and Italy’s High Command kept on deteriorating, as the war was reaching its climax. Germany, already upset by the chaotic invasion of Switzerland by Italy, couldn’t understand why the Italians were so cautious in their attempt to retake Sicily. While, at the same time, Il Duce did not bother to properly inform the Germans of Italy’s war plan.
In the Far East, Japanese authorities continued to convert more and more ex-Commonwealth countries, as South Africa was the latest country to join the Greater Pacific Co-Prosperity Sphere. Progress in India was steady as the British Empire foundations shown they were crumbling under the Axis pressure, all over the world.
On October 2nd, the Allies surrendered to the Axis, proposing an unconditional peace.
The World in Summer and early Fall of 1941
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=e6af355183388b4a#cid=E6AF355183388B4A&id=E6AF355183388B4A!128
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=e6af355183388b4a#cid=E6AF355183388B4A&id=E6AF355183388B4A!129
[SIZE=](1) Click on the link to see the picture[/SIZE]
OPERATION “ARCHIMED CLAWS”
Il Popolo d’Italia
Summer 1941
“Neutrals never prevail over the events. Blood ignites the movement of History”, Mussolini, 1914.
As Il Duce, our Beloved Leader, was acknowledging publicly Armata General Messe success in Cagliari, the General, the Hero of Switzerland and Cagliari, was already reinforcing its troops in order to catch the next prize which would restore the Roman Empire to its full strength: Sicily.
But in order to successfully invade Sicily, the General knew that Chief Admiral Cavagnari would first have to clean the Med from any opposing forces, as a Sea invasion of that magnitude would definitively met a great opposition of the Brits.
Even if the invasion of Cagliari gave way to many naval battles, the Italians did surprise the Brits with their offensive and as such, they benefited of the initiative. Throughout the Cagliari campaign, Canadians and British forces were only reacting to Italians actions. It was anticipated that this would not be the case for an invasion of Sicily, or at least, Italy’s High Command believed so. Plus, since the forces garrisoning Cagliari were half those occupying Sicily, more ships and cargos would be exposed to a British counterattack and, as such, ensuring a naval supremacy was seen as a sine qua non condition to the success of Operation “Guerre Puniche II”. Otherwise the operation could have meant the destruction of the last pieces of the Regia Marina.
_______________________
NDLR: By Summer 1941, the Regia Marina operating forces were minimal. Nonetheless, better use of the fleet and better tactics led to 1941 Spring, Summer and Fall sequence of victories. Those forces were the following:
Regia Marina I, under the Command of Campioni I:
Littori - BB Class IV
Vittorio Venetto - BB Class V (newly introduced)
Flottiglia Torpenidiere 14a, 15a, 21a, 34a, 36a - DD Class III
Regia Marina II, under the Command of de Zara:
Impero - BB Class IV
Guilio Cesare - BB Class I
Cavour - BB Class I
Bande Nere - CL Class II
Flottiglia Torpenidiere 27a, 12a, 32a - DD Class III
Recognizione Flottila, under the Command of Lachino:
Duilio - BB Class I
Muzio Attendolo – CL Class III
Flottiglia Torpenidiere 24a - DD Class III
Incursionne Flotillas I & II (cumulated):
Gorizia - CL Class II
Bolzano - CL Class II
Flottiglia Torpenidiere 13a - DD Class I
Flottiglia Torpenidiere 21a, 28a - DD Class III
7 cargos
And, following the Cagliari intensive naval battles, the average strength of the 3 battles formations (Regia marina I & II + Recognizione Flottila) was roughly 30%-50% among all ships. These forces were replenished by the end of July but their state of overall weakness prevented a quick operation in Sicily in July.
Adding to that, the fact that all air units were also averaging a 30%-50% strength after the Cagliari campaign, the ability of Regia Aeria to effectively counterstrike any British CTF was limited until late July in that case too.
Propaganda effort throughout 1940-1941 were, we hope, efficient enough to bluff the British and Germans on the real status of Regia Marina but, our mismanagement of the fleet in 1940 [see next AAR: The Aftermath], had consequences on the ability of the Regia Marina to sustain extensive campaign. There was a clear need to be cautious as anymore error would deprive the Regia Marina of its ability to stand toe to toe with the Royal Navy.
_______________________
As such, in early July, Admiral Cavagnari ordered the Recognizione Flotilla to patrol the area West of Sicily, and then in mid-July, Regia Marina Fleet I & II joint the Flotilla with the explicit order to seek and destroy enemy naval forces in the area. Aeronautica Flotillas I & II (600 naval bombers), plus all Cacciatore Squadrones (around 600 planes) were ordered to stand by and intercept any British CTF that would try to close in the Tunis-Naples-Cagliari triangle.
Knocking down the Greek Fleet
The 1st target was the Greek Fleet stationed near Palermo. Composed of 1 CL and 2 DD, that fleet was seen as easy prey. And it was… On July 19th, Recognizione Flotilla confirmed the fleet position South of Palermo. 2 hours later, the Aeronautica I launched a naval assault on the fleet, while the Flotilla was closing in. Regia Marina I, reinforced by the newly arrived NAME Battleship, set course to Palermo set the same time. On July 20th the Italians engaged the Greek Fleet. At the end of the day, Regia Marina I joined the fight. By dawn, the battle was over as the 3 Greek ships were sunk. No British forces tried to intervene in the fight. There were almost 10 British air squadrons stationed in Palermo at the same time. But none of them was ordered to rescue the Greek forces.
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=e6af355183388b4a#cid=E6AF355183388B4A&id=E6AF355183388B4A!130
( (1) Click on the link to see the picture
Playing hide and seek with the Canadian transport Fleet
On July 21st, the Canadian transport fleet was detected by Sommergibili Squadron 11a near Alger. The Regia Marina II and the Recognizione fleets were immediately ordered to set a course to intercept the Canadians as soon as possible. Reports were clear: the Canadians Fleet was alone. The British CTF was still at bay in Alexandria and the Canadians Fleet had no escort (except for 2 Netherlands DDs who tried to joined the fight but were sunk doing so).
After 3 days of a game of hide and seek South of the Baleares and Algerian Coast, the Regia Marina II was able to intercept the Canadians. The naval battles – 2 were reported – were swift. After an initial engagement in Baleares Sea zone with the Regia Marina I (led by BBs Littorio/ Vittorio Venetto), the Canadian Fleet fled to Algerian Sea Coast, where they were intercepted again, this time by Regia Marina II. The Cesare, Duilio, Impero, Cavour (4 BBs) and their screen fleet wreaked havoc on the Canadians. Overall, the Canadians lost 4 cargos. The remaining Canadians Forces retreated in the port of Alger where they hid themselves in hope someone would come to free them from the Italian blockade.
Alger was too far away for the Regia Aeria to come in and finished off the Canadian Fleet, to the great frustration of our beloved Leader, Benito Mussolini who let Air Marshall Bono know his anger at the lack of action of the Regia Aeria: “Why? Why? Why? The Regia Aeria did not invest in some additional fuel tanks on their planes? Where were you Air Marshall Bono?. Air Marshall Bono tried everything he could to get his naval bombers in range of the Alger port, even asking and getting a transit rights from Spain. But none of this could be used to launch an attack on Alger.
The waiting, for the Canadians, had begun.
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=e6af355183388b4a#cid=E6AF355183388B4A&id=E6AF355183388B4A!131
(1) Click on the link to see the picture
From early skirmishes to a ranged naval battle: fighting the Free French Fleet in the Med
The help the Canadians were hoping for came under the form of the Free French Navy. Yes, indeed, the Free French. The AI suddenly decided to rescue the Canadians and launched an attack on the blockade on August 3rd [NDLR: at that time, Free French were still under AI command]. The 1st naval battle that followed was quickly won by the Italians, as the Regia Marina I was fully rested and had the firepower to repel the air attack of the Free French CTF. But, on the 4th day, as the Free French came back for a new battle, the blockade was broken, as the Regia Marina I quickly depleting its reserves [NDLR: Italians organization level was very low], had no choice than to retreat in Spain, where it found a safe haven against the Free French attack.
Canadians Fleet was free to flee the area, which it did without any delay.
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=e6af355183388b4a#cid=E6AF355183388B4A&id=E6AF355183388B4A!132
(1) Click on the link to see the picture
On September 9th, Recognizione Flotilla I was intercepted near Cagliari by a Free French SAG Fleet [NDLR: at that time, Free French were under the command of former South Africa Player]. The battle, a light skirmish at first, quickly turned into a full engagement between the fleets as the Free French had superior firepower. The Free French Admiral won the first exchanged (damaging most Regia Marina II ships but losing Light cruiser Emile Bertin in the process) but massively underestimated Italy ability to counter attack, as its fleet remained in the Tunis channel Sea zone.
Regia Marina II, led by Littorio and the newly Vittorio Venetto, was dispatched in a hurry to save the day and repel the Free French forces. Admiral Campioni I outmanoeuvred his Free French counterpart and, as down was coming, the sea was full of wrecked French ships, quickly swallowed by the Sea. During the battle, the Free French lost the Provence, Lorraine and Ocean BBs, the 11a DD and the Foch heavy cruiser. The remaining Free French ships (Dupleix and Colbert heavy cruisers) retreated in Tunis.
But Tunis was not Alger. Air Marshall Bono, still suffering Il Duce’s critics on his failure at Alger, ordered Aeronautica I & II to follow the naval battle with a massive strike of Tunis Port. After a day of bombing, the Free French Fleet, facing a complete destruction in the port (the Colbert was sunk in the port), chose to come out and face the Regia Marina. As soon as the remaining Free French came out of the bay, the Littorio and Vittorio Venetto opened fire on them and sink the heavily damaged heavy cruiser Dupleix, the last ship of the French 1st Squadron.
There were no traces of the Free French CTF during the exchange even if recon indicated that a massive redeployment of the Free French Fleet was underway in the Med (15 subs were spotted in the Western Med and a second SAG Fleet was approaching from Alexandria). Nor of the British CTF, which stayed in Alexandria.
OPERATION “GUERRE PUNICHE II”
Il Popolo d’Italia
September 1941
“Revolution is an idea that found bayonets”, Mussolini, citing Napoleon, in November 1915.
Because of the Free French unexpected operations near Tunis, the Operation Guerre Puniche II was postponed, twice. Originally planned in July, the Italian high Command had to push back the operation to August, and then September, as the Fleet needed some rest to recover from its recent battles against the Allies.
This delay contributed to another dispute between the German leader, Adolf Hitler, and our Beloved leader, Il Duce, Benito Mussolini. This time, it was the lack of aggressiveness from the Italians in the Med that ignited Hitler’s anger. Basically, Berlin was upset by the fact the Italians did not invade Sicily as soon as July, to take advantage of Germans operations near Suez Channel. Hitler’s anger grew mightily when, in early September, the Italians announced that the invasion would be delayed further (to mid or late September)… since at the same time, a German air invasion of Britain was underway. Our Leader, Benito Mussolini, Father of Fascism, did not say a word, looked at Hitler’s envoy and smiled.
But, on September 24th, Italy claimed back what was rightfully hers: Sicily. Preceded by a Fascist uprising in Sicily, which secured the ports of Trapani and Catania, Armata IV landed 2 corps in Sicily: Corpo Armata Celere, with 3 divisions equipped with 2 brigades each of the newest Pz III and Tank Destroyer squadrons, and Corpo VI (5 infantry divisions). Corpo VIII (3 infantry divisions) joined the assault, attacking from Reggio Calabria. The partisans having secured the port, the armor brigades were able to quickly progress inland and take the British from behind. After 5 days, 75% of the Island had fallen in Italy’s hands. The British Fleet, contrary to the High Command believes, did not commit itself to break the assault. The Regia Marina was in control of all the surrounding sea zones without any fight.
The invasion of Sicily
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=e6af355183388b4a#cid=E6AF355183388B4A&id=E6AF355183388B4A!133
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=e6af355183388b4a#cid=E6AF355183388B4A&id=E6AF355183388B4A!134
(1) Click on the link to see the picture
NDLR: Now that we know what happened, we could accuse Italian high Command of having misread the overall context of the Sicily invasion. But, Brits, given the whole picture and notably the German’s invasion of its home soil, could have decided to abandon Suez and bring back its troops in UK. By doing that, the Brits would have freed their CTF, which would have been available to potentially crush the Regia Marina, or at least, seriously damage it. Given its current IC production, and the overall Axis dominance of the war, exposing the RM to being crippled in a naval battle would have been a silly choice. There was no need to hurry up an invasion as getting back Sicily was not a question of weeks. So, the cautious approach of Italy was quite easy to understand under the prevailing circumstances (and taking into account previous misfortunes).
AAR #8 - AFTERMATH
ITALIA
NEW POST FEBRUARY 14th
NORTH AMERICAN MP GAME
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?573357-North-America-Series-FTM/page1
On November 20th 1939, UK declared war on Italy. From that date, until October 2nd 1941, Italy waged a war against superior foes, with limited capabilities. We made good choices, pick good tactics, but we also made terrible errors that proved very expensive. Here are our main thoughts on a game that just ended, our first real MP game.
NDLR: We played in previous MP game but this one was a real, steady and lengthy one, contrary to other games played.
TECHNOLOGICAL GOOD AND BAD PICKS
Some very bad calls
Well, 1st one is the fact we discovered in game that ships were not upgrading their hull, guns and motor… Only the newly built ones would have the new stats. That late discovery cost us a lot of leadership. Leadership that could has been put to better use on naval doctrines.
Other one was the fact that we discovered, almost at the same time, that BB/DD shared the same tech tree, while cruiser had a different one. We were lucky on that one as we had not develop much of the cruisers’ tech. But it was by chance, rather than a well thought strat that made us avoid that mistake.
The good calls
Our INF were on par with their opponent. Same for the Air units. BB were fierce, as we hope them to be, same for DD. The investment in hull/motor of DDs paid off, as we build most of our DD in 1940-1941, as replacement, due to their very short building time.
Relying on Lendlease allowed us to avoid investing in ARM, while giving us good ARMS (see section). This non-investment was wise.
NAVY TACTICS
To say we learnt the hard way would be a euphemism. My god we found the learning curve to be steep. But we learnt, as our success later in the game proved that we got over the 1st cycle.
The bad moves
We relied, for too long, on huge stacks of ships, incurring massive hull penalties throughout 1939-1940 naval battles. Our leaders, which had to be ranked at the 4 stars level, got fewer XP than expected with that approach. Basically, the Regia Marina was lame in the early stage of the game. And as such, it lost almost all its Cruiser fleet (light and heavy). Those are massive losses considering the limited ability of Italy to recover from such losses.
Our coordination with the air forces was good but Navy OOB was so poor, we never managed to take advantage of it in 1939-1940.
The good moves
By late 1940, we moved to another strategy. But we needed time to change the course of action. We chose to go for a BB/DD approach and, since our BBs (minus 1) were still on board, we did build a lot of DD (12+) to better screen our fleets. Our choices of doctrines were good, as few leadership had been spent on the cruisers’ doctrines anyway. So, it was clear that we could switch without losing too much.
Basically, and inspired by Valantinan and Cpt Easy AAR, we went for a more flexible OOB for the Navy. From now on, the basic OOB of our combat fleets would be 6-7 ships, 4-5 DD + 2 BB (10 or less hull pts to avoid penalties). Leaders were put back at the 1 or 2 stars level, to help them gain XP faster. Fleet specialized in recon were built (2-3 ships, mostly 1 LC + 2 DD, given our constraints on limited number of LC still available). 2 Invasion fleets were setup: 1 HC each + DD, + half the total number of cargos we had. Cargos were put on production too, to replace losses.
We adopted a good tactic with our air units, as we managed, for most of the campaign, to maintain air supremacy over the Brits. Since we had 7 NAV + 6 INT, grouped in wings of 3 (+1 reserve NAV), to avoid any penalty when INT would combine with NAV in a given battle, Regia Aeria was a real strength for Italy for the whole game. INT were lacking some range, due to a misreading of the tech tree chart (we thought the extra-range tech was already developed while it wasn’t… It was due in late Fall 1941), but basically, and according to a comparison we made with the Brits tech tree after the game. We could see that Italy was not far behind in aerial tech development, and that its leaders had gained a lot of XP.
So, we a more flexible Navy, and aircraft forces that were in good shape, we implemented the tactic we wanted to established since day one: pin down Brits fleet in naval battle, send in our NAV/INT in waves to reduce their CAGs value, and then, send in new fleets to hit already exhausted Brits fleet.
While the sample is limited, we feel that the strategy was a good one. We did test it against AI on very hard level between MP session and results were quite good in those games. In the MP game, the Cagliari campaign proved that we were right to go that route.
True, the Brits had huge penalty when we hit their SAG invading fleet. And as such, victory was made easy. But when we fought the CTF, they were alone and there were no penalty of any kind. So, the strategy worked. We couldn’t reach the climax of the strategy as the Brits were able to withdraw beyond reach of our fleets, but, as was noted later, their screen fleet were badly damaged, one or two CVs were hit and their CAG strength were all down to 50%. To assess that, we loaded a previously saved game to check the health of the British fleet after the battle. It was easy to check as we had multiple save games of the Cagliari campaign available (as the campaign was rather long).
LENDLEASE
In game, we used the Lendlease option to build namely 3 bunch of units:
- 2 German Diving bombers (Ju87): : brought to battle in Fall 1939
- 3 Pz III brigades : brought to battle in Spring 1940
- 3 Pz IV brigades : brought to battle in September 1941
While the Panzer buying proved useful, the Diving bombers pick was less satisfactory. Their very short range limited their usage, as Italy was cut from most of its advanced bases (Cagliari, Albania, Sicily) by the Brits as soon as Winter 1940.
SOME KEY STRATEGIC CALLS
Our main feeling of the game is that the Allies put too much pressure on Italy in game, while not doing enough against Germany and Japan. As such, a lot of energy was devoted to fight us in the Med. Each plane, ship and ground unit that was pinned down in the Med was a unit not available to fight the german and the Japenese. The best way we could summarize the game would be to say that we were like the Italian Stallion, aka Rocky: we stood up for 15 rounds in a row, got punched in the face multiples times, but managed to stay there. We had an indirect impact on the game. But a very valuable one according to our assesment of the game.
AOI: Africa Orientale Italia
The strategic importance of Ethiopia was underestimated by the British in our game. We used that area to support constant harassment of the UK convoys in the Red Sea. Both ports and airfield were used on a regular basis to raid convoys. We sunk a large chunk of those convoys over there, as our subs were never hunted down. Of course, that strategy was relying on the fact that before the war, we had purposely stationed 2 subs fleet there. They wreaked havoc.
All we had to do was securing the area by taking every ports the Brits had in the region, to avoid an easy Brits operation against us. The ZANZIBAR OPERATION proved very useful in the global war effort, for a very small investment (4 MIL / 4 SUBS / 1 NAV).
Switzerland
Easy target, full of IC and resources. A must to any serious Italian player who can secure, with that campaign, a cheap source of IC/resources, without having to exposed them to Allies attack. A very wise move. Even if we encounter some operational difficulties when we did invade the Swiss.
Convoys management
Relieving the AI from his duty to manage the convoys was a good decision. We let him create the convoys need, but kept the ability to manually fix the number of ships in each convoy lane. By doing so we benefited from the AI ability to quickly create the proper convoys lanes, without exposing our convoys/escort on lanes currently exposed to Brits attacks.
Partisans
We tried the new Partisans cell in the game. Our plan was to setup cells in Sicily and activate them once we were ready to invade Sicily. The idea was to get the Partisans to seize the port and allow our troops (ARM and INF) to simply be transported in the ports, instead of having to do an amphibious assault. The whole idea was to reduce the time during which the fleet would be exposed to potential Royal Navy counter attacks. It worked. The pace at which reinforcements could be sent in was very increased by that process, thus accelerating the overall invasion of the island.
Convoys management
Relieving the AI from his duty to manage the convoys was a good decision. We let him create the convoys need, but kept the ability to manually fix the number of ships in each convoy lane. By doing so we benefited from the AI ability to quickly create the proper convoys lanes, without exposing our convoys/escort on lanes currently exposed to Brits attacks.
Chess game
The game is like every game: you learn a lot by studying your opponent.
During the 1st year of conflict, e.g. 1939-1940, we tested our opponent a couple of time to assess his time of reaction to our actions, how he would react and with how many troops. We also used that period of time to clearly assess which zone he could see and which ones were out if his sight (as the Brits had radar in Malta and seized our islands very early in game).
This approach led, for example, to OPERATION CARTAGINE, which was designed to fully test the British modus operandi. The operation cost us 2 divisions, but allowed us to closely study the air tactics, ground tactics and naval tactics of or foe. We made good use of our findings in the following battles. This is how we managed to establish our air supremacy as soon as 1940.
__________________________________________________
This closes our AAR as the Italian player in North American Series #1.
Be sure to follow us in our next AAR, as we begin our Game #2 on Wednesday 15th 2012, as the USA this time.
Thanks for those who followed us in that journey.
.
ITALIA
NEW POST FEBRUARY 14th
NORTH AMERICAN MP GAME
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?573357-North-America-Series-FTM/page1
On November 20th 1939, UK declared war on Italy. From that date, until October 2nd 1941, Italy waged a war against superior foes, with limited capabilities. We made good choices, pick good tactics, but we also made terrible errors that proved very expensive. Here are our main thoughts on a game that just ended, our first real MP game.
NDLR: We played in previous MP game but this one was a real, steady and lengthy one, contrary to other games played.
TECHNOLOGICAL GOOD AND BAD PICKS
Some very bad calls
Well, 1st one is the fact we discovered in game that ships were not upgrading their hull, guns and motor… Only the newly built ones would have the new stats. That late discovery cost us a lot of leadership. Leadership that could has been put to better use on naval doctrines.
Other one was the fact that we discovered, almost at the same time, that BB/DD shared the same tech tree, while cruiser had a different one. We were lucky on that one as we had not develop much of the cruisers’ tech. But it was by chance, rather than a well thought strat that made us avoid that mistake.
The good calls
Our INF were on par with their opponent. Same for the Air units. BB were fierce, as we hope them to be, same for DD. The investment in hull/motor of DDs paid off, as we build most of our DD in 1940-1941, as replacement, due to their very short building time.
Relying on Lendlease allowed us to avoid investing in ARM, while giving us good ARMS (see section). This non-investment was wise.
NAVY TACTICS
To say we learnt the hard way would be a euphemism. My god we found the learning curve to be steep. But we learnt, as our success later in the game proved that we got over the 1st cycle.
The bad moves
We relied, for too long, on huge stacks of ships, incurring massive hull penalties throughout 1939-1940 naval battles. Our leaders, which had to be ranked at the 4 stars level, got fewer XP than expected with that approach. Basically, the Regia Marina was lame in the early stage of the game. And as such, it lost almost all its Cruiser fleet (light and heavy). Those are massive losses considering the limited ability of Italy to recover from such losses.
Our coordination with the air forces was good but Navy OOB was so poor, we never managed to take advantage of it in 1939-1940.
The good moves
By late 1940, we moved to another strategy. But we needed time to change the course of action. We chose to go for a BB/DD approach and, since our BBs (minus 1) were still on board, we did build a lot of DD (12+) to better screen our fleets. Our choices of doctrines were good, as few leadership had been spent on the cruisers’ doctrines anyway. So, it was clear that we could switch without losing too much.
Basically, and inspired by Valantinan and Cpt Easy AAR, we went for a more flexible OOB for the Navy. From now on, the basic OOB of our combat fleets would be 6-7 ships, 4-5 DD + 2 BB (10 or less hull pts to avoid penalties). Leaders were put back at the 1 or 2 stars level, to help them gain XP faster. Fleet specialized in recon were built (2-3 ships, mostly 1 LC + 2 DD, given our constraints on limited number of LC still available). 2 Invasion fleets were setup: 1 HC each + DD, + half the total number of cargos we had. Cargos were put on production too, to replace losses.
We adopted a good tactic with our air units, as we managed, for most of the campaign, to maintain air supremacy over the Brits. Since we had 7 NAV + 6 INT, grouped in wings of 3 (+1 reserve NAV), to avoid any penalty when INT would combine with NAV in a given battle, Regia Aeria was a real strength for Italy for the whole game. INT were lacking some range, due to a misreading of the tech tree chart (we thought the extra-range tech was already developed while it wasn’t… It was due in late Fall 1941), but basically, and according to a comparison we made with the Brits tech tree after the game. We could see that Italy was not far behind in aerial tech development, and that its leaders had gained a lot of XP.
So, we a more flexible Navy, and aircraft forces that were in good shape, we implemented the tactic we wanted to established since day one: pin down Brits fleet in naval battle, send in our NAV/INT in waves to reduce their CAGs value, and then, send in new fleets to hit already exhausted Brits fleet.
While the sample is limited, we feel that the strategy was a good one. We did test it against AI on very hard level between MP session and results were quite good in those games. In the MP game, the Cagliari campaign proved that we were right to go that route.
True, the Brits had huge penalty when we hit their SAG invading fleet. And as such, victory was made easy. But when we fought the CTF, they were alone and there were no penalty of any kind. So, the strategy worked. We couldn’t reach the climax of the strategy as the Brits were able to withdraw beyond reach of our fleets, but, as was noted later, their screen fleet were badly damaged, one or two CVs were hit and their CAG strength were all down to 50%. To assess that, we loaded a previously saved game to check the health of the British fleet after the battle. It was easy to check as we had multiple save games of the Cagliari campaign available (as the campaign was rather long).
LENDLEASE
In game, we used the Lendlease option to build namely 3 bunch of units:
- 2 German Diving bombers (Ju87): : brought to battle in Fall 1939
- 3 Pz III brigades : brought to battle in Spring 1940
- 3 Pz IV brigades : brought to battle in September 1941
While the Panzer buying proved useful, the Diving bombers pick was less satisfactory. Their very short range limited their usage, as Italy was cut from most of its advanced bases (Cagliari, Albania, Sicily) by the Brits as soon as Winter 1940.
SOME KEY STRATEGIC CALLS
Our main feeling of the game is that the Allies put too much pressure on Italy in game, while not doing enough against Germany and Japan. As such, a lot of energy was devoted to fight us in the Med. Each plane, ship and ground unit that was pinned down in the Med was a unit not available to fight the german and the Japenese. The best way we could summarize the game would be to say that we were like the Italian Stallion, aka Rocky: we stood up for 15 rounds in a row, got punched in the face multiples times, but managed to stay there. We had an indirect impact on the game. But a very valuable one according to our assesment of the game.
AOI: Africa Orientale Italia
The strategic importance of Ethiopia was underestimated by the British in our game. We used that area to support constant harassment of the UK convoys in the Red Sea. Both ports and airfield were used on a regular basis to raid convoys. We sunk a large chunk of those convoys over there, as our subs were never hunted down. Of course, that strategy was relying on the fact that before the war, we had purposely stationed 2 subs fleet there. They wreaked havoc.
All we had to do was securing the area by taking every ports the Brits had in the region, to avoid an easy Brits operation against us. The ZANZIBAR OPERATION proved very useful in the global war effort, for a very small investment (4 MIL / 4 SUBS / 1 NAV).
Switzerland
Easy target, full of IC and resources. A must to any serious Italian player who can secure, with that campaign, a cheap source of IC/resources, without having to exposed them to Allies attack. A very wise move. Even if we encounter some operational difficulties when we did invade the Swiss.
Convoys management
Relieving the AI from his duty to manage the convoys was a good decision. We let him create the convoys need, but kept the ability to manually fix the number of ships in each convoy lane. By doing so we benefited from the AI ability to quickly create the proper convoys lanes, without exposing our convoys/escort on lanes currently exposed to Brits attacks.
Partisans
We tried the new Partisans cell in the game. Our plan was to setup cells in Sicily and activate them once we were ready to invade Sicily. The idea was to get the Partisans to seize the port and allow our troops (ARM and INF) to simply be transported in the ports, instead of having to do an amphibious assault. The whole idea was to reduce the time during which the fleet would be exposed to potential Royal Navy counter attacks. It worked. The pace at which reinforcements could be sent in was very increased by that process, thus accelerating the overall invasion of the island.
Convoys management
Relieving the AI from his duty to manage the convoys was a good decision. We let him create the convoys need, but kept the ability to manually fix the number of ships in each convoy lane. By doing so we benefited from the AI ability to quickly create the proper convoys lanes, without exposing our convoys/escort on lanes currently exposed to Brits attacks.
Chess game
The game is like every game: you learn a lot by studying your opponent.
During the 1st year of conflict, e.g. 1939-1940, we tested our opponent a couple of time to assess his time of reaction to our actions, how he would react and with how many troops. We also used that period of time to clearly assess which zone he could see and which ones were out if his sight (as the Brits had radar in Malta and seized our islands very early in game).
This approach led, for example, to OPERATION CARTAGINE, which was designed to fully test the British modus operandi. The operation cost us 2 divisions, but allowed us to closely study the air tactics, ground tactics and naval tactics of or foe. We made good use of our findings in the following battles. This is how we managed to establish our air supremacy as soon as 1940.
__________________________________________________
This closes our AAR as the Italian player in North American Series #1.
Be sure to follow us in our next AAR, as we begin our Game #2 on Wednesday 15th 2012, as the USA this time.
Thanks for those who followed us in that journey.
.
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Nice summery, Paglia. Interesting to read. Looking forwards for the next AAR. Plz notify its start in this AAR as I am likely to miss it otherwise. Cheers.
Good AAR, indeed. It's a pity that it had to end so soon, but then, many MP games end in 1941/1942.
Germany made a mad dash into London for the sole purpose of disrupting England's already weakened supply and resource situation. And it worked splendidly! Unfortunately for the invasion forces, the USA was able to land 24 divisions nearby, with 8 of those eventually cutting off the invading army from their lone port. For a time, the allies were concerned that the Germans would try a breakout to the south, but it was not to be.
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