Chapter Fifty-Four - Racing the Bear
Canada did a decent job taking the previous slice of Italy, right up until the end when I forgot what I was doing and started pushing the enemy back because, well, I can't recall why I would have done that. It was nice to take a port? It was nice to be adjacent to Napoli? Maybe the men really wanted to see Pompeii, or get away from Vesuvius by moving closer to it now and further away later. It was like playing chess and pushing the pawns forward because that's what you do, rather than having any actual goal in mind. So now I'll try to take another slice of Italy, capture more Axis troops, and see if I can't beat the Russians to something.
I send troops to gobble up the heel of Italy.
This shot also shows a nice overview. SPOLIER ALERT - the moron who launched the What-The-Hell-Was-I-Thinking Bowl suggested that I land the men, reload them, land them, reload them, all to speed up taking the Heel of Italy. At first, I listened. Then I realized that I kind of needed my navy for other things. Like beating the enemy.
I have three ports on Mainland Italy now, including Taranto, which is a major facility. However, the Russian Bear waits for no man.
So I begin to wonder what happens when Germany is knocked out. I did it as the USA, but all I recall is "Enforced Conquer" and then I kind of stopped playing. I did not stick around to see what happened next. Hopefully I can beat Italy before da bears beat Adolf. If not, I hope to get a shot at finishing my war before everything ends. Vichy France is still active, for example. It would be nice to fight the cold war from north of the Alps somewhere. How are we doing on knocking out Italy?
Yeah, cause the Allies are (almost) doing better than the Axis and Commies combined. Right. Korea must be really valuable!
32.10% on Italy. Napoli is worth another 6 VPs, we'll see how that changes things. My plan was to methodically move up the peninsula. I might have to go for VPs at some point, though for now, the natural process should produce the VPs I'd be looking for. A grab at specific spots might still be worth it. Rome is 15 VPs, Genoa and Aenice are worth 7 each, Bologna is worth 5. Again, right now, Naples is the target, then presumably the capitol, but I might go for Genoa if it would end the war. I also might be forced to bypass Rome, if it is super-well defended.
As I mentioned, I was going to load and reload my infantry to capture Italy's heel. In doing so, I did discover that apparently I cannot order the men to board ship from a friendly province. I sat and waited and waited. I finally got them to board by ordering them to a distant province, and they pathed across the water.
Finally, realizing how much time this was all taking, I decided to use my fleet to fight the enemy rather than cleaning up the map.
The plan is to chop off another slice of Italy, and take with it another 50,000-75,000 Axis soldiers.
Fair's fair, but I really should not be fighting Germans anymore. Have you guys seen a map lately? Probably not.
Calling all Germans! Your presence is required elsewhere! By rights they ought to be fighting the Americans in North Korea.
We get bombed repeatedly in Benevento, so I send out my slightly-repaired fighters.
The air above Benevento must be very thin, I get a stacking penalty with two units. It's mostly ORG loss, but by the end my fighters aren't feeling so well.
The enemy air chases me back to Taranto, knocking me down to 92/64. <sigh> You know, I'm thinking the UK has some un-used air power. I blame them. Still, it's time to take it to the bad guys.
I'm only landing the Marines for now, in case it's contested, and then I'll land the other divisions before going to get the next bunch. Because San Severo is the named after the patron saint of slasher films, we'll only land there if we have to.
At first I thought that the enemy forgot their Armored Cars. Then the battle results came up, and the enemy lost Zero of their Zero men. I realized that the Axis no longer needed HQs in order to field zombie armies! Where would it end? On the other hand, the USSR would not stand a chance against a zombie invasion. They have no transports that I am aware of.
Being a genius, I am sending the Marines into the mountains, but I did bring Mountain Troops in case the Marines need help, or directions. Until then the mountain troops defend the beaches from zombies.
I now have 33,000 troops in the landing zone, and a Garrison division of 7000 Axis bounces off harmlessly from the north, where the Axis did have a pretty big stack of icons. I'm not sure how many actual troops those are. Nobody wants to tell Hitler some of the units he's moving around the map are empty, and apparently the game is going along with the deception.
While my ships drag men around to the west, I attack the critical part of this operation - the center province. I need to close this gap with the men I have landed in the East/North, or I hope to.
I plan to land in Monte Cassino. What could possibly go wrong there?
The battle in the center, Isernia, seems like it ought to go pretty well when I first see it. Mechanized defending in mountains is bad, right?
The AI thought so as well, since the enemy bugs out long before the battle was decided.
The enemy then decides to counter-attack in Benevento, confirming my belief that there are still way too many Germans in Italy.
Somebody must have told them David Hasselof was here.
Hurray! An uncontested landing in Monte Cassino! And yes, the Benevento attack is not from Naples. They sure fooled me! [Ed - it's from both. Me - I can read a map, just takes me three tries.]
Hello, British Navy! This is what an
invasion looks like. Tell your friends!
Now batting for Pedro Borbon, Manny Mota!
Great, German pinch hitters magically appear in Monte Cassino. Granted, they're only officers, but still, not really a sensible use of talent if you ask me.
I have to wait about a day before my Marines can attack in the manner they've trained all their lives to do, off of one mountain and up another. In the meantime, this couldn't possibly go at all badly, right?