Italy nuking Los Angeles (and humiliating the US-Navy)

[Simon_9732495]

I saw some threads about Italy here lately, so I thought I share my actual Italy run with you.

It's an achivement run (Ironman, historical) I try to get the "Duce Nuked'em" achievement where I have to nuke LA.
I'm trying to do it with a "normal" "somewhat historic" WW2 run. That means no early wars, no "tricks".

Gameplan:

• Build up until WW2 starts.
• Secure Suez and Africa as fast as possible
• Secure the Med.
• Take out the Balkans.
• Conquer the Soviet Union together with Germany.
• Sea Lion.
• Invade USA.
• Wait for nukes.
• Nuke LA.

I got the idea for the thread late so it's already Feb 1941:

Spoiler: World Map

I have 12x 14/4s, 12x 8/8s, 76x 10/0s, and 126x 5/0s for DDay defense.
92 CIVs, 89 MILs, 25 Docks, 8 Refineries.
4000 Fighter, 1500 Naval Bomber, 600 CAS.
Produced 3 CLs with high spotting, and 11 CLs with high light attack. Italy has enough DDs, and I think I will not need other ships. (I hope)

What happened so far:

Game Start: (request from @Mentatt76 )

• Start production: Naval Bombers1, Guns, Support Equipment. Later Fighter1 and Artillery2.
• Economy: Only 4 CIVs, than MILs. No Docks, after 1939 refineries. 2 Radars in sicily.
• Advisors/Laws: Export Focus, War Economy, War industrialist, Industrial Concern.
• Research: No Tanks so far, nothing special. Guns, Arty, Strategic Destruction, Superior Firepower, industry, Rubber, Radar.
• Build Agency immediately, Collaboration Government in Yugo, Greece, Romania.
• Use Ethiopia to level Graziani to logistics wizard and Messe to Infatry Leader and level 5. Puppet them. (Never call to war)

1939: Start of war:

• Germany didn't call me into war. Joining axis was a mistake. Should have done it alone. But now I have to go with them. I justified on france to be in the war.
• I hold the port and airport on Italian territory next to Ethiopia with expedionary troops of ethiopia.
• 10 10/0 Infantry divisions on the border to france in west africa to hold until Vichy. (May be too many divisions...)
• 28 10/0 divisions in the alps against France.
• 4 14/4s and 4 8/8s + 10 10/0s and 400 CAS and 800 Fighters to rush Suez, Syria and down to Ethiopia as fast as possible.
• At the moment I join war i invade Corsica and Malta. (2x 14/4 each)
• At the fall of France I invade Gibraltar with air support. A bit later cyprus.
• Ships stay in port except for invasions. Naval Bombers are over the Med.
• In Africa I dig in at the end of the Egypt Airzone in the west of Ethiopia with 24 10/0 divisions.

After Africa and the Med is secured I go for the Balkans. Mostly just with 10/0s

• Take out Yugo fast to make sure Germany gets nothing.
• I declare war and try to take Hungary but Germany gets all. Grr.
• Conquer Bulgaria.
• Conquer Romania.
• Conquer Greece.

And:

• Conquer Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen, Oman.
• I think that was a mistake. Now I have to garrison the lands and guard a lot of ports there. (Land of the UK. They will invade...)

Notable Naval Battle:
After capitulation of Greece I had to naval invade the 4 ports on crete and turkey. I put out my spotting CLs and attack CLs there and they met a part of the Royal Navy:

Spoiler: Naval Battle

Ok, so Soviet Union now.

My plans:

• Guard coast of France so that Germany is not getting distracted.
• Provide Green Air for all of Barbarossa.
• Push and encircle a lot in the south.
• I think I will have to start with Infantry but I should add some Tanks to my Divisions soon. (Should have gone for that a bit earlier. Next mistake.)
• Maybe a Divsion like that:

Spoiler: Template

• But with a Medium Tank instead of a light Tank (heavnt researched them yet... )
• (I consider taking out Turkey as not allowed, because they are neutral in many Games.)

Let's see how it goes... This is the first time a write about a run. I'm sure the run will fail miserably

 

[Harin]

Those silly British, bringing battleships to a light cruiser fight.

Seriously though, nice run down of your game. It shows me what is possible to build. I do not think I ever made as much as you did playing Italy. I think I might play Italy next.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Simon_9732495]

Germany of course going to war early when I'm not really ready: May 1941:

Spoiler: Italy May 1941

First battles were going fine,

Spoiler: First Battles

and soon the first encirclement was closed

Spoiler: First Encirclement

The Soviet Union was in a Dunkirk Situation in Odessa:

Spoiler: Dunkirk Odessa

And Odessa turned out to big a problem. Because I didn't control all edges provinces the supply was reduced to 66% I had to pull my defense completely back but this was not enough. Lost some ground and had to concentrate almost everything on Odessa.

After that it went well in the South: October 1941:

Spoiler: October 1941

Equipment is still fine 38k Guns in Stockpile and all others also green. Total Air superiority over the Soviet Union. (About 4000 fighters from my side and I have another 1500 in Stock. Schould have really produced Tanks earlier.)

I could push in Africa now, because UK sent their troops to the Soviet Union (Cheaters...), but I dont.

USA enters war now. So far so good.

 

[Simon_9732495]

Christmas 1941:

Spoiler: Christmas 1941

Things are looking very good on the southern front. Conquered Stalingrad and encircled "the Oil" (Azerbaijan).

On the Western Front I made the DDay Divisions a bit smaller to free some Manpower and wanted to train them up again. In that moment the Allies started an Invasion against my Divisions in Training.
D'oh.

 

[Simon_9732495]

It's May 1942: 1 year into Barbarossa. It seems we are going to win.

Spoiler: May 1942

Fall of Moscow:

Spoiler: Fall of Moscow

And that's a fair peace deal I think: (Russian Empire is my Puppet) (October 1942)

Spoiler: Peace deal

Meanwhile the USA declared on Vichy.
DDay attacks in France were quite hard. They would have been successful against AI Germany alone.

As I transisition from Infantry to Tank Army the Template I was fighting against the Soviet Union in 1942 was an 3/8/6 Tank:

Spoiler: Template 3/8/6 Tank

Casualties were about 5Mio Soviet Union, 1.5Mio Germany and Italy about 300k.
Equipment losses:

Spoiler: Equipment losses

Ok. Now tidy up and prepare for Air war and Sea Lion.

Is anyone reading this? Any questions?

 

[SophieX]

One key was the breakthrough to the Caspian-Sea; encirceling the Kuban and Kaukasus-region.
Well done; especially condering your "lack" of tank-divisions!
( For the same reason I conquer whole Scandinavia by doing "Weserübung" to cut off the SOV-North-army )

It's always a bit "tricky" to play with allies on the same front; because the player is not able to tell the AI about his strategy.

 

[Simon_9732495]

One key was the breakthrough to the Caspian-Sea; encirceling the Kuban and Kaukasus-region.

I concentrated south because of the oil and the somewhat good terrain (no swamps). And also because I had a border to the Soviet Union there. Attacking over my own border let's me occupy the conquered land. This gives me war score.
By pushing in the south first and the going north from there I could paint most of the land in Italy-green.
I was trying to get the first turn in the peace conference. (I got it)



In the mean time my naval bombers are preparing Sea Lion:

Spoiler: Naval Bombers

A bad month for the Allies: 0 : 406 naval losses.

Spoiler: Naval Losses

 

[Harin]

I was wondering where your tank divisions were. When I looked at your maps I could not see any obvious tank icons. Nice going and you got the puppet, too! The Germans cannot be happy, watch your back.

How did you keep your attrition so low? I typically lose much more equipment in a Russian campaign, ratio wise.

 

[kettyo]

In the mean time my naval bombers are preparing Sea Lion:

It's crazy the RN has so many ships out patrolling the seas and awaiting greetings from the air.

 

[Harin]

It's crazy the RN has so many ships out patrolling the seas and awaiting greetings from the air.

It is strange how the RN can actually deploy their capital ships to engage, even when there is no enemy fleet for them to respond to, but in the Pacific the IJN and USN seem to be content to play hide and seek.

 

[Simon_9732495]

I was wondering where your tank divisions were. When I looked at your maps I could not see any obvious tank icons. Nice going and you got the puppet, too! The Germans cannot be happy, watch your back.

Germans and Allies are stuck in a "100 divisions - no supply"-grindfest in Norway.

How did you keep your attrition so low? I typically lose much more equipment in a Russian campaign, ratio wise.

Not 100% sure.
I had all my CIVs repairing Infrastructure during Barbarossa and the construction repair permanent focus. I tried to avoid supply issues and pulled back or halted attacking at some points. I avoided attacking in mountains or swamps.
If I think about it now, I believe there were no marshes this time. Maybe thats a big factor too.
Generally I had to be careful because of having not too much manpower and attacking with Infantry. My 10/0 Infantry never attacked. I only attacked with my 24 offensive Divisions.
And the Germans helped. (But they also screwed up supply sometimes...)

It's crazy the RN has so many ships out patrolling the seas and awaiting greetings from the air.

It is strange how the RN can actually deploy their capital ships to engage, even when there is no enemy fleet for them to respond to, but in the Pacific the IJN and USN seem to be content to play hide and seek.

This "naval battle" was during a naval invasion of the Allies into France or Benelux. I think the AI has always task forces with big ships on naval invasion support mission, because I nearly always get the "shore bombardment" debuff when fighting them at the coast.

 

[Simon_9732495]

I'm facing a decision now.

I can't attack the USA now because I have not enough Tanks. I noticed the difference in Russia between attacking with really strong Tanks and this time with Infantry and mixing Tanks in later. I think for the USA I will need strong Tanks. Can't risk my offenive getting halted. So I have to produce a bit longer.
So I'm going for Sea Lion first as planned.

The UK has 15000 airplanes and I can't get air superiority in Southern England.
I have the options:

1. Fight them in the Air, convoy raid their rubber and produce fighters until I have superiority and invade then.
2. Put some AntiAir support in my Divisions, close the Eyes and invade now.

Option 1 is safer but I lose a lot of time and the USA get stronger and stronger. Hmm...

 

[Turista]

Opt 2 - getting rid of UK should be your top priority. After that slowly naval invade central america (cuba for a nice air base and mexico for a land border)

 

[Simon_9732495]

Ok, I chose invading "now". (April 1943, 5 months after the capitulation of the Soviet Union)

I noticed I had no AA in stock. Never captured, never produced. So close both eyes and without AA.

I decided to invade the UK and the USA with a 20width Medium Tank.
This is my Template:

Spoiler: 20w Medium Tank Template

Not the stats of a 40w, but I wanted to try 20w Tanks again and I think for swarming the wide lands of the USA they can be quite good.
I fielded 18 of these for Sea Lion.

To invade with numbers I quickly did some 14/4s to have a Army of 24. No time for full training. (I don't have any Marines. They are good, but the special forces cap... So much hassle for maybe 4 or 6 divisions...)

Plan is:
First wave 14/4s invading ports in the east of the UK. Each port gets 2 Divisions, each tile between the ports 2 to support attacking each port next to it and 2 to swarm out.
After we have a port, i bring the Tanks and then Rush! Rush! Rush!

Spoiler: Naval Invasion Plan

Naval superiority is not an issue. There are 0 ships in the channel.


First troops land and ask themselfs: Anybody at home?

Spoiler: Where are the Brits?

The UK has 2 divisions in England? Really? Sigh...


Naval attack with 14/4s gives quite good Soft Attack:

Spoiler: Naval Attack Stats

263 Soft Attack with -40% weather and a -25% tactic (the red cross means the tactic was countered?)
Thanks to Broken Ciphers (reduces debuff of naval attack), Air support and Experience.
The colonial division that has to defend the UK almost alone has not much chance.


Without enemy troops it's a Rally across England...

• 03.04.1943 Command for naval invasion
• 07.04.1943 First landings
• 09.04.1943 Fall of London

Spoiler: Fall of London

• 16.04.1943 The UK capitulates

Less than 10 days... Italian Blitzkrieg.


World Map April 1943

Spoiler: World Map

 

[Forster]

El Duce! Doing really well. I am surprised you didn't stick this in the aar section.

 

[Turista]

The UK AI sometimes prefers to protect the colonies instead of the mainland. Which is unsderstandable if their navy was on duty to prevent naval invasions such as yours.
Nice AAR, btw, now the hardest part: mid-late USA.
Good luck!

 

[Simon_9732495]

@Forster , @Turista , thank you!


My USA campaign started well with some minor clashes between my CLs and some smaller US CL/DD Fleets

Spoiler: Small CL Battles

But then the US Navy sent a bigger fleet. 10BB 2CA 3CL 37DD. 12 Capitals and 40 Screens. That's something.

My CLs engaged them:

Spoiler: Naval Battle

The battle went really good in the beginning, I could sink all their DDs, CLs and CAs.
Then it was only the 10BBs and my 13CLs. -> And I took a beating.
Should have retreated MUCH earlier, but the battle started so well and I waited to see even the BBs sink. But they didn't. All my CLs wiped out, only 3 left with 5% strength left.

Ouch.

That's a setback. But I will continue with my plan and naval invade the USA soon. (I hope)

 

[Forster]

I can't believe the American fleet did that bad against 13 light cruisers. My question is why? The American fleet should have wiped your fleet out. No naval air or subs with the US at all.

 

[Simon_9732495]

I was planing to invade from the caribbean and was struggeling to get naval supremacy there. My 148 Submarines and 3 remaining CL were not enough, so I ordered my main navy over the Atlantic. ALL the destroyers had not enough range, so I could only get 2BB 7CA and 8 old (early) CL over there.

I composed a fleet of 2BB 3CA and 11CL and set it on strike force, 3 CL on patrol, 148 SS on convoy raiding and 600 naval bomber on naval strike and some fighters.

Wasn't immediately enough but at some point it suddenly was green and I could start my invasion.

As the troops left the port this naval battle happened:

Spoiler: Naval Battle Part 1

Spoiler: Naval Battle Part 2

Spoiler: Naval Battle Part 3

Spoiler: Naval Battle Part 4

Spoiler: Naval Battle Part 5

Spoiler: Naval Battle Part 6

Spoiler: Fleet after battle

The US-Navy lost 2CV 3BB 4CA 1CL 19DD and my fleet wasn't even damaged much.

And the invasion was on it's way untouched.

That's how I like it.

 

[Simon_9732495]

I can't believe the American fleet did that bad against 13 light cruisers. My question is why? The American fleet should have wiped your fleet out. No naval air or subs with the US at all.

I think it's the Light Attack.
These were 1936 CL with this Template:

Spoiler: CL 1936 Template

Notice the Light Attack of 25.2

The Light Attack of the CLs destroys DDs and other CLs and even CAs.


All of the battles were without any naval doctrine on my side. Had no time to research them so far.




My other ship templates:

1936 CL for Patrols (I have 3 of them)

Spoiler: CL 1936 Patrol Template

1940 CL (in production, 0 finished at this point)

Spoiler: CL 1940 Template