Gentlemen, tomorrow night is clear, CAVOK.
All forecasts give us a good several hours of playtime over Europe.

Keyword for Commit will be: Hedgehog
Keyword for Abort will be: Pincushion.

Get a good night's rest and at 0600 AM be ready for briefing.

Hedgehog. I repeat- HEDGEHOG!

I didn't hear Pincushion, but the LD time was missed.

Maybe you missed the "Contact, wait - out"?

I had a GREAT run last night!!

Oh man, I wish you'd seen it!

But- ok ok I'm at work now- I simply didn't have the time to write something meaningful or organized last night.
I really ended up late @ around 0200.

Will report ASAP.

We hadn't a good start...




It went better fast.
Real better. Real fast.



I have to help those damned Bolsheviks...



It went south (well East really) quite just as fast.


In the yellow ovals please notice the German advance into Russian territory...




On the home front I've got to deploy two Tanks Divisions- Finally.



One here...


The other one closeby...




At least we had some progress too...




It looks not too much, I agree but when this kind of things happens time has to flow slowly.
Specially for a country as small and as relatively harmless as Italy.

More on this later... I'm writing...

Noticed something with your deploying yourt 2nd Bde. You have a composite division now of an armor Bde, 2 mountain Bde, and an inf Bde. The problem is that when you combine non-specialty units with a specialty unit, they lose the specialty capability. So those 2 mountain Bde lose their mountain capability. Those specialty units must be of pure type. You may want to look at how your divisions are formed. Mountain division have to have only mountain Bde. Can't even have an artillery Bde. You will lose an important capability by mixing units.

@ OG: It's a very valid assessment and I must admit I wasn't aware of that.

That said in all truth it's a mistake I carry on from the (basically) very beginning when the gaming aspects of war weren't clear for me to choose wisely what to do.

What happens now is that being in a very strong defensive posture I don't really need the bonuses from special forces as much as I actually need every force available to make a line of defense against the German attack.

Or should I say- counter attack.

What I'm simply going to do (based on what I've seen in some "Dry Runs" along my intelligence and strategy experts) is waiting for the Germans to drive a bit deeper into Russian Motherland- and THEN strike and get a hold on the regions just north of mine. Literally moving my border "up on region". So to speak.

Waiting for late October/November will allow me a couple of interesting (and hopefully valid) choices.

1- First and foremost- I'll finally have properly sized Mech/Armored Battalions. I basically have only Infantry ones now.
Good for taking time but not to win battles. Not against veteran Germans units at least.

2- It will take longer (and possibly deter) too many Germans units to come back and scold me for being really naughty.

3- Whatever the Germans will have in terms of available forces are going to be worn out- if not run down entirely. Eastern front is NOT a walk in the park.

4- Russian Winter. Enough said.


The decision to attack will not come lightly or without consequences. Mainly blood on my hands. Italian blood.
But it's also a game. I might still lose- but what the heck, it has been a good first run.

You always need the bonuses. You have time to reorganize easily. Make Mountain divisions of solely mountain brigades. Concentrate your armor into mech divisions. Remember that it isn't just the combat bonuses. Units move at the rate of their slowest unit. So mountain divisions will be slowed and when not in the mountains, mech will be slowed by the mountain units. It is well worth the fiddling to construct the divisions to their best advantage.

*Taking notes*

Ok... I see

That was part of my thought on having mountain divisions move and seize those two spots behind that mixed German armor/whatever force on the Italian/Swiss border. In the mountains they will move slowly and fight at a disadvantage. Your mountain divisions will move faster and fight better. Isolating and eliminating a few German divisions will be a big success. In their current situation, losing a Armor division and whatever else is in that stack, will have a big impact. They just don't have all that many Armor divisions.

It is certainly worth reorganizing your divisions. It isn't difficult. Then make sure your commanders are appropriate for the kind of division and how you are going to use it.

And then what happened ?

It all began with a footnote in the messages section.
Germany signs a Non-Aggression pact with Luxembourg.

Now I draw attention to it because- if you go back and look what happened before- Germany had already conquered it.
Uhm... What's happening here?


AH-HA! Someone has been liberated! DEMOCRACY B!TCHES!

So basically some political maneuver to save some face? Can't tell but the good news is one less nation under the black Nazi heel.



All good- all good.

On the eastern front #%&*$# get's real. Follow here the progress of the Germans...







On the home front I finally reorganized the troops as suggested by my best General (thanks O.G.!).
But truly all the above just make clear about what's happening in Switzerland.
Look...

The assault is giving up. And notice how there's no more Germans unit- just eastern-european ones.
All the rage for me as I notice the clear Cul-de-sac that's they are ending up in.

Small things on the technical side too.




What will I do now?
Uhm- I totally do want to wait the beginning of winter as I said before, hoping the Germans get bogged down more but mostly as I do really want to finish building better armoured forces.
My real issue with my army is simply he lack of heavy hitting things. Only infantry can't really hold up to anything as some tests I ran sadly showed...

Anschluss!!



Send in the "Little Green men."

Luxembourg liberated by .... Germany ? Wow, that's an interesting development.

You are welcome. I was worried that I was too forceful in my opinion. I can be that way.

Never worry, General.
I need some kickin'around or I simply can't find the will do to stuff so...

In any case rather than Germany liberating Luxembourg, it's more like they lost it to the Allied troops and then went all like : "Yeah, no ok. You guys can keep them- we really didn't want them anyway anymore."

*A large door squeaks as a small Italian mustachioed head pokes around the door frame.
The head retreats and the door closes again.
Suddenly the door is flung wide open a small minister in his flamboyant Italian suit marches smartly to the top of the steps, halts with military precision, the minister ruffles around in a pocket, producing a sheet of smartly folded officially headed government note paper.

A ceremonial soldier marches to the microphone his feet clips out a steady pace halting with a precision one two.
The soldier clears his throat.
"Ahem.
Greetings!
Citizens!
Please welcome a message from Giancarlo Fabbernichi, his most exalted high emissary to the free peoples of Europe and America...um, sod lets just say the world."

"Except Japan." Giacarlo whispers.
"Except Japan!" The soldier booms.

"Citizens!" Giancarlo starts
"Lord Duce wishes for me to pass on this message of Christmas and joyful wishes of a happy new year, so, here goes.


*Giancarlo frowns and studies his notes before resuming*

"Can I now get on with.....Um Okay, that last bit was um, someone else.....
Anyway.
He is a man of few words is our Lord Duce. Carry on!"

*Giancarlo turns smartly on his heel and retreats back into the palace.
The door shuts with a heavy clang.*

Well ?

Yeah, I was doing pretty well. Been caught up. I think the weekend looks promising.

You give the term "weekend warrior" a whole new meaning.