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So I´m doing my first italian game since I´m now more experienced with the naval aspects, and wanted some tips.

1- Italy starts with some points in Superior Firepower. Is it better to go for that land doctrine with them then? What about the others? Grand battle plan is particular might be very useful.
2- They start without ANY armor tech (which doesn´t make any sense to me, but whatever), so I was thinking of going purely infantry and support brigades and then later mechanized infantry.
3- For airforce, naval bombers and interceptors only.
4- For navy, battleships and light cruisers.

It´s end of 1938 and I´ve already DOWed Yugoslavia (by using spies to increase threat on the UK) to get my cores back. Any other ideas before the war with the allies (that aren´t gamey or too ahistorical)?
 
Build some radar in Palermo. 3-5 levels will be enough. Malta is your best friend and should be left under British control as long as possible. Now, that certainly seems like an odd thing to do, but hear me out. I made an earlier thread about how I as Italy whittled the RN down to 36 ships, 3 of which were capitals, in a year. That includes carriers plus newly built battleships like the King George V being sunk. What made that possible was the following:

1) Use interceptors to clear the Med of CAGs
2) Use naval bombers to attack fleets as soon as they show up on radar
3) Send my battleships in groups of 4 plus 6 screens to intercept the fleet being bombed. Rotate my battle groups to reduce losses and damage. I based both fleets in Palermo.
4) Watch the battle :)
5) After the battle the RN survivors will retreat to Malta. French survivors will run to Tunis.
6) Bomb Malta's port and sink the ships hiding there
7) Repeat 1-6 and win.
 
Search the forum and you will find plenty of threads how to play Italy.
You can go all Inf, add some Mech+TD, get a nice airforce, expand the navy or build a decent ARM branch. But not all ot once.
 
I tried playing as Italy back when I first got this game. I tried to avoid the axis and join the Allies. Suicide. Would be more interesting to try now there are coups in FTM I suppose. Try to get rid of that il Duce scumbag while playing as Italy by deliberately allowing the political situation to become messy. Wait until Germany is under pressure from the Soviets and then attack the underbelly and get rid of that Adolf super-scumbag too. This and what i just read about FTM 3.06 make me finally want to take the plunge, even though I will miss some of the SF mods. I suppose the AI does not attempt coups though?
 
Coups don't work like that, in that they don't apply to your own country unless you let other nations' spies get you to the point where the AI nation can conduct a coup, which it won't/can't do.
 
The problem with italy is that they are resource starved and have a need for all three branches at once. Army, airforce and navy will all need to be expanded and while it's easy to do two of them, make all three can be quite hard unless you go for the gamey route.

I usually don't build any new full sized divisions for italy until I can get mechanized infantry. I add infantry brigades and art to the crappy ones I start off with and upgrade the militia down in ethiopia to something more pimp (and my needs for my goals set up) Just make sure you redo the whole OOB early, so you can disband the many HQs who occupy your MP and drain your supplies.

Edit: militia down in ethiopia not italy :)
 
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The problem with italy is that they are resource starved and have a need for all three branches at once.

Italy can easily trade for everything it needs - including oil enough for a lot of armour. In my experience Italy does not need to expand the navy at all, that is only for flavour.
 
So I´m doing my first italian game since I´m now more experienced with the naval aspects, and wanted some tips.

1- Italy starts with some points in Superior Firepower. Is it better to go for that land doctrine with them then? What about the others? Grand battle plan is particular might be very useful.
2- They start without ANY armor tech (which doesn´t make any sense to me, but whatever), so I was thinking of going purely infantry and support brigades and then later mechanized infantry.
3- For airforce, naval bombers and interceptors only.
4- For navy, battleships and light cruisers.

It´s end of 1938 and I´ve already DOWed Yugoslavia (by using spies to increase threat on the UK) to get my cores back. Any other ideas before the war with the allies (that aren´t gamey or too ahistorical)?

1 - The only land doctrine branch that can be neglected as Italy is the Spearhead one. It would be good to have one LS working on one of the doctrines in each of the three other branches.

2- It is nice to research at least LArm and AC, so that one can make use of the panzer leaders and the CA bonus, plus create some quick exploitation units for the vast African lands.

3 - Yes. Later, one can switch to multirole fighters.

4 - Battleships and destroyers are cheaper as less doctrines need to be researched. The smaller range is not an issue.

After Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey (in that order) can be annexed. I also took Switzerland the last time I played Italy. Then prepare for the war with UK and France. A lot of mountaineers will help all operations, especially in southern France and later in Caucasus.
 
Italy can easily trade for everything it needs - including oil enough for a lot of armour. In my experience Italy does not need to expand the navy at all, that is only for flavour.

Yes, of course trades are needed. But you do need to create some extra 100-150 supplies a day to pay for the trades which has some impact on your already strained IC.

Tried italy on harder difficulty settings and in my first 2 (and only 2) games in MP. I found the need to build up a decent navy was necessary in order to keep some control over the med in order to take suez.
 
Another option would be to skip naval bombers and go all for CAS, since they share the same techs and are much cheaper, but range might be a problem.

The big question for me are land units, since I hate militia and due to how expensive Armor research in general now is, and due to starting SF doctrine points, I was really thinking of rushing mechanized, only researching enough to unlock it. Using AT brigades to fill the gap.

One plus of Italy is their high starting relations with the US, which can give you all you need reasonably cheap.
 
Ignore land units.
Build a lot of interceptors and upgrade airfields in sicily.
Research carriers, build CAGS.
Make your CAGS get a lot of XP in Ethiopia or when dealing with some Balkan minor.
Make one big carrier fleet.
Position some crappy naval units randomly in sea provinces and wait for some allied carrier fleet to engage.
Send interceptors.
Send your carriers.
You can sink almost the complete royal navy really easy doing this.
 
In every Italian game I've played bar one I've realised I've always gone for war with Germany over Austria, it makes so much sense to do for an ahistorical game, since if your quick into the Austrian Alps and at garrisoning around Wien then you can sit on that line against the Germans for as long as you want, they are very unlikely to break your line if you can establish it.

True it costs you an arm and a leg in manpower to take the fight into Germany, but the threat that Germany generates at war with you generally appears to trigger an early entry for the war to others. So long as you don't mind the other powers claiming vast chunks of Germany this is fine, since it then later allows you to go all 'Restoration of Rome' where you can, and then later have the showdown with the Allies if you so wish.

You can do nearly everything with Italy including European domination, just it takes the full time period and careful planning...not attacking the Soviets is a must if you take this route (and also I would leave Scandenavia alone, its not worth the hassel once you own Europe and Africa)
 
Nevermind, pretty much already won the mediterranean:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/35/2012051200003.jpg/

Not hard, actually, weird game by the way. Attacked Greece in january (which thanks God didn´t join the allies immediatedly - why?), and received call to arms in march, which I accepted. Egypt border not garrisoned (sigh) and advanced all the way to Alexandria without opposition. Wonder were the brits were? Simple - sending a BEF to Netherlands of some 12 divisions which was eventually crushed (there is a brit conquered province in Denmark BTW, look closely).

As for navy lost a CL and DD here and there but did manage to sink some vessels. Only one was a BB however.

Also, another thing - Belgium joined the allies in January, so Battle of France started in a silly way. I´d say the threat and alliances are a bit bonkers in 3.06, and 3.05 was more predictable. UK AI is dumb and desperatedly needs improvements. To begin with, block invasions of Europe in 1940, unless the player is France, and even then make it land in France, not elsewhere.
 
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I have been playing Italy recently and I have found the biggest issue is that I need to build an elite (and fast) ground force that can swing the balance to AI Germany when fighting the Soviets. Usually I need about 20 divisions of light armor or mechanized infantry that are mainly used to create pockets and eliminate Russian troops. They don't really do much conquering of territory (although I tend to demand the Caucasus region as a war goal to compensate myself for my losses). If I don't do this AI Germany is ground down by AI Russia and I end up fighting the Soviet armies in the Balkans (and then eventually Italy) nine out of ten times. Oddly AI Germany defeats AI Russia 50% of the time when I play an allied nation.
 
I tried playing as Italy back when I first got this game. I tried to avoid the axis and join the Allies. Suicide. Would be more interesting to try now there are coups in FTM I suppose. Try to get rid of that il Duce scumbag while playing as Italy by deliberately allowing the political situation to become messy. Wait until Germany is under pressure from the Soviets and then attack the underbelly and get rid of that Adolf super-scumbag too. This and what i just read about FTM 3.06 make me finally want to take the plunge, even though I will miss some of the SF mods. I suppose the AI does not attempt coups though?

You can beat Germany way before Operation Barbarossa. Just hit them when they're attacking France. I've only done it once but it worked pretty well overall. I wasn't even in the allies at the time. It didn't really even take much strategy. Mass Infantry was enough. Italy has enough manpower that they can absorb heavy losses at the hands of the superior German forces. Germany will be spread too thin to take Italy or France.
 
Ok Malta, Iraq and Yugoslavia out of the war in october 1940. All that remains is Gibraltar and completing the Suez Channel strategic goals. Then onwards to Russia.

Is it possible to put Saudi Arabia on the Axis or I will have to DOW them? As for Gibraltar, the chance to get military acess is "Maybe", however I laos need the province on the other side of the strait. Will Nationalist Spain join the Axis once I take Gibraltar? (3.06 beta game BTW)

And UK tried yet another invasion of Netherlands. More 7 divisions going to be slaughtered...
 
I have been playing Italy recently and I have found the biggest issue is that I need to build an elite (and fast) ground force that can swing the balance to AI Germany when fighting the Soviets. Usually I need about 20 divisions of light armor or mechanized infantry that are mainly used to create pockets and eliminate Russian troops. They don't really do much conquering of territory (although I tend to demand the Caucasus region as a war goal to compensate myself for my losses). If I don't do this AI Germany is ground down by AI Russia and I end up fighting the Soviet armies in the Balkans (and then eventually Italy) nine out of ten times. Oddly AI Germany defeats AI Russia 50% of the time when I play an allied nation.

If you prepare by taking the Balkans and Turkey you can attack SU from the south in Caucasus and since SU wont dare leave the Greman border undefended you can defeat SU all by yourself. However, this terrain is definately not something to use Armor in. I personally use 2INF+2ART (despite art being a drag in the mountains - it pays off when you have passed) and 4MTN to do some encirclements.

If you want 2MOT+2TD is enoug as mobile force once you are clear of the mountains and drive north for Stalingrad.
 
I'm a bit stunned to hear that people have success as Italy beating Germany. Holding out against Germany I can understand, though it should be quite challenging to do. But defeating Germany without help from the Allies?