Crete - Questions on tactics

[vapors201]

Hey all, sorry if this is not the right place to put this question - I did not see a general discussion area. In any case, new to the game and have been trying to actually win as the Germans and am struggling a bit and have some questions that I cant find answers to. Hoping you can help. First is air power. The scenario alludes to the fact that I have the might of the Luftwaffe on hand yet unless I buy fighters - I get a handle full of lousy bombers. Am I missing something?
Second question involves reinforcements. In one of my many attempts at this scenario, I managed to capture a port (Soudha) yet it never becomes active so I cant bring reinforcements in that way. Why? Because the German Navy is missing in action. So is my only opportunity for reinforcements through captured airfields? I would kill for an antitank gun!
The encirclement and supply is a bit bizarre for the Germans but I think I am managing to figure that out. That said, it seems odd that troops cut off on a whole peninsula (western top half of the map) can be considered encircled when no one is behind them and they are theoretically being supplied from the air.
Lastly, and this is more of a comment than a question - the Allies WISH they had it this good in actuality. The allied troops certainly do not appear to be partially made up of Greek peasants staging counterattacks.

Any insight you can provide would be appreciated.

Vapors

[dalfrede]

I haven't played Crete so I can't give specific help.
Supply comes through ports, not air.

From the Beta

This scenario highlights for me the need to know which units can be airlifted and not.

Airlift is infantry and light guns.
If gun can use SdKfz10 transport, it can be airlifted.
Should be shown as trait.

Note airlift requires an airfield.

Check out this thread
https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewto ... te#p840509

[vapors201]

Thanks - so capturing the ports apparently do nothing for me in terms of moving troops without a navy. Appreciate the other thread.

[SineMora]

TBH Crete isn't a good scenario for beginners, because it depends heavily on mechanics that you don't normally need to consider, and while that can be interesting for players I don't think that's a good way to learn the game.

That said, you can certainly bring in AT support, but you will have to either airlift the light Pak 36, which means securing an airfield and transporting it from one of the islands you control, or seize control of an urban supply point so you can requisition and deploy the AT directly -- this would also allow you to deploy heavier support units that can't be airlifted.

Whatever strategy you go with you will need to secure supply hexes to ensure your troops are supplied. You can't use ports for supplies or transporting troops because your initial starting positions have no ports and so can't provide supplies to ports on Crete, and even if they could you have no landing craft strategic assets without which you can't transport units over bodies of water. What you have are transport planes, so you can use those to provide your Fallschirmjäger with some light support artillery/AT/AA.

Mechanically there's no difference between having no access to supplies and being encircled; troops are de facto considered to be encircled when they are denied supplies regardless of whether this is because of hostile units or simple geography. To avoid this they need to be able to source supplies from a supply hex or from a map edge. Airfields can function as supply points if they are supply hexes, but I don't believe there are any in that scenario.

[vapors201]

Thanks SineMora - very helpful. Crete has been a great teaching tool as I seem to learn better by getting smacked down I just read a great thread on encirclement and I was making the fatal mistake of thinking that friendly forces negated ZOC restrictions - which is why I was scratching my head many times about whey my units were encircled when I clearly thought they were in supply. I also learned quickly that being out of supply is more hazardous in PG2 than in many other games. Units turn to mush pretty quickly un-supplied. I did learn a nice tactic for Crete in that over strength fighters work better because damaging Allied planes is pretty much useless as they repair and come back full strength. Two over strength German fighters can usually eliminate an opposing fighter and they dont reappear again.