How to take Malta?

[Henri]

I just got the game yesterday, so excuse me if this has been discussed before. How the hell can the Axis take Malta in 1941-42? The Italian fleet and an Italian air unit were devastated trying to knock out the British air unit there, despite the help of a German air unit and a German and an Intalian HQ in Sicily. It can't be invaded by a land unit, so is it impregnable? Once I knocked it down to 2 points with the two air units, then hit it with three fleets with no results. Does the AI cheat to keep this unit alive?

Henri

[Yohan]

You will need a German HQ and about 4-5 air units (German) to do the job plus the Italian fleet to knock down the entrenchment.

[Panzer Cmdr]

Also I have read a good tactic is to attack the port with a veteran german air unit. This will cause the Malta Fighter to intercept and incur losses (pretty high losses if you have an HQ and have tech and veteran advantages). Follow up with direct attacks of the weakened air unit to eliminate it.

[John DiFool]

Originally posted by Panzer Cmdr:

Also I have read a good tactic is to attack the port with a veteran german air unit. This will cause the Malta Fighter to intercept and incur losses (pretty high losses if you have an HQ and have tech and veteran advantages). Follow up with direct attacks of the weakened air unit to eliminate it.

Note this silly tactic wouldn't work if damage

in air combat was more in accordance with what

you might expect: i.e. why the heck does the air

fleet take MORE damage intercepting a raid on the

port than it does just defending itself (and

presumably getting any and all planes on the

ground, not to mention hangars and runways,

all shot and bombed to heck)?? :eek:

John DiFool

[Zeres]

Note this silly tactic wouldn't work if damage

in air combat was more in accordance with what

you might expect: i.e. why the heck does the air

fleet take MORE damage intercepting a raid on the

port than it does just defending itself (and

presumably getting any and all planes on the

ground, not to mention hangars and runways,

all shot and bombed to heck)??

-----------------------------------------

I agree, it's one aspect of the game that just baffles me. The RAF was bad-ass and they just get creamed on those intercepts in the game. People have been talking about a "toggle" so you could decide if and when you want to intercept. A.E- the first German air fleet attacks and you can decide not to intercept but maybe you decide to intercept the second one that flys in. So you don't have to get NAILED by multiple Air units every time Germany decides to attack a port.It would be awesome to have more control of if and when you want to intercept. Protect the Battle Ships not the Canadian Corp stationed on the Coast!

[blackbellamy]

I assume this applies to games vs the AI. Every game I have played against the human Allies they pull the figher out and replace it with a corps.

[JerseyJohn]

Against Malta I found at least two Luftwaffe units attacking with all the Italian ships were necessary plus, as soon as Italy can afford it, an Italian air fleet. Italy needs to transport a corps and keep it astride the island while all this is going on.

Sometimes it falls with unanticipated ease, but usually it holds out till you're cursing it, which I think is true to history.

The British, at one point when Germany and Italy applied these tactics, were down to three Hurricanes which they dubbed "Faith, Hope and Charity." They held out till the weather cleared in Russia and the Luftwaffe units were transferred.

Rommel cancelled the follow up landing, which would have involved German and Italian paratroopers and supporting infantry. He used those troops instead at El Alemein. His reasoning was that Malta would be unimportant after he captured Alexandria! Maybe so, but he put the cart before the horse and paid for it.

As in the real war, I've found Malta needs to be taken before Italy can really do anything.

As the allies against the AI I've lifted the British air fleet to Egypt and Operated the British Bomber unit to Malta in it's place; it's expensive so early in the war, but the bomber's increased range helps against the Italian navy and the air fleet relocated in Egypt makes it possible to take Syria, Iraq, and Tobruk.

[Flash Gordon]

Actually, "Faith", "Hope" and "Charity" were names of three Gloster Sea Gladiators (bi-plane fighters that were being phased out of the RAF at the beginning of WWII - some units fought in Norway, France and there was one squadron during the Battle of Britain") that the enterprising defenders of Malta supposedly dug out of the storage and kept going with cannibalized parts from other planes and which defended Malta until they got reinforcements in the form of Hawker Hurricanes.

However, there is some doubt as to the authenticity of this story and it seems that it was just the result of war-time propaganda. But it makes for good print, though .

As for how to knock out Malta - when I did it, I had Sicily PACKED with air fleets as well as two in North Africa. I also had three Italian air-craft carriers parked off of Malta as well as two battle-ships right next to it. I didn't have any HQ units (either German or Italian - some of the air fleets that I based on Sicily were German) present in this battle as most of them were involved in staving off an Allied landing in France (and were later used in Operation Sea Lion) as well as in the Ostfront against the Red Menace.

I had to POUND Malta mercilessly but I finally killed off the RAF air fleet there, paving the way for a victory march down the bombed streets of Victoria by Italian marines.

In hindsight, I probably should have bought a HQ with the MMP's I used to buy those air-craft carriers. But it was fun having a kick-ass Italian navy!

[JerseyJohn]

Flash -- I like the revised "Faith-Hope & Charity" story better than the one I remembered, and it definitely does sound like propaganda.

In one game an early German breakthrough in rocketry (one chit, quick hits in research bringing it to L-3 so I bought 3 of them) enabled me to operat three units to Sicily. As though by design, the research level, with the same single chit, rose to L-5 as I placed the units, one crawling right to Sicily's southern tip. Combined with air and sea attacks, the 3 L-5 rockets proved decisive against Malta.

I wouldn't plan on that sort of opportunity, but it was fun as a one time occurence.

[ October 31, 2002, 09:40 PM: Message edited by: JerseyJohn ]

[Flash Gordon]

Historically, Malta was significant because the RAF and the Royal Navy were able to sortie from it to hit Italian shipping going to North Africa, shipping which was needed to feed the Italian/German offensive eastward.

Unfortunately, because of the whole Suez thingy, the British forces in Alexandria aren't much of a threat so there really isn't any point in making a drive east so Malta loses its importance in the game - although it is annoying when you're sailing a newly repaired battleship by it and the RAF decides to bomb it . And it's impossible to blockade it and whittle it away since it can rebuild as fast as you can smash it when in reality, the Allies had a tough time getting supply convoys through to Malta.

I should've tried V-2'ing Malta in the last game I played. I had developed Level 5 rockets and I was trying to use them to smash southern England - unfortunately, I learned a very expensive lesson. If you don't have air superiority, the Allies will bomb your nice, shiny rockets into scrap metal as fast as you can build them . Those rockets never got a shot off - they were bombed to pieces as soon as I built them. I should've transferred them all to Sicily.

[ November 01, 2002, 12:33 AM: Message edited by: Flash Gordon ]

[Henri]

Originally posted by Flash Gordon:

And it's impossible to blockade it and whittle it away since it can rebuild as fast as you can smash it when in reality, the Allies had a tough time getting supply convoys through to Malta.

Why don't they allow blockading? If an enemy ship were adjacent to one of your ports, no replacements and supplies would be allowed to come in through that port. This would probably only affect malta and North Africa so it might not be worth it, but...

Henri

[Flash Gordon]

Actually...is blockading in the scope of the game? I don't think I've ever parked a warship off the port of Malta for very long since the RAF keeps hammering it...

Henri, the game is excellent - well worth the money spent. I've already had some marathon gaming sessions playing it. I'm not sure whether that's good or bad...it's like crack cocaine in electronic form and I'm only now just weening myself off of it.

My only real gripes are the Suez Canal thing and that the AI is a little funny...the British seem very "cautious" in it (too cautious IMHO) while the Russians are pretty good.

Hope you have fun with it.

And historically, Malta was a tough nut to crack.

[JerseyJohn]

Flash --

Against England advanced Rockets can just about reach London from the northernmost hex triangles of Flanders. When I used them there they were surrounded by luftflottes L-3 and the RAF was already shredded. Three rockets wiped out the London garrison enabling the invading troops to march through the city while the longer ranged aircraft helped attend to the Royal Navie's counter attack.

The rockets appear are at thier best against Malta and Gibraltar and along the Black Sea coastline, where they can help reduce Odessa, then crawl east with new targets always nearby.

They were a great help there, sinking the Soviet naval unit after wiping out the Odessa garrison, then doing the same to Sevastapol from the northern shore -- a particularly bit help as the place is fortified and a harbor and would have required three armies and an HQ to otherwise reduce. Then they helped gain the Doenitz and Rostov, crawling all the way, finally being operated to the Urals front after Moscow fell.

Personallay, despite their slow movement, I love rockets, but they're next to useless till at least L-3.

[Flash Gordon]

How did you get rockets within range of Gibraltar?!?!