Make east Africa more contestable/more sustainable to defend

[Robosoldier1]

a big issue right now with the Africa campaign at the moment is there is literally no presence/threat from the eastern Africa Italian holdings. The Supply Issue is too big to ignore and there really isn't much you can do to alleviate it. Sure you can puppet the Ethiopians but thats about all you can do and the supply is still utterly garbage. The point of East Africa should make it so that the Suez isn't able to be fully defended by the entirety of the commonwealth because of East Africa which took roughly a year historically to subdue.

 

[Moishe Greenblatt]

build up the ports and infrastructure and you can make any part of the map have good supply. You can do a strat where you spam cheap divisions as Italy and have them surge out through Africa to threaten the Suez from the south as well as South Africa.

 

[Robosoldier1]

build up the ports and infrastructure and you can make any part of the map have good supply. You can do a strat where you spam cheap divisions as Italy and have them surge out through Africa to threaten the Suez from the south as well as South Africa.

Doesn't make much a difference because the main supply from the Italian mainland is cut off when the Suez/Mediterranean is locked down the only thing you be doing with the upgraded infrastructure and ports and just delay the rate your troops slowly starve. And yes your right having cheap divisions would make for a decent distraction but having a good amount of them to make a difference is a pretty high cost for the Italian war effort. So its a give or take but overall from what I can tell its never really appealing for the Italian player.

 

[stl3l9n]

Thats not how it works (although it should be). Right now, you can get supply around Africa somehow which makes 0 sense - you should only really be able to win the battles if you manage to connect up with Libya or win with a force small enough to be supplied from Ethopia. It wasn't that important anyway, except for national pride, which may be added in as an event.

 

[Robosoldier1]

Thats not how it works (although it should be). Right now, you can get supply around Africa somehow which makes 0 sense - you should only really be able to win the battles if you manage to connect up with Libya or win with a force small enough to be supplied from Ethopia. It wasn't that important anyway, except for national pride, which may be added in as an event.

Well its certainly important enough to redirect men and material away from the Suez or face a two front war from the south. If your talking about strategic/resource importance then ya but it still is a good staging area to mess around all of Africa as the Italian player.

 

[basun]

Well its certainly important enough to redirect men and material away from the Suez or face a two front war from the south. If your talking about strategic/resource importance then ya but it still is a good staging area to mess around all of Africa as the Italian player.

But it's a increcibly futile attempt since they UK/FRA just can sit at their hands and starve them out since there is no real supply down there. If there was a small source of supply that could keep a few divisions in place there could be a reason to try to fend off the allies and divert materials/men down there to get more time to take suez and in the best of worlds relieve them. Now it's no use to throw away the men and equipment since it's just doomed from the start.

As someone pointed out, the allies still won with a big margin but they met some decent resistance for a year before they drove them out of east africa.

 

[Robosoldier1]

But it's a increcibly futile attempt since they UK/FRA just can sit at their hands and starve them out since there is no real supply down there. If there was a small source of supply that could keep a few divisions in place there could be a reason to try to fend off the allies and divert materials/men down there to get more time to take suez and in the best of worlds relieve them. Now it's no use to throw away the men and equipment since it's just doomed from the start.

As someone pointed out, the allies still won with a big margin but they met some decent resistance for a year before they drove them out of east africa.

the area could and in-fact did support a decent amount of people. Historically there were like what 90,000 Italians stationed in Ethiopia? Not including their colonial local militias. So to say the Italians shouldn't be able to sustain a large amount of troops there is just wrong. Especially since this is just a issue with the supply system more then anything else and while I think they defiantly should suffer a form of penalty in terms of being reinforced equipment wise, they shouldn't just whittle away with no actions committed by the Allied powers thats just beyond stupid.

 

[PanzerMan7]

Doesn't puppeting Ethiopia give you a modest base of supply? Give them some basic guns. If the British focus on Ethiopia they'll break it but it should hold out for quite awhile if they don't. And historically that's exactly what happened.

Sorry dude but WAD. You're cut off. You want to hold Ethiopia, you break through to it. I mean, what do you want OP? You can't just turn Ethiopia into a modern industrial nation with a huge reserve of supplies within three years after conquering them. Italy WAS starved out and cut off by the Allies.

 

[Robosoldier1]

Doesn't puppeting Ethiopia give you a modest base of supply? Give them some basic guns. If the British focus on Ethiopia they'll break it but it should hold out for quite awhile if they don't. And historically that's exactly what happened.

Sorry dude but WAD. You're cut off. You want to hold Ethiopia, you break through to it. I mean, what do you want OP? You can't just turn Ethiopia into a modern industrial nation with a huge reserve of supplies within three years after conquering them. Italy WAS starved out and cut off by the Allies.

When did I say that? I just want it so that Ethiopia and the East Africa Campaign to leave a bit more impact then a 1-2 week conflict because of how mechanics work. Most Italian players don't even bother to invest in the area because of the issue and thats just a waste and crutch on the strategies an Italian player can manipulate in game. Singleplayer its not an issue cause the AI is too stupid to guard against it but In multiplayer I usually encounter UKs eager and nonchalantly geared up day one to kill it because its so easy to remove. Theres a reason it took a year for the allies to dislodge the Italians and even then they still had Guerilla fighters plaguing the area until the Armistice was signed.

 

[PanzerMan7]

When did I say that? I just want it so that Ethiopia and the East Africa Campaign to leave a bit more impact then a 1-2 week conflict because of how mechanics work. Most Italian players don't even bother to invest in the area because of the issue and thats just a waste and crutch on the strategies an Italian player can manipulate in game. Singleplayer its not an issue cause the AI is too stupid to guard against it but In multiplayer I usually encounter UKs eager and nonchalantly geared up day one to kill it because its so easy to remove. Theres a reason it took a year for the allies to dislodge the Italians and even then they still had Guerilla fighters plaguing the area until the Armistice was signed.

Do these Italian players puppet? If they puppet and give guns, Ethiopia should hold for a little while unless UK focuses on neutralizes Ethiopia. AFAIK, historically UK didn't focus on Ethiopia because that whole Libya thing. If the UK put their good troops and planes into East Africa, do you really think Ethiopia would've lasted so long?

 

[Robosoldier1]

Do these Italian players puppet? If they puppet and give guns, Ethiopia should hold for a little while unless UK focuses on neutralizes Ethiopia. AFAIK, historically UK didn't focus on Ethiopia because that whole Libya thing. If the UK put their good troops and planes into East Africa, do you really think Ethiopia would've lasted so long?

Ethiopian puppet doesn't really utilize the guns that are given and often times makes a template it cant sustain cause its the AI. However yes it can hold decently enough given the terrain but again a player can mop it up rather easily. I'm not asking to be able to put 40 width tanks into Ethiopia I just want to be able to place in enough divisions that can make the enemy bleed
for a bit and buy a much greater length of time if the Italian player invests into the area.

 

[JerkyJerry]

Of all the things that could/should/will be addressed I see this at the very bottom of any list. While I would like Africa to be worth something (albeit ahistorical) to fight over this is not the solution. The entire continent needs addressing if it is going to end up being more than what it was.

On the game side of things why you are not just conquering land between East Africa and Libya is your choice. Often times when playing Italy I control the Suez Canal.
Most of what I'm reading is the way you play the game. I fail to see much of an issue at all.

 

[Meglok]

a big issue right now with the Africa campaign at the moment is there is literally no presence/threat from the eastern Africa Italian holdings. The Supply Issue is too big to ignore and there really isn't much you can do to alleviate it. Sure you can puppet the Ethiopians but thats about all you can do and the supply is still utterly garbage. The point of East Africa should make it so that the Suez isn't able to be fully defended by the entirety of the commonwealth because of East Africa which took roughly a year historically to subdue.

Read thru all of your posts. Italy can expend the CIC to improve the area and that will improve the supply. But why bother? There is almost nothing worth fighting for in East Africa, at best it is a way station for heading south to the Congo.

All Italy has to do is make sure she ships enough divisions to North Africa to take Egypt and move at least into Tunis. That both opens up the Suez Canal (which solves your supply problem) and the possibility to capture Arabian and Iraqi oil. East Africa exists to distract the Allies while you do that. Italy's job is to control the Med and Mideast oil, not get lost in the Congo.

 

[Stug_Life]

Do you have the DLCs? When I play Italy I puppet Ethiopia and train about 36 10 width mountaineer divisions, along with like the 20 that Ethiopia themselves train. A few games in multiplayer I have defeated all of Africa with Ethiopia as Italy lol

 

[PanzerMan7]

Ethiopian puppet doesn't really utilize the guns that are given and often times makes a template it cant sustain cause its the AI. However yes it can hold decently enough given the terrain but again a player can mop it up rather easily. I'm not asking to be able to put 40 width tanks into Ethiopia I just want to be able to place in enough divisions that can make the enemy bleed
for a bit and buy a much greater length of time if the Italian player invests into the area.

I'm pretty sure puppet Ethiopia generates some supply

 

[Tempestra]

the area could and in-fact did support a decent amount of people. Historically there were like what 90,000 Italians stationed in Ethiopia? Not including their colonial local militias.

Historically, didn't the Italians suffer massive supply issues pretty much from the get go during the East African war? Jokes about incompetent Italian soldiers aside, this is is one of the major reasons those troops couldn't hold out - they weren't starving, but they had shortages of almost all military equipment. I know the Italian navy squadron became inactive due to lack of fuel almost immediately.

I mean, Ethiopia is isolated and overextended from the rest of the Italian Empire. It seems like the problems the Italians have in holding it are realistic.

 

[Alex_brunius]

Doesn't make much a difference because the main supply from the Italian mainland is cut off when the Suez/Mediterranean is locked down

That's not how the HoI4 supply system works.

Assuming you join the war with Germany then supplies to Ethiopia will be routed through German Atlantic/Northsea ports on convoys around Africa.

 

[afb]

I've played a handful of multiplayer games (RTW series, 33->) and in those Ethiopia has held out very well (as a puppet supported by Italian infantry and mountaineers). In some games they have held out long enough for Italy and Germany to blitz through, in others Italy lost in Egypt but then conquering Ethiopia took months of hard fighting in the mountains.

In single player, any decent Italian player should be able to rush through Egypt in time to link up.

 

[grandad1982]

I'd would rather that supply was MORE of an issue, not less.

If logistics consumed a percentage of the supply they 'move' per supply zone to represent the material needed to move supplies, then africa, russia, china etc would all be a lot more realistic imo.

 

[korodikrisz]

Hmm, I kinda remember Darkest Hour having an Italian East Africa puppet in Ethiopia. Or AOI. That could be imported to HOI4, giving some supplies there. I think if they run out of supplies on the own, then Italy can't send anymore. The allies would destroy the convoys down there anyway.