How is Operation Mercury Possible?

[angelsdavid1989]

Well I've tried this mission a few times now. My highest rated bombers are not enough to sink the enemy ships before I get the message that transports won't be available to me for this mission, too dangerous in the seas they claim. No matter what I hit the enemy ships with I always get this message, then the airborn troops utterly fail to seize their objectives while I just sit there as an observer for around 15 turns. Mission Fail, back to main menu. Sighs...

[Virgil-SKY]

You are not supposed to get any naval transports, just let them go and grab every infantry unit you have and turn them into paras (not the Azul if you have a imported core, they are unique and won't be available to upgrade back to what they were), go airborn, and make your way through british defenses. Remember that you can upgrade them to other needed infantry units once you have got the supply hexes, and rebase your Stukas to deal with the few tanks.

[jmorten50]

upgrade all your best inf. to paratrooperes, buy exstra if needed. 8-10 total
use ju88 to sink the british navy before they bombard you.
shoot down british fighters fast. focus on one airfield at first. rebase stukas and fighters to Crete ASAP.
upgrade 1-3 paratroopers with trucks on airfields when you land, then you will move faster. dont worry about Students troops getting slaughtered.
airpower is the key

[angelsdavid1989]

Originally posted by Virgil-SKY:

You are not supposed to get any naval transports, just let them go and grab every infantry unit you have and turn them into paras (not the Azul if you have a imported core, they are unique and won't be available to upgrade back to what they were), go airborn, and make your way through british defenses. Remember that you can upgrade them to other needed infantry units once you have got the supply hexes, and rebase your Stukas to deal with the few tanks.

[angelsdavid1989]

Originally posted by jmorten50:

upgrade all your best inf. to paratrooperes, buy exstra if needed. 8-10 total
use ju88 to sink the british navy before they bombard you.
shoot down british fighters fast. focus on one airfield at first. rebase stukas and fighters to Crete ASAP.
upgrade 1-3 paratroopers with trucks on airfields when you land, then you will move faster. dont worry about Students troops getting slaughtered.
airpower is the key

[angelsdavid1989]

Ah, ok, that is what I failed to do, was to convert anyone to paratroops. Thanks!

[76561198372808462]

Note infantry [not Kav] without transports can airlift from airfield to airfield, as can light guns [75mm Art, 20mm AA, 37mm AT].
As noted above they can add organic transport on supply hexes.

Paratroopers can land anywhere, not just airfields.

[Accolon]

Originally posted by dalfrede:

Note infantry [not Kav] without transports can airlift from airfield to airfield, as can light guns [75mm Art, 20mm AA, 37mm AT].
As noted above they can add organic transport on supply hexes.

Paratroopers can land anywhere, not just airfields.

Yep@Angelsdavid1989 this is correct.

You don't need to convert all Infantry Units to Paras, especially the Unique Spanish one should be used just without Transportation.

I always use 1 Pioneerunit aswell on this mission. I take 2 supply/Airfields in the beginning. But I had Land Transports in my first playthrough aswell...there had a nice break while the rest fought for their lifes.^^

[Magni]

Upgrade all your infantry except Azul and possibly some Pioneers into Fallschirm. Discard all transports. Use them and planes to fill up your entire core slot limit for the mission.

Land your main para assault on the western airfield, take it and then move inland to get away from the Royal Navy. Azul and Pioneers can be airlifted in once you have the airfield secure.

Land 2-3 Paras east with Student's group and assist them as you can while your main para body moves to encircle and then storm Maleme. Trnasfer your planes to airfields on Crete ASAP and use air support whereever needed.

That's pretty much it.

Also, try to take the airfield in the center south of Crete, it's got a hidden cache.

[Edmon]

Legend has it that you can air transport light AA and light artillery... then use the supply hexes on crete to change them into whatever you like...

[NavonDuSandau]

I had 2 paratroopers, 2 pioneers & 2 leichte infantry. I flew them all to the centre airfield (at 32,31) which I took with my paratroopers and then landed my pioneers and leichte there, who would go on to assault Maleme, completely neutralising the troops that are on the eastern part of the island. I gave the pioneers trucks at the airport, as they would be too slow otherwise.

In the meantime, I flew the paratroopers to the north airfield at 22,17 (where most people will likely land initially) and took that airfield, but only briefly in order for my airplanes to use it as a "bridge" to get to the central airfield.

Once my airplanes had all gone to the central airfield I embarked my paratroopers again and flew those over to Kefalas (where some of student's paratroopers were still alive). I managed to get all objectives done by turn 15 on generalisimo difficulty in this way.

The reasons I ended up doing it this way;

1) I found building out a beachhead from the westernmost airport was a poor choice as some of my airplanes couldn't use a dirt airfield
2) I found building out from the north airfield caused my troops as well as my airplanes to be sitting ducks from the brutal assault by the royal navy
3) Assaulting the main objective from the south bypassed a lot of defense and allowed me to use my paratroopers to strategically hop around the island and cause havoc

Happy hunting!

[sorenthewild]

Originally posted by Edmon:

Legend has it that you can air transport light AA and light artillery... then use the supply hexes on crete to change them into whatever you like...

I always airlift a 75mm arty, then upgrade it to a stug the turn after it lands.