Paratroop invasion on island

[Shilka]

I'm trying to take Malta as GER. Had the whole Italian navy and a couple of medium bombers bomb the place for several turns, dropping the AA unit supply very low and strength to 3-4, unable to reinforce. It's really frustrating as I can't get rid of that unit, tried to land a Corps as well with no success. The combat prediction said that the unit should lose -1 strenth per BB bombardment as well but it really didn't seem to do anything. I noticed that with no reconnaisance I could drop my full strength and experienced paratrooper onto the weak AA unit, but it immediately shatters and dies.

I kind of give up, it's so frustrating as this tied a ton of resources for so long but I just can't take Malta. How do you guys do those paradrops and amph invasions in general on occupied islands or coasts?

[Boonierat1972]

It can be frustarting if you get bad rolls. How many air units do you use? generally requires the italian bomber, one german med bombers and two stuka units for me. Have you tried blockading the ports? it helps also.

[amandkm]

You can add AV's to the mix. Not to try to invade, but to use their one shot attack as they pass en route to Africa. Might help put you over the top.

[Hartmann]

Well, if it's like in WiE, then it's actually not that difficult. In WiE, what I do, is I place a naval unit between the two ports so that these are officially "blockaded" and can't provide supply to the unit on Malta. (In WaW it's only one port.) Then I bomb not just the unit (with tac bombers), but also the city itself (with medium bombers) to get its supply level down. This way, the AA unit will be out of supply (by city and ports) soon and won't be able to reinforce. I never use AV to attack it, but use prepared paras once the AA unit is destroyed.

The only thing to consider is you have to have local naval/air superiority or else the enemy might sink the blockading units.

People who have problems destroying the AA unit usually don't consider that the port(s) will provide enough supply for the AA unit to reinforce just enough every turn to survive.

[Shilka]

Ah ok, thanks a lot for all the advice. I will try to blockade and bombard the port (Valletta harbor seems to have 2 hexes) and town as well in the next game, although the window of opportunity already probably went away as quite a bunch of Italian ships have been sunk now.

Btw do units also suffer attrition losses from low supply? (i.e. can they starve on their own)

[Boonierat1972]

ORIGINAL: Shilka
Btw do units also suffer attrition losses from low supply? (i.e. can they starve on their own)

Yes, units at 0 supply suffer 1 hit per turn.