Slitherine

Plaid wrote:

rkr1958 wrote: Against a equally or more experienced allied player I would think that not invading, and not having Crete for an airbase, would likely result in an early defeat in North Africa and an early conquest of Italy. However; against a lesser skilled opponent then not invading might be a good move.

Whats the difference, where to base planes? Northern Africa is big, why Crete?

I think its because of that damned supply rule that makes North Africa not worth to attack anymore hehehe

Mmm at the moment in one of my games I have in northern africa something like 3 it GAR, 2 it INF, it mech and arm, it TAC and FTR, german ARM and MECH, and have something like "11" on supply indicator (what this number means btw?). As i got it, it depends on the number of ports you have, and as long, as you hold tobruk, you can supply deffinetely more units, than you ever need in africa.

Plaid wrote:Mmm at the moment in one of my games I have in northern africa something like 3 it GAR, 2 it INF, it mech and arm, it TAC and FTR, german ARM and MECH, and have something like "11" on supply indicator (what this number means btw?). As i got it, it depends on the number of ports you have, and as long, as you hold tobruk, you can supply deffinetely more units, than you ever need in africa.

Yeah maybee... But with rail capability its really easy for the british to resist indefinitly. Added to the supply rule, its not worth it to put energy in the theatre in my opinion.

From Crete you have air range to eastern Libya and western Egypt. That means you can support an Axis offensive into western Egypt or even more important stop an Allied offensive towards Tobruk. If you want to get all the way to Port Said and beyond then Crete is good for the first phase of the offensive. You might use Crete to support a landing in Cyprus to get airbases for eastern Egypt and Syria.

Without Crete you will have to pay overuse cost if you want to have a strong force to attack into Egypt A nice force will be 1 german armor, 1 german mech, 3 corps, some Italians, 3-4 fighters and 2-3 tactical bombers. You can't support all these units from Libya so placing e. g. the tactical bombers on Crete and have a fighter in southern Italy to harass the Malta fighter should be possible for an offensive.

One good thing about having such a strong bomber force on Crete is that the British will be very careful about sending their naval units to bombard your land units. Then you can attack the BB's and DD's with bombers and finish them off with the Italian navy.

I see that experienced Allied players withdraw quickly to eastern Egypt if the Axis place a strong bomber force on Crete. This way they stay outside the bomber range. Alexandria will fall and maybe eventually Cairo and Port Said. But that doesn't matter. The main goal is to force the Axis to spend so much time so either Barbarossa will be weaker or they have to withdraw the airforce for Russia. You can send reinforcements to Iraq and make a stand there. They you can with reinforcement try to push the Axis back to the Suez and the cross it. In order to get to Tobruk you need to neutralize the Axis presence on Crete. Either by direct airstrikes or by making a landing there. So holding Crete means you can govern the action between Tobruk and Alexandria.

Stauffenberg wrote:From Crete you have air range to eastern Libya and western Egypt. That means you can support an Axis offensive into western Egypt or even more important stop an Allied offensive towards Tobruk. If you want to get all the way to Port Said and beyond then Crete is good for the first phase of the offensive. You might use Crete to support a landing in Cyprus to get airbases for eastern Egypt and Syria.

Without Crete you will have to pay overuse cost if you want to have a strong force to attack into Egypt A nice force will be 1 german armor, 1 german mech, 3 corps, some Italians, 3-4 fighters and 2-3 tactical bombers. You can't support all these units from Libya so placing e. g. the tactical bombers on Crete and have a fighter in southern Italy to harass the Malta fighter should be possible for an offensive.

One good thing about having such a strong bomber force on Crete is that the British will be very careful about sending their naval units to bombard your land units. Then you can attack the BB's and DD's with bombers and finish them off with the Italian navy.

I see that experienced Allied players withdraw quickly to eastern Egypt if the Axis place a strong bomber force on Crete. This way they stay outside the bomber range. Alexandria will fall and maybe eventually Cairo and Port Said. But that doesn't matter. The main goal is to force the Axis to spend so much time so either Barbarossa will be weaker or they have to withdraw the airforce for Russia. You can send reinforcements to Iraq and make a stand there. They you can with reinforcement try to push the Axis back to the Suez and the cross it. In order to get to Tobruk you need to neutralize the Axis presence on Crete. Either by direct airstrikes or by making a landing there. So holding Crete means you can govern the action between Tobruk and Alexandria.

As i said, i find it difficult to think that axis players would be interested in going with the MEd strategy. This was brillantly shown by Ronnie in his spanish gambit. Against an experienced player, there is no way in hell any axis campaign in north africa can succeed.

Another good example is my Amerika in Flames AAr. The brits and Americans were completly gone having surrendered, and i still could not take the place because the Russian intervened...

Plaid wrote:

rkr1958 wrote: Against a equally or more experienced allied player I would think that not invading, and not having Crete for an airbase, would likely result in an early defeat in North Africa and an early conquest of Italy. However; against a lesser skilled opponent then not invading might be a good move.

Whats the difference, where to base planes? Northern Africa is big, why Crete?

The North Africa supply limit is why. The axis players can base four or even five additional air units for free on Crete to cover eastern Libya and western Egypt.

Can the allies declare war on Greece or Yougoslavia?

AdmiralSarek wrote:Can the allies declare war on Greece or Yougoslavia?

Yes. All countries that start the war neutral and who do not activate as a minor ally of a faction (e.g., Finland for the axis, Egypt & Iraq for the Allies) can be invaded by either side.