Air Assault 'Chain of Command' games; Galatas Pt. 2

Gratuitous shot of a Heinkel over Crete - nothing to do with the game unfortunately!

This is the second of the Galatas games that we played last weekend, the first being the German's air assault on the town of Galatas outside of Canea, Crete in early April 1941 - the final stage of the German's Op MERCURE.  At this point historically, things were on a knife's edge both for the Germans and the Allies.  The German losses were so high that the High Command (OKW) told German commander Kurt Student in no uncertain terms that he had to successfully conclude operations on Crete or Hitler was going to call the whole operation off.  The Germans had by that stage taken the main centres of Allied resistance at Rethymno and Heraklion, as well as the vital airfield at Maleme but between 10-15,000 Allied troops remained in and around Canea, the last major port still in Allied hands and from which they were attempting an evacuation by sea. Despite the ULTRA decrypts of OKW communications, the Allied commander Freyberg had little idea of just how desperate the Germans were, being overwhelmed by Creforce's own dire predicament.

Sleepy little town of Galatas with Church Hill in the background.



The Allied armour advances up the road to Galatas

Galatas was the key to Canea, the last Allied stronghold on Crete and was thus vital to both sides. Amazingly the Kiwi commander, Puttinck, did not seem to realize this and left the defence of Galatas to the raw, ill-equipped Greeks supported by a few Kiwi units and advisors rather than turning it into a strongpoint and stuffing it full of the battle-hardened Kiwis and Australians he had available.  As we found out in our first game, the Germans were always going to take Galatas against such inadequate defences, our only hope was to inflict as many casualties on them as possible and I'm happy to say in our last game at Wintercon, we managed to do that. Nonetheless, the scenario for the second part of the battle was still a daunting one for the Allies, despite having armour available this time.

The formidably armoured but inexorably slow Matilda. [Photo: Greg Blake] 

Now you'd think armour against lightly armed paras would be an overwhelming advantage.  But you'd be mistaken.  Firstly, the Allied armour consisted of the lumbering Matilda - one of the most heavily armoured tanks in the war at the time - and the Vickers light tanks.  The Matilda was heavily armoured but incredibly slow and although it had a 2pdr gun, being early war it only fired solid shot not HE so was useful against other armour but not much else. It did also have hull and turret mounted MGs so it was more use as a mobile MG platform.  The Germans had nothing in their arsenal at the time that could knock it out - and as the paras didn't have any AT other than rather ineffective grenades, if the game lasted long enough it could, in theory at least, lumber across the table and any Germans in the way (provided the engine didn't seize or something!) The Vickers VIb light tank was a different case again. It was basically an armoured machinegun carrier that was relatively fast but its light armour was vulnerable at close range to HMG fire and even the Fallschirmjaeger's otherwise inadequate AT weapons.  So all in all, the Allies armour was not the decisive advantage on the battlefield it should have been.

The FJ in Galatas were allowed a 37mm PAK for this scenario (presumably 'borrowed' from the Gebirgsjaeger) and used it right from the start of the game (so much for the Allied surprise attack!) 

The second issue that quickly affected the game was that the Germans were a) not surprised and saw the Allied armour and Kiwi infantry from the outset... b) actually outnumbered the attackers across the board and c) managed to have an AT gun deployed from the outset.  Against these odds the Kiwis had only a very slim chance (at best) of actually breaking into the town.  In the otherwise excellent CoC rules, German paras have on average 24 shooting dice per section, as opposed to 14-16 for the equivalent Kiwi infantry section. Each section assaulting the town through the vineyard were faced a reinforced Fallschirmjaeger section with a HMG for a total of no less than 34 shooting dice for each round!  All I can say is Kiwi commander Paul tried valiantly from the outset to get close enough for a bayonet charge (at which the Maoris excelled) but never made it through the vineyard, with each section in turn mowed down (being in the open, a D4,5 or 6 to hit - 5, 6 to kill) while only having about 14 dice to shoot back at the FJ in hard cover (D5, 6 to hit - D6 to kill).  All the Maori's shooting was directed at that @$#%ing FJ machinegun - which they eventually routed off by the end of the game!

The Maoris deploy at their jump off point outside the vineyard - contemplate the daunting task in front of them. (Note the artillery barrage at the edge of the town - spectacular but useless!)

Now before I gripe too much about how hard the Allies had it, I must confess that they did have artillery support as well as the armour. I deployed my Forward Observer team in what cover I could find just outside the vineyards.  They directed two barrages targeting the AT gun (a mistake in hindsight - should have tried to hit the building with the HMG) which all missed save one house at the end of the town which was engulfed in flames - unfortunately no paratroopers were hurt in the process!  My ruthless German opponent Greg immediately spotted the spotters and wasted no time by firing at them at every opportunity, eventually wiping them out. As the only Kiwi HMG was assigned to the group assaulting Church Hill, the Maoris depended on the armour to absorb the German firepower and punch its way into the town.  With no less than 60!!! shooting dice combined - you'd think the armour would be able to do it. Well, you'd be wrong - if there was one thing that marked this game it was the appallingly bad shooting by just about everyone - except of course young Andrew, who even Greg ruthlessly exploited to roll fives and sixes and mow down the Kiwis!  The Germans in hard cover could only be killed on a six, so it took forever to whittle them down. Save for the section behind the hedge outside the town - they had somewhere between 120 and 180 shooting dice thrown at them, lost half their number and copped over half a dozen pin markers but still held on. Tough buggers those German paras!

As close as the brave Maoris got - and in the open without armour support - sitting ducks!

The Germans come under artillery fire 

German commander Jason very carefully fed in Gebirgsjaeger - Mountain Troops - to reinforce the paras and make Galatas just too tough a nut to crack!

The Vickers press home their attack and the Germans bring up a captured Italian 75 (minus gunsights!) which they used to great effect (thanks also to young Andrew's dice rolling!)

The Allied armour comes to a grinding halt outside Galatas!

While all this was going on my other commander Steven had the unenviable task of assaulting Church Hill and protecting the Allied flank of our armoured column.  One of the problems with this surprise attack scenario is that there were two Allied objectives that had to be attacked simultaneously and three commands of which only two could be activated each turn.  Once Steve had brought his sections out into the open to engage the Germans on Church Hill ably commanded by young Andrew (under German CinC dad Jason's watchful eye), I had to allocate my activations to my Maori command and my armour needed to support them.  This meant that Steve's Kiwis just had to sit at the edge of the olive grove without cover and cop it.  It must have been a very frustrating game for Steve and I thank him for his patience and generosity in allowing us to try the only plan open to us - up the guts with bangs and smoke!

Our only HMG sets up at the edge of the olive grove opposite the German held monastery. [Photo: Greg Blake]

Kiwi assault on Church Hill gets underway

With the Bren Carrier the Kiwis managed to lay quite a bit of fire on the Germans hiding behind the stone wall - very hard to kill them in hard cover, not so hard for them to kill us in the open!

The Allied assault on Galatas seen from Church Hill - just out of view bottom RH corner is the German mortar that gave our Bren Carrier such a scare! Note the Kiwi HMG pinned although surprisingly and unlike the first Galatas game, the Germans didn't do much with their howitzer.

With the Allied flank secure, albeit at some cost, the final stage of the desperate Allied assault was underway. Time was of the essence as the longer it took to break into the town, the harder it became as the fully committed Allies degraded with mounting casualties whereas the German defence only got stronger by steadily reinforcing Galatas with Mountain Troops. The Allied plan was always a risky one but at one point it seemed the gamble might have paid off when the dice gods intervened on the side of the Germans and put paid to any chance of Allied success.  Double sixes were rolled in the command phase and the German's got to use their ace-up-the-sleeve - and called in an airstrike!

Achtung Messerschmidt!

Allied armour grinds to a sudden halt outside the town. 

With the command tank destroyed and the remaining tanks badly damaged or immobilized, the entire Allied attack faltered.

The German's had complete air superiority over Crete and in all the games we've played so far they have managed to call on their air power at a crucial time in the game and decisively turned things in their favour. This last game was to be one of the most decisive of all the interdictions by air. This time the death blow to Allied ambitions was delivered by the awesome firepower from the four nose cannons of an ME110.  The ME strafed the lightly armoured Vickers (top armour is so thin its shell-like!) and brewed up our hero Roy Farran's tankette.  A second strafe damaged another tank who was lucky not to also go up in flames - no need even to drop the 250 lb bomb the ME110 carried - the damage had been done and the armour ground to a halt outside of town.  The lead Vickers still firing but immobilized with a dead driver after a 75 shell went straight through the hull and the second Vickers likewise having one go through the turret. With the command AFV a blazing wreck and the lumbering Matilda still half a game away from the town, it was up to the fearsome Maori to pull off a miracle.

The combined Vickers and Maori attack looked promising.. until it encountered German firepower!

And then there were (virtually) none - the Germans counter-attack and drive the surviving Maoris back.

I have to give Jason and Greg their due - they used the 'Grenaten!' rule for their elite Germans to go in for some hand-to-hand. The lead Kiwi section was wiped out and with their the sheer firepower the Germans drove the rest back almost to their jump-off point.  Their being absolutely nothing more the Allies could do and no objectives obtained, we called the game in favour of the Germans - quite a convincing win.

We were up against it with this game from the start and this wasn't helped by the fact we play-tested all the other air assault scenarios first.  Just to add further complication, one of our colleagues with a fair share of the terrain had to pull out at the last moment, so we couldn't put together the same table we'd had for the first Galatas game.  It was also a very ambitious scenario - recreating a surprise attack by a numerically inferior force against a fortified obstacle, even with armour, is a tall order.  Nonetheless I feel with some tweaking of the scenario, this could work and give the Kiwis a real chance to do what they did historically - bounce the Germans right out of Galatas.

Once again my thanks go to Andrew who devised the whole thing and to co-organiser Jason who helped pull it all together when it threatened to fall apart (again!) at the last minute - and to all my wargaming mates who came along and rolled some dice, shuffled some lead, and made for a damned fine day's gaming down't club!

Wintercon 2014 - Chain of Command 'Air Assault' Games: Galatas (Crete 1941)

One of the biggest challenges was bringing BOTH the Pegasus Bridge AND the Galatas games to Wintercon. Frankly either one of them would have been enough but Andrew had devised and written two scenarios of four separate games and after a few play tests - we couldn't do just one!  However, we did find out playing the Pegasus Bridge games that a day was barely enough time. It became apparent early during the first Galatas game that we would need ALL that day to see it play to a conclusion, without a hope of doing the planned next game. Nonetheless, despite running out of time and our rules guru Andrew having to unfortunately drop out of the Galatas game completely, it still came off as John, Jason and myself all threw ourselves into it - another wargaming spectacle was repeated on the second day of Wintercon! The fact we managed to pull it off is in no small measure to Andrew's really excellent scenario and adaptation of the Chain of Command (CoC) rules.

As well as showcasing Two Fat Lardy's CoC as a ruleset for larger scale actions, with the first game of the Galatas scenario we were also giving a world-first introduction to Rif Raf Miniatures latest line of 28mm WWII figures - the redoubtable Greeks!

They are all in greatcoats - obviously intended for the Albanian - Northern Greece theatres, mostly against the Italians (to whom they gave a right flogging) so a bit warmish for Crete in the summer but they are Greeks and, as far as I'm aware - RifRaf are the ONLY supplier of such figures on the market - so good on 'em I say!  They have produced a very good range of figures in multiple poses and a wide variety of weapons, accurately reflecting the fact the Greeks used whatever they could lay their hands on - particularly captured Italian weapons - but were primarily equipped with a variety of French and British stuff. They come with both the French Hotchkiss and British Vickers HMGs, for example. The Italian style helmets were manufactured under licence before the war so most available steel helmets were of this variety but French Hadrian helmets were also used and as the campaign went on, increasingly British Tommy 'ats!

The poor old Greeks that made it to Crete after the debacle on the mainland had lost most of their weapons and kit so were equipped with whatever the equally hard-pressed British could spare. The Greeks on the mainland were armed with a few submachine guns, primarily the Thompson drum fed SMG but increasingly much prized captured Italian Berettas. Apart from two French  LMGs the Greeks in our scenario are only rifle armed, to reflect the historically dire situation they were in on Crete with regard to equipment.

Galatas with its scattered defences

The Monastery & its Greek defenders (3 rifle sections & one LMG)

The village defences - two rifle sections & a Vickers HMG

The Kiwi section (with 2" mortar and Bren) isolated in the woods.

Aussie crewed captured Italian artillery & Greek LMG protecting outside an olive grove opposite the village and overlooking the valley, providing support to the village defences.

In the first game of our Galatas scenario the Greeks formed the bulk of the forces defending the village and the key position of the monastery - roughly an understrength platoon for each. They had two LMGs and one Vickers HMG for support with a captured Italian 75mm gun (minus the sights!) manned by an Australian artillery crew, a couple of New Zealand advisors (officer & an NCO for the Vickers as the inexperienced Greeks were unfamiliar with it) and one small section of Kiwis in an isolated position on a wooded hill between the monastery and the village. The Kiwis and Aussie gun crew are regulars but all the Greeks are classed as 'green'.

JU52s sweep over the fields outside Galatas

Historically, the Germans were indeed fortunate to face such thin and poorly equipped defences so far apart, otherwise their landing could have been a disaster like the ones they suffered earlier at Maleme and Heraklion etc. Galatas and its neighbouring monastery were the key positions to Canea, the last sizeable city and port on Crete held by the Allied 'Creforce' and from which they could evacuate.  To finally crack the Allied defences on Crete and trap thousands of Allied troops, the Germans had to back up their costly and hard-won earlier successes at Maleme and Heraklion.

The flight of JU52s reach their drop zones [Photo: Greg Blake]

The German's air drop outside Galatas was the last of Op MERCURY but the entire operation was still very much on a knife's edge. Had they failed at Galatas and the Allies successfully counterattacked, given the horrendous casualties already suffered, the Germans may well have called off their entire operation - they were also lucky that Creforce commander Freyberg was completely unaware of just how dire the German's position was - no doubt because the Allies' situation looked even more disastrous! Galatas wasn't a large battle - little more than a battalion-sized action - but it was very much a do-or-die situation for both sides. In the end local Allied success at Galatas bought them enough time to successfully evacuate many thousands of troops who would otherwise have to have been abandoned and likely captured. Our first game is based on the initial German landing at Galatas which saw them seize - after some hard fighting - both the crucial monastery and village. The second game is of the famous Kiwi counterattack which saw them retake - for a time - Galatas.  We have planned to play this one in about a month's time at our local club.

Initial landings outside Galatas - note the weapons container between the Greek defenders and German paras!

For our Galatas game I was Greek commander for a change with fellow Greek commander Ian and Kiwi/Aussie gun commander Paul with Jason and young Andrew the 1st Fallschirmjaeger force targeting the town and veteran gamer Greg the 2nd German force tasked with taking the monastery on Church Hill. John volunteered to be the umpire/rules guru in Andrew's stead. With this game I changed the start by not allowing the Germans first turn after landing.  Our last test game was a bit of a walk-over for the Germans attacking the town as they got the chance to recover their weapons containers AND open up on the hapless Greek defenders before the latter got a fire a shot off in defence. This meant that the Greeks never got going - Greek rifle sections with 8 firing dice faced the German para sections with over 30! Once the Germans unleash this firepower the odds go even more in their favour very quickly. I reasoned that the first drop would have met no defensive fire due to the element of surprise but the defenders would have been alerted by the noise if nothing else and would have either panicked or opened fire - the Greeks are green troops but they are also aggressive and opened fire with whatever they had. I could see Jason wasn't too impressed by this unilateral change but in the end it worked out as the German sticks mostly landed on top of or a move away from their weapons, with only about three exceptions out of 17 separate drops in three waves!

Initial drop - the paras land beside their container and quickly arm themselves

Although the second and third wave of drops could have been under fire, the reality was that the defenders had no AA and only three LMGs and one HMG to defend BOTH the town and the monastery.  One Greek LMG fired a burst at a JU52 on its last run but as I said to the German CO Greg - only allowing a hit on a D6 was perhaps too harsh!  After all dozens of the lumbering JUs were shot down by ground fire, many more returning to the mainland riddled and full of dead or dying German paras.

Last para drop - they were meant to attack Church Hill  but somehow came down outside of the town - the audacious Greek LMG in the background fired a burst at the JU as it passed overhead.

The JU the Greeks fired at was actually closer to them flying overhead at under 500 meters (the Germans usually jumped at 3-400 meters) than the paras in the field in front of them - probably should have allowed hits on D5 & 6. Similar to hits on an AFV, you then dice to see if you damaged the plane or killed paras or crew etc.  Next time we play this sort of scenario its something I'd like to try!

Jason's second and third waves dropped into a hot LZ - under intense fire from the Greek defenders and Aussie gunners firing over open sights (just as well - the captured Italian 75 didn't come with sights!)

The game starts with the first wave of German para drops, the number allowed dictated by the command dice and the number of sections (separate elements) carried by each plane. After the drop points are nominated the weapons containers are diced for direction & distance from the drop points, then the para sticks to see how close (or not) they are to their weapons. In two cases in this game the weapons containers landed some distance from their para sticks - the worse being Jason's lead section whose container landed in the walled roadway just outside the town - right under the noses of the Greek defenders.  The paras dropped into the open field beyond - right in the sights of the Greek Vickers HMG!  If I'd had my wits about me I would have tried to recover the Germans weapons before they did (you can do that in this scenario) but German firepower was so overwhelming - my rifle section command (officer, NCO and runner) were wiped out in one round of shooting (it was one of their belt-fed MGs that did it I think), dangerously reducing the Greek's overall moral.

Handgranaten Loss! 1st German assault on the town destroys one of the remaining Greek rifle sections - but also gets wiped out in the process. The Greeks are aggressive fighters and love hand-to-hand!

German mortar, HMGs (and eventually the mountain gun) zero in on the remaining strongpoint.  The amount of firepower thrown against the building was astonishing - as was the Greek's ability to survive it! 

The German's were gradually worn down too - although the Vickers HMG got plenty of hits, caused very few casualties - the Greek rifles (all eight of them!) did as much damage!  In the end the remainder of Jason's squad charged the Greeks behind the wall defences of Galatas and in the ensuing hand-to-hand six paras killed six Greeks who also killed them. The surviving Greek NCO had had enough and bolted - and the fragile Greek morale took another nearly fatal hit.  Luckily my command dice rolling had given me a D6 CoC which I burned to avoid my overall morale breaking completely. But it was only putting off the inevitable.

On the other side of the table Ian was putting up a good fight defending the monastery on Church Hill. In fact such was his shooting prowess that the Germans never even threatened the hill - although it was a major objective along with the town.  The German commanders decided it would be too costly to assault across open fields.  Interestingly they never used their CoC dice to call in an airstrike with the available Stuka or ME110. In our test game the Germans were faced with the same problem but the effects of the combined bombardment and airstrike were devastating and broke the Greek defenders. Likewise Paul's Kiwis inflicted serious damage on two German units but once again German firepower gradually eroded the small Kiwi section's effectiveness to the point where they were forced to retreat.

The much reduced paras bring their gun into action and finally force the Kiwis and Greeks to retire.

In the end numbers and constant pressure told, at first pinning then breaking Kiwi resolve and forcing them to retreat.

The final part of the game was Greg deciding to drop his remaining sticks of paras in about the only spot not contested or exposed to enemy fire the fields next to the olive grove on the hill opposite the town - also one of the German objectives.  We had a bit of a discussion about paras dropping into wooded areas and the mayhem that usually follows.  The most the German commanders would conceded was one shock per stick to represent the 'confusion'.  So, no broken legs (or necks) then. I personally think they should dice for casualties - a D5-6 then roll again for how many - but I think I may have been overruled... or something!   Anyhow, Greg's landings were a masterstroke as they finally overran the LMG and Aussie gun crew (the former wisely surrendered, the latter after a short, hard fight) and they were marched off into captivity.

The end is near for the Aussie gunners who didn't manage to hit much with their antiquated Italian gun but kept firing until the paras overran them - the three surviving crew joined the captured Greek LMG crew.

The Germans capture their first objective - Olive Grove Hill.

This left the rest of Greg's force combine its efforts with Jason and Andrew's main force and concentrate on reducing the remaining Greeks  in Galatas.  As his last squad and HMG had landed next to the vineyard, behind a defending Greek rifle section, the latter decided to bolt into the main house/strongpoint in town and join the hard-pressed Vickers and HQ sections and their Kiwi advisors. Twice Greg thre 30+ firing dice at them and came up with... a couple of shock markers.  The amount of ordnance thrown at the house was extraordinary - and eventually told.  Once we started loosing more men, the accumulation of shock plus the Kiwis forced withdrawal AND the capture of the gun and LMG meant Greek morale finally broke and the defenders of Galatas had no choice but to surrender.

The surviving Allies in Galatas, pounded into submission, with mounting casualties and no hope of relief, are forced to surrender .

I don't know what is to become of the virtually unscathed Greek defenders of the Church Hill monastery. Perhaps their morale broke too - I can't remember (we'd run out of time anyway!) I think if they held out the Germans would have just bombarded them and called in an airstrike or two. 

The Battle of Galatas

Interestingly the Germans, although victorious (3 out of 4 objectives) didn't have things entirely their own way as it proved a costly win with two entire sections out of nine destroyed and several others badly mauled.  They still have all their heavy weapons intact - and even an Italian 75 if they want it (but apart from the desperate Allies - who would?) and they were about to be reinforced by Gebirgsjaeger (Mountain Troops) - all of which they will need for the next scenario when they are the defenders of Galatas.

A big thank you to all who played and helped run what was a spectacular and enjoyable game.  Can't wait until we get to do the second part of Galatas - the Kiwi counterattack with the famous haka & charge by the Maori Battalion. Oh, and there'll be tanks too!  

Final test for the Galatas demo

We had our final run for our WinterCon Chain of Command demo game, the Battle for Galatas, last weekend. Scenario designer Andrew, Jason, myself and host John set up the table as it will look for the first of two scenarios for Galatas, the last ferocious battle in the German air invasion of Crete that effectively sealed the fate of the Allied Creforce.  I have to pay tribute to the stoicism and resilience of the scenario designer Andrew who suffered the loss of ALL of his beautifully made terrain boards for the game in a sudden deluge the week before.  After all that work it would have brought a lesser man to despair but he gamely soldiered on and with John's help has come up with some very serviceable terrain for both games.

The sleepy little village of Galatas outside of Canea before the coming battle...

We've managed to iron out the few bugs, particularly the mechanics of the air drop and it ran very smoothly with the TwoFatLardies 'Chain of Command' rules. I think this and the Pegasus Bridge (D-Day scenario) games will provide a spectacular and enjoyable treat for those hardy gamers prepared to battle the Canberra winter! (Made it to just 7 degrees C today and promises the same next weekend!)

JU52s thunder over to make the 1st drop in the fields outside Galatas

At first I thought the Germans had too much advantage given their fire-power, particularly compared to the poorly armed Greeks - and the fact there are so many of them (three planeloads with 2 to 3 sticks of paras each in two waves) BUT apart from the element of surprise (at least for the 1st wave of drops) the Germans do low-level drops (under 500 and sometimes at barely 300 metres) with no control over their chutes (from which they dangle helplessly) they have only sidearms, knives and grenades until they can get to their weapons canisters which are dropped at the same time. You pick your drop zone and dice for direction and distance from the drop point for each stick and then each canister.  Its pure luck if they both land exactly on the drop zone together (I've somehow managed it just once for one stick in each game so far!)  Most of  the time men and weapons are scattered some distance apart.

Kiwis in the woods await the Germans they've just seen dropping into the fields

The German's first move is to race to get their weapons usually under fire from by now thoroughly alerted Allies (the Kiwis are very good shots too!) The only mitigating factor is if some of the Fallschirmjaeger have disobeyed standing orders and jumped with their MP38 SMGs. To determine this you count up the number of MP38 equipped paras per section (usually 3 or 4) and on a D5 or 6 they have jumped with their weapon. I've never managed to get more than two per section in three games AND between a third and half jumped with none at all!  Unless they have dropped on top of the enemy (with a usually fatal result) even with SMGs they are still at the disadvantage against rifle and LMG/HMG fire being only a short range weapon. So, although German paras are hideously well armed, they've got to get there first!  So far in two Crete tests most have managed to survive and get gunned up BUT I have a funny feeling this luck may not last a third time. The demo next weekend could be a very different story!

Rifle-armed Greek platoon sections in Galatas with an LMG team on the roof behind.

Greek section on Monastery Hill engage the paras just landed in the fields

Under fire from the para's howitzer gun, the Greek's 75 and Vickers HMG (their only heavy weapons) try to eliminate the Germans in the open field in front of them.

One Greek section valiantly tries to bayonet charge the now fully equipped Germans who just landed behind them in the vineyard next to Galatas

The Greeks outside the Monastery come under either mortar or artillery barrage.

The game quickly hotted up with my HQ and howitzer sections landing in the open field some distance from their weapons canisters which were almost under the noses of the Greek heavy weapons support - a Vickers HMG and 75mm gun.  Both came under immediate fire and began to suffer casualties. I took a gamble and landed one stick just outside the village in the vineyard.  Both weapons and men landed apart with the paras luckily just near the table edge. Had they have landed off table, they would have been deemed to have drifted some distance and would take not have appeared until after the second turn.  They landed behind a Greek section manning a wall outside the village and the weapons container halfway between both. A few grenades and an SMG (in the back too!) just annoyed the Greeks who bayonet charged me. Here I got lucky again as my command rolls (rolling well throughout the game for a change!) enabled me to activate and get to the weapons before the Greeks could get to me. Unfortunately for Andrew's courageous Greeks, they were just a few inches short and the paras, by now fully armed, turned their awesome firepower on them and wiped them out.  The two survivors were disarmed and told to bugger off  (hey, we're Prussian types - not nasty Nazis!)  The para section then immediately assaulted the town before the rest of the Greeks (who otherwise outnumbered them about three to one) could react.  As they charged into the town square they ran straight into the Greek's HQ section which included the Greek command and his Kiwi advisor. A brief firefight pinned them then a hand-to-hand wiped out all but the two officers who were taken prisoner. The Greek rifles were no match for German firepower, particularly at close range and after loosing their LMG and more men, with their command captured, Galatas fell to the German's and Greek morale broke with the survivors fleeing the table.  

Under heavy fire, the German gun exchanges fire with the Greek heavy weapons support, the 75mm gun and Vickers HMG.

Jason's HQ section gets caught in the open and pinned by accurate and deadly Kiwi fire from the woods opposite

The Greeks in Galatas now come under heavy fire from the assaulting  Jaeger

The Greek commander desperately tries to rally his men.

The German's take their main objective (Galatas) and the war is over for the Greek CO and his Kiwi advisor.

Despite the German's success, it didn't go all their way as outside Galatas the German command was under heavy fire from the moment they landed and together with the mountain gun and crew, suffered casualties and were in danger of being annihilated right up until the Greeks opposite finally broke.  The Greek gun scored hits from the start but their Vickers HMG was disappointing. Shooting with nine dice instead of ten due to lack of familiarity with the weapon (most of the Greek army on Crete was poorly trained as well as lacking in equipment), they still only managed to inflict one or two casualties in three rounds of shooting against a target in the open.  The courageous para gun crew, reduced to three men, still kept Greek heads down with an accurate counter barrage. After Galatas was captured, they then turned their gun on the remaining Greeks on Monastery Hill to great effect.

It didn't go all the German's way at the start on the Monastery Hill side of the table. John's Greeks gamely tried to engage Jason's Germans before they could arm themselves but the Germans were lucky in that they had cover from the many stone walls criss-crossing the landscape and most made it to their weapons canisters without too much trouble.  John's Kiwis had better luck, bringing the paras under some accurate fire. Jason's HQ section in particular came in for close attention, caught out in the open and pinned.  Ah, the fickle fortunes of war - had the Greeks managed to wipe out both German HQs - as they had both pinned under fire at varying times during the battle, things may have turned out quite differently.  

German artillery and Stuka bombardment of the monastery defences was intense. The Stuka's two 250 and 500 lb bombs all found a target.

But in the end German numbers and firepower ground the Kiwis down and they were never able to engage the paras effectively enough to be of help to the increasingly beleaguered Greek defenders in the monastery. The Greeks on Monastery Hill came under intense bombardment as the Germans played their ace card - calling in a Stuka for air support. This enabled them to avoid what would have been a costly frontal assault on the heavily defended hill across open ground. Once the Kiwis withdrew, the surviving Greeks on the hill (the relentless bombardment from the mountain gun and Stuka taking out most of the rifle sections defending the monastery) had little choice but to surrender. Yet again air support provided crucial success to German para operations - its been the case in every game we've played so far, just as it was historically.

 Greek resistance on Monastery Hill finally collapses: as the German ground assault begins the defender's morale breaks and the surviving Greeks surrender.

All the explosions in the photos are made from cotton wool wrapped around tea-lights and sprayed with black paint. I got the idea off someone's blog and they turned out pretty well I think.  Well, that's about it until the demos next weekend.  Look out for the world first debut of RifRaf Miniatures WWII Greeks.  A nice and varied selection of rifle armed Greeks in greatcoats (bit warmish for Crete but nevermind!) and also coming with a variety of French and British LMGs and HMGs - Hotchkiss and Vickers - and an unusual sit-on trench mortar (you'll have to see it to know what I mean)  There are also two guns: a Krupps 75 and a Schneider mountain gun, together with crews.  All in all, quite a reasonable selection.  We'll have to see how they go against the fearsome Fallschirmjaeger!