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I am suprised no further advance has been made with battleships, especially with the CVL's putting your fleet close to enemy guns.

It also might be a good idea to build more tansports in the case where you are cut off from Ethiopia indefinitely.

Good update as usual. :)
 
So heavy and light cruisers with CVL's form your main fleet? An interesting approach, I'm eagerly waiting to see how it works. Though my 2 cents go to your navy getting forcibly transformed into a all-submarine force after a month or two against the mass of British battleships and CV's... even the French navy can be a tough nut, actually.

Best of luck, anyways!
 
@Robou: It is rumored that il Duce is planning something for late October '40..

@Funkatronica, Maj von Mauser, Kasakka, ruckel: The plan with the Navy is to stick to CA, CVL and CL-FC. In that mix there'll be some obsolete Zara-Class CA. Why?

Well, CVLs make the fleet close in range of the "weakest" capital ship. However Improved CL-FC got better fire range that CA-II. This means that I'll have my WHOLE SAG firing, screening ships included, rather than my few SHBBs.

It also mean that I'll lose more ships, as they are more fragile.. but they can also be easily replaced.

Add in Naval bombers cover and I can see some real pain for the Allied fleets in the Med.

In my normal Italy approach I'd have built much more by now, but going historical means no Spain and no Turkey yet :)

@Cyrus the great, Minarchist: thanks both for subscribing. I had a busy week, but I hope to play a bit more now :)
 
Chapter 7. Waiting the baiting - part 3

1940 begins with frequent meetings between il Duce and the military chiefs. It is decided that Italy will enter the war in June to help Hitler. Il Duce secretly travels to Berlin and offers a puzzled Hitler his cooperation in return of a nulla osta for Italy in the Balkans.

Redeploying of Italian forces begins in February. The 5 units composing the old Corpo di Spedizione Albanese are ordered to be redeployed to Ethiopia. The first Italian garrison unit replace them in Tirana. These 5 units are equipped with Artillery and Armored cars, greatly reinforcing Ethiopian theater firepower.

The rest of the Army will be split between France border and Northern Africa. With Badoglio having discovered history faculty library, a new idea comes out between Italian leaders.. Why not apply the same tactics the Russian used with Napoleon to the Brits in Lybia? After all we got a lot of sand to give up… we could let them advance and then suddenly unload our Amphibious troops and a few mobile units and cut their supply lines, finishing them off. Eager to apply this tactic, the Italian forces deployed in Northern Africa are minimal, just to make it look like there’ll be some fight, at least.


On the Ethiopian front the units will fight a classic WWI style trench warfare, with some air cover to spoil any moving allied troop. Large part of the successful conquest campaign are replaced with WWI veterans more used to fight in trenches. (Old guard leaders are useful sometimes)

Albania is left out of any plan at the moment, beside Tirana airport expansion.

Italian research speeds up. New mountain equipment is researched as well as the first testing of assembly lines. Balbo keeps improving our fighters behavior.

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The Winter War ends. Stalin got some useless land close to Finland border.. who cares? Our trades with Finland are safe anyway.

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Italian shipyards keep working at full speed.. in the first few months of the year CLs, CAs and CVLs are pumped out. Also, the first unit of Progetto Drago is ready! Our leaders begin to write plans to employ them in battle.. will they be used in Africa as planned in the beginning or in France?

progettodrago.png

More artillery improvements.

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Italian scientists make an important discovery.. in the background you can see Italian troops fine tuning their defensive line.

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At the beginning of May the first Italian MOT infantry unit is ready. It is assigned to the French front, ready to be used to quickly encircle French troops. However the situation of the front is still uncertain, with the Germans able to close their first pocket in… Friedrichschafen!

mot.png

In mid-May Germany is finally able to overrun Ghent. The war isn’t going well anyway, with France advancing on the Sigfried line.. maybe those few troops used to keep the Belgian at bay in Ghent can now give some momentum to German offensive? With less than a month to the Italian war declaration, the plans on the French border could be seriously spoiled.

ghent.png
 
It is a possibility that the you will be outflanked by the French via Austria. Cover your hiney there. Otherwise spearhead them.

Oh by the way loved that the mj. General is Scatini, the english and americans are going to have a laugh until he litterally drops out of the sky.
 
fine preparations! Good that the war has finally arrived. I am seriously doubting if the Germans will be able to beat Russia in this state if they are losing to France. It seems Italian Intervention is the only thing that can stop this madness!
 
Fance will definitely be no Rollover, but I think you can do it.

Ethiopia is looking good, are all those airfields for resupplying?

Nice update. :)
 
Chapter 8. War, at last

Before starting with gameplay, a little disclaimer. I cannot continue creating new chapters like this, so I'm going to create sub-chapters from each important war theater operation.

When something really important happens, I'll start a new chapter for real.


The war preparation goes ahead at full speed.
Italian doctrines keep improving thanks to Balbo and Cavagnari..

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Italian spies instead manage to steal Night bombing manuals.

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Italy starting Army is relatively small. Only about 60 divisions (30 infantry) against 90 French ones and 80 more British units. Germany has on its own about 110 divisions.

Italian navy is composed of about 40 ships when the war starts, compared to the 140+ British ones (with 12 BBs) and about 50 French ships (6 BBs, 1 CV, 1 BC).

UK and France can also count on 16 fighter wings and 7 bomber wings compared to Italian 5 fighter wings and 6 bomber wings.

8.1. Operazione Apocalisse
8.2. Operazione Lampo
8.3. Vichy and Lybian skirmishes
8.4. Operazione Lampo resumes
8.5. The fishes are better starting eating iron!
8.6. Operazione Amo develops
8.7. What happens outside of Africa?
8.8. Operazione Amo failure.
8.9. Fear and Rage
8.10. Satisfying a mad man desire..
8.11. Operazione Olimpo
 
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Chapter 8.1. Operazione Apocalisse.


On the 30th of May the Italian military leaders meet along with il Duce to set up the plans for France Invasion. The first Italian offensive in the Second World War will be an impressive display of power and coordination.

All the Italian troops in Turin and Genoa will strike Grenoble (in red in the map). Air cover will be granted with Tactical bombers to maul the few defenders of the Alpine province (the azure arrow). The lone Progetto Drago unit will be ordered to conquer Lyon (violet target) from the sky once the attackers reach Grenoble. At the same time the Progetto Nettuno team (shown in the screenshot, green arrows) and Corpo d’armata Celere (green arrow as well )will try to secure the beaches of Toulon and Marseille under heavy shore bombardment. The whole operation is codenamed as Operazione Apocalisse (Operation Apocalypse)

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The situation 3 hours before Italy joins the war. Germany managed to repel France offensive and its now pushing towards Paris. Hopefully Operazione Apocalisse can divert enough French troops to open the front for Hitler.

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As soon as Italy joins the war, Cavallero is promoted Chief of Staff. Not everyone in Italy agrees with the government decision to help Germany. A few weeks will be needed to bolster propaganda efforts.

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At 5:00 AM of June 10th Operation Apocalypse begins. Italian troops engage the defenders of Grenoble. 6 hours later, the defenders are routed. Mj Mecozzi Tactical wing is set to attack the retreating division.

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In the Mediterranean coast the Naval attack group scheduled to cover Progetto Nettuno unloading manages to sink 3 Allied destroyers, without any loss.

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Surprisingly, the USA break a non-aggression pact with us.

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13:00, 13th June. Progetto Drago team, lead by Mj General Scattini literally drops a sh*tload of firepower on the lone Lyon defenders, already “softened” by Mecozzi bombers.

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10:00, 14th June. In less than a day France managed to send 2 divisions to help the Lyon garrison. However, Progetto Nettuno troops quickly offer their support to the attacking Paras. The situation seems still favorable to Italians.

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12:00, 15th June. Italian troops finally secure Lyon. 6 hours later, the battle for Nice begins. The lone French division fights fiercely but without any real hope to withstand Italian superior firepower.

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8 days later, Italian generals admire the success of Operazione Apocalisse. 2 French divisions were annihilated and the whole French southern front collapsed. The Celere is sent towards Bordeaux, in the hope to conquer it before the Nazis can reach Paris.

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Really nice unfolding of events. I did like how you planned Operazione Apocalisse... surely better that the historical Benito :)

"Ah, Hitler got Paris? Why don't we join the fun, then? Those French should be dead carcass anyways."

*French divisions repel the Italian attack over the French alps and start their own advance in Italian lines*
 
8.2. Operazione Lampo.

At the same time, the generals begin planning a new operation. This time the target will be Malta. The isle is still lightly defended, but with more time the British are going to reinforce it a lot. Operazione Lampo (Operation Flare) is launched to secure it before any reinforcement can reach the isle. Progetto Nettuno units will be used to attack the isle, with intense air cover from Mecozzi and shore bombardment from the two Italian SAGs.


18:00, 21th June. Operazione Lampo begins. On the route to Malta, the Italian SAG is engaged by a strong French force. Italian ships manage to win the battle, but it sounds like a Pyrrus victory..

lampo.png


5:00, 24th June. The first landing is attempted on Malta. However the Italians, with air cover cut from impressive fighter force (24 fighter squadrons!) are forced to withdraw. The Italian transport fleet sails back to Palermo to lick his wounds. At the same time Progetto Drago units are redeployed to Palermo to be used in a second assault.

lampo2.png


Later that day, the Celere reach Bordeaux. It quickly moves up North to Cholet, to distract more French troops.

lampo3.png


Uk commandos secure the Dodecanese. The same day, one transport ship is lost in a battle against the French navy.

dode.png


With a damaged Navy and heavy cover from Allied fighters on Malta, Operazione Lampo is postponed.
 
@Deus, robou: I hope you like spaghetti-blitzkrieg ;). I think the French will need to pull out some troops from the border with Germany soon, and that should ease Germany AI operations.

@Maj von Mauser: those airfields are going to be used as bases for TAC bombers and occasionally for one or 2 airborne assaults.. now I need to defeat France though!

@Funkatronica: too late! At least you can see how it goes with Ethiopia now ;)

@DvD-IT: there isn't much effort needed to do better than Benito.. don't shoot on the Red Cross :D
 
I think you should have gone for Gibraltar first, which would have cut the British off, and then gone for Malta. the Brits might further reinforce Gibraltar in the meantime.