Author	CavDo (Germany)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Draw
Participants	treadasaurusrex
Play Date	2025-02-14
Language	English
Scenario	PoCr023

Yes, just when victory seems to be "in the bag" the vaunted German mountain troops fail miserably on rocky Crete!

This seemed like a safe one to play with the dreaded T-Rex. He had no armor, it was a simple matter of exiting units and shooting the heck out of the weaker defenders, there was no Greek air cover, we both drew crummy leaders, and we played this scenario out over 7 high-casualty sessions. This was my first attempt at a Parachutes Over Crete battle. It started out great, but then devolved into an ugly, slogging draw with a relentless and cunning opponent. This awful play-through, the Axis seemed destined and all but guaranteed to win. Adjacent-hex firefights consistently went to the stubborn Greek defenders, as did a bunch of close assaults. Who would has guessed at this outcome?

BUT NO. Even when the scenario is completely unbalanced against the Greeks, the best that the Mountaineers from Germany could achieve was a very costly draw. After the 4th turn, nearly everyhting went wrong for the Alpine troops. Leader decap, many terrible morale recovery rolls, many combat 7-die rolls -- almost all on the German side -- too numerous to count casualties at critical moments, and 12 FOW-shortened turns. My OPLAN contained several fatal flaws that showed up in ways that were unimaginable-- you name it, the Greek fates were very cruel to the Axis.

I was very lucky to get this draw and I think that a replay would have the Germans winning in a walk. This battle was too one- sided to judge its merits as a shared play scenario as I can't imagine an outright Greek victory in such an unbalanced game. This one gets a 3 from me and the suggestion that it is so unbalanced that solitaire play is best. A rewrite would certainly help with play balance in a shared situation -- but better luck than I had, is a MUST.