"Vivi ragazzo. La paura non ti appartiene." Nonno Angelo
"Live, boy. Never abide fear" Granpa Angelo

With this words I will always remember my Nonno. He died few months after that revelation, many many years ago.
Having served in Spain along the Nationalists for money, in Africa against overwhelming allied armies because he was forced to, and finally as a Partigiano in Friuli against the German Invader for his people, I like to think he really loved his peaceful years.

Life can be funny. Now I get to play with his generation- Woder what would he have thought about that.
Miss you.

Anyways, bought Hearts of Iron III super cheap at circa 2 dollars- Had to. Always been interested...
I pick Italy, for the fun of it. Being very very noob in this kind of grand strategy games I think it works particularly well managing a nation never meant to fight not even one world war. Much less two.

On with it.

Initial Map. Oh by the Gods- what were they thinking?



Brilliant- our "strategic colonial conquests" are held by sporadic forces, militia (to add insult to the injury) and for no resources whatsoever.
(all the areas in light gray are mine, those with some valuable resources are in olive green)



So, our Industry is next to nonexistant, resources are limited and rare on the Italian soil, and the Government isn't really looking like it cares much about what could happen.

We are a Nation of farmers, hardly expert soldiers hellbent on conquest- Far and gone are the day of the Roman empire...
But personal skill is second to none. Our artisan are capable of hand crafting the best rifles- but what good will it do if one soldier out of a hundred is armed?!

Time to roll the sleeves up and do something good.
First, revamp the internal products with some technological advances.



Which will allow the recovery of the infrastructure hell that is presently Italy.



Then we need to get to step up our production scheme and receive some badly needed resources.


This done, we need to act logically and not waste any life. We're not many in a world full of bigger fishes. Act smart- as possible.
That means trying to make peace with Ethiopia.
Which is apparently not something they will accept after our harsh invasion of Eritrea... Ethiopian War

We do not need a second front so far from our motherland, and much less for such a limited gain.
I pull back my men in order and let the Ethiopians make their moves.
We have time and we hold fortified positions- no need to do something stupid.





What surprised me is a small number of losses for no apparent reason. Could it be the harsh environment and lack of proper desert equipment?

Taking on a personal interest I try and steer the Government towards more tempered ideas.
Far right is something I abhor.

Luckily mode Democratic Nations are quite interested in another Sovereign State among them.
It will be a slow but steady progress. By all means.

Will follow your way Kome.

Thanks Stratos!
Not sure this little Nation struggle in a bigger stage can interest many- but the game is REALLY fun to play and I'm a total sucker for micromanagement!

That said I want to give this AAR a little less impersonal feeling and start writing it first person, as if I was some sort of Uber-Ruler. We will see.


EDIT: Ohm, and if anyone knows why of those mysterious deaths in Africa are happening- please do tell. Manual and tutorial are not really that complete...

Hey,


Love HoI 3 and it's great to see an AAR. Looking forward to see how you'll conquer the world. Are you using vanilla HoI?



Been a while since i played the game, but i think it's Attrition that is reducing your troops. Have a look here http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi3wiki/Terrain#Attrition


Have fun playing!

Well my aim is to carry Italy from a Kingdom to a prosper Democratic reality .And ,yes Vanilla.
Thanks for the link!

"Sono le misure impopolari a fare la storia o la Storia decide cosa è impopolare a seconda del pensiero corrente?"
"Are unpopular measures that make history or it's History calling measures unpopular according to the writer?"

As a leader of the state I value everyone working for me. I can see their faces at work- almost distill their thoughts as they relay to me their findings. I always took pride of my capacity of doing so.

Those harder to read- those I'll always take care never to turn my back on them.
I can only imagine what they hide, what they want. Everyone has an agenda. Everyone, me too.
And I'll never let some power hungry maniac to destroy what our predecessor fought for. This giovane Italia canno t be brought to her knees for the lust of war. I will not allow it.

We must make her grow and flourish- for only a madman can believe that War makes a Nation great.
I value potential Allies more than just for their temporary alignment.

France, they believe in Democracy. I cant believe they will aggravate the already tense tempo.
And our counterintelligence confirm this. Not only, it's but thanks to them that I can contact the British leader work out a political alignment shift.

So, I decide to pull off part of our reserves from the north-west and reinforce the Austrian-facing mountainous chain. Those people are way too close to the German leader- Herr Hitler. That one scares the living soul out of me.



Il Signor Mussolini protesta a gran voce. He kicks, stomps and screams. But he's a barking dog- He wouldn't attack my power- Yet.
My decision is final and in a few relaxed days our detachment reaches its new positions.


During the month of March I work out some more deals, thanks to my smart delegates, to receive more and more badly needed resources. It's still not enough for a fully sustained economy, but it's a start. This is making our resources deplete much slower... Unfortunately I have to agree to the necessity of building some more Armoured and Mechanized Divisions...


MOre forces even, are required- But we simply lack.. everything we need to create them.

Irony strike with unusual precision as I walk to my dining room to an early breakfast for my birthday- A hateful attack from the Ethiopians unto our scarce forces in Beledweyne and Dhuusa Marreb.



Luckily the strong elevated positions in Dhuusa break the spirit of the attacker faster than imaginable...

But in Beledweyne the forces are more evenly matched and even if the enemy's leader skill and knowledge of the area can't be dissed, our fortifications are quite more useful.


The extreme heat places a toll on the willpower even on the men of the regular army, set to help out the militia leveling the odds with sheer numbers- delaying their departure toward the frontline by about a whole day.


But what will we try now? Fight it through or try and pull back?


My last act for the month is to crumple up the piece of paper with the Royal seal, sitting on my desk for the best part of a week.
That ceasefire request was not meant to be apparently.

*As I side note I also found the Regiment I served with in 2000- 8° RGT. Alpini. Well those days formation anyway *

Nice AAR so far. Looking forward to seeing what you can do with the inherent limitations

I'll keep an eye on this one, sounds very interesting.

You don't often see AARs from the Italian perspective.

Good luck komemiute, you'll probably need it.

Wow, that's a veteran follower!
I bow to you and hope to keep this interesting. :P
And yep, I need LOTSA luck.

Unluckily these early years may be quite dull, those skirmishes in Ethiopia are much less interesting than it looks...

Beside it's hardly the case I could ever mount any significant offensive.
That said I have some ideas to make it worth following.

Not aiming for realism or historical matching.

That's exactly what pushed me to choose Italy.
Besides, my lack of skill in this game well represents, I think, Italian lack of... everything.

I think I'm almost worth my salt as a strategist, but Unluckily that's not the "be all, end all"...

I'm feeling like I'm going to enjoy this, no matter the outcome.

The Beledweyne battle drags on. Fighting is sparse but continuous and the trickle of deaths haunts me.



Number are almost equaling and no clear vantage is acquired. Morale is overall holding up.
Luckily this will change soon- I hope the arrival of six more thousand regular soldiers will at the very least stop the attack.

It will still takes nearly a week.




With some surprise I receive some requests for raw Oil. Unfortunately our needs surpass anything else.





The Netherland Kingdom though offer precious rare materials- Hard to say no in this case.


As the reinforcements step to the frontline my forecast proves right- the attack is broken and the Ethiopians turn tail.
Wounded are taken care of and we mourn our dead.



What catches my attention is reports from our intelligence warning us of troops concentrations on the other side of the Ethiopian front. They must really be after our blood. I'm afraid that if they want to go on like this a preemptive all-out assault is going to be the only reasonable choice...




Movements of troops over the Austrian border push me to sign orders for fortifications to be built on our side of the Alpi. Trieste wants funds to improve its Industry- I like that region, let's give them something to work with...




With another surprise move (and a deafening roar) the main formation of the Ethiopians encircle/assault our Divisions in Dhuusa Marreeb from three sides. I'm at a loss. I knew they were not masters of Strategy but this move is appalling- it leaves a flank badly uncovered.





I may be a good person, but I'm no fool.
And I order an immediate attack on the exposed Ethiopian Division.



With a day long offensive their spirit is broken again and by the thick of the night they give up the tentative encirclement at Dhuusa Marreeb.



With the full scale attack at Mustahil I gave up my dig up foxholes but our leadership is true and the aim steady.



In a week the enemy forces are beaten to a retreat, casualties are nothing worrying but there's still a lot of letters to write.



I consolidate the assault by fortifying my presence with further troops.




All the while Ethiopian troops concentration more north is shifting.
Didn't they receive the memo about the beating? We will see in the morrow...
Their next move will reveal their resolve to fight us to the sea. Should they pull off some formations I'm pretty sure their overall strength is very limited.




It could pay off to try and make a dash for Addis Abeba- the capital. Take it and maybe...

I face a moral dilemma.

My spies tell me that Ethiopian National Unity is scarce and even worse their troops situation- True they have some numbers but not even half of ours and in much worse state of affair.

I can conquer them easy, but- Should I do it?
They do have quite some resources I could use... Ah, choices.

You could be democratic, but still colonialist. Wasn't that unusual at the time. Hard times, and all.
What's best for Italy?

Also, maybe the times aren't right to switch over to general elections. Not yet. Some of the opposition leaders are downright destructive. Maybe they should get arrested.


(I can't help it, always the devil's advocate)

Interesting points SSnake. That gave me the right push.

Ok, let's take on these people. I wasn't entirely convinced but what they did to the prisoner they took was immoral and despicable. I would have walked out Ethiopia and never looked back- but this is too much.

Let's bring some order and peace.

Given the previous situation in Beledweyne (a hasty retreat for the enemy forces and my consolidation) I can see the potential for encirclement.
To do this I have to redistribute some of my forces but the intelligence agents seems really convinced it's easier than it looks.

I order a further attack to an Headquarters Division behind the main front, left uncovered by the fleeing Military Division.


In the mean time, while browsing the reports of the small scale actions from NCOs, I realised that as an Army we were missing Engineers!



As predicted the northern troops starts to be recalled around the capital as reports of our attacks start making their way north (notice the green arrows pointing South-South/West, indicating an initiated movement). So the reports were true- Limited forces with limited supports...



I re-organize my forces to be of a large size without the hindrance of the whole Corpo D'Armata and dictate clearly what I expected.
Wheels are in motion...
Only half of the troops will attack with the remaining half ready to exploit the first breakthrough to pour in and march to Addis Abeba.


And then the knowledge of the terrain and skillful "soldatacci"- the landowners commanders- shows what they can do.
Where lead with competence and resourcefulness they got us, the Battle of Mak'ele- I order to stop an useless bloodshed and wait for a better opportunity, which came almost immediately in the form of a victory in the southern front at Ramo.



Our advance couldn't be easier now, as I push my troops as if I was the only one there... The front get's widened and the envelopment starts to take shape...


Good news on the home front as finally our eggheads figure out how to improve usage and yield of our fields, and the streamline of our industry workflow.



Good, good...

Looking at our theoretical knowledge, though, we are terribly behind schedule- so the newly freed eggheads are definitely going to help us wade into the next century- Electronics...


In the north fighting proceed fast and smooth with increasing enemy troops being moved away or killed on the spot.
I love the smell of "Liberazione alla mattina", smells like victory...



In the south again- Last step in the encirclement:


Total view of the African Front:



-Continue-

With the victory at hand in the remaining battle, up north I open again the engagement at Mek'ele- They are less, more tired and with news of defeat all around.


It doesn't look too good still but...


Finally! At Afrera Terar the front line crumbles under the pressure of our Army inflicting, unusually, some heavier casualties.


Next step is encircling the sturdy troops at Mek'ele while pushing all the available force onward to the Heart of this beast.



And I think it's right about time to bring some "Aviazione" out. Let our boys to build some self confidence with easy pickings...



In the south, at Ramo, the enemy senses the stranglehold closing on its neck and tries to push out of it. Uselessly I might add...



The jaws of my war machine close on them with merciless efficiency,



interrupting their attack before it even starts...


I will not stop, though. "Attacco ad Oltranza"


At Mek'ele fields, finally, our troops push hard from all around them. With a final shove they manage to remove the enemy from its positions.


I further provide directions to consolidate our conquests...


Our "scienziati" keep their little heads churning out good stuff...



We keep on punching them backwards, in the North front, as we seem to gain some momentum.


Unluckily in the south an unforseen- problem- ruin our encirclement, without posing- anyway- any threat to our formations.



-More tomorrow-

Cool

Looking forward to how you handle the Eastern Front.

That's an easy one! Haha- I'd pull a "Brave Sir Robin"!

But seriously, thanks for watching!

The blank stare on my face was a clear telltale I didn't notice it.

My attendee is still in front on me, politely waiting for any response. Maybe a breath.

"When... How..." I regain my composure.
"What are our options?"

He seems relieved.
Probably was expecting a fit of rage.

...

I would have let myself go- but rationally that wouldn't have helped anyone.
I try to stand right up, straighten my shoulders.

"Well, we can stop any number of projects- " But that would mean losing whatever was produced already
"or... we can go on at a reduced pace. " But that strains our economy.

So it's a matter of lesser evil.
"We'll... go on" I exhale "We have to"-

As he leaves I have to grasp the report and silently gawk at the papers.
We ran out of our most essential stockpiles.
Our Industry slowly ground to an halt- production less than halved.
We're essentially dead in the water.

Only the complete conquest and submission of Ethiopia will grant a relief.
I'm glad I started it, but now it's a matter of survival.

EDIT: Moron-of-me, I just saw from the action bar on top of the screens I just put up that there's no Energy left. Usually that's the stockpile regarding stuff used to power industries and manufacturing as Raw Oil and Coal...
Outside I'm impassable, but inside...

Yep, no choice but to become a "benevolent" colonial power now...
Looking forward to further installments of the AAR


P.S. As a 3X parent that picture strikes me as hilarious! That is indeed "the face"...