Guide for tribal union 1914 challenge conquest

HELP!

Could somebody verify whether the guide is valid for replication? Or You need just to be as lucky as Torvesta.
I am really confused with the progress according to this guide.
By turn 20 Italy is conquered and several gens are in Milan, so I assume those are to conquer Italy.
But the problem is that it takes somewhat like 9-10 turns just to get to the Italian shore and land. And You need to beat France in Africa before that and crack italian cities as well. Moreover all the Italian units are killed.. by Ottomans? Italian navy is somewhere... as well as French massive spam also wiped out...

Has someone ever tried this guide? Spent a day trying don't want to waste too much time
As I understand there should be something in the very beginning which makes it much much easier than what I am doing.

UPD:
Here is what's normally going on if landing in Italy (landing in France's Marseille triggers horrible french spam and Your entire army is trapped between Alps,  French and Italians under the attack of the Italian navy):


 
So there are a lot of enemies. It's turn 11 only 2 generals landed and I captured all french cities in Africa without losing turns. So it's the fastest way of getting to Northern Italy.
Even though I didn't spend turns to fight french in Africa and left the Germans to deal with them.



If going to Southern Italy You will be under attack of English navy in addition to the Italians.



So it is even worse. As You see this time I couldn't even hold Tunis.

Here is another try when going to Southern Italy:




In summary even though I didn't spend turns to fight french in Africa and left the Germans to deal with them at turn 11 I could only land 2 gens in Italy. I have no idea how to conquer  entire Italy by turn 20...

Would be great if Torvesta clarify in a bit more detailed way the starting strategy of the guide.
Or maybe.. Was there any update that tweaked enemies' AI after the guide was published?

Here is my slightly more detailed guide to somewhat similar strategy posted by Torvesta

Somethings that were noted in the original guide:
- Units are garbage
- Cavalry is probably the most serviceable unit
- the path to victory is as follows: Africa, Italy, Central Europe, France then split to Portugal, England, Russia

Here are the things that were not mentioned:
- Diplomacy is key
- Because of low population cost of units, your economy is actually quite decent once you start capturing European cities
- Knowledge output is not great
- When developing technology, go for Hull Upgrade (but not right away)
- You can do this without medpacks (I used none since I had none )
- When doing technology upgrade, go for Card cost discount rather than distance
- Just like my guide to Belgium, wisely using the Booster Items (for example, use artillery quadrant when firing, then swap out to medical healers)
- Another tip: when restoring wonders, I found it easier to place princess with 35% off on buildings to restore the wonder then immediately swap her out


Now on to the guide

1) The key to winning is diplomacy
 - You don't want carnage in the Balkans so need to delay some entrants
 - You want Turks to join the war right away
 - You have to ensure Bulgaria survives

So on Turn 1, bribe Turks, bribe back Montenegro. If you want, you can bribe back Greece or Romania, or buy infantry

2) Your best infantry general, your best artillery guy (make sure he has tactics), Nasira, Nashwa and your best cavalry general (make sure with tactics) march towards Algiers
Your infantry in Casablanca will be used as meat. Your second best artillery general with tactics helps wipe out the Portuguese fleet in Casablanca

3) Once Algiers is captured, split your forces to focus on Tunis and city between Algiers and Casablanca

4) Build fleet in Algiers (you'll need 2) and put your best navy generals there

5) Once non-navy Portuguese and French forces are wiped out in Africa, you can leave those cities unprotected

6) Here is where my strategy was different from that of the OP. Instead of going for Palermo only, I split my forces between Cagliari and Palermo with navy supporting Cagliari operations. Once Cagliari was taken, build militia every turn as meat. Then use your navy generals to wipe out the non naval units attacking Cagliari. You can split your navy generals with one supporting wipe out of non naval units in Cagliari and another doing coastal bombardment in Italy

7) Keep an eye on Balkans. Bulgaria must survive and you must avoid all Balkan allies joining at once. 

8) Once you land in Central Italy (not south), if you take Rome and City above it, you essentially win

9) Try to get your best Cavalry general in central Europe and using March card, capture 1 or 2 cities to establish base. From that point, you splitting your forces between Russian and French front. Your fleet should help you capture south France. Liberally use Gas on stronger enemy generals

10) Once my Navy in south of France was done, I moved them to Portugal and had a couple of Militia tag along from Casablanca

11) To deal with Great Britain, put Navy princess in Hamburg and put a Navy general (I had a modified Guepratte but could have used any of my other navy Generals including Farragut) to attack the east. The team that destroyed Portugal came for Ireland and I generally avoided coming up from France. I only crossed the channel once England was significantly weakened. Instead, I used my cavalry and arty generals to clear the spam invading France


Images below