Best way to help Italy?

[creeping-deth87]

I’ve tried helping out Italy a number of ways as the Germans and have yet to find something worthwhile. I used to build all fleet G1(aircraft carrier, destroyer, sub) and then sail south for Gibraltar G2 with a loaded transport, but this is easily stopped by a single British ship getting in the way turn 1. I’ve since tried building fleets with complexes in Southern France and Yugoslavia, but I find this takes way too long and never seems to pay off. Now I’m thinking the only way to help out Italy is with German aircraft stationed in southern Italy ready to take on anything that gets too close. I’m open fo other ideas though. Thoughts?

[teslas]

This is not something I came up with.

G1: Make sure you end your turn with a fighter on Tobruk, a tactical bomber on Southern Italy, and your planes on your german air base.

UK1: Taranto probably happens. (If it didn’t Italy is probably fine).

I1: Move everything that can go to Alexandria. Move your sub-saharans up next to Egypt. Make sure your planes are on your air base. Keep your one remaining transport alive. Buy a fighter or whatever you want, so long as it is in support of attacking Egypt in some way.

G2: Destroy whatever is left from Taranto with your air, land in Alexandria. If you took Southern France G1 (with 1/2x mech, 2x tank), you can potentially build a transport or two and move troops in to load up. This is not required, but helps a ton.

I2: Slam everything you can into Egypt. Retreat before you lose your planes (though risking losing just 1 is sometimes acceptable). Your fighters must land back in Africa. You will probably lose. Maybe not. Move everything else in africa close to Egypt (all 3 units). Have units in Greece to pick up if your transport off of Egypt lives. Buy another transport + whatever else you may need.

G3: Strafe Egypt with your planes. This will potentially hurt, but it’s an early victory city that keeps Italy in the game. If you build med transports, and were able to keep them alive, then you can take those as losses instead (but maybe keep 1 ground unit for the 5 IPC NO, this is probably worth the loss of a plane if Italy can keep Egypt). Do not strafe if there’s obviously no chance at victory, or if the victory means a loss of basically all of the luftwaffe.

I3: Slam Egypt again for the final time assuming all has gone well up to this point. You will probably win if you haven’t already.

UK has a good chance at stopping this if they send a lot of planes to Egypt, and/or if they build a factory there UK1, and/or if they had their transports ferrying from south africa. But you can stop them from doing a lot of that by keeping Britain scared with a Sea Lion feint from Germany.

UK must invest nearly everything they have into Egypt to keep it safe from this, and must be very clever with their boats.

UK can also retreat to Trans-Jordan, which makes the situation complicated.

[teslas]

Naval options:

Kill the french boats in the med G1 with planes. (very non-optimal)

Use Germany to make Gibraltar a fortress on G2, G3, or G4. (this sacrifices your ability to take Moscow if the 18 far east russians come west)

Do not underestimate just a few German submarines in the med. Build them out of Southern France. They, along with some bombers, can scare away quite a damn bit of things from parking on Gibraltar.

Non-naval options:

Strafe Yugoslavia for Italy, leaving less infantry for an easier kill.

Do not go to the med at all. Just build a bunch of mechs/tanks with Italy every turn. Give Italy Bulgaria. Send everything Italy has into Russia for the first 3-5 turns. Have them take most Russian territories (save for Ukraine and victory cities). This way, their economy is not completely ruined by losing control of the med. Use your Italian transport to take units out of Africa and back into Europe (I1: inf/tank -> I2: inf/mech).

Neutral crush Spain for permanent control of Gibraltar. Italy can go through Turkey. Your Norwegians, Finns, and air can take Sweden. (Non-optimal, but a hell of a lot of fun.)

[creeping-deth87]

Ohhhhh, I REALLY like that German submarine idea! Definitely gonna try that, thank you for your input Teslas.

[Vanerost]

Don’t count out the Middle East as it is full of ipc’s for them and they can assist in taking India or more important in my book is take the caucuses and put Russia on a permanent defensive maneuver if Germany is doling in. This is a good idea if you got Egypt and can keep it without question. The med plus the Middle East= a well funded Italy.

[Private-Panic]

But is helping Italy a priority for Germany? For me that is the question.

Providing Rome does not fall are there better things to do with G’s resources?

[teslas]

@Private:

Providing Rome does not fall are there better things to do with G’s resources?

It’s just a question of return on investment. I am a bit of a soft-hearted person, and if I am Germany and Italy is a real player, I tend to usually try to help them quite a bit, within reason. If I am both Italy and Germany, then I just do whatever wins the game, and that still very often includes helping Italy out.

And in response to Vanerost, I wasn’t suggesting on counting out the middle east in every instance, just the one instance where you say “fuck it” to the med and africa and drive straight to Moscow. After that you definitely get the middle east.

[calvinhobbesliker]

Sometimes Russia turtles in Moscow, which is a great time to launch diversionary forces into the Middle East to take all that income. This is around the time that India should fall, so Japan can help in Persia and even in Egypt.

[Vanerost]

Wow never considered sending jap forces into the Middle East. Figured the would always have their hands full in the pacific. also sorry to teslas. I was not saying the plan was bad or you need to go to the Middle East. Just saying that it was an option for good income.