0ne of the major causes of the rapid collapse of the Jugoslav Army in April 1941 was the fact that many nationalities in the Army were unwilling to fight for a Serbian dominated Jugoslavia. Marita-Merkur handles this in Rule 31G, requiring Jugoslav units to individually check for desertion, disappearing on a roll of 5 or 6.

This method was chosen for two reasons:

1) its simplicity and
2) so that the Axis player would not have too much foreknowledge of exactly which units are likely to desert.

For the historically minded, this aspect can be handled in somewhat more detail.

Replace Rule 31G with the following. Upon the conclusion of the Axis movement phase in the German special turn, all Jugoslav infantry, cavalry, reserve, and border units must be checked for desertion. Unlike the old rule, German units are not required to be adjacent to the Jugoslav units to force them to check. The Axis player rolls the die, checking the eligible Jugoslav units in any order he wishes.

A Jugoslav unit may be checked for desertion only once per game. If any unit in a stack deserts, add "1" to the die roll when checking the rest of the eligible units in the stack.

The result needed to cause desertion is dependent upon the nationality of the unit being checked. The nationality and the die result needed are given below for Jugoslav infantry and cavalry units:

Croatians. Croatian units desert on a roll of 3 or greater. Croatian units are: 4-6 Sav inf XX, 3-6 Mor inf XX, 4-6 Osjec inf XX, 1-8* Risj mtn X, 2-1-8 1 cav XX, 4-6 Jadr inf XX, 4-6 Slav inf XX, and 1-6* Licka inf X.

Slovenes Slovene units desert on a roll of 4 or greater. Slovene units are: 4-6 Trig inf XX, 1-8* Trig mtn X, 4-6 Drav inf XX, and 2-6 Orm inf X.

Albanians The Albanian unit, the 4-6 Kos inf XX, deserts on a roll of 3 or greater.

Macedonians Macedonian units desert on a roll of 4 or greater. Macedonian units are: 3-6 Breg inf XX and 1-6 Strum inf X.

Hungarians/Germans Several units were mixed formations of Hungarians and Germans. These units desert on a roll of 2 or greater. These units are: 1-6 Pot art III, 1-2-6* Som inf X, 3-2-8 3 cav XX, and 1-6* Sec inf X.

Serbians All other infantry and cavalry units are Serbian. Serbian units desert only on a die roll of 7; i.e., they will desert only if another nationality stacked with them deserts.

Information on the composition of the reserve and border regiments is far more sketchy. For game purposes, assume that all reserve and border regiments along the Italian and German borders are Slovene, along the Hungarian border to the Backa are Croatian, in the Backa are Hungarian/German, and along the Albanian border are Macedonian. The rest are Serbian.