Corsica - as soon as weather clears - I FF Corps: 1 x Div, 2 x Rgt
Sardinia - 3 weeks time - V British Corps: 2 x Div, 1 x ARM Div, 1 x ARM Bde
Salerno - 2 weeks time - VI US Corps: 2 x Div. X Br Corps in follow up with 2 x Div and 1 x ARM Div.
Crotone - Prepping very slow. ETA 2 months - 7th US Army: 4 x Div, 1 x ARM Div, US 82nd ARB will support.
In short not happy with how I've ordered things and prep times but lot's of lessons learned for the future!
I've yet to see a good reason for making an early invasion of Corsica and Sardinia. I'm ready to be proven wrong, but they strike me as mistakes, and I've made my opponents pay.
Why fight the Italian OoB when by invading the mainland (after July) first you get two trigger chances (the invasion itself and then the presence of a supplied hex on the mainland) to get Italian surrender? When the Italians surrender (and with the BG Italy scenario the Germans can't pack in more CV to Italy to try and stop it) you get that OoB fighting on
your side in most cases (certainly in BG Italy). If the Germans left behind defenders the Italians won't liberate the entire islands themselves, but it takes no prep points to air transfer some airborne forces to help them out. Just plan on shipping up one corps HQ to oversee the operations and get the Italians+airborne supplies. Italians+airborne+TFs will take down the islands unless the Germans have made a serious commitment, in which case the 'half-ass' invasions you're planning now would be suicidal (in a grand campaign with the full western OoB at Germany's disposal).
Don't fritter away your weight advantage by spreading yourself too thinly.
Again, because you're playing the BG Italy scenario the Germans are playing with a limited OoB, the best way to take advantage of that is maneuver and disrupting their supply lines to reduce their unit range and magnify their lack of map counters. Prep regiments/brigades to land where he ain't. By the time he arrives/repositions you should be able to unload more than he can bring. Put your follow on forces on ships the turn before you plan to invade (but keep them in port so they get supplies! Just not the same ports you're prepping invasions unless you're willing to suffer the prep point cost), this way reduces nasty surprises about port capacity and you should be able to get the follow on forces positioned on a hex behind your invasion TF. With the 4x CV multiplier for hanging onto beachheads and one or more TFs offshore a brigade should be able to hold on in the event he has a unit next to your invasion site. But if you're coming in with at least 4 TFs losing one beach won't be the end of the world. He's not going to have the forces to kick off all four beachheads in the first turn.
Invasion planning table:
The historical landing site at Salerno is a loser. Terrain is on the defender's side, unlike The Heel. That flat terrain with lots of coastal nooks and crannies for TFs to slip into and add their weight make it the battlefield of choice in my book. If panzers want to come tangle with my tanks and planes on clear terrain - let them! The Heel offers rail lines you can drop your temp ports onto, it also has lots of airbases already, and depending where you put your beachheads you can easily accommodate all of Tactical Air Force to aid the push on Foggia (once your air support gets in place... whenever that is...)
By turns 5 and 6 a lot of the Luftwaffe is withdrawn in this scenario, so you don't really have a naval interdiction threat that you would have to consider in the grand campaign (wherein you have more available naval patrol assets too, they'd just need to be rebased in Africa so they could assist).
"War is never a technical problem only, and if in pursuing technical solutions you neglect the psychological and the political, then the best technical solutions will be worthless." - Hermann Balck
