The Kingdom of Italics, HY2, 1902

[Kaiser Kirk]

Budget of the Kingdom of Italy,

Synopsis
HY 2, 1902

Budget Tab

The newish province of  Friuli gets the IC built in 1902/1, the culmination of focused effort to show this neglected region - (formerly east Venetia and the new regions garnered from Austria) that there was benefit to being part of Italy.

The 4 additional IC are allocated in accordance with population -
1 in : Lombardy, Tyrol
1 in : Lazio, Umbria, Marche, Abruzzo
1 in : Emilia, Tuscany
then because I think Trieste, as a major port for the Austrian-Hungarians, and so have a reasonable potential for economic activity and  should have had an IC attached, I will put a 2nd IC in Friuli(Trieste).

For the Armor plates being built for English battleships, the Italians receive a generous mixture of civilian and military payments. The English business is celebrated as a triumph for Italian industry, who are proud they produce world quality goods. English support has long been important to Italy, and this is viewed in a very positive light.

The 1902 Engine tech enters the 4th half of it's research.
Mr. Cuniberti's ideas continue to be persued with 1902 All-big-gun tech research.
The United Kingdom's ideas on Mine Warfare finishs it's digestion. The Italians are torn regarding the laws and honor regarding mines.


Funds are expended to finance geographers, engineers, doctors, botantists, agriculturalists and explorers in the new African possession of Nysa and Berbera.
Funds are expended to prepare facilities in friendly ports to support exploration in Nysa

Work continues on an IC for Zanzibar

Naval Construction Tab
Six Lancieri class Destroyers are completed

The single submarine built is operated on a mobilized footing as it is being constantly used for evaluation purposes.

The Partenope class brigs, troop transport and hospital ship are all overhauled. In late HY1, one of the courier brigs will replace the Minerva, allowing it to be overhauled as well.

The Regina Margherita Class continues construction.

4,500 tons of armor plate is made for the UK. The "foreign military " %25 penalty is paid by Italy to ensure everything is properly done according to those funny Imperial units.

Naval Maintenance
While the Pasquale di Paoli and Carbonia are used for transport, the St. Raphael is stationed at Zanzibar to provide medical support as needed for the researchers and marines.

Army

In the Mod thread, Walter pointed out the Italian Army started with all 1895 troops.
I did consider starting with only the active part of the army 1895 and the reserves 1880. However, given my starting budget, upgrading the Army would have been prohibitive.

Since I was flat out told not to start with ships from the 1880s and earlier, it seemed unreasonable to start with an army 20 years and $30 out of date as well. Especially since it wasn't a large army. So I started with 15 divisions of 1895 troops.

What do I mean not large?  Well, the mass army was well on it's way by now, and that's a small army for the period. I toyed with more 1880 units as a way of expanding it, but chose not to. I may actually build obselete units in the future as 'training' and 'military police' divisions- but those will be 1895 with smokeless power, a sprinkling of MGs and QF artillery, not 1880 without those.

So the smaller, professional army I chose makes a great deal of sense. I wound up with 15 1895 Army divisions, admittedly because I was too poor to upgrade 1880, but the limitations of my starting budget, meant I was pretty sure my army would be smaller than historic anyhow.  So just going with a small, but well equipped army seemed a viable and reasonable choice. There's also the idea that an army relying on quality should well- have that. It's big enough that added to a Franco-German war, it matters a lot, esp if the troop quality is bettter, but it didn't cripple me.

What about historical forces for comparison ?

I've mentioned a couple times Italy appears to have been focusing it's budget on the military, and was rather set on giving the French and AH a real rumble should they try to recapture Italy. The only figure I've come across for this period is that .General Magnani as minister of war in the 1870s, introduced universal conscription, created a permanent army, a mobile militia and a reserve totaling 1.8million troops.  I presume low quality infantry in a Swiss style levee en masse for most of them.

Now, 1.8million 1880 infantry in reserve, is 72 divisions and only run $2.88 if all reserved.

Oh, but even with 1900 reserves ½ would have to be active. So...36 Divisions active, 36 reserve...0r $8.64 in maintenance. But I didn't start with 1900 reserves, so it would have been  $10.56 on a military budget of $10.32....add in forts and the Navy...and I'd have to sell all my BP  and I couldn't afford to build anything. Ever.

Now, would it have been unreasonable to say 20% of that force was better quality and 15 divisions were 1895 and 57 were 1880?  Oh, probably not...people would focus on the 57 as unreasonable, not the 15.:)




Other Army Notes :
2 Marine Regiments are in the African theatre. 1 to Berbera, 1 to Zanzibar/Nysa.

I have decided to take advantage of the ability to buy units in less than full divisions. The question is- what would my force mix have looked like if I had been able to do so from the start ?
I see 2 areas
1) I didn't want 25,000 Marines, but that was the smallest unit I could buy. My best amphibious lift is 20,000 for a very short distance.
2) I did want more Alipini.
3) I didn't necessarily want 25,000 Cavalry, and I did want to aknowledge the histoic Mounted Military Police, Cabinari.
4) So 1 Marine Brigade is now magically an Alpini, 1 Cavalry brigade is a Cabinari.

The African Division starts active training.
Troops are drawn heavily from prisoners trading 3 years in prison for 2 years in the Legions. Regular soldiers, NCOs and Officers are promised a promotion on joining and one on completing a 4 year term of service in the Division.

While part of a larger division which has the centralized medical and quartermaster troops, they are being trained as independent brigades. The basic structure is similar to the Alpini units, as both need additional pioneer and transport personnel. Due to expected need for independent action, losses to exotic causes, and the difficulty of reinforcements, each brigade is structured as an oversized 6,000 soldier unit being more capable of independent action. To denote this mixing of troop types, they are termed Legions .

This half, only the I Legion is fully formed, the rest being raised progressively as the months tick on.

Forts
No Changes

Battleships (BB): 10 (0) + 2
Monitors :  (CB): 2 (0) + 0
Armored Cruisers (AC): 7 (0) + 0
Protected Cruisers (PC): 7 (0) + 0
Unprotected Cruisers (SC) : 8 (0) + 0
Destroyers (DD) : 6(0) + 6
Torpedo Boats (TB): 112(0) + 0
Submarines (SS): 1 (0) + 0

Collier/Tender (CT): 1 (0) + 0
Hospital Ships (Hos): 1 (0) + 0
Transports (TT): 1 (0) + 0
Tugs, Harbour (Tug): 4 (0) + 0
Tugs, Fleet (TugF): 2 (0) + 0