[SOE] Italian War entry in Jan 1940

[Glabro]

Is Italy's war entry totally random? When I played as the axis, Italy entered in August. Now as the Allies, Italy entered in January 40. I left Cairo without a garrison for one turn accidentally because of "no undo", so did this really cause this much damage? I put a french corps in Cairo, is this also not allowed?

[Hubert Cater]

From memory it advances as the Germans near Paris and once Belgium surrenders as well as when the Allies abandon key positions in the Mediterranean. After that there is a slight increase (I believe) starting in late 1940 that will eventually bring them into the war regardless of the situation on the ground. Axis successes such as the surrender of nations will pique Italian interests as well as aggressive moves by the Allies such as declarations of war will do it too.

Hope this helps,

Hubert

[Sharkman]

I'm playing the Allies against Glabro, the Italians came in very early even though I had not even started moving into France, in fact the French had taken some German territory, I did get the "Mussolini pleased with Allied weakness in the med" message one time though. Did I get lucky or does the garrison of citys in med have that much effect? I think it only lasted 1 turn.

[Bill101]

Hi

I've just been through the scripts to help narrow this down.

Italy starts at 65% Axis, and in addition to diplomacy, will swing towards the Axis in the following circumstances:

• Everytime a country surrenders to the Germans, Italy will move 3-5% towards the Axis.
  
• Everytime the Allies declare war on a neutral, Italy will move 5-15% towards the Axis.
  
• When the Germans have units within 1 tile of Brussels, Italy will move 1-3% towards the Axis.
  
• When the Germans have units within 1 tile of Paris, Italy will move 5-10% towards the Axis.
  
• For every turn that the Allies abandon key Mediterranean positions, (Gibraltar, Malta, Cairo, Tunis, Damascus), there is a 75% chance that Italy will move 3-5% towards the Axis.
  
• Should the Allies invade Iraq then Italy will move 5-7% towards the Axis.
  
• From the 1st August 1940 Italy will start moving 5-7% per turn towards the Axis.

Note that once Italy has reached 90% then it will start mobilizing for war and its entrance into the conflict is inevitable, though it may take a few turns to actually join.

I did notice that there is only a Pop Up Message in the first turn that the Allies abandon a position in the Med, rather than on every turn. I think it would be best if we added one in for every turn.

These are all the activation triggers so hopefully one or more of these were triggered?

[Sharkman]

The only applicable events were the Polish surrender and the turn when there was apparently no Allied unit in Cairo, I was supprised when Italy suddenly joined the Axis, I did know their mobilization value was quite high but I never expected them to join prior to some kind of success in France.

[Glabro]

For one turn I didn't have a garrison in Cairo, but I replaced it with a French unit. I could see that perhaps this was not allowed, and it must be a brit unit occupying Cairo, that's the most logical explanation.

None of the other triggers were activated, well besides the surrender of Poland of course.

[Bill101]

Where did the French Corps come from?

[Glabro]

From Syria of course.

[Bill101]

I think that's the problem then, because if you've left Damascus in Syria empty then that will encourage Mussolini:

• For every turn that the Allies abandon key Mediterranean positions, (Gibraltar, Malta, Cairo, Tunis, Damascus), there is a 75% chance that Italy will move 3-5% towards the Axis.

Does that explain it?

[Glabro]

Whoops. That would explain it. Well I forgot, and there was no announcement about it after the first one. Good that there's an explanation, then.