Italy In Ethiopia can't make it work

[FocusedHope]

So I've never had a problem capitulating Ethiopia as Italy. For supply, first I set the southern one of the two Eritrean supply depots to double-trucks, which will keep supply a little over half the way to the capital. Then once Aussa gets annexed by event, push for the one province directly south of it, which has a supply hub. Build a railroad from Eritrea to that, set it on double-trucks, and then you've got enough supply to get the capital, plus more if you need to because they didn't go Boarding the Train.

One more wing of 100 tac bombers won't cause an additional level of escalation (if you were even worried about that), and that plus the initial Eritrea army and planes are usually quite enough to push and capitulate them by July or August. Actually enough to capitulate them by May or June, but there's a missiolini that fires in July (at least, it does if you fail one of the first two, might be earlier if you succeed both) that gives you nice rewards for capitulating them after it.

 

[AnssiA]

My guide to win the war in 2-4 months (depending on generals and how much micro you do):

1. Industry. Put all MILs on infantry equipment. Delete plane lines, delete tank lines. Keep support eq. Can keep or delete truck. You'll need the infantry equipment, both for supplying the war effort and for making sure you start getting compliance from day 1.
2. Make 2 armies that include all your troops. Use the ones on the north of Ethiopia as a base for 24-division strong army, and the ones on the south for the 18?-division strong army. If you want to win asap, use the level 4 general. Otherwise use 2-best level 1 generals (probably ones with inflexible defender and harsh leader). Set division cohesion to strict and aggressiveness to the max = they'll keep pushing instead of moving around the lines. Personally, I just use battle plans and mainly let the AI do the fighting unless I see a weak spot, but you'll get better results if you micro as much as possible (since you are not going for the planning bonuse)
3. Start attacking with both armies from day 1. Send all planes to Ethiopia asap. Set them to zones, not armies, otherwise they sometimes stick to the transporting troops. You can swap the planes to armies once everyone has arrived.
4. Focuses - up to you, really. Personally I do Army Primacy into Italian Highways, then Servizio Informazioni Militare, Triumph in Africa and the New Emperor.

(Once you get some army xp from the rewards, you should get the Meticulous Preparation if farming lv1s and the State Serves the Military army spirit ASAP for a nice early boost to PP).

I've tried this 4 times and every single time the war is over before 70 days, often at around 50 day mark.