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Malta is a tough nut - how best to crack?


gredeker

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Downloaded the demo yesterday, and played my first game last night. Lots of fun indulging one's imperial ambitions.

I made the mistake of trying to take Malta solely with Italian units, to no avail and to the detriment of half of the Italian navy. I suspect that one needs to use at least two German air units attacking in addition to the naval forces. Those of you who have successfully taken out Malta - what did you use and how long did it take?

Other parts went fairly well - Germany overran the low countries, France, Spain, Sweden, and Vichy France (but Vichy was actually credited to Italy, which took out the capital in Algiers). I was able to sneak out my submarine unit into the North Atlantic, which, in conjunction with another submarine built at Brest, was whittling away 10 or so British MPP per turn.

The game ended with Gibraltar about to fall and a pro-Allied coup occuring in Yugoslavia.

Lots of fun, can't wait for the full game.

P.S. Some others have complained about strategic bombing, but what is occurring seems about right for 1940-41. If it's still at this level in 1944, that's a different story...

[ May 23, 2002, 01:49 PM: Message edited by: redeker ]

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I was able to clear the island of enemy forces -

Here's how I did it:

Used all 4 Italian naval units to bombard.

As I noted in another thread, each time a naval unit attacked, it lost 2-4 pts, while inflicting 0-2 pts of damage to the Brit air unit.

I moved a German HQ (w/Manstein) and two air fleets, plus an Italian air fleet to Sicily and kept up a steady attack.

However, the Malta air unit would always replace its losses the next turn . . . :mad:

So, the combination of Italian Navy, a German HQ and three air fleets - after about 4 turns of constant attacks, finally cleared Malta.

I put an Italian corps on a transport, but the game ended before it could occupy the Island! :(

It was costly, especially for the Italian Navy. . .

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I know a great way of dealing with Malta, just ignore it. smile.gif Maybe I'm overlooking some important factor, but I just don't understand why so many people think it crucial to occupy Malta. So what if the air fleet there gets to take a shot at some unit every now and then, it just doesn't seem to be nearly worth the time and resources needed to take it out.

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Originally posted by Ancient One:

I know a great way of dealing with Malta, just ignore it. smile.gif Maybe I'm overlooking some important factor, but I just don't understand why so many people think it crucial to occupy Malta. So what if the air fleet there gets to take a shot at some unit every now and then, it just doesn't seem to be nearly worth the time and resources needed to take it out.

I'm leaning that direction, but I'm wondering if someone has a plan for taking it on the cheap. :D
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I'm curious why a single Air Fleet can dole out so much punishment. I know historically Malta was an impressive fortress and harbor but in a single turn attacked it with two Italian BB, 2 IT CR, one German BB (produced in Marseille), a GE Air Fleet, an IT AF and a GE Stratigic Bomber Unit (all in Sicily). The single British AF kicked all their butts (30-60% casualties) while suffering about 2 points damage!! :rolleyes: Come on, is this realistic?

Furthermore, I marshalled 4 German Air Fleets on the coast of France supported by an HQ to attack the single British Air Fleet in England. I could not destroy that single Air Fleet! It would dole out 50% casualties to all the German Air Fleets each turn while suffering 0-2 points damage!! Maybe I'm an idiot and missing something obvious but the British Airforce of 1940-41 wasn't that much better than Germany's.

To top it off that same British AF would attack one of the German AFs, German Interceptors would leap to it's defense, and the British AF would inflict 40-50% casualties upon BOTH the target and the intercepting AFs while suffering 0-20% in return!! :rolleyes:

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE this game and cannot wait to buy it. But the British Air Force must have developed the Meteor a bit early in this game. ;)

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:confused:

OK, guess I am an idiot.

How do you verify HQ attachment?

Sorry for the Noob question. But as someone really smart once said, "The first step down the road to knowledge is to ask 'Why?'".

Thanks.

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Well, there is no FM yet. smile.gif

AFAIK, the only way to check to see what HQ is attached to what units is to click on the HQ at the start of the turn. Supported units have a kind of barberpole border around them. I am guessing that this stays constant throughout the turn, if if you move the HQ or units.

I do wish there was some other clue as to what is in command, why it gets assigned if two HQ are nearby, and a history of who was in command from what HQ last turn, since if you keep the same HQ with the same units, they fight better in the future (I think).

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I have solved the Malta problem, I spoke to Hubert this morning and he said he was going to implement this FOR SURE!

This is the the new Malta system:

There will be a pop-up window that comes up when you attack Malta. In the window is a tetris clone. You must beat 5 levels to capture Malta. If you fail you can attack again next round and try another 5 levels.

I can't wait!!!

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What gives with taking Malta?

I knocked out the air fleet, brought the fort to 0, and even the harbor to 0, and I couldnt land a land unit. Any trick to finally seizing control of the island???

I am really Enjoying the demo BTW.

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The game itself is the first non-flashy war game that I've played, next to TOAW, and I love it, dearly. The variations are amazing. I simply set Russia to Neutral and seized the Low Countries in my first turn.. and then things got weird. My tanks got flanked by a BEF army, and so I used my recently acquired Italian units.. which, strangely, ended up seizing Paris. With 1356 credits, I was amazed. Instead of going for Russia or Britain, I decided to go after the Ploesti Oil Fields- but Romania joined the Axis the turn I started considering it, and Hungary the next. I used Italian units to knock out Yugoslavia, and used Italian tanks to seize the Iraqi oil fields. I glanced at the war map at the end of the game (agreed, the May 1941 cut off is Satan).

A new Rome, indeed.

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Originally posted by BloodyBucket:

I have pro-allied coups in Yugoslavia all the time. In fact, if they ever go pro-Axis, I'll probably attack them out of reflex.

BB,

They do go Axis, but it only lasts a day. Since the time scale is 1-4 weeks, you have to watch very closely to catch it...

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Originally posted by roman uk:

What gives with taking Malta?

I knocked out the air fleet, brought the fort to 0, and even the harbor to 0, and I couldnt land a land unit. Any trick to finally seizing control of the island???

I am really Enjoying the demo BTW.

Once you have a transported unit adjacent the malta island, right click and there should be an option for unload.

Hubert

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