Thank you for installing our conversion. Detailed info on the map can be found at the end of this page. Thanks to all the Merciless Team who worked and contributed to this release, including those who are not with MC any more. Mental Merlin ..................... Origional Read Me (nb we removed all the SW sounds and objects from this version) (And this version is for single player only) .................... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Invasion and Battle for Crete - An Overview ------------------------------------------------------------------------ At 7:00am on May 20th, 1941 airborne troops climbed aboard their gliders and transport planes. Loaded down with everything except their weapons, which were dropped in a separate container, the troops were soon enroute to their destinations. Right from the start the operation was a total disaster. General Sussman, Commander of the 7th Airborne Division, was killed when his glider crashed after takeoff. From there it got even worse. One batallion dropped directly onto the 23rd New Zealand Battalion and lost 400 of its 600 men. A company containing 126 men lost 112 of them within hours. A crucial assault group over-shot its landing zone and was soon commanded by its doctor, because he was the only officer not critically wounded or dead. Many men who landed in the town of Modhion were devastated by attacks from local villagers, acts for which the Germans would take revenge later. The morning assault was virtually a disaster. Besides General Sussman being killed, General Meindl, the commander at Canea, was seriously wounded and most other high-ranking leaders had been either killed or wounded. The Germans were in terrible shape, but could not let command know, since all of their radios were either not working or had been destroyed. He only thing at all positive was that Maleme was under partial German control by nightfall. If the morning drop was bad, the afternoon jump was a disaster. Because of delays at the transport bases it took nearly five hours to land everyone and the air support fighters had already headed home, since the transports were late. The Rethymnon landing went terribly, the Germans held nothing of strategic value and losses were heavier that at Maleme and Canea. The most Rethymnons attackers could hope to do was to keep reinforcements from getting through to Maleme. Heraklion as the most costly drop of the entire day. As soon as they touched down the airborne troops were met by enemy fire. In one case the Australians managed to set fire to a barley field and when the Germans ran from the flames, slaughtered them by the dozen. Many paratroopers were dead before they even set foot on the ground. Nearly two thirds of the assault force at Heraklion lay dead or wounded by nightfall. At nightfall it looked like the Germans attack on Crete would fail. As long as the British held the hill overlooking Maleme airfield, reinforcements could not be landed. The British sent reinforcements to help hold the hill, but when they failed to arrive the holding force withdrew. When the reinforcements met up with their retreating comrades the British commander continued to withdraw anyway. That single error handed the Germans the key to the battle. That night the Germans, discovering the hill to be deserted, took up positions with hope of being able to land reinforcements first thing in the morning. The Germans were to pay dearly for this small advantage. That night while trying to land troops by sea the Germans were attacked by the Royal Navy and one officer and fifty-one men were all that survived out of two battalions. On the beginning of the 21st it looked as if it would do no better than on the first day. A few transport planes were crash landed with supplies and ammunition, but no troops could be landed because of constant artillery fire. Just after noon a battalion of Germans, led by the formidable Oberst Hermann Bernhard Ramke, parachuted into Maleme. Two of his companies landed on British positions and were massacred, but the other two landed on target and the guns were soon silenced. At approximately 4:00 pm reinforcements stated to land, along with supplies and weapons, and the Germans soon expanded their hold giving themselves some breathing room. Meanwhile at Heraklion another attempt was being made at securing the airfield, this attack was soon repelled by over 8,000 troops with artillery support. Luckily for the German troops the attack was called off and they were instructed just to keep enemy reinforcements from heading west toward Rethymnon. They were however able to capture a hill which contained some enemy artillery positions. By the time night fell on the 21st German troops were in considerably better shape than they had been when the day began. From here things got a lot better. By the 24th General Freyberg, Commander of Allied Forces on Crete, had given up all hope of holding the island and by the 27th the evacuation to Egypt was started. On the 28th a group of paratroopers, scraped together from the Maleme attack force, dropped on Heraklion only to discover that its defenders had abandoned it. On the 29th the Germans started back toward Rethymnon and while preparing to attack found out that the reinforcements from Maleme had already taken 1,200 of this airfields Australian defenders prisoner, all that was left was to clean up. Most of the defenders were now enroute to or at the port of Sphakia and many had already been evacuated by the Royal Navy. General Freyberg succeeded in evacuating over 17,000 of his men to Egypt. The few defenders who missed the evacuation escaped into the mountains and soon joined forces with local partisan groups. By May 31st the evacuation was complete and except for a few random hill skirmishes Crete was in German hands. The overall battle had been a success but Hitler was outraged that such a large number of British troops had been allowed to escape. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gameplay ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is a historical map from Nemesis and Rickochet. The battle is based on the intensive infantry battle of the second day of Operation Merkur - the invasion of Crete. The Germans are poised to take possession of the Maleme Airfield and the Allies are regrouping to mount a defence. Where possible the weapon deployments match those of the real engagement although concessions have been made for more balanced gameplay This map is expressly designed for top end systems - eye candy abounds! Sounds, effects, trees, rocks, props and wrecks are everywhere - even outside the main battle area. Consequently low end machines will need to alter their settings to accommodate the heavy computer load. We run the map on 2.0GHz P4, 256Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce 4, SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 driven by the kXProject driver. BF1942 video settings maxed out but environment mapping off as it induces a very occasional stutter, 44kHz high detail sound, Coop mode with 32 bots at 78% AI skills using 16% of CPU time. The truck is a vital piece of equipment for rearmament and health, but it is also extremely vulnerable - protect it well or you will be in for a long walk to find ammo and health. It possesses special features however, that may make it an expendable item in certain situations! The Universal Carrier (XM 1108) is heavy and bouncy but powerful and well armed. As with most vehicles it is best attacked at its predictable weakspots. Despite considerable effort we were unable to reverse the motorcycles inertia when turning and consequently they will lean to the outside of the corner - beware of fast cornering!. They are quick and agile, enabling fast attacks and sneak CP captures. Bridges are strong enough to make grenade and RPG attack pointless so place the explosive packs wisely or call in the air or naval support to destroy them and then stand back to watch the fireworks. All vehicles can be repaired as normal by engineers or the repair pad. They have extended lives when abandoned so dont recklessly leave your machinery lying around unless you want to run out, or worse, have it used against you! The Kiwi soldiers of the 28th Maori Batallion wear a tan battledress and dark trousers with the medic helmet bearing a whitewash "kiwi". They have had the chest bags and ammopouches removed for a "cleaner" look, bear a New Zealand distinguishing patch on their shoulder and a NZ Army crest on the collar. Whilst this is not totally historically accurate it lets you know where they're from! All three faces for the Kiwi soldiers have been reskinned and are recognisably, and famously, Maori in appearance. The skeleton has not been modified, however, and some discrepancies between skin and skeleton are apparent on close inspection. In keeping with their ethnicity the 1st and 3rd person hands have had the skin colour darkened and teeth have been whitened and enlarged. The German Fallschirmjager have had the tunic extended down their thighs and camouflaged to form a parachute jumpsmock, bear a Luftwaffe eagle on the right breast, the "Kreta" arm band, camouflage helmets, jump trousers, jump boots, enlisted ranks Luftwaffe belt buckle and have had their ammo pouches removed. The helmets have been remodeled to parachutist style. Since certain textures are common to soldiers of both sides the German teeth and 1st person hand share the Polynesian appearance. AI has been chosen from numerous strategies tested and offers the best aggression and sensibility that we could develop but of course still has its limitations, most noteably the naval support. Nonetheless it offers great battling for us 56k'ers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gametypes ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The map supports full Singleplayer and Coop modes, Conquest and TDM as well. SP/Coop play has an additional CP on Hill 107 to the East of Maleme to improve gameplay and broaden Bot attack strategies to utilise inland areas. Since this was achieved through merging two German parachute CP's this was left out of Conquest and TDM modes. The weaponry and position on Hill107 is still present in Conquest (and TDM) however it is NOT a CP and will not contribute to ticket bleed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Standard Vehicles: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sherman (Panzer IV) Willys BF 109 JU 87 (Spitfire) Destroyer ------------------------------------------------------------------------ New Vehicles: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Flatbed Truck - assumes the role of the APC. Provides ammo resupply and health. Accommodates driver, passenger, and four soldiers in the flatbed. No armament. XM1108 - Universal Carrier. Light armour troop transport. Accommodates driver, gunner and three soldiers in the rear. Carries an MG 42 anti-personnel machine gun and a Browning for anti-aircraft cover. Raft - Inflatable boat with outboard motor from XPack2 Secret Weapons by Dice/EA. Seats driver, 2 soldiers and gunner. Carries a Browning machine gun. (XPack2 not required) R75 - BMW motorcycle. Rapid transport adapted from XPack2 Secret Weapons. Accommodates driver and pillion passenger. No armament. XA42 - Harley Davidson motorcycle. Rapid transport adapted from XPack2 Secret Weapons. Accommodates driver and pillion passenger. No armament. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Credits ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Although most of the textures for this map have been custom made by Nemesis and Rickochet many were refined from the excellent work of other developers and we would like to thank and acknowledge them for their outstanding efforts: Textures - Rusty fence and ladders by Jingo (Stalingrad) - Rusty barbed wire by ANZACMick (Aussie Tobruk) - Allied Weapons by Orbis Factor (Allied Weapons Pack) - Fletcher by Residuum - Spitfire by SWooPER (Australian Spitfire Version 2) - Rusty Wrench by CoolCommander (CC's Rusty Pack) - Fallschirmjager by Gurki (German Fallshirmjager) - Loader Screen by Merciless Creations (Monte Cassino) Objects - Exploding Bridges by Pitmatic (Operation Chariot) Effects - Fire by Augustus (AGMTundra) Naval Pathfinding Maps - genPathmaps-1.0-beta by FourCentsShy (http://www.intergate.com/~glyph/bf1942) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Authors ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Nemesis #Email removed by DataField42# - Rickochet ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Use and Distribution ------------------------------------------------------------------------ You may distribute this map freely provided it is in the intact, compressed format (rfa) with this readme included. If you wish to use any component of this map please feel free to do so provided acknowledgement is made of its authors, Nemesis and Rickochet. If the component that you wish to use is listed above, and hence not of our creation, please contact the author directly for permission.