During the first part of 1941, Allied forces had been defeated in Greece and many had retreated to Crete. In their haste, the allies had been forced to leave much of their heavy equipment behind, leaving them lightly armed for the inevitable German assault. On the night of 20 May, the Germans unleashed their ambitious plan, Operation MERCURY, attacking Crete from the air with paratroopers and gliders. Concentrating on four locations, the Germans were largely rebuffed. However, at Maleme the Axis managed to take control of a vital airfield and began to fly in much needed reinforcements. Commonwealth soldiers retreated to the southern part of Crete and the town of Chania became a key position for the men assigned to fight the rearguard action.
Attacker: German (Bataillon I, Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 141, Gebirgs-Division 5)
Like almost all small, short scenarios this one can be decided by a few bad die rolls from which you can never recover. I suspect there's a good/balanced scenario here, but I never got the chance to find out. My ANZAC got no traction and only managed to capture 2 buildings because I couldn't pass a MC to save my life, and the game isn't long enough to ever recover. It's over very quickly. Threw in the towel on turn 3.
2021-04-02
(D) Paul Works
vs
John Garlic
German win
John set up his defense in the buildings on the west/far side of the street. He put a HS in the forward buildings. On my first turn I moved up to take several of the eastern buildings and be in position to make an attack on Turn 2. On Turn 2, John repositioned slightly, but generally held his positions. On my half of Turn 2, I got smoke from my two mortars and I attacked into the second row of the eastern buildings to capture them. A mild breeze arrived on Turn 2 that, at first glace, seemed to be useful to me - but as it turned out was not useful and probably a hindrance. The wind blew the smoke back toward my positions. On Turn 3, John put a leader in the street to hinder my movement. He also placed 16FP of troops + a 9-1 leader in the forward building. I got my 2 squads + 9-1 leader adjacent to his large stack and was able to break two of his squads in the rear. Unfortunately, he rallied one immediately on game Turn 4. At the end of his Turn 4, he had 6 squads in/around the three buildings on the north-east side of the crossroad - right where I had to go. On my Turn 4, some of my smoke dissipated, and even though I got another smoke into his 16FP hex; the lack of additional smoke ended up being bad for me. I took a 24+7 vs. his large stack and a 12+3 against his stack in the rear. No effect on both shots. He came back with a 16+2, rolling two 3s and one 4 in ROF succession. This broke/KIA'd my large stack and put me in a tough spot. I should have done a banzai charge on Turn 4... On his Turn 5, I failed to rally my 9-1 and remnant troops and failed on another squad rally as well. Tthe drifting smoke came into play against me here. He was able to get through my defensive fire and into one of the east side of the street buildings and also put my 9-1 under DM again (ouch). On my Turn 5, I had 7 total buildings (needing 10). I did a banzai charge on the south and got 2 full squads through massive FP into the building on the south-west side of the crossroad. I ran my other troops into the teeth of his FP and had a chance to get adjacent to at least force some CCs. He took a 4-1 FPP shot and broke a critical squad in my last movement. In Advancing Fire I broke his squad in the south-west building and took that one (8 buildings). I then went into CC with a squad and leader in the "re-taken' building (good chance of success there) and then put an 8-0 leader into CC with his large stack in the building that had me some many problems. Had to win that cc to win (very unlikely!). And it did not work; in neither of those CCs did I get kills. I do agree with the prior AAR on this one. Sort of small that an quickly get away from either side with a few DRs. Fun though. Very well played by John!
2021-03-31
(D) Dave Mareske
vs
Dennis Dowd
ANZAC win
Consolation game in the March Madness Virtual Tournament found the Germans picking off allied leaders with their sniper, but had trouble making MCs, while the allied side did well in CC. By the end of allied turn five they had 11 buildings and the axis were not able to take two buildings back. Good game Dennis.
