Frustrating AI as Italy

[weezard]

I'm playing as Italy, doing pretty good. Got the whole Balkan region, Turkey and middle east.
Year 1941, Germany conquered France, Norway and is not doing much, except preparing for war with Russia.

Suddenly UK invades Italy by sea near Genoa (northwest of Italy). I immediatelly send all my battle flotillas to that province to prevent supplies and further reinforcements. While the land fighting ensues, AI tries to send another batch of troops to the landing spot - AND SUCCEEDS! Despite me having 24 ships there (some 10 battleships and heavy cruisers). His landing fleet is destroyed pretty fast, but the troops still manage to make landing at full strength. This is just stupid. UK invasion force should had been slaughtered. They mainly had transport ships and some cruisers.

The second thing - I've called my axis allies (Germany, Hungary and Slovakia) to help fend off the brits by marking provinces with their flags. At first nothing happened. Then after a week or two, Germany starts sending massive amount of troops to Italy. But guess what - they just arrive and don't fight. They just sit there next to enemy provinces and never attack. Why?

And finally - their invasion force never ran out of supplies although I blockaded the only naval port in their hands, they just kept getting the supplies in - and they didn't get them by air. Never saw any transport planes and also had air superiority in the region.

 

[browd]

Help from the AI is always frustrating. As for the UK invasion of Northern Italy, why haven't you taken Gibraltar? Sounds like you closed one end of the Med, by taking the Middle East (presumably that includes Suez), but you left Gibraltar untouched? In vanilla HOI3, the AI doesn't know it needs to leave more than a single garrison there, and it falls easily. Make the Med an Italian lake, before you dither around with side shows like Turkey.

 

[weezard]

Thanks for the tip, never tought of taking the Gibraltar. But, does taking Gibraltar have any meaning if you haven't got a large enough navy to defend the straight.
I mean, even if I had the Gibraltar and the UK had a powerful flotilla there - they would just be able to send supplies and ships through it?

 

[browd]

Nope. Take Gibraltar and Suez and the Allies cannot send ships or convoys through either strait. Same goes for the Germans taking Copenhagan to block off the Baltic.

 

[marxianTJ]

My guess would be the weather was really bad in that sea tile - unless you have a *really* slow fleet in play - LCs have a speed of 18 which can be boosted significantly by the inclusion of very modern DDs - which can make them hard to catch for tier 1 ships.

 

[darkfireslide]

If you ignore your air force, and produce modern BB and DD with updated doctrines, the Regia Marina is more than a match for the RN. I would make that a priority alongside building lots of armor and heavy armor based divisions alongside Marines with which to invade anywhere in the Med, and once Germany takes France, Britain herself. This takes a lot of pressure off Germany, helping in the East, and once you take over Britain, a naval invasion or reinforcement through Leningrad is a solid option- I landed my HARM divisions and cut a path straight to Moscow.

I guess my overall point is that you should be invading Britain, not the other way around. You do that through naval supremacy and lots of Marines.

 

[Forster]

You should be bombing the port. Once that goes to zero, they can't receive supplies.

 

[Forster]

Another option would be to bomb the infrastructure, same result. Sorry for 2 posts, I thought of this right after posting the first.

 

[Kovax]

Just remember that if you seal off the Med, don't take ALL of the ports until you've destroyed whatever is left of the RN in the region. Once the last local ports are gone, any remaining ships will then receive supply from the closest port, even if it's OUT of the Med. Leave one port, and bomb it down to level 0, then engage the unsupplied fleet after it's had some time to deteriorate. After you kill the last ship, then take the port.

 

[DABegley]

Also watch the Germans carefully. If they are doing insane things or just doing poorly you might need to jump in to help. I am playing an Italy game where the Germans burned every single bit of manpower by 1941 fighting in France and the Russians attacked that summer. This forced Italy to do everything it could to save Germany from destruction. If I had noticed earlier that Germany was having problems with France I could have committed more forces and forced a surrender early saving German manpower. I have heard they get sidetracked a lot in Norway and in my game they went through me to India leaving the Eastern front sorely undermanned. I am alive and doing fairly well but I am doing all the heavy lifting in the war with Russia. I own Kursk, Kharkov and most of the Caucasus and am within a few territories of Stalingrad. Germany hasn't moved far from it's pre-war border and Finland is gone, on the bright side Germany, Japan and Persia own all of India.

 

[Raviollius]

They just sit there next to enemy provinces and never attack.

Why?

Because the AI won't attack, unfortunatelly, unless it smells weakness. I had the same problem in a MP game recently, when Greece had 14 divisions on my side of the Suez and wouldn't cross it to try and take the UK's side no matter what.

When you put a marker, all it does is make the AI consider that territory with the same weight as if it bordered their own country. I've yet to see the AI break through defenses when using AI markers.

And finally - their invasion force never ran out of supplies although I blockaded the only naval port in their hands, they just kept getting the supplies in - and they didn't get them by air. Never saw any transport planes and also had air superiority in the region.

Unfortunately, convoys aren't used to send fuel/supplies to ships on the sea. They are used to send fuel/supplies to ports, and those distribute it to ships on the sea... somehow. That's why you can get the above described scenario of a far away port giving supplies to ships trapped inside the Mediterran.

Your best bet is to let them keep a single port(the crappiest), then constantly bomb the fuck out of it so their ships lose their supply and get weak. Engage their weakened fleet, and they'll run to said port once they lose enough. From there, you can pretend it's HOI4 and watch your bombers completely wreck their entire fleet with port strikes.

EDIT: I reread and apparently you did that, but they still had supplies? Strange. Maybe you have to set your ships to convoy raiding?