George40 Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 I just played through my first campaign as the Axis versus the AI. It was fun, but the Its. were pretty useless. With the scripted UK troops in N Africa they were just over run. I sent down another army, HQ and the fighter. They have such limited production that producing a useful army for N Africa is pretty hopeless. I ended up conceding N Af. focusing in USSR and having the Italians just make garison troops. (came back and gon N. Af. after the fall of USSR). It would have been more fun to have them fight it out in N. Africa witht the Italians, but it seems hopeless. Had anyone found something useful the Italians can contribute to the Axis cause? Thanks, George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaMonkey Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Glad to hear you've tried the game again. The Italians...yeah..they can be a dilemma, but not useless. You've found one function, garrisoning. You have to be careful with the Italians initially. Bring them along slowly on the minor DoWs with the Germans help. Yugoslavia and Greece are two countries that are in proximity for exploitation and get their IW research going. Build their artillery early and get it experience. Since USSR and USA will probably be doing tank research, later in the game you can capitalize on their lead and get an advancement from the catch up rule. Allow the Italians to take Algeria and Morroco as well as any other minors so they can expand their MPP base, then you can go from there. They can be a valuable Axis partner, just go slow and don't expose them to a major Allied belligerent until they have tech and experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJY Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 George, You can't do all of these at once, but other options to consider with the Italians include: (i) Build their engineer and use it to build forts in France or in the East (useful later in the war if you end up on the defensive) (ii) Invest in LR air and use the Italian bomber to spot enemy positions (so you know what weaknesses to attack and where to prepare your defences) (iii) Invest in diplomacy (to save German MMPs for more important jobs) (iv) Use the Italian fleet to harass the Royal Navy (this is Italy's one good asset) (v) If using soft build limits, I like to invest in flak tech and build flak units (such units usefully serve as garrisons and defend France against the Western air forces) (vi) You probably can conquer Greece or parts of North Africa (but don't be too surprised if they are taken from you by an Allied counter-attack) Just don't expect too much from your forces. Historically, the Italians had very limited success on any front (e.g., the Germans had to bail them out in Greece and North Africa). The game more or less reflects that. MJY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsmm Posted August 10, 2009 Share Posted August 10, 2009 IW, ATW, naval warfare, LRA are techs you should invest in. Don't worry about diplomacy or other forms of tech, unless of course you want to try V of MJY ideas. Something else to consider is the Italians will never win you the war no matter what. Germany decides who wins and who losses. So it might be worthwhile to hurl your Italian forces at the Allies even though they are hopelessly inferior against them, so that you can buy Germany a little more time to win in the east and then send her forces back to Europe to crush anything the Allies have in place. I suppose Mussolini would be appalled by this idea, but when you get close to taking Russia out, it always seems that the Western Allies begin to hunt you down, and get easy victories, which can be a major concern for the Axis player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnym Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 a highly effective north african campaign can be launched with some german support. I think you must first take out vichy france. then send through marseilles or other ports 1 armor and 2 corps to tripoli and quickly conquer tunisia and algeria in short order, remember once you have algeria you can send a bomber there to strike at the port of gibraltar. once the port value is 0 the significant italian fleet can breakout into the atlantic and support a naval war against the uk and later the us. disruting any future amphib assault against france. to drive on suez you will need at least 1 german armor, 1 army and above all an hq. the hq is absolutely necessary for reinforcement and morale-efficiency purposes. with at least 1 hq and 3 tactical bombers, 1 strategic bomber in sicily you can knock out the uk unit in malta and amphibiously invade with any unit. With malta in axis hands they are no longer crippled and the supply ports work much more effectively. You also find an italian anti tank unit will greatly assist in reducing and eliminating the uk's 7th armor unit. if you can hold off russia and focus on africa you should be able to sweep through egypt/syria/iraq/iran and threaten russia's cauucasus region. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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