Like, a German Luger blew your mind or Japan just made contact with aliens and joined the allies blew your mind

LOL; you are not THAT far from the truth---

C'mon the suspense is killing me!
PLAY THE GAME ALREADY!!



Duceo, prepario!

While this sounds more like something Harry Potter might shout, I agree with the Comrade's sentiment...
Come on, you huge tease!

Heheheh, Don't worry. To quote Smashing pumpkins:

<Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, song #2.>

How to begin? A quick recap-

Where is Italy now?
Roughly- here...


Nearly halfway between Allied nations and Axis powers.
Luckily the pace of "conversion" has picked up.

With my spies I'm going to try and raise the perceived threat from Japan so just maybe they will stop badgering me...

Middle bottom screen- Spy mission is Increase Threat.


Internal development increases and so I can create more industry- Only this way I can speed up the Nation's Power Projection.

Infrastructural improvements...


Onward.


This is an interesting part of my Research Screen- I hardly pointed it out and it ahs quite some importance.
The higher the number/ the taller the coloured line: the more the Nation is "into it".
Number goes from 0.0 to 20.0- And my strong points are actually the one I wanted. Infantry, Artillery, Armor and planes are getting there... Not much, sadly but that's ok.

The green skill-boxes are theoretical knowledge, blue one is practical. Green one tends to fade away- when not actively used. Uhm, interesting mechanic. I COULD totally do without it, but alas. It makes sense.


Military tactics developed further




And so our defences




Great Britain is running low on some basic needs:

Mobilization, anyone? Of course I'mma Help you!

Why did Yugoslavia dissed me?

Tough time for them. I kind of understand...

Political situation in Europe is all but static!
And as such Germany is quite at war...
Check the name list- middle screen, middle height- At war with Poland, etc. etc.


Even Switzerland look uncomfortably restless.


About the frontline...
As you can see here

in the red circle we have Paris: close, very close. It really looks like the Nazi are throwing all they have at it.
I keep on thinking that it's an year too early- Are they going to pull it off? The advance speed is staggering and they are eating a region after the other.

Closer.. hour after hour Germany advances.


And on...


And on again...


Caen is overrun and Falaise and Carentan are really at a risk!


But valiantly France doesn't give up any hope. I am really impressed!


Paris is surrounded!


A Phyrric victory, to say the least. And this time is over. Luxembourg can only become a puppet state.


Ah, there ... I hate to be right.


*Backstab*



French situation is dire, to say the least. Netherlands is crushed and Belgium close there too.


Details about Luxembourg.


And Belgium


Ready?

And then it happens. Can you spot it? I saw a ragion change colour but- what?


Am I dreaming?

The French army is fighting hard- with teeth and nails!

The world seem to react to this too!




Are they going to make it? Or are they going to die standing? Either way it's hard to express my gratitude, happiness, pride, and relief! More regions are being retaken!


I try to help them out allowing the French brothers to step on our soil- An encirclement? See I can speak french too!


GUIDO! For GODS SAKE, mind your words!


See? I have gained more points thanks to my actions! Now go make your Duce some Carbonara before I telepathically Castrate you!


But seriously this reverse is impressive... As I emphatically stated before, maybe that one year of Armoured research would have helped uh? Mr. Chancellor?


Just wow- Wait, that was the Luxembourg backstabbing to make them Frenchmen angry! O.ò
Guido, take notes!





Ready for the REAL bomb?!



BOOOM!

There, done!
That was a blast for me to see- I hope you like it too!

I am quite shocked at France pushing back like that. And with Switzerland joining the Allies the Germans are presented with an uncomfortable situation. This should give you more breathing room and time.

@OldGrognard: Indeed. I'm utterly relieved.
But being what I am I start to get worried again. What happens if the Axis get defeated before 1942?
I think that Europe managed to stay compact thanks to the "common" enemy.

Without that- and considering that both France and UK are quite the colonialist powers- who is going to be the next target?
Are today's ally tomorrow's enemy?

I just noticed that the USA is already a member of the Allies - I guess that helps

Edit: With Switzerland in as well, you might really consider to declare war - wasn't the whole Tyrol always meant to be italian?! And Hungary as well?!

Hehehe you raise a valid point.
I must think calmly though.

My army is still reserves that need to be mobilised and I honestly still lack a lot of "punch".

As soon as 1940 kicks in I should be in the shape for start my production of professional and specialised units/divisions.

"Guido! To the Pizzacave!"

But remember that constructing an army takes a lot of time - (iirc) a specialized mountain infantry division may take more than 180 days. So if you wait to raise new divisions till 1940 it may be fall/winter again by the time you are ready.
You probably should raise infantry divisions already now - they will upgrade to the new equipment your scientists develop (but I don't think you can convert them, e.g. to mechanized units).
Mobilization should be fairly quick, maybe a few weeks.

Another interesting question is what the communists will do if they don't get attacked by the axis. Finland is already a member of the allies, so a winter war would cause a nice mess.

Wow, that turned out into a battle of the Marne v2.0!

So just looking at the number of countries Germany is at war with it has made close to about as many enemies now in 1939 as the historic example made in...well, 1943 or '44 maybe?

With even Switzerland being miffed now, why not join the common cause straight away?

After all Panzerdivisionen and Stukas can't simultaneously cumgespurten and bombsgedroppen at two places, e.g. Northern France and Northern Italy.

Heheh I knew this latest developments would have finally kindled the fire in the crowd!

I think tonight there will be little action, some other things require my presence...

But fear not, tomorrow night will be a grand slam. Two or three hours straight if kids behave.

I am thinking about streaming too, thanks to Shadow play- but I need to know there'ss someone interested.

I'll be thinking out loud about strategies and development, acting Duce Vader, and generally speaking doing stand-up/sit-down comedy.

Care to add your feedback?
Happy Valentines day!

Oh ho!
Germoney #%&*$# slapped by the French!
Zut Alores!

Guess the Cumgespurten and the Bombsgedroppen ran dry.
And France has a better C&C than they really did, Computer AI doesn't deal with incompetant idiots

Germany:
"INVADE! INVADE! INVADE! INVADE!"

France:
"Vous putain ce mat?"
*France Kapow! Bosh! Smash!*
"Et rester en dehors!"

**Duce Perparing Tirade.......Please Stand By.**

Playing now - Shadowaplay broadcast

I made a bad mistake.
Writing the report...

Oh guys.


-------------------------

It always starts the usual way.
Nothing crazy to report, really.

Some advances in the usual fields-




The United States of America allow us to recoup from lost economic trades with the conquered Netherlands and Belgium...


All looks well here, right?


Right?


Except... the pace of France is slowing down.



At this point, after a month from the previous screengrab they achieved nothing.


Then started losing ground.


Switzerland pick a courageous stand.


I guess it shouldn't have.


Germany is a VERY dangerous enemy. It has all sort of hardware, huge numbers of troops, and combined operations.
I thought I was doing well but it's obvious that my plan relied on Switzerland neutrality-

And I exactly fell into a Maginot of my own.
Plus I'm not mobilized yet and my army is so little thing.

This is a final look at the main theater.


I'm left with little to do but Mobilize, which will take an heavy toll on my resources as to mobilize without a war is an expensive matter.

Damn.


But honestly I can't just declare war yet.
Look at the list of enemies...



If it wasn't a game I'd be really depressed.
Time to stop all that it's not aimed to war economy. Down and dirty, from now on.

*Update*

OK, that's it. Just ordered the game. Got the complete series on disk from Amazon.




You hooked me.

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH I'm actually sorry and happy at the same time.

:P

If you need any tips for the micro-management, let me know!