Thank you for the replies!
Yoy21: Lebanon, no. If I did attack them they’d just be absorbed by Syria, in other words a waste of IC (spent on reducing dissent). The British Isles, however are not high on my list of priorities, but they are there. We’ll have to wait and see.
Lifeless: Unfortunately Iraq left the Allies and are now friendly with the Axis. Like Lebanon it would be pointless and a waste of effort to invade them.
Part eight see the fight to regain my cores, and if I get a little bit extra along the way, who’s complaining?
An Empire Like No Other
Part Eight:
I’m sure you all now what happened last night by now…
The next stage of our plan involves the conquest of Yogislavia and Grease [renamed by orders from our great leader]. And so we begin.
Straight away we begin shipping forces to Albania and Venice, ready for the invasion of Yogislavia. Meanwhile in Sardinia the Allies somehow sneak another division past our fleet and cause our forces in the process of landing to give up and retreat. Our Naval Bombers quickly get revenge, annihilating the lone transport flotilla responsible.
Nothing exciting happens until the beginning of November, when the British take As Suwayz. With thirteen division nearby and bombers on standby, this was a big mistake. They are easily overwhelmed and now our aircraft have an easy shot at eliminating them.
Here you can also see that we have forces in place to deal with the Allies in Palestine and the set up for my return to Ethiopia. Twelve infantry divisions plus one HQ are assigned to push south out of Egypt and retake what is rightfully ours. The bombers will also remain in this theatre to take advantage of the terrain and bomb the Brits to pieces.
On the 3rd Chad defects to Free France. A bit pointless, seeing as they are surrounded by the territory of Vichy France and us. If I could spare the forces I would crush them like a bug. On the 8th a fleet of transports is sighted off the coast of Italy. Submarines are rushed there in case of a landing but after a while it appears to be a false alarm. Instead of the transports they encounter a medium-sized British fleet which forces them to retreat.
On the 9th the enemy forces in Palestine are eliminated. From now on the Syrians will guard this region. The month passes by pointlessly as we continue transferring units around. Depending on the weather, our plan could begin next month. In the last days of November we send a force down to investigate the possibility of liberating Ethiopia sooner rather than later. It turns out that the British have heavily garrisoned the coast in that region; therefore liberation is unlikely at this time. Meanwhile the Naval Bombers are grounded after a scuffle with passing French aircraft.
Check out the toll our bombers are taking on the British army. This is part of a broad push south that will hopefully eventually let us retake the lost territory. The eventual plan is to encircle enemy forces at Luxor and force them to surrender.
The first few days of December are pretty boring, but on the 10th…
To war!
Our plan for the invasion. The green arrows are our movements; the blue arrows are our allies’ movements. It is simple. We plan to trap enemy forces in the far north and far south of Yogislavia and destroy them. After that we will push for Belgrade and then it will simply a case of mopping up the rest.
The first battles are complete successes. Looking at our allies, they appear to be sharing in our glory. Suddenly, on December 12th, Bulgaria joins our side and assists. This is good, very good. Later that day our first forces enter a Yogislav territory, Pristina and begin pushing north to Nov Pazar. On the 15th we suffer our first defeat in this campaign when we fail to take Podgorica. However, this is made up for when we win in Skopje, thus reducing further the southern pocket.
Later that day…
Our elite mountaineers reach Nov Pazar and find Belgrade wide open. In other news the Romanians (under German command) reach Nis and for some reason turn over control to us. Strange. On the 18th we finish research on Improved Infantry Divisions. Work on the old ’39 style division is abandoned and the factories shifted to work on upgrading existing divisions.
On the 21st we take Rijeka and also march triumphantly into Belgrade, seizing large stockpiles of resources in the process. The Yogislavs are getting torn apart, especially by the leader of our Mountaineers, General Vercllino, who has earned the nickname ‘Ranger Smith’ for all his success. On the 26th Sarajevo and Skopje are taken. Concidentlly, Stip is taken simultaneously by the Bulgarians, hence eliminating the southern pocket entirely.
(Stip went to me again rather than to the Bulgarians, why is this? Is it because I’m the one who declared war? But when Germany took Ljubljana it went to them rather than me. I’m confused.)
Yogislavia has basically been torn apart. Once Zagreb is taken all effective military resistance should cease.
(LOL at MS Word grammar check here. If I write all effective it wants to change it to all-effective, if I write all-effective it wants to change it back…stupid)
Meanwhile, in Africa…we get surprised by a large British counterattack at Aswan. Luckily our forces are able to launch spoiling attacks which end in the British falling back, even though we did get defeated at Aswan.
Back to Europe…we are forced to give up the assault on Zagreb for the time being. I guess we’ll have to wait for the German’s help, as much as it pains Il Duce to admit defeat. The next few days are very boring as the Dubrovnik pocket is reduced. There has been significantly less naval traffic in the Mediterranean since the fall of Suez so our Naval Bombers are transferred to convoy bombing duty. Hopefully we can cut off supplies to the Allies on Sardinia.
It took a while, but on January the 16th the Germans attack Zagreb and we go along for the ride. Outnumbered 5 to 1, even the frozen conditions can’t save the defenders and the last key city in Yogislavia is ours. In other news, the Allies seem to have abandoned Sardinia. Luckily we have troops on standby to take advantage and the island is finally back where it belongs. The next target: Crete. Scouts report that it is undefended.
On January 26th, our Mountaineers commanded by General ‘Ranger Smith’ take the last important Yogislav territory and we officially annex them. I guess they weren’t smarter than the average bear…er, person. Next stop: Grease.
The Mediterranean seems clear and Il Duce’s empire is growing. We all know what comes next. See you next morning, provided I survive the night…
To be continued…
Techs completed in this part:
Basic Motorized Division
Improved Infantry Division
Ship Assembly Line
Techs ongoing after this part:
Improved Light Carrier
Improved Motorized Division
Subsidiary Carrier Role Doctrine
Aircraft Assembly Line
Improved Interceptor
Yes, you read that right. I now have 5 tech teams. Whoop!
This turned out better than expected overall, thanks to the odd thing where the Axis minors would transfer their conquests to me. I guess it had something to do with them being controlled by Germany. One more funny thing, in the time for the Germans to reach Zagreb, my Mountaineers managed to cross Split, that province northwest of Split and finally Zagreb. Goes to show how much a little extra hill speed can do.
See you next time!