We’ll go through the focuses in a moment, but first we need to talk about the main system for Italy, Mussolini’s missions (or, as someone in the team nicknamed them, Missiolinis). The National Spirit Regia Aeronautica is meant to represent these factors and, as usual, can be improved throughout the branch. Not long after, they would be proved wrong. The Italian fighter Fiat CR.32 proved superior to the Soviet Polikarpov I-15 and I-16 used by the Republicans, which helped making the Nationalists have the upper hand both in terms of quantity and quality of aircraft, leading the Air Ministry to believe that the Italian biplanes could in fact still dominate the skies in major conflicts. Shortly after, during the Spanish Civil War, more than 700 aircraft and 6000 personnel were sent to aid the Nationalists.

However, the first tests for the Italian Airforce were not that successful: During the Italo-Ethiopian war, even though Italy faced literally no opposition in the air, the Regia Aeronautica lost over 70 aircraft and 100 personnel. The Italian Royal Airforce, Regia Aeronautica, became an important propaganda tool for the fascist regime during the 1920s and 1930s: Italian aviators established numerous records and won multiple world championships. Most of the military’s budget during the late 30s was consumed by these wars, seriously hampering a very much needed military modernization.įinally, the huge influence of the state-owned Ansaldo (part of the IRI as mentioned above) made it harder for other companies to present new designs and get a contract, which reduced competence and didn’t help keeping up acceptable production capabilities and quality in some areas, especially in tank production, where this led to an absolute monopoly (in association with Fiat).Īll these things are represented in-game by a lot of red modifiers for research and production, most of which can be reduced/removed later. Furthermore, the Italo-Ethiopian War (also known as Italo-Abyssinian War) and Italian massive involvement in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Nationalists had an extraordinarily high cost not only for the Italian treasury but also in terms of equipment and lives. Italian military industry was significantly smaller compared to other major countries in the war, most raw materials had to be imported and there was little stockpile of resources when Italy entered the war (in fact, many Italian merchant ships were in foreign ports at that time and were immediately impounded). The Italo-Ethiopian conflict soon became the scenario of many more atrocities and war crimes.Īnd after this little piece of historical context, let’s take a look at how Italy looks in-game in 1936:

This action was condemned by the League of Nations, however the League of Nations did not take strong steps to discourage an Italian military buildup around the Ethiopian border or took any drastic measures against Italy during the war, out of fear of antagonizing Italy to the point of pushing Mussolini to an alliance with Germany. Irredentism sentiment was fairly generalized.ĭuring the early 20s and 30s, the campaign for the “Pacification of Libya” resulted in the commitment of multiple atrocities and, in October 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia. Through propaganda, violence, murder and intimidation, the fascists managed to entrench fascism in Italy, implementing a corporatist economic system and pursuing aggressive foreign policies with the ambition to expand Italian territories in the Balkans. However, many of these promises would not be honored by the Allies during the Treaty of Versailles, with Italy receiving only a bit of the land expected (no expansion in Africa, no Fiume, Dalmatia, Carnolia…), while the cost of the war had been dire for the country, which was highly in debt after the war.Īll this caused high social unrest, leading to Biennio Rosso and later to the rise of Fascism with Benito Mussolini at the helm. Italy joined the Triple Entente in the Great War, after having been promised several territorial gains (Trentino and South Tyrol, Austrian Litorale, Eastern Friuli, Istria, Dalmatia, expansion of African colonies and small parts of Carnolia, Albania and Antalya).

The operational art of war iv steam