No Retreat!

The North African Front — SCENARIO BOOKLET 19

SCENARIOS
The Historical Scenario for The Invasion of Crete in- 2. The Allied player places all his Box markers on the
cludes two setup sheets detailing where to place the map, with the square and round units that are stacked or
active units. The “what-if” Free Setup Scenario uses adjacent to the Boxes in the corresponding spaces on the
only text instructions. Both scenarios utilize the Box “Box Camouflage Display” card (these are revealed when
Camouflage Display player aid card for the Allied setup. the German players air drops on the same map); then he
puts the remainder of his units on the three maps.
A. Historical Scenario
3. Flip the Game Turn marker to its Allied Initiative
The battle of Crete began on the morning of May 20, (roundel) side and place it in the Turn 1 box of the Game
1941, under the Nazi code word “Operation Merkur”. It Turn Track, then start the turn normally.
was the first-ever pure airborne invasion in history. The
German attackers badly underestimated the defender’s 4. The German player places on the board all the units
strength. Worse still for the Germans, the Allies were scheduled to land on Turn 1, one unit per hex (except for
aware of the coming attack, thanks to British “Ultra” the Artillery marker, see C8.6.2, case 10). No unit may be
intelligence reading the German “Enigma” cipher ma- set up in any of the two southernmost hex-rows.
chines’ transmissions. The Commonweath troops thus On Turn 1 in this scenario units will land in the
had time to prepare their defenses, albeit the main threat Maleme/Galatas/Canea sector.
was still believed to be coming from the sea. Despite all
this, after 10 days of battle, and after sustaining very 5. The German player places on the board all the units
heavy casualties on the first day, the 14,000 German scheduled to be landed on Turn 2, in the “Sector Holding
paratroopers and 15,000 air-landed mountain troops Boxes” of the maps of those drops. No unit may be set up
were able to prevail against the 40,000 defenders (in- in any of the two southernmost hex-rows.
cluding 10,000 administrative troops and 11,000 Greek On Turn 2 in this scenario units will land in the
soldiers). The invaders also encountered heavy resis- Rethymnon and Heraklion sector.
tance from the local population. The paratroopers’ high
training and initiative, the Allied commander’s failure 6. The Allied player puts on the map(s) where the Enemy
to fully comprehend the tactical situation, and espe- player is dropping units all his square and round units
cially the complete German air superiority allowed the hidden in the “Box Camouflage Display” sheet. Units on
attackers to finally prevail. Because of the horrendous maps where no drops happen stay hidden until next turn,
losses suffered by the Fallschirmjägers, Hitler forbade when the revealing process is repeated during next turn’s
any more large-scale paratroop attacks for the rest of Air Move Phase.
the war, while the Allies decided instead to fully develop 7. The German player rolls for each of his units attempt-
their own airborne arm. ing to land on the “Paradrop table” following rule C8.6.2.

Scenario Rules 8. Continue the game normally (it will be the Initiative
Player’s turn (the Allied player in this case).
1. The units are placed on the three maps, as described
on the two set-up sheets.
Scenario Special Rules
The German player’s set up sheet for this Historical Sce- 9. The Allied “RF/1A&SH” (3-3) square infantry unit
nario is located on the back of this Scenario Booklet; the initially set up in the Heraklion sector holding box cannot
Allied player’s set up sheet is on the flip-side of the Box move out of that box until Turn 5 (it’s coming from the
Camouflage Display player aid card. south of the island).

© 2013 GMT Games, LLC

20 No Retreat! The North African Front — SCENARIO BOOKLET

B. Free Setup Scenario • The drops are spread over a two-turn period: Paradrops
are made in two Zones on Turn 1, then in two other
In this scenario both players will have the hindsight of
different Zones on turn two.
history and will be able to make their own custom plans
of defense and invasion. Can you do better in planning • One regiment (see C2.3) may be Paradropped per Zone
than your historical counterpart? (Sturm, 1FJ, 2FJ, 3FJ), anywhere in the zone.
• The five round German “C/G”, “R” and “H” Detach-
Scenario Rules ment units may be dropped with any of the regiments,
1. All the rules of the Historical Scenario are followed, two per regiment maximum.
except for the setup. Do not use the setup information on
the historical setup sheets; instead use the special instruc- • The “7 Eng(+)” unit, together with its round Artillery
tions below, using the same units. marker, may be dropped with any of the regiments.
• The “Sturm/I(+)” Glider unit may be dropped with
2. Using the Historical Scenario setup sheet for the loca- any of the regiments as one full-strength counter or
tion, the Allied player deploys his units as he wishes, with separated in its three elements.
the following limitations:
• The “85GJ/I” and “85GJ/II(+)” Mountain units, the
• Maximum one unit—plus one Box unit—per hex. A round Artillery support markers, and the Air Support
Box units may not set up in a City hex. markers are set up as per the Historical Scenario.
• One brigade (see C2.3) must be deployed in each of • The six “6KG” to “11KG” German round Detachment
the five Zones (4NZ, 5NZ, 14, 19A, CR), within two markers are set up in the “Reserves & Air Landing”
hexes of a coastal hex. box and/or the “Invasion Convoy” box.
• The three round Allied “M” and “C” Detachment units
may be set up in any of the five zones, within two 4. Follow the rest of the rules/steps of the Historical
hexes of a coastal hex. Scenario instructions , starting with #2.
• The nine round Greek units may be set up in any of the
five Zones, three units per zone maximum, anywhere
C. Tournament Scenario
in the zone. This is a shorter version of the previous two scenarios
• The “19/7+8A” unit may be set up on any crossing and ends on Turn 9. It centers on the capture of Crete’s
arrow, or with the other two units of its brigade, within all-important airfields and ports.
two hexes of a coastal hex.
Scenario Rules
• The “RF/1A&SH” unit and the tank support marker 1. All the rules of the Historical or Free Setup scenarios
are set up in any holding box. The “RF/1A&SH” unit are followed, but for one set-up exception below:
may not move prior to Turn 5.
• The German “Sturm/I(+)” Glider unit can be dropped
• The “10 NZ Brig” unit may be set up in any Zone, with any of the German regiments, as one full-strength
within two hexes of a coastal hex. counter, or separated in its three elements.
• The five “4BG” to “8BG” Allied round Detachment
counters are placed in the “Reserves & Greeks” hold- Special Victory Conditions
ing box. 2. The victory conditions are different for this scenario:
• Box markers “A” through “G” must be set up in or • The German player wins if he controls one Airfield
adjacent to a coastal hex, maximum of two such mark- plus one other Airfield/Port hex.
ers per zone.
• If the German player controls two or more Port hexes,
• Box markers “H” through “L” may be set up anywhere. it is a draw.
3. Using the Historical Scenario setup sheet for the loca- • Otherwise, the Allied player wins.
tion, the German player deploys his units as he wishes,
with the following limitations:
• Paradrop a maxiumum one unit per hex, plus the round
Artillery counter.

© 2013 GMT Games, LLC

 No Retreat! The North African Front — SCENARIO BOOKLET 21

deployment. You want him to make bad mistakes so you

can eliminate paratroopers while they are dangling on their
chutes or trying desperately to recover their arms canisters
on the ground! There are many gambles to be made: do you
defend right on the airfields, or on the surrounding heights?
Do you concentrate your anti-air assets (the Box counters) or
spread them out? And you must keep an eye on your ports—
they must be defended too—as you may have to evacuate
the island sooner than expected. Oh, and did I mention that
your southern evacuation routes have to be kept open, for
the end game reckoning?
Ah yes, almost forgot: don’t belittle your brave Greek
troops. In good holding positions (city and mountain ter-
rain) they can be quite resilient against an equal number
PLAY NOTES (Crete) of enemies. They are as effective as anyone vs. descending
paratroopers, and a fun nuisance as “irregulars”.
A Jump Into the Unknown Allied Advantages
The bonus Invasion of Crete game gives players a com- You have the numbers. Bleed the paratroopers to death!
pletely different game feel than The North African Front; Don’t be shy about attacking if you can—an “EX” result
you’ll have far more units on the board fighting at start, is a very good thing for you. Losses are hard to replace in
and after a few turns you have three battles to manage, on this game, especially for isolated Fallschirmjägers. Plus the
separate maps. Make no mistake, every one of them is im- Germans have a lower “end of game” loss threshold than
portant! You cannot just take the chance to be complacent you do (six paratroopers vs. eight Allied units)—and your
and concentrate all your efforts and resources on the larger Greek units do not count. Yet, on a map where the airfield
Maleme/Galatas/Canea map. All sectors are critical, as is lost and a stream of Mountain troops start to land, the
is the initial setup phase of the scenarios. In many games best strategy is probably to “abandon all hope”; go on the
final victory will be much influenced by the good (or bad) defensive, and slowly pull back, keeping an eye on the Game
deployment of the defender’s troops on the ground, as well Turn Track and the inevitable start of the evacuation process.
as by the descending German paratroopers. Your commando reinforcements will be a great help in this
eventuality, as they make excellent rear-guard troops (round
markers do not counts for the end-game losses).

Behold the Screaming Stukas

Yet all is not rosy, you have one big handicap: the Ger-
man air superiority… Hermann Göring’s boys will keep you
pinned, interdict your troop’s movements (except at night),
and bomb you incessantly. There is little you can do about
it, as your few AA guns are not that effective against the
Luftwaffe’s swarms. But there is hope, as the Germans can-
not be everywhere at once and the Royal Navy might draw
some away. Still, if the German player desperately wants to
take a position, expect lots of planes to appear, and try to
Allied “Preparedness” keep the issue in doubt at the very least.
Thanks to “Ultra” deciphers, you as the Allied player
know the invasion is coming, but you do not have lots of To Evacuate or Not to Evacuate, that is the Question
resources at your disposal, and the sea invasion is believed OK, the Germans have captured an airfield and their
to be the main threat. Most units will be frozen in place dur- Mountain troops are being air-landed in droves. Maybe even
ing Turn 1 awaiting it, so surprise is your main advantage. worse, the German sea invasion convoys landed success-
A canny Allied player will make sure that most of his units fully… What are you as the “Creteforce” commander to do?
start the game hidden on the Box Camouflage Display so to Well, if your losses are still low and the enemy’s have been
keep the Fallschirmjäger commander guessing about troop high, you could try to hold your ground, and launch a major
© 2013 GMT Games, LLC
22 No Retreat! The North African Front — SCENARIO BOOKLET

counter-attack, even in the face of adverse air superiority. German Power

It might work, if not, pray! Or you could decide to slowly You are outnumbered (at first), and must watch out not
withdraw, trading ground for time while keeping your ports to lose too many paratroopers, as you will be penalized in
open, and perhaps even crushing the opposition on one of the End-of-Game victory conditions. Once the “expendable”
the smaller maps. Try not to have the game end on Turn 17, Mountain troops start to land, bringing in lots of artillery,
as a daylight evacuation will probably result in very heavy you will be able to take a breather. So, again: take that damn
losses; Turn 18 is much preferred for evacuating, as it’s a airfield fast! Once you have it secured and functioning, the
night turn. Note that the game ends on May 26th, but the victory train will be going your way.
actual battle ended on June 1st. I did not have the map space
“And what about my other advantages” you ask?
nor counters to go all the way to the end in what became
after the 26th mainly a rearguard/pursuing action. The end Well, you have your “invasion convoys” (don’t laugh!).
of game “evacuation rules” simulate the actions of the last With air superiority and a bit of luck, these might actually
few days (Allied units will either be destroyed or evacuated). land somewhere where they will have the potential to turn
Just make sure your troops are in position to reach the south the tide in a contested sector. But don’t put too much hope
map edge by game’s end! on them. So, yes, the keystone to victory (besides not hav-
ing too many paratroopers eliminated on the first turn of
“God save the King!”
the game) is your air support. The Luftwaffe can do pretty
much everything you want, everywhere, and should be only
slightly annoyed by the somewhat weak enemy anti-aircraft
guns. But as you have most probably deducted (at least if
you read the Allied tips above) you don’t nearly have enough
to do all that you need. Prioritize! Don’t be shy about using
two air markers in a critical battle, but always put one on the
Interdiction roundel or a critical sector to impede the enemy
road and counterblow moves, plus their supporting artillery.
“Gott Mit Uns!”

German Fog of War

As the German commander, many hard choices must
be made. You will probably not have that many clues about
the Allied deployment before choosing your Drop Zones.
Do you do a drop close to your objectives, as the German
doctrine recommends, even in the face of high losses? Or do
you drop farther away, aiming for lower losses, but losing
that “window of opportunity” when then Allied defenders are
pretty much immobile in their trenches? One thing is sure:
you need to capture and secure at least one airfield, and fast!
In the Historical Scenario some zones, like Heraklion, are al-
most lost causes; the defenders are way too strong. You could
conceivably prevail with some luck, a good initial drop, and
sending all your reinforcements there. Who knows? One of
your naval convoys might even get through! This would
certainly surprise the Allied player, and allow you to use
troops in the other zones to mainly bottle up the defenders
to stop them from evacuating successfully. Or you could
try to capture a port in those zones—something the Allied
needs to guard against. Rethymnon is a good candidate for
that ploy as the port is far from the main airfield that is sure
to be defended in force.
© 2013 GMT Games, LLC
 No Retreat! The North African Front — SCENARIO BOOKLET 23

EXAMPLE OF PLAY (Crete) As you can see, most of the landing zones close to
the objectives are covered/adjacent to hidden markers
and possible Anti-Air units, but to the west. Dropping
Sample Paradrop units too far to the east runs the chance of having them
It is Turn 2 of the Crete Historical Scenario; the Ger- drift off the map and out of the action for a while. The
man player is poised to drop his troops on the Rethymnon Axis player still decides to take some risks—planning
Sector. He wisely put in a Stuka air support unit in the to later dispatch some of the seaborne invasion units to
“Interdiction Box” during the Organization Phase to im- help—and tries for a drop mostly in the middle of the map
pede enemy movement during the critical paradrop turn with his larger units, and detachments on the flanks (note
(the defenders cannot move normally during that turn, that units cannot drop in Mountains/Cities, as indicated
but still can use “counterblow” movement; this will be by the Terrain Effects charts).
denied by the air unit; see C13.0.2).
Available units to the German player are:

This is not much, but these can be reinforced if needed

by some or all of the four detachment counters coming in
two turns (see Turn 4 “Reserve Wave” event, page 37).
The Allied player had already set-up his units on the
map, some hidden on the Box Camouflage Display card, Now the Allied player reveals the Box counters and
adding in one “dummy” and one “real” Box from the the hidden units from the Camouflage Display. To the
free-setup counters, making an extra effort to help that Fallschirmjägers’ commander horror, his main force is
isolated garrison. The attackers have a total of 16 attack dropping right next to two Anti-Air counters (with a
factors, the defenders now have 17 factors counting the three-hex range; C2.3 Allied Boxes), and the 2FJ/I Bat-
two Boxes. It promises to be a very close fight. talion right on top of the Greek 5th Regiment! The dummy
Box counter is now removed from the map. Note that the
Greek units cannot stack/setup with the Box counters
(see 12.2.2).

Let’s look at what the German player sees before

choosing the drop zones for his troops. It’s not much,
given the relatively large numbers of Box counters in
this sector:
The German player now rolls for Drift for each unit
on the Paradrop Table.
A 4KG: Dice roll = “4”, –1 no adjacent enemy. Result
= 3. Safe drop!
B 5KG: Dice roll = “5”, +2 for the two AA Boxes, +1
for the Orchard hex, –1 no adjacent enemy. Result =
7. The unit drifts off map and is placed in the Sector
Holding box.
C 2FJ/III(+): Dice roll = “1”, +2 for the two AA boxes.
Result = 3. The unit drops at the junction between
© 2013 GMT Games, LLC
24 No Retreat! The North African Front — SCENARIO BOOKLET

Perivolia, water, and the 4Gk detachment. Since an The German player gamble has not succeeded, thanks
enemy unit or water occupies one of the three vertex to the extra AA Box on the map. Without it the drop would
hexes, the parachutists must suffer a one-step loss. have been much tighter. But only one step was lost during
They then land in the town—the only empty hex the descent—it could have been much worse! Alas, the
available. paratroopers are badly scattered over the sector and the
Yellow Arrows: Note that if the die result had been two battalions separated by the main Allied force. Good
a “5” the unit would also have taken a loss, but could thing that the enemy cannot react at all during their move-
not land on the Box unit (and eliminate it). You can ment phase, who comes next in the turn: it will give the
only do this if there are no other empty landing hexes Germans time to get into better attack positions.
available or if landing right in the Box hex (see C8.6.2 Below is the situation at the end of the organization
cases 4 & 5). Phase, just before the Allied Movement phase:

D 2FJ/I: Dice roll = “2”, +2 for the two AA boxes, +1

for dropping on an enemy unit. Result = 5. It drops
in the vertex between three empty hexes, but cannot
be put in the mountain hex if any there is another
choice. The player wisely puts it away from the
fortified Australian battalion (these cannot normally
move the turn of the drop; see Turn 2 event, “Limited
Moves,” page 36).

The airfield looks far away, well defended and cer-

tainly won’t be taken fast. Another option would be to go
after the Port objective right away, as it is only defended
by the Greek “Gendarmes” (police) force. Perhaps the
scattered detachment in the Rethymnon Holding Box will
appear on the west map edge (see C12.7.6). This would
help the attack on the Port.

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© 2013 GMT Games, LLC