Conquest Of The Aegean

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Airborne Assault - Game 3 Conquest Of The Aegean

Third game in the Airborne Assault serie, Conquest Of The Aegean (COTA) is based on the same innovative game engine than Red Devils Over Arnhem and Highway To The Reich.
Description The release of COTA marks some improvements over the first two games. Here are the most significant new features/changes for COTA. Realistic Resupply System Mixed Mode Movement and Slope Effects Realistic Delay Task Exit and linked objectives Map Improvements : new terrains and higher altitudes. Enhanced Interface, including: Order of Battle display Display Tool Bar New Planning Tools Message Log and filters Enhanced Terrain popup Improved Data displays Improved LOS and ranges Display Improved AI, including: Force Allocation Reaction and Reassessment Formation code Retreat code Additional Weather Patterns Force List Export/Import Mod-able Victory Messages Mod-able Terrain Key The order of battle includes: German XI Fliegerkorps with its FJ divisions German XXXX Armee Korps with the 9th Pz Div and the Leibstandarte AH div German XVII Geb Korps Italian Army including the Julia Alpina and Folgore divisions Various units of Greek army 2nd UK Armoured Division ANZAC Corps with Australian and New-Zealand units. And many more.
More information and a FAQ about the new game features can be found on Conquest Of The Aegean official game overview. A preview of the game scenario is available here.
Historical context October 1940, the Italian army attacked Greece from the Albanian border. The attack was ill prepared and led to Greek counter-attacks in November. Between November 1940 and March 1941, the Italians attempted to renew their offensive. However, these efforts achieved nothing and Mussolini would have to rely on the Germans for help. On April 6, 1941 the German attacks on Greece and Yugoslavia began. The British and ANZAC troops fighting in Greece soon found themselves desperately parrying the thrusts of panzer troops, mountain troops, and parachute troops. The campaign was a decisive defeat for the British forces. British navy was anyway able to rescue 80 percent of the Wilson Force and evacuate them to Crete for rest and re-fitting. As a culminating point of these operations, the German army mounted the most important airborne operation of WWII : the invasion of Crete. Operation Merkur began on May 20, 1941. Two waves of parachute infantry and glider forces landed at four points along the norther coast of Crete: the airfield at Maleme, Canea (the island's capital), and the airfields of Retimo and Heraklion. German casualties in the battle for Crete were as high as 6,000 killed and wounded out of the 15,000 that had been sent into the attack. The victory was costly. Rather than being the crowning glory of the Fallschirmjager, German General der Flieger Kurt Student, commanding the XI Fliegerkorps, would later say that it was "the graveyard of the parachute troops."
Game features Airborne Assault - Conquest Of The Aegean contains : - 31 scenarios, covering the Italo-Greek war of 1940, the invasion of Greece in 1941 (Operation Marita) and the Crete assault (Operation Merkur) in 1941. Moreover, fictional invasion of Malta by Axis force is also included. - 21 maps of Greece, Crete and Malta. Up to 40x50 kms. - MapMaker to create ones own maps - ScenMaker to create ones own scenario - Over 500 pages of manual in PDF format : 2 extensive tutorials, full Reference Manual, ScenMaker and MapMaker manuals and MarkShot's Tips.
Distribution Conquest of the Aegean is distributed by Matrix Games. Patches and expansions Original version : 3.0.126 Four patches were released : 3.1.137, 3.2.141, 3.3.147 and 3.4.151 Available on Matrix Games COTA page. You can find mods and scenarios on : - COTA Official Game Page, - Airborne Depot - Wargamer's Gamers Net Depot
Strategies and tactics Early COTA mini-guide : in HTML [Matrix Games forums] or in PDF [zipped - 10MBytes - 130 pages].

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