Italia

[unmerged(81871)]

Hello,

This is my first time posting here, but I have read quite a few posts, and I really enjoyed the whole atmosphere on these forums. I just started playing the game on normal/normal (basic settings) playing as Italia. I did the basic italian things, took albania in 1939, went up to Suez in 1940, Dow Greece and got some provinces from Yougoslavia too. I then decided to go and help Germany in the east to ensure an Axis domination on the continent. This is where things started to look bad. I managed to creat a few pockets to destroy soviet divisions, but not that many. So now we are getting to early 1942, pushing back soviets but not killing many more divisions, close to leningrad, moscow and rostov in the south. At the same time, the UK came back for Suez, managed to bring plenty of divisions and kicked me out of Egypt, sinking my fleet as I was using it to ferry troops.
Plenty of very different questions came from this first time :
1) Is my contribution to the fighting useful? I mostly fight in the south. Having attacked from romania, most of the Ukraine is romanian and not german. At first I thought it was bad (giving less to germany), but I understand it also stresses TC less for germany. In any way, can germany win alone, or does it need a substantial help when fighting the soviets (I do help, but being not very good at blitzkrieg, i am afraid i only conquered low Ic regions)?
2) Should I build mixtures of armor + motorized or simply masses of infantry and abandon blitzkrieg? Do I need to brigade armor with offensive artillery (I put some armored cars instead). I have the feeling that italian doctrine is not very good for armor (Germans seem to have much higher organization).
3) How do garrisons work? I read they quell partisans, but should I put some in every province with partisan activity (I was surprised, not all annexed have partisans), or should I just concentrate on the IC rich ones? I also read that they have some kind of area of effect suppressing partisans, but it looks really small.
4) Are escort fighters useful? I put some with my TACs, but I have no idea if each aircraft needs one or if they are useless (or if i can put say 2 brigaded TAcs with 2 unbrigaded).
5) Is there any way to take gibraltar without attacking spain? I feel my situation would be much better if I had locked both entries to the sea (no landings in my back, more overall control).
6) Why the hell do aircrafts target what they feel like targetting when no fight is going on? Is there a reason for that, like "Hey guys, lets bomb moscow 3 provinces deep instead of softening the front line, cause our general has no clue where the fun is"?

Thanks for the answers,
Moumouth

 

[Krediax]

1) if you want Germany to win its very Usefull! An idea for the next time try to attack Turkey and from there into the Caucasus (Baku etc).

2) indeed Italian doctrine isn`t very good for armor, neither is the Italian IC. your best bet (in my opinion) is to take the infiltration path for the night bonus and build infantry.

3) with some annexed dont have partisians you probebly mean the Yugoslavian coast, these are you Cores meaning you dont get partisians (unless you dissent is really high.) its indeed required to supress atleast some of the partisians, Garrisons with the MP brigade work well for that. try focussing on high IC area`s since Revolt risk also has an impact on the amount of IC you get from that area (a 30% revolt risk --> 30% less IC)

4) Escort fighters help your tacs in air combat. so i always use them (if i can)

5) for italy it is vital to block the med by taking Gibraltar and the Suez. you need to intervere in the Spanish Civil war (declaring war on the republicans and just take enough provinced to get a land bridge with Gibraltar or take it all.) an Other option is to Airborn assault, italy already starts with a transport but this is very expansive.

6) its a pain in the ass... it helps if you order the planes to attack the hour after your land forces attack. this way they go to that province.

"This is my first time posting here"
dont lie it says that you have 3 posts

 

[unmerged(42723)]

Hello,

1) Is my contribution to the fighting useful? I mostly fight in the south. Having attacked from romania, most of the Ukraine is romanian and not german. At first I thought it was bad (giving less to germany), but I understand it also stresses TC less for germany. In any way, can germany win alone, or does it need a substantial help when fighting the soviets (I do help, but being not very good at blitzkrieg, i am afraid i only conquered low Ic regions)?

Generally helping Ger against Sov is important, since otherwise Sov can beat Ger and will turn against you wit a large army (esp. if your difficulty settings give bonuses to Sov). But it's indeed harder to fight them as Italy, esp. since they get stronger when you don't defeat them in time. Destroying their divisions should be your main goal.

I also take Turkey before to get to Baku from the south easily (and to create a puppet there for Ita giving oil)

2) Should I build mixtures of armor + motorized or simply masses of infantry and abandon blitzkrieg? Do I need to brigade armor with offensive artillery (I put some armored cars instead). I have the feeling that italian doctrine is not very good for armor (Germans seem to have much higher organization).

Dunno, never tried Blitzkrieg as Ita.

3) How do garrisons work? I read they quell partisans, but should I put some in every province with partisan activity (I was surprised, not all annexed have partisans), or should I just concentrate on the IC rich ones? I also read that they have some kind of area of effect suppressing partisans, but it looks really small.

They reduce quite much in the province were they're based, and less in adjacent provinces. So you don't need them everywhere, instead position them in a kind of "checkerboard" pattern so that the adjacent provinces are overlapping eachother. Give them MP brigades for best results, and don't forget to set them to anti-partisan duty (though they should be in that mode automatically after stratdeployment).

4) Are escort fighters useful? I put some with my TACs, but I have no idea if each aircraft needs one or if they are useless (or if i can put say 2 brigaded TAcs with 2 unbrigaded).

ESC is useful for a number of reasons, for example TACs with ESC will not only perform better against enemy fgt/int, but also allow you to fly air superiority missions over long distances that int/fgt can't reach. That said, you can live without them IMO on the eastern front when you're careful and have ints doing the air-air jobs so that your bombers are safe.

5) Is there any way to take gibraltar without attacking spain? I feel my situation would be much better if I had locked both entries to the sea (no landings in my back, more overall control).

Theoretically via paradrop, but you need a base in range which you either need from Spain or Fra/Vichy. And with only one para being flown in it's risky, otoh building more paras plus tp planes is expensive. I do take Spain, the IC and resources are nice for Italy anyway.

Other than going via Spain or making an airborne assault there's no way.

6) Why the hell do aircrafts target what they feel like targetting when no fight is going on? Is there a reason for that, like "Hey guys, lets bomb moscow 3 provinces deep instead of softening the front line, cause our general has no clue where the fun is"?

It's how it works, no way to change that.

edit: my, emued by over 10 min.

 

[unmerged(81871)]

Thanks for the swift answers. I do believe it is the first time here, though I may have posted on the Europa Universalis forums (which maybe counts). I ll think about going through turkey, which seems a nice idea, given that I don t feel like attacking close to the allied AI gives so good results (some of their units lag behind).

I realize I have a couple other questions :
7) I read it is possible to abandon a doctrine. I tried to click everywhere and never managed to get a popup reading something like 'abandon doctrine'.
8) How do I strategically redeploy a unit? When i click right, I always get the option of reserve or quell partisan, but never redeploy, so I do it myself..
9) I also read something about 'offensive supply'. How do I activate this option on a unit (is it the same as the priority for supply and upgrade, the green star?).

 

[unmerged(42723)]

8) How do I strategically redeploy a unit? When i click right, I always get the option of reserve or quell partisan, but never redeploy, so I do it myself..

Select a unit, then hold CTRL plus right click on the target province, should bring up a menu for stratdeployment. Note that deploying many units that way at the same time adds a lot of TC load (and deployment will need longer when you have serious TC overload).

9) I also read something about 'offensive supply'. How do I activate this option on a unit (is it the same as the priority for supply and upgrade, the green star?).

Look for a button with a little green arrow (not the green star). Be aware that esp. oil-consuming units will need much more oil then.

 

[unmerged(27886)]

I just finished a game as ITA using DD/AA 1.3 Beta on Normal/Aggressive with Tech Team takeover.

Germany was not much of a help to me. I had to do all the work. However, I was easily able to conquer most of the world and achieve over 320IC before I began my invasion of the US, which was also pathetically easy.

Couple of guidelines:
======================
Stay at war with Ethiopia, even after you have seized all territories. This will keep your CG needs lower. Allowing you to build what you will need.

Start by building a parallel run of 7x2 factories. Place them in your highest Infrastructure/industry provinces, this helps them complete faster.

Stay on your current land doctrine path and go for Infiltration Assault. The bonuses are sick. I may have to play again and pick a different doctrine path because it was TOO easy.

Make sure you have all of your armed forces back in Italy, and most of them upgraded by the time the SCW starts(~July 18 1936). You want to wait till one side has either achieved victory or has all but 1-2 minor Provence's, then stage your ships/troops for an amphibious invasion and declare war. You should be able to achieve annexation within a few months.

Between the factories you have built and the annexation of Spain, you should have 80+ base IC. This gives you the all important 5th tech team. Also, the two spains (with tech team takeover turned on) have some decent tech teams for you to make use of.

I generally make alliance with GER early(makes them at war with ethiopia, which raises their belligerence), get some doctrines, leave before the SCW(so they dont trigger any early wars due to high belligerence), rejoin after I annex spain, leave in August of 39(cause I am NOT ready to fight the allies and WANT Greece, yugoslavia and hungary to myself), then rejoin in spring of 40 after GER declares war on Belgium and has begun their advance. The blueprints are necessary for you to have any ability to keep up on techs.

Between August of 39 and April of 40, wait for the GoI to run out on Yugoslavia, Greece, and Hungary(if they haven't joined the Axis). All 3 of those are pretty easy for you to conquer if you do them 1 at a time. (Greece first, then YUG, then HUN.) Hungary has some good tech teams as well.

By conquering HUN, you give yourself a 1 province connection to the USSR, so you can launch your own invasion and take territory (and IC) for YOU.

I like to have 2 x 3 CAV w/AC as fast "blitzing" reaction forces, especially in the early game. Build a good number of INF/MIL. By the time I conquered the US I had around 100 INF and 80MIL. You can use 1 INF and 2 MIL to cover your beaches. You will also want to end up with around 12 MTN troops. These are great for use in the USSR/Turkey/Persia/India/etc, plus you have a commando general.

in the later game, pre-barbarossa, try to build about 4 armies of, 1Mech/SPA + 2 MOT/AC corps. This will give you a nice blitzing force that doesn't overstress your TC.

Focus you aircraft on TAC/ESC and FTR. By the time I invaded the US I had 24 TAC and 12-16 FTR plus the original 3NAV 5INT.

When your manpower gets down to around 400 or so, focus on building high IC/low manpower units like planes and ships till it gets back up to around 600 or so. I made the mistake of halting my INF/MIL builds and didn't start them up till too late, so I felt light on my force levels, but it turned out to not be an issue.

I would recommend keeping the air transport and building one PAR/ART at some point. It can be useful in operation barbarossa, against Turkey, and indispensable against the UK (cardiff anyone?)

Once barbarossa is complete (I triggered it in January of 41), you can then take, Turkey, Persia, Iraq and head towards India.

Almost forgot, to close off the med, its actually not terribly hard. Stage a few MTN troops outside of Gibraltar. Stage and amphibious assault of the coast of Gaze that will head towards Suez (I needed to make 2 round trips to have enough troops, 1st landing makes a beachhead, 2nd landing sends forces heading towards Suez and red sea beach province). Also stage some troops on the UK border in NA along with most of your TAC and some FTR.

When you join the Axis, war commences! Take Gibraltar and Suez, and start your NA troops on their way towards Alexandria. Once you get to Alexandria, STOP and hold it. It is the ideal spot to hold in NA. There is no way to get through the dessert behind you. Only two provinces connect to it and one does so over a river AND it has 5-6 land forts! I keep around 7-10INF and 7-10MIL stationed there(around 14-18 troops total).

Now with the Med sealed, you can focus your energies on Barbarossa and elsewhere instead of worthless dirt with SLOW movement times in Africa.

For Airpower:
1. give the aircraft orders to hit the region 1 hour after your troops engage.
2. once the enemy breaks, pause, switch the aircraft to ground attack
3. This all works best with concentrated use of planes.

You can TRY to soften up the enemy before you launch an attack, but if the bombers don't go to where you want, you'll just have to go back to micromanagement.

Pay attention to the Terrain. Use MTN troops in Mountain/hill hexes and INF/CAV/MOT/MECH in plains if you can. Try to attack a province from multiple angles if you can, always try to coordinate your assaults to start at dawn (until you finish your infiltration tech tree, then you can launch your attacks at nightfall )

BTW - Hungary has a nuclear physicist. So with tech team take over on, some blueprints from Germany and a little spare IC, you can achieve ballistic missiles and nukes I didn't have mine in time for my '45 invasion of the US, but I was planning on double-crossing Japan/Chi and using some on them. Imagine that would be a terribly slow war though.

 

[Krediax]

7) Click at your last researched doctrine and in the buttom of the tech screen (in the middle) there will be a button "abandon doctrine" repeat this till you can research an other doctrine

8) You need a tech before you can strat deploy (its in the infantry tab, under the Mountaineers i think its called rear area supply or something)

9) answered

 

[unmerged(81871)]

Thanks for the answers, I'll go and try the abandon doctrine, though i read on the wiki that the infiltration tree becomes the best one at some point (i suppose i am supposed to fight at night when i get it). I wonder if I keep going on in my first game, fighting for survival because of my numerous mistakes (made plenty of tanks with 40% orga) of if I start over.

 

[Krediax]

and here`s the result: