Marita-Merkur is one of the best Europa games. It has the smallest map area, meaning you don't need a den to set up the game. It has relatively low counter-crush compared to some other Europa games. It has armies and navies from over eight countries, which lend the game color. It is superb for introducing people to the Europa system, because the game starts with few units on each side, few aircraft, and virtually no armor effects.

But most importantly, Marita-Merkur has a fascinating strategic situation. The political aims of at least five powers (Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia, Great Britain, and Greece) are all represented in the game. Both sides get chances to attack and to defend, and the strategic balance may shift sharply from turn to turn. Marita-Merkur is an extremely challenging game no matter which side you play, and no two games are exactly alike.

This article will study in depth the strategic options presented in the game, taking note of the victory conditions, the opposing armies, and the two (very different) wars: the Italo-Greek War and the German invasion of the Balkans. Because Marita-Merkur is a complex game with many possible strategies, this article does not pretend to be able to provide a "solution" for either side, nor can it even (in such a small space) fully discuss all the important strategic considerations that the game presents. What it can do, however, is provide some insight into the playing of the game, outline some of the strategic options available to both players, and offer some suggestions.

Before we get any further we need to synchronize our watches.

I play Marita-Merkur with the 18 January 1985 errata. I am generally not a rules tinkerer, and so with two exceptions I use the rules as written. The first exception involves the air-to-air and antiaircraft tables - I hate the old system, and so I just use the Scorched Earth charts and air combat rules instead. This should have no effect on game play. The second exception deals with the stacking rules. The rules state that a player can stack three divisions and three non-divisional units in a hex, but not, for example, four non-divisional units. This conflicts with the stacking rules as written in later games, and furthermore the designers of Marita-Merkur ignore that rule in the opening Greek setup. So I feel justified in ignoring it, too, and using the standard SE stacking rule. I think this might have an effect on play, giving the Greeks more flexibility, but I am not sure; I welcome your opinions.

In referring to players in the game, I generally assume a two-player game, with one side as the Axis and the other as the Allies, but sometimes I will refer to specific countries, such as the Yugoslav player. This is done to eliminate possible confusion over statements and examples.

VICTORY CONDITIONS

Victory in Marika-Merkur is determined by victory points. Victory points for the Allies are accrued through holding territory and destroying enemy units; victory points for the Axis are awarded as above and also for speedy German withdrawal. The person with the most victory points at the end of the game wins.

There are several things worth noting about the victory conditions. The Allied player gets victory points only for eliminating Italian divisions, and not lesser units. This should provide obvious suggestions for both sides. The Italian player gets no victory points for destroying Greek units, which means that the Allied player can afford to be somewhat less casualty-conscious. The Italian player gets five victory points for each mountain hex in Greece he controls - this is very important, because it allows the Italian player a chance to rack up a large number of victory points by occupying only a few hexes. Lastly, please note that territorial victory points previously earned are halved if and when intervention occurs, accurately reflecting the fact that the Italo-Greek War became a mere sideshow when the Germans invaded the Balkans.

THE ARMIES

There are five armies worth talking about in Marita-Merkur: the Italians, the Greeks, the Yugoslavs, the British, and the Germans. All are very different in size and composition, and all have equally varied strengths and weaknesses.

The Italians probably have the army that is most ill-suited for the job it must do. The tiny Italian army in Albania must somehow conquer and hold on to as much of Greece as possible. This is a daunting task, to say the least. The Albanian forces receive significant reinforcements over the first few turns, but usually they arrive in time only to be used defensively. This is not to say that the Italians lack offensive punch in Albania; on the contrary, depending on what the Greeks have done earlier in the war, the Italians may very well be able to launch a serious offensive against the Greeks after an appropriate build-up.

The mountain units are the key to any Italian offensive, as they make up to a degree for Greece's infamous mountain modifier. It is of great importance to the Italian player, therefore, that he not lose them. The other Italian army, in northern Italy, is a much more balanced force, complete with armor. Don't forget that the Italians have the ability to sea transport these units south after intervention occurs - who knows when an armored division or another mountain division might come in handy down in Albania/ Greece.

The Greeks have a great little army. They are very resilient, with numerous divisions that can be reduced to cadres, and have a good mix of divisional and nondivisional units. They are powerhouses in the mountains to boot. The primary Greek weakness is a lack of motorized units, a lack which can sometimes prove extremely painful. This is made up to a limited extent by a large number of highly mobile cavalry and antiaircraft units and by generally good interior lines.

The Greeks also have few replacements. Care should be taken to maximize the use of those replacements points - while 5-6 divisions should be created whenever possible, there is no real reason to create a 46 division if there is, for instance, a 1-2-6 in the dead pile. Taking the latter would essentially get you a free combat factor.

The Yugoslav army is very historically accurate in that it is extremely brittle. Only one division has a cadre, many divisions have lower defense than attack strengths, and many units stand a chance of disappearing on the first turn of intervention if Germans happen to run into them. Moreover, the Yugoslavs have little mobility.

Combine this type of army with an extremely long and indefensible frontier, few useful transportation lines, and a very poor supply situation, and you have a catastrophe just waiting to happen. However, the Yugoslavs do have several strengths, not all of which are obvious. They have an extremely large number of border and reserve units which can be used to absorb casualties, to help on the defense, and to block lines of communication. They are so puny that the Axis player (who is hardpressed to begin with) will be loath to waste a unit for an entire turn just to take out one of these regiments. Note too that border regiments are supported if they do not move, so take care to place them in the best possible positions. The Yugoslavs also have a large number of good nondivisional units. Moreover, as will be seen later, the goals of the Yugoslav player can be accomplished with his army.

The British, including their Commonwealth allies, have the smallest army on the map. One can easily see why the Greeks were hesitant to accept British aid at the risk of German intervention. The British can perform several functions, however. They are pretty mobile, and have numerous specialty units. However, because they are worth so many victory points to the Axis player, they must be used relatively conservatively. They should also be used together, since if the British have to evacuate they should do so in one turn (or face victory point penalties).

The last major army is the nastiest. The Germans have panzer divisions, paratroops, mechanized units, engineers, mountain troops - you name it, they've got it. On the other hand, they've got a huge task in front of them, and very little time in which to do it. The German player will very quickly notice that he has too few forces, especially in the area of infantry (the Greeks alone have almost as many infantry strength points as the Germans). This means that the German player is virtually forced to take risks in order to achieve his goals with the forces available. And taking risks often means taking the consequences.

THE ITALO-GREEK WAR

Though it pales in comparison to its later companion, the German invasion of the Balkans, the Italo-Greek War is probably the more important of the two. Poor Italian performance in the war can give the Germans an incredible headache later on; poor Allied performance can speed the German invasion. This is because performance in the ItaloGreek War greatly influences the chances for a Yugoslav coup and German intervention.

A Yugoslav coup can occur whenever the Allies have 30 or more victory points, and twice as many as the Axis. German intervention can be triggered any turn, but only if Allied victory points are at least twice those of the Axis, three or more REs of British units are present in mainland Greece, and/or the Yugoslav coup has occurred.

An Allied player might think of stopping short of twice as many victory points as the Axis in order minimize the chances of German intervention, but this could mean surrendering the initiative to the Italians, and German intervention might occur anyway. Moreover, the Italians could always sacrifice a division or two to put the Allies over the top.

The coup is more important than intervention; even if intervention occurs the first game turn, the Germans would still have to wait for months to show up (just as if they made the decision in March). The timing of the coup, on the other hand, can be of immense importance. The initial Yugoslav setup is extremely poor, but even two turns of free movement can make it formidable. Thus the Allied goal is to have the coup occur as quickly as possible.

There is only a one in twelve chance of the coup occurring on any given game turn (before the British arrive en masse), but this isn't bad. If the Allies satisfy the conditions for coup occurrence in Jan I 1941, there is almost a 50% chance that by Mar I 1941 they will have triggered the coup.

Therefore, the progress of the war in Albania and Greece is of primary importance, especially the extent of Italian success on the Nov I 1940 turn. I do not like to work out detailed setups with percentages figured and all factors accounted for, but the first turn is worth analyzing in some detail, because of its significance.

First, let's look at the Italian invasion. The Italians have a puny invasion force, and barring Greek incompetence, they can really only maintain the offensive for one turn (given incredible luck and a cautious Greek player, maybe two). Their goal is to occupy as many hexes (especially mountain hexes) as they can during their brief stay on Greek territory. The Italians do have several advantages. The Greeks are spread out and not placed to their best advantage. The best Greek division on the map can be isolated and almost always destroyed. Moreover, the Italians have their neat little light armored division, which can exploit any breakthrough.

There are two obvious routes for the Italian offensive to take. The first route is down the mountain road that heads towards Volos and the east side of the Greek peninsula. This route has several seeming advantages: it leads towards the two objectives of Athens and Thessalonike, it divides the Greek forces, and runs through a lot of mountains. However, these advantages are largely illusory. This path leads straight into the heart of Greek strength; Greeks from all sides can converge on it. Moreover, no real advance can be made in this direction without going beyond your supply lines.

This leaves the second option, the coastal route, down the other road along the west coast of Greece. While this road seems to lead to nowhere for the Italians, it has great potential.

The key to exploiting this route is the light armored division. If you move it past the 5-6-6 Greek division in order to block retreat routes, the Greek division is pretty much dead meat. Even better, the light armored division can potentially move straight down the coast road during the exploitation phase, all the way up to the Greek mountain regiment.

This seems like suicide, and it is. The armored division will be placed out of supply by the Greeks and eventually eliminated. On the other hand, look at what the division has done for you - it has assumed control of an ungodly number of hexes in Greece, including several mountain hexes.

The Greek player must now try and reoccupy all of those hexes, or you get gobs of victory points. The problem for the Greeks is that while they have great north-south lines, they can't move very well laterally. Only three units can immediately take back the hexes - the 2-1-8 cavalry regiment and the 18 antiaircraft unit in Larisa, and the 3-8 cavalry division in Thessalonike. And only the cavalry division can exert a zone of control.

This means that the Italian player, while sacrificing six victory points for the light armored division, has a chance to get at least 29 or 30 victory points on the first turn, and very possibly more if the Allied player screws up. Moreover, it diverts Greek units that would otherwise be attacking your front line.

What about the rest of the invasion? I prefer to make little effort, if any, in eastern Albania, concentrating instead along the coast. Although I understand many people recommend waiting until the second turn to take Corfu, I prefer trying on the first. The Albanian and Italian forces north of Corfu can be moved down to aid the marine battalion and infantry division.

This, together with a single air point, gives a 3:1 attack at -1, with a good chance of succeeding. If you wait until the second turn and fail, you might not have a chance on the third turn. This gives you a second chance. Moreover, it gives the Italian player a very good chance at three more victory points on the first turn - and any way the Italian can get victory points is a good way.

The Italian air force is small but very handy. In addition to aiding an assault on Corfu, it is best used as ground support for the attack on the Greek 5-6-6. There are two alternative uses, neither of which I prefer to use on the first turn. The first is to use air units to bomb the roads leading up to the front lines. Unlike later games, in Marita-Merkur you can cut secondary transportation lines, thus slowing down the Greeks and slightly complicating supply. This is a good theoretical use, but the Italian air force is so weak in bombing strength that the chances of really slowing down the Greeks aren't that good.

On the second or third turn before the Italians start needing a lot of defensive air support - this might be a good idea. The second alternative is to go after the Greek mixed bomber unit, which is worth ten victory points. Depending upon the cautiousness of your Greek opponent, this unit may be moved to an airbase off the mainland during the Greek turn. If it is, you've lost your shot at it until the Germans arrive.

Ten victory points are a great Christmas gift, but you would more than likely have to get past the Greek fighter unit first, which isn't all that good, but better than Italian bombers. Once past it, you pretty much need only render the unit inoperative this turn* in future turns you will probably have a chance to finish it off. I've pulled this off, but I've also gotten my behind shot off, and so I don't really recommend this.

Okay, let's look at the same thing from the Greek side. The Greeks don't get to set up freely like the Italians, which is a crying shame. The three units they may place freely therefore become more important. While it is tempting to put an artillery unit on either side of the 5-6-6, say in 4720 and 4618, so that it can't be surrounded during movement (as the Italians couldn't overrun), this probably isn't such a good idea.

The Italian player can forego a 4:1 attack on the 5-6-6 for a 3:1 and two additional attacks on the artillery. You would probably end up losing all those units and hexes. Another option is to place the 0-1-6 engineer and the 2-8 artillery in 4620 and the 1-8 artillery in 4519. Although the Italians can overrun the 1-8 in 4519, the mountain division is required as part of the overrunning force, which leaves it with too few MPs remaining to penetrate to hex 4618.

The purpose of this gambit is to guarantee a safe haven in hex 4719 for the 5-6-6 division to retreat into. On the negative side of the ledger, your important engineer unit is in a very vulnerable location and the road to Volos is wide open. Unfortunately, 4620 can't be weakened without exposing the remaining unit to an Italian overrun, after which the light armored division would be able to reach a surrounding position on the 5-6-6. To my mind, a better location for these units is somewhere along the roads behind the front line, to limit Italian advances. Place them where they can best prevent Italian breakouts (such as along the coast road ... ). Don't forget that your engineer unit should be placed where it can maintain flexibility for future repair or construction tasks.

Once the Italians have invaded, you need to counterattack as quickly as possible. To do this effectively you must mobilize your troops efficiently. Aside from the troops in the Greek peninsula, you have two further sources of manpower: the Aegean islands and the Metaxas line. Both should be cannibalized as much as possible.

Ship six island battalions to Thessalonike and from there to the Metaxas line on the first turn (those with four movement points won't quite make it in one turn). Figure out the cheapest and quickest way you can get 13 REs in the line, to free the rest of your troops for transfer west. Don't forget that a substantial proportion of these can be those reinforcements arriving on Nov 1 1940 on the east edge of the map.

While on their way west, they can stop and garrison. You will have to leave a division or two in the line this first turn, so make sure that it is one far to the east, so units further west can move farther toward the Albanian front. Essentially, the Metaxas line will be garrisoned with as small a force as possible. And note you needn't actually keep the garrisoning units in the line after most forces have relocated you can later move them around anywhere as long as you keep them east of that river next to Thessalonike.

This means you can form a scratch defense around Thessalonike to force the Germans to commit troops to taking it. Don't forget to form your two divisions, so that you can get those extra strength points and cadres out of them. And get that division off of Crete - under the victory conditions of Marita-Merkur there is no real reason for either side to have Crete.

After you have assembled a sizable force, it is time to begin pushing the Italians back. It is essential to be as aggressive as possible, although you don't want to waste your practically irreplaceable troops. Go after the Italian mountain divisions - else they will be a thorn in your side later. Likewise, if you can get them, the motorcycle units. And if the Italian player should be foolish enough to put his light armored division in the mountains...

As the Greek commander, how far should you push your offensive? Your mountain advantage ends when the mountains do, and by the time you get that far the Italian player will probably have constructed a line of fortifications. Then, too, he will have received substantial reinforcements. By this time, as well, German intervention will probably be drawing nigh. So I would suggest not trying to go beyond the end of the mountains. At some point, you will want to begin withdrawing forces from Albania to meet the German threat, and it takes a good two to four turns for a unit to get from one front to another. Plan for this nothing ruins a war like a German invasion when your troops are strung out from here to Passaic.

On the other hand, you must be very careful not to withdraw too early, because unless you have just grievously wounded the Italian player, he can probably mount a counteroffensive. Watching your Albanian front crumble before the Germans intervene is a disheartening sight, and if the Italians should manage to grab hold of some Greek real estate before the intervention...

While you are kicking Italian bootie in Albania, you must be active elsewhere. Your engineers will be very busy, building fortified hexes in 4515, 4812, 0413, and elsewhere. It probably wouldn't hurt putting some scratch forces in a defensive line running from 4515 to 4812, especially artillery, which won't be able to move in the mountains during the winter anyway. Putting non-divisional units in the defensive line should suffice until a few divisions from Albania come over to flesh out your line. I suggest forming a second defensive line around 0413 with the Commonwealth units, leaving at least one to garrison Athens. When German intervention becomes very near, you will want to begin destroying road and railroad hexes (maybe even bombing your own country), in order to disrupt German movement and supply. Your goal in all of this is to delay the German onslaught as much as possible.

THE GERMAN ONSLAUGHT

Okay, you're the Germans you've got to knock over a coupla wambly little countries, then go home and work out so you can fight the Russkies. No big deal, right?

Wrong! Big deal. The German player faces a multitude of problems in trying to invade the Balkans. He has few forces with which to cover a very large geographical area, and has to overcome supply problems, tough defensive terrain, and severe time constraints. This last may be the worst; sometimes the Germans will come in and discover that they should already have left in order for them to have won.

The key to an easy German invasion depends upon the Yugoslavs. If the Yugoslavs have had time to prepare defenses, the Germans are in trouble. Let me digress here and present the Yugoslav player's situation. While his ability to respond will depend to a great deal upon luck, there are a number of things the Yugoslav can do to hinder the Germans.

The Yugoslav has three primary aims: to screw around with the German invasion of Greece, to inflict damage on the Axis, and to stay alive as long as possible. There is a problem here, because aim #3 is not entirely compatible with aims #1 and #2. Ideally, the Allied player would like to set up a solid screen of Yugoslav units in southern Yugoslavia, through which the Germans would have to struggle in order to get into Greece. However, reality intervenes.

To keep their forces in the field, the Yugoslavs must maintain control of their five supply cities. Moreover, they must trace supply lines to two of these cities in order to stay in supply. This necessitates a different setup. Belgrade is indefensible, and while it should not necessarily be evacuated, no effort should be made to strengthen its defenses. The southern supply city, Skoplje, is more defensible, and also in the way of the Germans, but can be isolated rather easily.

The remaining three cities can put up a spirited defense. The Yugoslav player must keep in mind, however, that his main goal should be to slow down the German invasion of Greece. He can best accomplish this through interfering with German supply lines, which must be traced through a long stretch of Yugoslav territory.

This interference can start well before German intervention - even one turn of Yugoslav activity can destroy an awfully large number of transportation line hexes. Once German intervention begins, the Yugoslav player should first try to defend those lines and later launch raids (or even attacks, if lucky enough) to try and reclaim parts of that line. The German player will be hard-pressed to respond effectively everywhere.

Now back to the Germans.

The Germans have one primary goal: conquer Greece and Yugoslavia as quickly as possible. Of the two nations, Greece is the harder nut to crack; it has a better army and a more defensible location. Greece is also farther away. Thus the first immediate goal of the Germans should be to open a supply line through Yugoslavia, so that the subsequent or simultaneous invasion of Greece will be at full-strength. This is not always easy to do.

You must also attempt to place as many Yugoslav forces as possible out of supply, which is much easier to do in the south than the north. Accomplishing the latter aim will help you accomplish the first. I prefer to send my Second Army armored units blitzkrieging to Sarajevo; if they cannot take it, they can at least put it out of supply. The reinforcing panzer divisions, as well as the other German forces and (more importantly) the Italians, can squeeze the north. Belgrade should be taken on the first turn if possible.

If your supply line is relatively secure (and maybe even if it isn't; you might well have engineer units scurrying all over the place trying to fix breaks) you can begin the invasion of Greece. This must succeed as quickly as possible.

The first line you run into will probably be in the mountains in and around 4515-4812. With air support, you can probably crack it in a turn, but beware where you position your units. Panzers in a mountain hex have no AECD, as I once woefully discovered when a Greek counterattack at 1:1 odds in the mountains (at +2) divested me of two of my favorite panzer divisions (!). Don't forget that if you put Greek units out of supply they disappear - the Greeks like fighting Italians much more than Germans.

Because the German army is relatively small, the Luftwaffe becomes commensurately more important. It packs a great deal of firepower which is not halved in the mountains or across rivers. It can also drop paratroopers. While the German player won't invade Crete unless he fears a tie or really wants to rub it in that he won, he can use parachute units to great effect. If the Greek player forgets to garrison Athens, for instance... Even elsewhere parachute units can really mess with the Greeks. Beware, however; they're worth a lot of victory points. The Luftwaffe can also bomb units at sea, although I confess I have seen very little of it.

In the end, unless one side has made a major mistake somewhere along the line, the contest will probably come down to the wire. The German player will be under extreme pressure to withdraw, and even a partial withdrawal really denudes his forces. The Allied player, on the other hand, will discover that what was a good defense against the Italians might not work so well against the Germans. No Allied player really wants the Germans to come up against the British, either - brown units look awful nasty in the dead pile - and evacuation starts to look mighty inviting when the Wehrmacht shows up.

Of the contests I have seen, the Allies tend to win more often than the Germans. I think this notso much a matter of play balance as the fact that the German player must make few mistakes. Each side has a variety of options, and what worked in one campaign might not work in the next. Thus the excitement of ... war in the Balkans!

Playing Marita-Merkur a few additional times before writing this article made me think about a few things I hope Balkan Front addresses: (1) The supply system, especially Italian. Port facilities in Albania simply could not keep all those troops adequately supplied. (2) Crete. Crete needs to have more significance, but not so much that the Allied player would turn it into a huge fortress.

Because strategic understanding is always enhanced through dialectic, I welcome all comment and criticism; it may be forwarded through this magazine. It looks like my next column will see a double feature: an overview of Balkan Front, to examine it for differences from Marita-Merkur, and a study of Case White, one of the more strategically limited of the Europa games, but with some interesting aspects to it nonetheless. Until next time, then!