AH Ceding Trento and Trieste?

[redrum68]

Playing a game vs the veteran AI and they chose to cede Trento and Trieste. Is this a viable strategy for the CPs? Does it ever happen in MP games? And if they do it then will Italy ever join the Entente?

[Jazon]

Hi,
I played once multiplayer for Central Powers, and chose to cede Trento. Italy didn't join Entente. You can read this more details in AAR - Jazon vs. Vickers

[OldCrowBalthazor]

It can be viable if the Central Powers are ascendant (especially if the Russians and Serbs are getting wrecked).
Ive been in about 26 MP's now..never did it myself, but once, the legendary Fafnir playing the Central Powers did it, and suddenly I lost parity in the Mediterranean from then on. His Austro-Hungarians took a huge NM hit, but he had bolstered them with considerable Germans. I ended up losing that match

The few other times someone did that while playing the CP, they lost. So, I would submit...generally not a good idea unless you as CP have a deeper plan involved.

[ThisEndUp]

How useful was the CP naval power in the Med? I can only think of shutting down the convoy lines from Egypt, Greece, and to Serbia. That's roughly 50 MPPs per turn for the UK from what I remember. Maybe naval invasions into Egypt? Can't be easy to pull off against someone who is expecting it though.

[OldCrowBalthazor]

ORIGINAL: ThisEndUp

How useful was the CP naval power in the Med? I can only think of shutting down the convoy lines from Egypt, Greece, and to Serbia. That's roughly 50 MPPs per turn for the UK from what I remember. Maybe naval invasions into Egypt? Can't be easy to pull off against someone who is expecting it though.

Well, I didn't have Italy's ports. I managed to keep his surface fleet bottled up, but had sub problems. I was in hard as Entente in the Adriatic...but when Italy stayed neutral, I had to back off. Also..I had to drag a few DD's down to the Med.

It wasn't a disaster....but I had to mind my P's and Q's when transporting assets to Egypt and the Balkans, because he went in heavy with AH's sub tech..plus several yoked out German U-boats out of Pola [:D]

[redrum68]

Thanks for the responses. My general thought is the only way its probably viable is if Germany is focusing on helping AH a lot to ensure it doesn't lose NM in other areas and can help cover its fronts for a few turns since the event appears to drastically decrease the morale of AH units. But in theory the long term benefit of keeping Italy out of the war could really be beneficial since it avoids another front and keeps Italy's MPP generation out of the war.

[mdsmall]

I find it hard to imagine a strategy where the benefits of ceding territory to Italy in 1915 outweighs the 8000 point hit to A-H national morale. It is not hard for the Austrians to keep the Italians in check without a huge commitment of force, at least until Italy gets artillery pieces with Level 1 artillery weapons. By then, Austria should have much more experienced generals and troops than the Italians. It does require deploying Austrian units in advance along the Alpine frontier with Italy and investing in stationing 2 generals there (since one general can't cover the entire front from Trento to Trieste).

[Bavre]

Since I usually go Russia first combined with a strong push on the Balkans, my Austria is generally under little pressure and could stomach the NM hit. I've still never ceded to Italy, because it never seemed worth it. The Italian army is extremely weak and it will take time and all it's equally weak economies resources to get it to some semblance of fighting order. Their navy is indeed strong, but the Entente should have easy naval supremacy in the med with or without them. But despite all their ships the Entente will be mostly powerless to stop AH naval bombardement on the beach between Venice and Triest, which can greatly hamper any Italian land offensive.
And should the CP player decide to immediately invade Italy (they enter the war without trench tech!), it will quickly become more of a liability than an asset to the Entente.