Yeah, that’s right; the Nazis break emphasized textintoemphasized textprison! Ayla Prison, Crete, that is. They floated down freeing the prisoners and floated back skyward. But seriously, in this battle, the objective was to capture the prison, Galatas and the small town of Perivolta. They had an easy time of it. The game lasted nine turns, with the Greek 6th Infantry Regiment being decimated, losing half their men. The game was stopped before certain German victory conditions were met, but it was a sure thing that these victory conditions would be fulfilled because the Greeks were simply unable to stop the German juggernaut.

The German 1st Battalion, 3rd Parachute Regiment lost no steps in the attack. It was a surprising victory this way. The paratroopers were scattered everywhere and things appeared completely out out of control for the first couple of turns. But they quickly recovered and gained cohesion. The Greeks fried to counterattack, but were too weak to mount effective resistance. Paratroop companies were too strong in a couple of ways: First their attack strength per unit wa twice as strong, and second their morale was superior. This morale was very influential in the many Assault attacks that helped the paratroopers win heir many battles. And it didn’t hurt having more troops than the Greeks. The game was mercifully stopped with the Germans up 14 steps to 0.

Two items of note in this game. First, both sides suffered logistics shortages on the same turn! Second, the Greeks played an extremely aggressive game, attacking the Germans almost with reckless abandon. In hindsight, it was not a good strategy. All units were dug in at the start of the scenario, but they came out of their positions to attack the enemy. They would have been more prudent to be patient and let the Germans come to them.

There are some. Incredibly detailed battle maps online; down to company level. I’ll see if I can upload one here.

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