Invasion of Yugoslavia

While we gear up for Barbarossa, we will give our forces a minor tune-up by liberating Yugoslavia. We have already completed a national focus which gives us a war goal of total annexation, so we will put that to use in what should be a straightforward campaign. OKH has been requisitioned one panzer group and a Hungarian infantry army for this operation. The Hungarians are part of an "expeditionary force" which was donated to us by that country once they joined the Axis, so it is a foreign army over which we are given full control. (The Hungarians still maintain control over the rest of their standing army, however.)

While we are still in the planning stages, however, we are yet again surprised by the reckless aggressiveness of one of our allies:

Japan has gotten itself into a war with the Soviet Union, nine months earlier than we plan to start one ourselves! A quick glance at the far east shows they already find themselves in dire straits with the Chinese:

They have been pushed back all the way to the eastern beaches of China by Chian Kai-Shek and his nationalists. Surely the Soviet Union's entry into the war will be the nail in the coffin for Japanese territorial ambitions on the Asian mainland. We will need to keep a close eye on this situation, as it may again force us to go to war earlier than planned.

Rommel's drive to the Adriatic

Meanwhile, we begin the Yugoslavian campaign with 3rd Panzer Group taking advantage of the relatively flat terrain in northern Yugoslavia, punching through enemy front lines by way of Zagreb before wheeling back west toward the sea. As with Case Yellow, Rommel again gets the start and he does not disappoint. Within days he is on the beach and bags 120,000 enemy soldiers:

The Reich enjoys overwhelming air superiority and has trapped the bulk of the enemy away from Belgrade, and the Hungarians may not even require the help of 3rd Panzer Group in capturing that city.

Two weeks later, while the Hungarians still struggle to reduce the large pocket in the northwest, Rommel leads 3rd Panzer Group on a dash southeast and then pivots to capture Belgrade. Yugoslavia seems unable to pull units off the front lines to the northeast with Romania and Hungary, so the panzers take the city unopposed and begin to threaten those lines from the rear.

These maneuvers again required some division-micromanagement, as the AI continues to insist on fanning out armored units along too wide a front as it advances deep into enemy territory. I can't really figure out a good way to convince the AI to do a true Blitzkrieg-style encirclement without some hand-holding. Either I'm doing it wrong or it's something that should be addressed in future patches.

Unsurprisingly, the Yugoslavian surrender is not far off:

And the state of Europe immediately after:

Italy has yet again somehow grabbed more freshly conquered land that is rightfully mine! Half of Yugoslavia now belongs to Il Duce, and what's worse, it isolates Reich-controlled Yugoslavian territory from the Reich proper.

Zhukov crosses the Carpathians

Meanwhile, barely visible in the map above but much clearer below, Georgy Zhukov is leading a large Soviet force on a broad-front offensive into Hungary:

Yet another disturbing development. Hopefully the Hungarians can maximize their strong defensive terrain advantage to keep the Soviets at bay through the winter (and soften up the Red Army a bit for the summer campaign season). The Fuhrer is increasingly worried that our forces will be pressed into action before the June target date.