Turn 3 is for one impulse, only.  It’s a Day Impulse, with Axis initiative.  German transports and landing craft embark from Greece and Crete, steaming towards the islands, stopping just outside of British naval range.  German airdrops on Kos and the port in Kalimnos are successful.  British air units are able to identify some of the German convoys, but the USAAF bombing of the parachutists are ineffective.  The British refused to attack the convoys piecemeal, choosing to saturate specific convoys with landing craft on the next turn.

Starting out Turn 4 (with three impulses), the British, anticipating German initiative for the next impulse, have set up a CAP to protect their ships.  The Germans set up CAPs over their paratrooper units.  The roll is for German initiative, but a night turn!  How lucky can the Germans be?  Able to elude the intercepting British units, the Germans land on Kos.

The British naval units pursue, and attempt to spot and engage the Germans steaming towards the harbor at Kalimnos.  This task force is comprised of transports, which can only embark troops in ports.  But, all three contact attempts fail!

Germans now land in Kalimnos, and the Kos invaders push back British units defending the airfield at Kefalo.

In response, the British launched an all-out attack on the invaders, devastating the Axis shipping in Kalimnos harbor.  The Germans must gain the initiative next impulse in order to use their surviving landing craft to ferry troops from Kalimnos to Kos.

After Landings, The Germans Are Attacked By British Naval And Air Units

No such luck!  Although the final impulse is a night turn,  the British gain the initiative.  While a night bombing raid over Kefalo is unsuccessful, British naval units sink most, but not all, of the remaining landing craft and transports.  The Drache puts up a valiant fight, inflicting one hit on HMS Carlisle.  After their attacks, the British surface units use their remaining movement to take up NGF stations.

The two surviving German landing craft ferry troops from Kalimnos to Kos.  Torpedo boats finish off HMS Carlisle, but attacks elsewhere are unsuccessful.

Turns 3 and 4 were wild ones.  All kinds of maritime carnage.  Germans suffered some catastrophic landing craft losses due to very effective British Beaufort attacks – I think the CRT really favors both dive bombing and torpedo attacks.

However, I forgot some reinforcements which might have made a difference.  All that said, and with the number of operational errors on both sides, I’ve reset for the beginning of Turn 3.

Will start up later today.

Started another game over the weekend.  I’m not all that enthused, but still want to play the game.

Shuffled my way through two turns, and now the action should start as the German’s meagre naval resources, loaded with troops, are steaming towards Leros and Kos.

As before, the British used the first two turns to capture Kos and Leros.  The Italian unit on Kos resisted, elminating the island’s invader.

The Luftwaffe focused on attacking British naval units supporting the invasions.  Several ships took hits, but their AAA fire was extremely accurate – eerily similar to the AAA performance in the recently completed Mission: Grenada game.

These naval units pulled back to Egypt, but cannot re-enter the fray until Turn 4.  So, the British will have to rely on the RAF to blunt the German attacks.

I should get another turn or so in this evening.

Played two turns over the weekend.  Unfortunately, the real action starts with the arrival of significant German reinforcements in Turn 3, and I’ve got to pick the game up because of my trip.

During the remaining impulses for Turn 1 and the four impulses of Turn 2, the Germans kept pounding British ground units, although their aircraft availability was horrible – I kept rolling 5s and 6s for flown aircraft.  The British infantry crept across Kos – only one hex movement per impulse, and their shipping huddled off-map to avoid the Luftwaffe.

Despite the slow pace so far, I like this game.  The impulse system, variable Luftwaffe availability and rolling for serviceable aircraft provide an uncertainty that is great for a solitaire game.  The RAF has some real challenges with their reduced combat strength when flying from off the map, and it will be interesting to see if the RN can intercept the German reinforcements.

I’m taking the game with me and hope to continue it over the next few weeks, if only to play out an invasion of Rhodes.  That should be interesting.

Sidetracked by ESPN baseball, so only part way through the first impulse.

British had the high roll for initiative and established themselves on Leros and Kos, with no resistance by the Italians.  The RAF remained at their off-map bases.  British destroyers took station to the west of these islands in the hope of intercepting a German amphibious counterstroke.

The Luftwaffe opened the German part of the impulse by attacking the destroyer screen using all their JU-87 and JU-88 assets.  The results were only three hits spread among three destroyers.    And then Pittsburgh started their 10th inning rally…..

Finally set up this Against The Odds magazine game from December 2005(!).  The magazine includes an excellent article on the genesis of this historical campaign, as well as the actual fighting.  The mini-game Assault on Narvik is also included in this issue.  I mention this only because the rules for Narvik “wrap around” the Aegean rules. I often found myself referring to the Narvik rules, instead of those for War In The Aegean.  Disorienting.

This game features joint British and German operations (and technically combined operations since there is a limited US air presence) over a three month period in 1943.  The nature of the campaign requires rules for air, naval and ground forces, along with special rules to reflect the presence of Italian forces.  I’ve played Europa for a number of years, and Perry Moore’s rules are reminiscent of that operational system.  In fact, I’ve toyed with the idea of playing the game (and still might) using Europa rules.  In fact, a scenario was published for the Aegean.  I never played it because the scale just didn’t seem right, and Europa’s naval rules are, well, inadequate.

Moore uses a variable impulse system.  A die is rolled for the number of impulses in a turn.  The players then roll to see which side has the initiative and goes first during the impulse.  Air missions are flown, then naval operations and, finally, ground operations.   Naval forces enjoy hidden movement until spotted.  Stacking is unlimited, and units are always in supply.  Ground units have a movement allowance of one (1) hex per impulse.

The Allied forces are hindered by aircraft range limitations and overwhelming numbers of Ju-87 Stukas based in Rhodes that can fly anywhere on the map.  However, German off-map aerial are resources are limited, and are determined, by-turn, using a die roll.

Allied forces start the game with a number of task forces on the map, poised to land at Kos and Leros.  Additional task forces can be formed later in the game, or determined by a separate set of solitaire rules.  The invasion of Rhodes is possible beginning on Game Turn 5 and, again, is dictated by a die roll.  The Allied player can force an invasion, but at a significant cost in victory points.

The map’s dark blue sea makes reading hex numbers difficult.  The counters are just fine, but the cardboard “chads” have me thinking about buying a counter cutter.

Victory conditions for the Allied player are daunting.  The Allies must control literally every island on the map if the invasion of Rhodes does not occur, and Rhodes is strongly defended by German and “assimilated” Italian units.

I’m looking forward to starting the game later today!