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A pretty average turn. As before, REPs are going for larger stacks whereas NATs own the overall battlefield.
I'm starting to run out of things to send to USSR in the Mediterranean. Smaller ships are scouting any southern ports with resources and coal and deliver it to Barcelona.
NATs bomb Madrid twice - my 5 AAs don't seem to be making any difference.

The German AK that's been sneaking around the Med is finally clipped.
Menorca CDs arrive in Zaragosa by barges.
More NAT bombings of Madrid.

NATs are within a stone's throw from Bilbao and Santander, and San Sebastian may be next. The only safe area in the North is Oviedo - NATs were thrown back by about 25 miles there. Therefore, my Eastern front operations are becoming more important, I must link up with the Republica Norte.
More bombings of Madrid.

Just a visual of how intense fighting is right outside of the city. This is the REP attack.

The remaining NAT defenders around Zaragosa are cornered or destroyed, and we're starting to spill into the countryside.
The first case of a ship insta-killed by a plane (a NAT gunboat).
The first depth charge that hit the target (my Sub).
NAT deploys Italian tanks in the Southwest.
My fake naval "escorts" are getting attention of enemy planes, so pretty much every useless boat is now deployed as a decoy.

The importance of Merida - Caceres - Canaveral rail corridor cannot be understated. Short of an amazing blitzkrieg of universal proportions elsewhere, this is the only NAT rail line connecting the South and the North. And that's why both sides have been pouring forces into the region, staffing about 3x the number of troops now as compared to two months ago, even though REPs can't possibly use this line, again, without any mind-blowing territorial gains.
At the beginning of the war, all REP forces were sent towards Caceres - that's the middle orange star - while reinforcements from Madrid aimed for Canaveral - that's the top one. Fortunately for us, NATs were rather slow claiming Merida - that's the lower star - but they have captured it now, so things are about to get interesting. No screenshot of Merida as REPs have no way of getting back there, but let's look at Caceres and Canaveral.

Attack enemy logistics net,
Defend friendly logistics net !!!

Good job taking Z-town. I usually make my main effort thru Tereul, and up the rail line and hook East to Z-town but send what you call "scouts" along the other paths. Usually the Nats have at least one major clumpish between Teruel and the Ebro. But you went STRAIGHT for it, up the ROAD.

Oh and I usually use Riverine to jump people up the Ebro as well as to aid in holding Pina.

This feels like the Red Army taking Berlin in 1945. Not many people know that this was accomplished primarily by cutting off nearly quarter of a million German troops southeast of the capital. Well, apparently, here we go again. On one hand, Zaragoza is cleared up, on another, there's nearly 5K of NAT troops in a single stack just east of the city. Quite a problem after I had fanned my troops out, despite my usual combat stance, in three directions from the city. Fortunately, I still had enough folks left over...

jwilkerson wrote: Sun Apr 05, 2026 2:43 am Good job taking Z-town. I usually make my main effort thru Tereul, and up the rail line and hook East to Z-town but send what you call "scouts" along the other paths. Usually the Nats have at least one major clumpish between Teruel and the Ebro. But you went STRAIGHT for it, up the ROAD.

Oh and I usually use Riverine to jump people up the Ebro as well as to aid in holding Pina.

Thank you. My Teruel offensive stalled and then failed; I hold the town, but I couldn't make it past there. On the other hand, it's the Barcelona - Lerida route that proved successful. As for riverine, well, yes, I've discovered their benefits just a couple of weeks too late for troop movement. They are on a constant shuttle schedule to deliver the supplies though.

Besides Zaragoza and Sevilla, does any major city benefit from the riverine transports? All I could find was those two and a river to nowhere in Portugal.

Things are really heating up in the North.
REPs lose their first ship in harbor - a near miss sends a gunboat to the Valhalla.
Upon inspection, 2 of 5 REP AA units spawned without devices and I forgot to enable reinforcement - a learning moment.

From west to east -

Ribadeo Sector: Things are quiet, NATs even pulled back from Ribadeo. At the same time there are many, many NAT stacks in the Northwesternmost corner of the map. Either they are planning an amphib assault along the North shore, or those troops are being sent South on the double.
Oviedo Sector: NATs were handed several tough defeats, falling back 35 miles over the last month, and they are now huddling by Pajares (yellow arrows), while we are back home in Oviedo (solid red arrows), and with all my barges staged up in Gijon, we can attempt a paper tiger strategy, throwing hard all capable troops east to Santander (dashed red arrows).
Santander-Bilbao Sector: This is a tough one. I was able to draw a lot of NAT troops towards Espinoza, but the instant I pulled some units back to save Santander, NATs came back in force. Overall, we're winning by Santander slightly and losing by Bilbao slightly. There are quite a few squads incoming as reinforcements in the next 6 days though if we can hold.
San Sebastian Sector: This one is a mystery. On one hand, they achieved an early victory, destroying NATs, and many of the stacks here have experience in the 50s+. On another, they have been lending units to Bilbao, and there's no telling how strong is the NAT stack coming their way. And yet this is the city I need to hold if my troops from Zaragosa are to link up with it.

More heavy fighting in the North. NATs are nowhere near out in this game.

More heavy fighting in the North with REPs taking more casualties. Oviedo-Gijon sector is being evacuated - the irony is that the closest semi-capable NAT unit is 30 miles away and hasn't moved an inch north in weeks - towards Santander. Time to put my army of LBs to the use.

REP forces are starting to fan out from Zaragosa to the West, Northwest, North, Northeast, and East. NATs are visible in the area, but they are either avoiding combat or falling back.

In the North, we're 65 miles away from San Sebastian.

The first instance of a single REP air unit planting 4 bombs in the same NAT ship in the same turn.
Italian CL arrives off Gijon and completely devastates my "fake" escort units. Now I have to collect my fleet from the entire Bay of Biscay and figure out which real barges actually made their deliveries. Some units ran as far east as San Sebastian. What's worse, in the process of chasing the sailing boats, the NAT CL insta-killed a tanker with a single shot.
Fog of war: my actual ship losses this turn are 11, not 3.

Overall, the new AI is proving to be a worthwhile opponent.

The Olympic Gold medal for running under pressure goes to my LB TF making a delivery to Santander.

Fighting is definitely getting more fierce and desperate. The only only thing that's saving my North is the timidness of some of NAT stacks, but that may be due to my military successes in the South and the East.

Desperation is in the air. For both sides.

We're going to attack at San Sebastian. The proximity of Zaragosa REP troops is intoxicating.
We're going to fall back at Bilbao. We couldn't make a dent at the perimeter. It's time to hold the city.