Greece almost unconquerable

[sbaxter1]

The steady flow of raw materials from the Ottoman Empire to Germany is important to the German war machine. Greek entry into the war on the TE side provides a base from which the TE could interdict the Berlin-Baghdad railway by attacking into Bulgaria and what used to be Serbia.

Accordingly, it is in the best interests of the CP to make that more difficult by promptly moving against Greece when it joins the TE.

Assuming the Serbs have surrendered before that and the Bulgarians were in the war before the Serb capitulation, Bulgaria will control the hex immediately north of Salonika. It should have infantry corps and an HQ with at least one offensive ready to strike Salonika.

Once Salonika has been secured and the port garrisoned with sufficient forces to stop an amphibious assault, the CP can rest a little easier but the TE can still move into Athens and advance north along the peninsula.

Taking Athens would eliminate this possibility but the CP cannot take the city by land. It can move south easily enough, but the supply levels in the hexes north of Athens are abysmal. The one immediately north of Athens has zero supply and the one northwest of that has 2%. Any HQ going to either hex vanishes before it can activate so there is no chance of getting a corps north of Athens, activating it and attacking.

Accordingly, the CP must either be content with controlling most of the peninsula or taking Athens by sea. The latter course requires the construction of a transport by Austria or the Ottomans and control of the Eastern Mediterranean. This is possible but probably not worth the expense.

[SMK-at-work]

Unless the Ottomans have also built a transport to attack Romania??

[sbaxter1]

One transport used at different times. The Greeks could be taken after Romania falls, assuming the TE ever lets CP control the Eastern Med. Could happen. Didn't in our last game but the transport was at sea in the Med ready to take on troops for the attack on Athens. Incredibly, the Royal Navy ignored it.

[SMK-at-work]

The odds of intercepting transports are actually quite low I think - often only 1/2 of the available u-boats & raiders will attack & then only 1-2 Tr each in each phase, and often they won't even hit them!  But if you have larger numbers then you simply get more combats.