Matt defends Malta, Larry is Italian and invades

[larryfulkerson]

Matt and I thought we'd switch sides and see what happen. Matt has been through this scenario more often than me so his British troops ought to do well. He knows what to do now. Notice the deployment of his ships up north near my ports. I can't sail my troops via water to the island until those ships are gone so there's going to be some
naval combat most likely. His group in the middle are a BC, and a BB and they have
the range to sink any ship I have because none of my ships have that range so I'll
have to come at him by air at first. He bombarded one of my airfields during his PM
turn and killed 20 of my best planes. None of my planes were on sea int so there
were no defensive strikes flown. He's sneaky doing it at night. This ought to be
a better game than the last one.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's all the ships I own and it looks like I have 5 BB's
to work with right now and I don't dare move them while they are in range of the British BB's because he's got a range advantage and his guns are deadly. I don't know the range of all Matt's ships so I'm going to use a DD to get a rough ballpark idea of his range by sailing into his range arc and getting attacked. I don't expect the DD to survive. But I'll get an idea of his range that way. I can park my BB's appropriately, it might be prudent to leave them in port temporarily. At any rate I need some air strikes on Matt's BB's.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the shape my planes are in right now. They have been INTing like crazy and I saw at least one British unit evaporate so it's working it's just that INTing leaves my planes in a yellow state. I'm going to establish a policy of resting units when they get down to 50% supply. I've got a lot of planes in the red and they will have to rest before I can use them again. I have only just opened the turn and haven't taken a good look around yet but it seems like I remember a night-time paradrop by the Italians on turn one. I haven't decided where to drop them yet. I want to do some recon by air first. You do that by selecting an aircraft and hover the mouse over suspected hexes. If you get a target reticle that means there something British in that hex.

[larryfulkerson]

I thought it prudent to drop some troops on the smaller island to see if I could quell the CD guns on the island, maybe capture a port, maybe overrun an airfield, that kind of thing. So I dropped them on the smaller island concentrating on the north port.

Here's the results, and needless to say I'm less than pleased. Not much progress was made by my boys. And the prognosis is dour. I'm not sure my people on the island can destroy anything at all. But there may be enough of them on the island that they can defend a hex or two and survive. Maybe I can get one of them to overrun an airfield or something. This phase of the mission may be a bust.

[larryfulkerson]

I just got an email, or a PM maybe, and I thought it so important that I ought to post it here below:

I just looked at your turn. You have to use up all the air transport capacity released to you on that turn or the troops don' get to the island. the Germans didn't land. You wont be able to do that later so they are effectively eliminated. An invasion schedule is built into the scenario for the Italian player that you have to follow. Each wave is released in turn with just enough transport capacity to move them. If you don't use it that turn its gone.
Do you want to start over?
Thats a lot of troops you just lost by accident I think.
Its a tricky scenario.

Matt

[larryfulkerson]

So we're restarting and Matt has moved his ships north to near my bases and moved some aircraft off the island to the staging bases to the west and moved what I assume were fighters to the island. My INT missions were terrific but unfortunately now half of my aircraft are red and the rest are yellow. The ships were in garrison mode to be released later in the game. I looked especially for the German paratroopers and it looks like they are in reserve too. I have 100 air points this turn and can't use them all. Is there something wrong with the scenario?

[larryfulkerson]

First airdrop of the battle and I dropped on top of a British unit and my sabatour was killed as they drifted down in their parachutes. This does not bode well. I've got only 5 such units left and I wanted to drop some bridges with them. That's about all they are good for. No strength to speak of but high proficiency for an Italian unit.

[larryfulkerson]

Second airdrop sees the destruction of another Italian paratrooper. Third time is the charm I guess.

[larryfulkerson]

The third one made it down to the ground and I destroyed a bridge. So one mission has worked so far. I've got my fingers crossed for the next ones.

[larryfulkerson]

Number four landed in the north and dropped a bridge, five was killed trying to land, and six landed toward the west. Only three missions were completed and I'm not sure what difference those broken bridges are going to make but it's about all that the sabotours are good for. It would have taken all six of them combined to move a British unit I think. They are that small.

[mdanz]

I love how Larry write's these up..

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Matt. The British troops sprang into life and surrounded one team and destroyed them leaving only a broken bridge in the hex. The other teams survived so far and I'm wondering if I can drop any more bridges this turn. The units are so small that they will be destroyed unless they can find some really good terrain and dig in deep. I'd rather drop a bridge with them. Even if they get killed to do it. They knew what they were getting into when they signed up. Mussolini says that after Italy captures the island he's going to build a large concrete wall around the entire island and make Mexico pay for it. 100% guarenteed. And then he said: "Believe me."

[larryfulkerson]

Matt has sailed his ships just offshore of my staging areas and is bombarding my planes. Here's an example. Some of my best planes too. And I won't have any way to shoot back with my ships until T5. All my planes will be gone by that time. I'll have to move them I guess. But where to? I'll look around and see what I can do.

[mdanz]

Is it legal to grow where Larry lives?
It is where I live as long as you don't get caught..
I believe its gonna stay that way and Mussolini can kiss my ass..
Just saying..

[larryfulkerson]

Here's where I dropped everybody. Most of them I dug in but there was one attack that gave me the hex. All my troops are out of supply so I need to capture a port soon. The German proficiency is higher than British proficiency so I have high hopes for this operation.

[larryfulkerson]

T3 Matt's turn saw some attacks and at least one Italian unit retreated. I'm due to drop some more troops this turn I do believe and I need to park them where they will do the most good. I still need a port or a source of supply of some kind and that should be my next task. I haven't decided which port to try for. Let me think about it some more.

[larryfulkerson]

The first unit to drop in T3 is this Mortar unit with a range of 5 so I thought I'd park it in the middle with the rest of the artillery that drops this turn. There's a General officer who is scheduled to drop later in the turn. I'd best clear a hex for him and his staff and his house trailer and his security squad and so on. The house trailer is a "housing unit, 1 each". He inherited it from his predicessor.

I'm thinking that the port on the north coast might be the best port to try for as it's the closest one to my staging areas to the north.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's where I dropped everybody and here's the attacks that are scheduled for execution. Very low AR values there....I'm counting on my CS missions to make up the difference. I'm hoping for a lot of success with these attacks because the British will eventually overcome my troops if my troops can't get a source of supply pretty quickly now.

[larryfulkerson]

This is the results of the attacks and most of the time I lost more than the British did and none of the hexes are in danger of being gained by the Italians. This isn't going to work. I need more firepower in the units. That means I need higher stacks to attack with. I'll have to take on a section at a time and concentrate my forces for their assaults. The Italians have more planes than the British but if Matt keeps bombarding my planes with his ships I won't have them long.

[larryfulkerson]

New moves from Matt. I didn't see anything move but I did hear some battle sounds. Matt attacked something or other.