Part 75: Air Drops/Gliders

Rules: Air Drop/Gliders

The start of the game has an automatic draw of the Divisional Activation chit for the 7th Flieger Division, since drawing the chit is the only way to receive reinforcements. The scenario I am using has predetermined, historical drop spots, so I had no choice on the landing location, but there are no mechanisms for drift either. Parachutists get an immediate Delay counter when they drop (gliders do not), but there can be other consequences:



The modifiers can be deadly, especially if you have AA fire zones near you, which give a +2 modifier to the roll by themselves. Many of the parachutists had modifiers of +1 or +2 at most, but some of the ones that dropped in the middle of the Commonwealth and Greek troops went up to +5 and +6, which in combination with high rolls, is quite deadly.

Para/Glider markers are what I termed as Delay markers above. The only way to get rid of them is to spend an action. So why didn't my units have them? Well, since I had a Divisional Activation, I spent my first action just removing the Delay markers from most if not all of my troops. I don't have many Command Points for the Germans at the moment, so I decided to spend only 2 to move up my west-most paratroopers in column formation (and being able to enter the AA Fire Zone since it's a second activation. A risky play, but I know that I need to pressure the Allies, and do it quickly.