From Sardinia to Italy… and beyond!

[cipollacipolla]

From Sardinia to Italy… and beyond!​

A bit bored form modding HoI to continue my Sokoto Game, I start this Sardinia-Piedmont AAR. It will be a no-fanfiction, ultra-micromanaged AAR. The initial plans are to Unify Italy as soon as possible. So… it’s time to start my game! The settings are the following:

Very Hard
Furious
Vanilla 1.03b​

We start preparing for the war for unification. Following my plan, Italy will be unified in the first half of 1837 (yes, you heard me well… 18 months to unify Italy). But too much Italian casualties will slow down my economy. The best move will be to send the French to war, saving the Italians for work!

To the Left the French pops in Sardinia-Piedmont at the start of the Great Campaign. Saving the Officers, the Aristocrats and the Capitalists all the other will be converted in soldiers:

And to the right the Italian people to send to the fields. All of them will be demobilized and added to their RGO. In the process we will lose 3 craftsmen pops and 3 clerks pops, but we will save from death all the Italians (North Italians are national pops and South Italians will be national pops in one year), at least in the times we are not mobilized. But for the unification war, planned for October, we will need a small mobilisation pool to help our standing army.

And so we will recruit the first 5 divisions in reserve. And with the remaining small arms and canned food in the stockpile we will recruit the first French divisions

The budget was cut drastically to somehow limit the big debt we will collect in the following months

I started to research “Practical Steam Engine” but the chosen tech to research doesn’t matter very much: we will start collecting Research points the next year. Now we must start to collect the needed resources to build up our future economy. The workers were redirected in the most productive factories, but the other ones will be left opened to attract some immigrants.

The trades were adjusted to feed up the army and to collect basic resources for industrialization and pop-converting. All the other goods were left to “sell > 10”

Now one last thing must be done: reinforce and start to move our army. We need some extra manpower and Tunis is a wonderful target to fulfil our needs. The Navy is ordered to move in Ligurian Sea, the troops in Turin to Savona and the divisions in Genoa and Sassari will wait for the navy to embark to Africa.

Now we are ready to Unpause… And start the game!

 

[unmerged(27589)]

Good luck man...Good luck....looks to me that you have planned your game well. I'm looking foward to your next update!!!

 

[unmerged(16770)]

I'm looking forward to the next update Keep up the good work.

 

[unmerged(29305)]

Ill be watching this one.

 

[unmerged(33058)]

Brilliant I wish you best of luck in your exploits. *sits and waits for update*

 

[unmerged(32548)]

Agh, you stole my idea! I managed to get Italy unified by 1938 by DOWing the Pope (or at least I think it was the Pope...). I didn't need any extra forces, either... Note that it really isn't necessary to win the wars as long as you occupy the key cities (basically, all of the Italian capitals). It's much easier to hold onto the Italian minors by annexing them, but that way lies revolt risk aplenty.

Also, note that if you're going to do this, you're going to need to satellite the Pope afterwards, or use some other method to steal all of his territory.

I don't think it's possible to swipe Rome by turbo-unification without a second war (which murders you in prestige terms...), so it might just be necessary to settle for a capital on the French border.

Good luck!

 

[cipollacipolla]

I don't think it's possible to swipe Rome by turbo-unification without a second war

Just wait and see! I said I need extra-troops because I've said I want unify Italy. ALL Italy. Tremble, mighty Austrians!

 

[unmerged(32548)]

Ahh, there you go. I felt meek, so instead of unifying Italy by force of arms I did it through diplomacy.

Also, if you're willing to sacrifice a few Italian cores, you can milk just about her entire colonial empire out of France, plus a few techs and lots of money. Better than losing them through events or war...

 

[cipollacipolla]

2nd January 1836 – 11 June 1836​

The 2nd January “Armata di Mare”, the Sardinian Navy, reached the Ligurian Sea. All the Sardinian troops, at full strength, were ordered to move

Meanwhile Spain supported Isabella in the Carlist War and in Prussia Diesterweg published the guildelines for teachers.

3rd January we have gathered enough small arms and Canned food to recruit 10 more French divisions. So far we have 4 Italian infantry divisions, 1 Italian cavalry division, 13 French divisions (ready at the first days of May) and 5 reserve divisions. Defense Budget was put to 0%, Small Arms and Canned food to “buy < 50”. The Granatieri Corps and the Army of Sardinia finished the loading operations the 4th January. Armata di Mare set sails to the Gulf of Gabes. Estimate Time of arrival: 10th January. Debt gathered at the 4th January: 18400 £! Oh my God!

Meanwhile one of our next possible targets, Greece, allied with Russia… We have to wait!

Finally 10th January the fleet arrived at destination. While the entire world was looking at the Belgian conflict, going to large scale when Belgium and Netherlands mobilized, a colonial war was declared on Tunis and the troops begun unloading operations.

Looking at our aggressive manners with fear, Swizerland decided to improve the diplomatic relations between our two nations

19th January the troops landed in Susa and Gabes. The fleet was sent back to Savona to bring in Africa the remaining armies. Due to heavy imports, our debt reached 21500 £ in 20 days… 25th January the Fleet was in Savona, waiting for the troops from Turin. The troops arrived the day after and begun the embarking operations.
4th January the independence of Belgium was recognized by Netherlands and the War in the north of Europe ended. 5th January surprisingly Persia followed the English advisors and started the road to civilization. In Italy, Parma improved our mutual relations… Fools!
The 8th January finally the debt stopped to grow. Now it is stable at 21900 and we are gathering 18.8£/day.

13th February, while the entire army of the kingdom finally landed in Susa. Susa was liberated the 25th February. A full offensive was launched:

Gabes was liberated the 7th April, Tunis the 27th April and the Tunisian army was routed to the southern provinces. 26th April, while fierce fights inflamed Africaya and Djerid, Clausewitzian teorist prevailed in the strategic studies of the country.

6tht june Africaya was conquered. 11th July Djerd was conquered. The same day finally Tunis was annexed.

But our diplomats have more important matters to discuss. 5 more divisions were put in reserve, Alliances with Tuscany and Papal States were broken. Every reserve was mobilitated. Italy or die! Invasion is planned for 11th October 1836.

 

[cipollacipolla]

11th June 1836 – 19th May 1937​

In the days following the annexation of Tunis, Sardinia-Piedmont made every possible effort to build up a powerful army ad to be in the perfect situation to strike a fast and powerful offensive trough the Italians Minors. The troops in Africa where called back in Genova and the fleet was strategically placed in the Strait of Bonifacio.

But the economy was not forgotten: with a debt reaching 30000 £ at the first days of October, every effort to put at work every citizen of the Kingdom was done. The RGO of every province of the new conquered colonies were expanded and the RGO in Turin too. No new factory was built: we are waiting to inherit the other Italian factories and to adjust our production after the unification.

Write down a note, if you plan to declare war to a chained alliance and want all of them at war: first declare war, and then deploy your mobilised troops. At the 11th October the army was ready and war is declared to Papal States. All the minors honoured their alliance with the Pope and we found ourselves at war against all the Italian Peninsula:

The initial invasion plan is very simple:

The reserves, 8 infantry divisions, cross the border heading to Massa; the French Infantry will march to Parma. Three waves of infantry (Granatieri, Beraglieri and Carabinieri Corps) will be boarded at Genova to Viterbo.

An Army comparison show that we have the upper hand:

And no one will stop us on the seas:

The Fleet of the Two Sicilies, although superior in number, isn’t well maintained and unable to set up a fight with our navy.

9th November Parma was liberated. 11th November Viterbo conquered. The second moves of the troops started.

One Sicilian division landed in Savona and the fourth wave to be sent to Rome was diverted to stop them. The third wave was blocked in Strait of Bonifiacio by the rotten fleet of the two Sicilies. Granatieri and Carabinieri started the trip to Rome, while the French infantry moves to Modena. The reserves still fight in Massa.
28th November Modena was liberated. In the fist half of December the naval battle against Two Sicilises was won and the land battle in Rome too. It’s time to move against Firenze!

2nd January Rome was liberated. 9th January Lucca felt in our hands. The final assault was launched against Napoli and Firenze. One step to total Victory!

6th February Firenze was successfully sieged. But the fight at Napoli needed 2 months to be won. Finally the Bourbonic troops were routed the 16th april 1837.

It’s only matter of time to see…

19th May 1837 Italy was born. So far: 32.86 badboy, 22.164.000 pops, 32.500£ debt! Viva L’italia!

But again we are not satisfied: Austria is waiting for us…

 

[Montemurro]

That was one damn fast unification.

 

[jmhawk]

Great job, quick annexations for all.
Beware the BB wars

 

[cipollacipolla]

I'm studying the game for the next chapter (this is a real-time AAR: I'm at the same date with the game and with the updates). I'm planning a big war against the Germans. After the war my badboy will skyrocket… But my (Arabic and French) glorious army is ready to fight everyone!

 

[LordScod]

Nice AAR, good pics too.

 

[Lort Gob]

Great stuff! At this pace you're ready to conquer the world

 

[Rensslaer]

Great job, Cipo!

Waiting for the rebirth of the Great Roman Empire!

Rensslaer

 

[Heretic]

cipollacipolla,

I think you had better keep your army intact, and those of your conquests too - you can't beat armies for scaring off the BB wars..
Also, any chance of a new industrial overview?
Finally, did you have any post-unification goal?
(That is, after you have whipped Austria into shape)

Heretic

 

[Morpheus506]

Whoo, need to take a nap after that. Intense!

You have to get rid of that debt though, it's seriously hurting your stature with the rest of the world.

 

[cipollacipolla]

19th May 1937 - 19th November 1837​

The preparation of the war against the German alliance taken 6 months. After forming Italy, all the armies of the minors were inherited. Ten more French divisions were recruited. At the end of the process, Italy have a standing army of 52 divisions, all of them placed on the border with Austria.

The fleet, 7 frigates and 3 transports, was placed in Rimini. Only 1 division of Austrian soldiers wait to be trampled by the invading armies. The reserves where increased to 20 divisions and mobilized the 19th November: will be ready in February 1838 to be deployed deeply inside the Austrian lands to rush for Wien. 5 more colonial divisions were raised in Tunis to defend the colony form revolts and 5 colonial cavalry divisions recruited for future colonial wars. As planned, Tunisia become the barracks of the empire:

But our economy, deeply compromised by debt, was not forgotten. At the end of the war we must be ready to repay the huge debt (at 19th November reached 71900 £). The expansion of some factories and the building of new ones was ordered:

Finally, with a lot of humor, war was declared to Frankfurt Am Main…

And the simple game of the alliance done the remaining work… The key of an Italian war with Austria is… not to declare war to Austria! We need a separate peace, satellitization of Austria and quick strikes against the remaining minors from the Austrian lands.

And now, before the war operations begin, an overview of the armies on the field at the start of the war:

Let the war begin…

 

[Morpheus506]

Hurray for starting wars with entire continents! This'll be quite entertaining, all those Tunisian soldiers will have their work cut out for them.