Italy: Strategic Advice Wanted

[unmerged(26083)]

1.06 n/n/. OK, I believe me game is at a critical point. The story so far

Italy has Ethopia and Saudi Arabia as puppets. I have all of africa, nat spain, yugo, greece and Iraq. Its late 1942, I have madly been building coastal forts everywhere that faces likely sea invasion and are manning them with about 3 units each. I know USA can't be far from dow, and are far ahead in tech. Italy is in the axis alliance and germany has just started war with russia.

There is problem with germany. I grabbed vichy in france so the vichy france event never fired. That means the french capital is in the maginot line. There are about 30 units in two provinces and germany has them surrounded with a big bulk of units. This is drawing vital units from the upcoming eastern war.

What should I do? I am thinking of declaring war either turkey or persia to open up a southern front. Problem is that this will take time. Maybe I should get MA through them?? If I take persia, then I can get access to india, but at the same time britain can get at me. I have no idea whether they a lot of forces there? If I don't help germany then I reckon I am done for.

 

[jxa536]

I think you might be cooked. The AI will keep a large number of German troops surrounding the Maginot line, and will have a hard time (at best) taking the French capitol.

Any invasion into France will revert that territory back to French, since they never had Vichy.

The Germans will now not have enough troops to hold back the Soviets.

Hopefully you have some Tac bombers and good fortress busting troops- IMHO your best chance is to help Germany by bombing the capitol and hoping they can take it.

It's hard to imagine how DOWing anyone else can help at this point

 

[unmerged(16843)]

Defend Gibralter and the Suez with the best naval fleets possible so that you can remove some of those coastal defense units in the Mediterranean. Use your units to capture the French capital. Take France out of the war as soon as you can. You will need those German units over in the Soviet Union as quickly as possible. I would recommend aiding the Axis powers in the war against the Soviet Union. Your success is directly linked to Germany now, and you need the Soviets out more than anything else. Good luck.

 

[unmerged(5110)]

I recommend trying to draw the French AI troops out of the maginot line by abandoning provinces adjacent to it. When some of the French troops move 2 provinces away from the maginot line, quickly come in and close off their route behind them. Some of the french troops will be isolated, so you can defeat them with ease. Rinse and repeat until there are so few french troops in the line that you can defeat them easily.

Another option would be to use bombers and bomb them to death. Notice that you can get a rating of how organized they are every time you bomb them. So, since they should be out of supply, their organization should be gradually going down. Use the bombers as "scouts" to see when their org is low enough that you can attack and be guaranteed victory.

 

[unmerged(26083)]

I don't know I am reluctant to try and extract the french from the maginot line. I do not believe Italy has the power to do it ... but I may consider trying. I was hoping to accept the situation as it is and look at helping the Germans on the eastern front. I thought be threatening southern russia through turkey or persia I might succeed at drawing enough russian troops to make up for the loss in germany troops garrisoning the provinces surrounding the maginot line.

I figure that if I can produce some big stacks of vanilla infantry along the south, it will draw similar stacks from russia and thus help germany

 

[cdat]

If you invade Turkey, be advised, there are a lot of mountains over there. If you can take them out, you could pose a threat to the southern front. Usually, Russia sends in a LARGE froce to deal with you. Be prepared. Helping Germany is one thing. Totally destroyed for Germany is another.

 

[unmerged(15723)]

I don't know I am reluctant to try and extract the french from the maginot line. I do not believe Italy has the power to do it ... but I may consider trying. I was hoping to accept the situation as it is and look at helping the Germans on the eastern front. I thought be threatening southern russia through turkey or persia I might succeed at drawing enough russian troops to make up for the loss in germany troops garrisoning the provinces surrounding the maginot line.

I figure that if I can produce some big stacks of vanilla infantry along the south, it will draw similar stacks from russia and thus help germany

I would actually edit away the divisions of the Maginot line if I end up in a similar situation and Germany is AI. It is all the result of the bug that when France (and it forces) surrenders the Belgian and other Allied forces in France doesn't which means that they stay put and steal territory from Vichy France to "Free" France. After that "Free" France deploys a lot of troops in the retaken provinces and Vichy is toasted and/or the Maginot line is so heavy defended the German AI can't conquer it (dispite being surrounded which in this case unfortunately doesn't hurt the encircled forces).

 

[unmerged(29298)]

ups,
you are in trouble the worst thing that could happen is that the french moves the capital to the maginot or

that you conquer moscow and the russian moves the capital to the east.

if you take control of the german, you can do the technique of moving away,
and then attack, but it´s impossible to return the control back...
and it´s a burden to control both armys.

with you troops it´s imposible to hold the russian front...

the planes are useless against the maginot when there are many units there like now...

so, you only option is put all your troops togheter and a fortress buster commander and try an attack.

but that move would took to much time... so i would consider starting again too.

 

[unmerged(26083)]

ups,
you are in trouble the worst thing that could happen is that the french moves the capital to the maginot or
.....

so, you only option is put all your troops togheter and a fortress buster commander and try an attack.

but that move would took to much time... so i would consider starting again too.

Ah I think you're right. I am appalled by the german AI. Its has something like 30 dive bombers divided in stack of 2 and 3 spread all over the place. It insists on sending 2 dive bombers against stacks of 20 russian infantry. All the balkan allies sit with huge stacks in their capital instead of guarding the front. The germans have stacks of 3-6 mech all over the place. Also the russian land techs is streets ahead of the german tech

I either have to assume military control to save the game or restart. Maybe I shouldn't have allied with the axis

 

[unmerged(27034)]

I would actually edit away the divisions of the Maginot line if I end up in a similar situation and Germany is AI. It is all the result of the bug that when France (and it forces) surrenders the Belgian and other Allied forces in France doesn't which means that they stay put and steal territory from Vichy France to "Free" France. After that "Free" France deploys a lot of troops in the retaken provinces and Vichy is toasted and/or the Maginot line is so heavy defended the German AI can't conquer it (dispite being surrounded which in this case unfortunately doesn't hurt the encircled forces).

I agree. I always do that if the Germans screw up in France.

The German AI don't understand the Capital in Colmar dilemma, and ruins the future performance of the poor germans. It is just a result of flaws in the game design. And it is not something that could have happened in real life, so there is no point in keeping it for realism.

Just load the game as france and disband all those units.