Allied Player turn

Weather: A pair of 6‘s is rolled, resulting in snow in the north, mud in the south, and rough weather in the Med (and putting the kebosh on the planned naval assault on Melos thanks to significant disruption mods.)

Initial phase: Some more Greek reorganization amongst border troops results in 2 new Greek divisions. The Mxd B goes back on naval patrol, but the „good“ attacking weather leaves the bombers in Albania on standby for DAS.

Mov‘t phase: The engineers scurry about fixing rail hits. Minor tweaks in the line, and the beginnings of a line in the gap between the Albanian front and the Metaxas line begin forming. Having had enough of the Melian outrages, the Allies fly both fighters in CAP over Melos, then move one of the Cretan static brigades to the island using night loading & mov‘t & CAP to cover. Mussolini scrambles for his rules book and determines that this is apparently legal, since the troops aren‘t coming from mainland Greece. Drat! Ah well, it will at least cost the Allies another VP in the next garrison check. He decides that discretion is now the better part of valor, and even the mighty Mxd 1B2 cannot likely survive two attempts at air to air. No doubt the pilots felt they‘d have made it easily, but even if they had, the Greeks are obviously now willing to do whatever it takes to get somebody on that blasted island, and some other island riff-raff would undoubtedly have loaded up later in the turn even with a successful bombing run. Guess we should have launched the Melian assault earlier without benefit of air cover… live and learn.

Combat phase: DAS flies in Albania, but the Greeks launch no attacks despite the „good“ weather.

Exploit: Nothing significant.

Italian Player turn

Initial phase: More reinforcements arrive for the front. The Allied bombers on Crete go on naval patrol again, though with the rough weather this will mean little. For the first time the Italians call up Luftwaffe units (an Me110 & a Ju88A)(since they have now almost maxed out on Vps for Greek terrain.)

Mov‘t phase: Infantry divisions continue moving towards the Yugoslavian frontier in Albania. A number of port bombing attempts are made on Melos to prevent additional units being shipped in, but all 4 fail. A rail road bombing mission likewise fails, while BR.20M‘s terror bombing Athenai are driven off with a R result by AA.

Combat & Exploit: Zippo… Due to the practically guaranteed mud next turn, most Italian bombers and both the called up Luftwaffe units end the turn in the Dodecanese.

End of game turn: Due to having called up Luftwaffe support, the Italians stop garning Vps for hexes in Greece. With the -4 Vps for these air units, totals are now 44 to 7 in favor of the Italians.