After Action Reporter

War in Italy is dragging on. By October things have slowed substantially in the North and in the South it is taking time to clear the cities of Rome, Salerno and Taranto. We’re also suffering at the hands of the Italian fleet, which I’m having a hard time pinning down (and would probably lose to if I did!). Lets see what happens next!

October 12 sees grinding conflict in the North.

The Italian unit fleeing north is actually a large stack and it has taken weeks to beat at the cost of half a dozen divisions quite disorganized and in needing of some wine and beach time. To the East, the port of Trieste is fairly well defended and also contains unfriendly Germans who have thrown back an attack on the port town. We are regrouping and preparing for another try.

Meanwhile, in the South…

The battles in Italy’s boot are safe, but no longer particularly quick. Reducing the cities never would be I suppose. From there we’ll have to clear Sicily, and judging by the Italian’s National Unity we’ll also have to capture a bit of Greece. Probably not too hard, but I’m worried about those damn Germans in the North. Hurry up America!

On the 15th, Rome and then Salerno falls and the Toe of the Boot is also ours. We also, finally, run out of spare convoys – but capturing Rome nets us 20,000 (!) energy, enough to last us a month or two, and our industrial capacity soars to over 100IC. We also have surpluses in everything else so other than concerns about overseas Garrisons going out of supply I’m not so worried about the convoy situation right now.

November – December 1949

The German and Italian counter-attack is fairly fierce. The German troops are skilled and tough and are able to grind down our troops fairly quickly. In a couple of weeks we’ve lost over 7,000 troops trying to take Trieste, easily our most deadly battles to date.

I plan to give up on frontal attacks on the Germans and instead I will try to suck them into a pocket. Might also deploy an Armored corps back up North to give them a hand.

By the 5th of December Palermo is close to surrender and we’re holding our own in the North.

The German troops are far better and more experienced than ours, but we have a lot more men and we’re cycling them in and out of combat to keep them fresh.

Palermo falls a few hours later and this is enough to force Italy to throw in the towel! But, instead of surrendering, they “vow to continue the fight” (I think this is a special Axis power). I’m not sure quite what to do with all this terrain.

It looks like Spain now owns Greece, but we’ve got enough on our plate just trying to deal with Italy, so I think I’ll liberate them. Italy is set as occupied with a Collaborator government, but I’ll switch it to a Military government and eat the revolt risk in exchange for more IC.

We’ve now got 12-or-so leadership, significantly boosting our research – which I put into infantry technologies and theories.

January 1950

By early January we’re fighting in Yugoslavia against… hell, I’ve got no idea! I know there are some Germans in there, but other than that? Doesn’t matter, our heavy armor and motorized troops are holding off the bad guys and expanding what was left of our territory.

Oh bugger. The dates in the below images should be 1950, of course.

The very next day, January 11, it appears that the US has won the war in Europe! The Federal Republic of Germany has been created, along with Czechoslovakia and Austria! Hmmm.. then how come we’re still at war? I think the Nazis are fighting on in the East and it looks like we’re going to be part of the cleanup crew!

Poland even exists again, although half of it is owned by what is left of the Nazis.

Since it looks like I’m still at war with what’s left of the Nazi empire along with all of Eastern Europe, I guess I’ll be seeing you all again next time!

Read on here – HOI3 AAR: Viva el Socialismo! – #13