Okay, HOW do you cross the Straits of Messina?

[Dereck]

How do I get units across from Sicily to the boot of Italy?

[cmunson]

You have to use one of your Amphibious HQ's. Move the HQ to one of the ferry hexes. You can then move units over to the other side or if the other side is occupied, you can attack from the sea with the unit(s) on the HQ. Don't try if other side strongly garrisoned.

[carlkay58]

I tend to use airborne units to land on the other side of the strait if the hex is unoccupied. This gives me an easy transfer over and then I can start to lay siege and reduce Reggio Calabrane (?).

[marion61]

Once both sides of the ferry are open, and your still having trouble moving units across, then check the ferry damage. You really only need the amphib. HQ if one side is contested so the unit can attack, or if the ferry is too damaged, leave it there.

[cmunson]

Yes, I should have been clearer. My advice assumes you don't control both sides of the strait.

[Carterjon]

If the Reggio side is held by the Axis and the Allies attach across the strait using Amph HQs, how strong is the defensive benefit to the Axis? Much worse than a river?

[Grotius]

I'm wondering the same thing. The Axis have the 90th PzGrenadier dug in with Level 3 forts at Reggio, and I have Amphibious HQs on both of the strait hexes, with infanty stacked two-deep on each hex. The odds don't look good -- my 35 AV vs 9x8 or 57 defending CV. I obviously need engineers, but I dunno, I'm reluctant to try an attack at all. I've scheduled a paradrop behind the lines, and I'm starting to wonder if I need to schedule a full-scale invasion too.

Any advice on what to do?

[Devonport]

I think it is much easier to amphib behind them. You will probably have to anyway at some point, so why waste time and resources trying to cross the straits? Even an invasion just behind them may leave you having to deal with pinch points not far up the road to Taranto, so (against the AI anyway) I usually prep my next invasion for Salerno or Taranto or Naples.

[carlkay58]

I would do a combined amphib (at least two invasion hexes) and an airdrop. If you can threaten to cut off the toe and isolate the Axis you can usually force them to pull out rather than fight your way across.

[Smirfy]

The stupid thing is axis units have no difficulty supporting units in Messina from the mainland. this is a total nonsense. i ended up fighting 30,0000 men instead of 9,000

[Erik Rutins]

No point doing frontal attacks when you have better options - use your amphib, air and airborne to encircle them. Once you do that once your opponent will have much more respect for it in the future.

Regards,

- Erik

[Smirfy]

Im sorry but that is not an explanation all sorts of mechanics are involved crossing the straits of Messina but magically tanks (?????) and infantry (???????) can support Messina from the mainland. Artillery fair enough one would say but this is just nonsense. Likewise besieged units routing to the mainland is nonsense.

[Grotius]

Smirfy, I didn't see any ground unit support Messina from the mainland, and my best interdiction was maybe 3? Messina fell to my Allies easily on my first attack. Didn't seem like a big deal to me against the AI. Maybe humans defend it better?

The problem for me isn't taking Messina; it's crossing the straits to get to the mainland. As Erik says, back to the amphibious drawing board.

[Smirfy]

Believe me im seeing plenty of ground support from the Mainland. Its Nonsense.

[Joel Billings]

ORIGINAL: Smirfy

Believe me im seeing plenty of ground support from the Mainland. Its Nonsense.

We agree, and reserve commitments won't be able to trace over ferry hexes in the upcoming patch.

[Smirfy]

Thank you, and if you can take a look at routing across water

[Joel Billings]

Routing across water is possible if the units are not isolated. I think we have fixed one bug in a case where units were not being treated as isolated when they should have been (German units in Reggio Calabria that should have been cut off but were not counted as isolated). We've also just fixed the bug where the units routed back from a ferry out to sea.

[cmunson]

I'm wondering the same thing. The Axis have the 90th PzGrenadier dug in with Level 3 forts at Reggio, and I have Amphibious HQs on both of the strait hexes, with infanty stacked two-deep on each hex.

Grotius, what about the hex north of Reggio? You can move and/or attack that one also from the northern most ferry hex.

[Grotius]

Hey Chris,

Thanks for your comment. That hex is garrisoned too, but I did manage to remove it after a couple failed attacks. Trouble is, my losing units all routed into the water, which is a bug that will be fixed in the upcoming patch. And I couldn't extricate them from the water thereafter, so I had to reload an earlier save. I tried attacking again, and again I lost the first time, which reproduced the bug. So, not really an option now.

Instead, I'm waiting for my invasion points to pile up. I guess good players set a new invasion site (south of Salerno, say) on turn 3 or 4? I didn't think of it until turn 7, and it's going to take 7 or 8 turns. So...I'm sitting and waiting.

May end up restoring an earlier save once the bug is fixed. Not sure.

[Joel Billings]

If you leave empty hexes behind your units on the ferry, 1 unit will retreat into each hex (the others will rout). The patch will put your units back on land if they are out at sea, not that you really want to let that happen. Best not to try to cross against a strong force.