Balkans Operation help required

But the AI won't kill the Italian artillery general tho

1) If you are looking to just win the mission, all you have to do is to delay the enemy advance, and hold Crete until the end.

2) If you want to perfect clear the mission with all objectives obtained, its easier with better tech and generals. Even so, you can still obtain the Badogilo + Messe objectives quite easily with your starting units (I used Leclerc), just push the Italians and your British allies (especially that heavy tank) will help you reach Messe. At that point just retreat back and delay the German advance.

I've actually completed this mission with just Leclerc and Cunningham and my tech is just Level 1 infantry, tank, and artillery and Level 0 Navy and Airforce. I also have completed all the sub conditions so it's a perfect clear. Although the mission only requires you to hold Athens or Crete to win, I managed to hold both of them. For Special Forces, I have used Level 1 Suwalska Cavalry, Scotland Engineer and Level 0 Irish Guards, Parachute Regiment, Dragoon Corps, ARL-44. For Reinforcements, I used 1 Fighter, 1 Bomber, 2 Torpedo Bombers, 1 Infantry, and 1 Heavy Tank. If you'd like, I could go into strategy tips. 

Alright, I'll go into more depth. Here's what I used:

Generals

• Leclerc
• Cunningham

Tech

• Level 1 infantry, tank, and artillery  
  
• Level 0 Navy and Airforce
  

Special Forces

• Level 1 Suwalska Cavalry and Scotland Engineer 
  
• Level 0 Irish Guards, Parachute Regiment, Dragoon Corps, ARL-44
  

Reinforcements

• 1 Fighter
• 1 Bomber
• 2 Torpedo Bombers 
• 1 Infantry 
• 1 Heavy Tank

Now, the strategy:

Conditions

• Main: Control Athens or Crete
• Sub: Defeat Badoglio in 4 turns
• Sub: Defeat Messe in 8 turns
  
• Sub: Defeat Campioni in 10 turns
  
• Sub: Hold Athens in 16 turns
  

Phase 1: Invade Greece now, for the Italy! 
Well, this is the hardest phase, which required the most amount of retries for me. Your unit placements must be very precise in order to maximize speed, so Badogolio will make or break your attempt. This is why I will be very descriptive in this section. On a positive note, since the hardest part is at the beginning, so starting over isn't too bad. Do not use any generals yet! Save Cunningham for Phase 2 and Leclerc for Phase 3. You'll get a ship in Phase 2 for Cunningham and Leclerc is needed to defend Crete. Put Sulwalska Cavalry on the infantry and Dragoon Corps on the armored car. Once you can afford it, put ARL-44 on the tank and transport troops on the artillery. Move them up to take the city with the infantry next to the coast, but don't attack yet. Always use your artillery to outrange and weaken the enemy first. Attack with your artillery and then with your other units. As for the tank, move it behind the infantry. Concentrate all your attacks on the infantry south of the city. Yay, turn 1 is over! Now on turn 2, move your armored car next to the city. Move up your tank and kill the infantry unit. Move up the infantry next to the city and your artillery right behind it. Repeat the process of artillery first, infantry next, and armored car last. Make sure that after you kill the infantry on the city, you send your infantry to capture it. Now, the second phase begins.    

Phase 2: Defend the Papagos Line . . .
Make sure to heal up your infantry, you're going to need it. Prioritize healing your infantry over putting ARL-44 and transport troops. Lastly, surround Badoglio and pound him with everything you have. He is really annoying because he heals himself. So on turn 4, before you use any of your units to attack, purchase 1 fight and bomber in reinforcements and use them on him. He should be dead on exactly turn 4. On the other front in Athens, put Cunningham on the ship and move him up to attack the northern naval invasion. Make sure to keep him alive for now, he will be helpful in defending Athens later. Recruit one stack of infantry for Papagos and use your units to defeat the naval invasion. Purchase 1 infantry in reinforcements on Athens. After defeating Badoglio, send all your units to attack Messe. Your British ally will actually help this time, so we won't need any air attacks to deal with Messe. After defeating Messe, retreat your troops back to the city you took earlier. Heal up and destroy the enemy ship there. Send your units into transport ships and send them to defend Patras by sea. Sending them by land is dangerous because enemy units will cut you off. To defeat Campioni, make sure the heavy artillery given to you in phase 2 is in position to attack him. For extra help, you also start out with a paratrooper that you can drop on the naval gun south from Patras via transport planes. Before attacking Campioni, purchase 2 Torpedo Bombers in reinforcements. By using all of them, you demoralize him so much that he can't attack nor counterattack. You kill him on the next turn. Send your paratrooper back to Athens and use your heavy artillery to defeat the reminder of Italian forces attacking Patras.

While this is happening, use your units in Athens to build a defensive line that must NEVER break under any circumstances. If this happens, you will have Athens surrounded and thus, lose it. Use Scotland Engineer to build bunkers and land forts, Irish Guards for anti-tank, and Parachute Regiment for rotating (I'll get into the meaning of that later). This line should consist of five tiles to be occupied by five units. Athens, its surrounding town and factory, the bunker on the mountain, and the forest between the bunker and factory should consist of the defensive line. Save up your money for healing your infantry, you are really going to need it. Your troops that have evacuated from Albania, should be landing in Patras right now. Take the city and its surrounding towns, you'll need all the economy you can get. Send the units to join the defensive line or act in reserve in case you lose any units. Your artillery should be positioned east of Patras, near the land pathway leading to Athens. Now that enemy has arrived at the Papagos Line, it's time to play defensive.

Many people have said they cannot hold Athens, but its possible if you know how to play defensive and have your units rotate properly. First, use your artillery and Cunningham to chip away at the enemy units in the back; prioritize generals like Horthy. Your other units should just stay put. If you use them to attack, you'll wear down their health too fast. Now we'll get into what rotation means. This is a crucial concept to know in order to keep your units alive. Rotation is having a unit leave the defensive line to heal up in the city and then, you have other units fill up the unoccupied position. On the next turn, you move the healed unit back into the defensive line and have another unit leave the defensive line to heal. You are rotating the units so they can be healed while maintaining the defensive line. A paratrooper helps immensely here because of its special mobility. You can move a paratrooper from the defensive line and onto an airfield. You heal up your unit in the city and they fill the spot in the defensive line that the paratrooper left. You take another unit from the defensive line and move it to the city to heal it. Then, you use the airfield to drop the paratrooper onto the spot that the unit left. After a while, the third phase begins.

Phase 3: And Crete as well.
If Cunningham is still alive, send him to defend Crete. However, do not evacuate your troops from Athens; continue defending it for as long as possible. If you do evacuate, your troops will be slaughtered by the enemy submarines and other ships. You need to stay in Athens to maintain the economy necessary for healing and prevent the enemy from landing any generals from the mainland on Crete. Purchase 1 Heavy Tank in reinforcements on Crete and put Leclerc on it. Try to cripple the enemy troops by attacking them in their transport ships, before they can land. Treat Leclerc as an artillery unit; heavy tanks have 2 range. You cannot allow the enemy to flank and surround you by landing on both sides of Crete. If you must concede ground to the enemy, only concede one side of Crete so you can bottleneck them into attacking a thin corridor. Repeat the process of rotation in Athens and you should be able to hold onto Athens or Crete. 

Yes, the AI doesn't use paratroopers. I had two attempts ruined by Horthy because he captured Crete on the last turn as a result of me retreating Athens on turn 17, after completing the sub-condition. It was really frustrating. After I invested in a defensive line and saw it do better than what I expected, I just decided to hold Athens to delay Horthy as long as possible. So what I meant to say is that you need to hold Athens long enough to prevent all the enemy spam from reaching Crete in time. 


Hmm, I never actually thought about evacuating via air. You'd have to abandon your artillery though and I think it's better if you spend money on healing, rather than paratroopers.

I'm impressed with such an exhaustive guide! Could you make more?