Okay, It's the Winter of 1939 and I have successfully taken out Poland, Belgium and France with the Vichy event firing. Due to some Barbarossa anxiety, I am first going to concentrate on Sea Lion, but to do that I feel I had best get affairs in order in Spain. My eventual goals in Spain are to take the country, annex and probably puppet while bringing them into the Axis and knocking the Brits out of Gibraltar.
Now, as far as Spain is concerned, they are under the control of the Republican faction, as neither the Italians nor Germany were able to help the Nationalists in time. I am confident I have enough forces to bring to to this front, but my composition isn't as ideally suited as I'd like. Most notably, I am short on mountaineers.
I have also noticed that the Spanish have a number of troops (about 7 divisions: 6 Inf. & 1 Cav.) in Bilbao. Additionally the total force estimates of Republican Spain include 33 Inf., 3 Armored, 1 Fighter, 1 bomber and a small navy.
I guess, since I am really new to the game, I am unsure how to get an effective force in place against the Spanish. Getting my navy in position for an Amphibious assault would include moving them through heavily controlled British waters (I have no naval assets deployed in the Atlantic South of the channel) or assaulting a number of units in a bottlenecked mountainous province. The Med is also a no-go for me from a naval standpoint (not allied with Italy yet and have no ports). Additionally, I do not yet have access to the Vichy forces and am rebuilding my funds with a mind to bring them into the Axis and assuming military control, but that will take a while to get my relations high enough, I believe.
If forced to attack the bottleneck directly, my current line of thought is to bomb the heck out of Bilbao (interdiction, I suppose) and then assault with a heavy force of infantry, with my meager Mountaineer asset included, while adding an airborne assault into the mix. I considered dropping airborne across the region to cutoff Bilbao but I don't have the raw number of Paratrooper divisions necessary.
I suppose the generally mountainous and hilly terrain of Spain is another overarching concern. How do you folks normally conduct an operation like this as Germany? Or am I just getting into a bad situation when I should be deploying assets elsewhere at this time?
Any advice or suggestions welcome.
Now, as far as Spain is concerned, they are under the control of the Republican faction, as neither the Italians nor Germany were able to help the Nationalists in time. I am confident I have enough forces to bring to to this front, but my composition isn't as ideally suited as I'd like. Most notably, I am short on mountaineers.
I have also noticed that the Spanish have a number of troops (about 7 divisions: 6 Inf. & 1 Cav.) in Bilbao. Additionally the total force estimates of Republican Spain include 33 Inf., 3 Armored, 1 Fighter, 1 bomber and a small navy.
I guess, since I am really new to the game, I am unsure how to get an effective force in place against the Spanish. Getting my navy in position for an Amphibious assault would include moving them through heavily controlled British waters (I have no naval assets deployed in the Atlantic South of the channel) or assaulting a number of units in a bottlenecked mountainous province. The Med is also a no-go for me from a naval standpoint (not allied with Italy yet and have no ports). Additionally, I do not yet have access to the Vichy forces and am rebuilding my funds with a mind to bring them into the Axis and assuming military control, but that will take a while to get my relations high enough, I believe.
If forced to attack the bottleneck directly, my current line of thought is to bomb the heck out of Bilbao (interdiction, I suppose) and then assault with a heavy force of infantry, with my meager Mountaineer asset included, while adding an airborne assault into the mix. I considered dropping airborne across the region to cutoff Bilbao but I don't have the raw number of Paratrooper divisions necessary.
I suppose the generally mountainous and hilly terrain of Spain is another overarching concern. How do you folks normally conduct an operation like this as Germany? Or am I just getting into a bad situation when I should be deploying assets elsewhere at this time?
Any advice or suggestions welcome.
