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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Author	treadasaurusrex (Germany)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Germany
Participants	Reconquista
Play Date	2024-12-08
Language	English
Scenario	PoCr013

This was an overlong (22 Game turns), rather tedious to play effort that should have been properly playtested. Reconquista ably led the outnumbered & outgunned Allied side, and I had the fearsome German Paras in an unbalanced fight. We used the FOW, consolidation and excess initiative optional rules. The Greeks and others probably should be set in hidden mode to make this one a better play-through. As it was the Germans mostly had it their way in the 6 sessions that we took to complete this slog.

By the end of game turn 13, the Allied were running out of units, and the remnant on the map were almost all disrupted & demoralized. Losing their senior leader in game turn 15, and the high morale of the Paras meant a near-guarantee of an Axis triumph. Others have reviews this one and I concur with the observations made, the Axis side is just too strong for the opposing force unless the dice gods intervene.

This one was a good conflict simulation of the actual battle, but critically unbalanced in favor of the German Paras, IF the Allies mount "all for nothing" counter attacks. Instead, if they stay in dug out positions, in good terrain, and let the Paras come to them, they might be able to stop the Jerries. I give this one a 3, and I think that the more experienced player should take the Allied side in SHARED play. As published, this scenario is probably best played in SOLO mode.