Time to tackle the big one, the Italian Campaign which runs from July 1943 until September 1944. One of the more ambitious Unconditional Surrender scenarios, but hopefully this will be a bit more manageable than AHGCs 'Anzio' which used to take an age to play.
There are two main scenario options here, to start in July 1943 with Italy still in the war or start in August, with Italy out of the war. I went with the July option as I just thought it would look nice to have the map packed with Italian units! The geography and extensive use of naval operations makes this one of the most complicated scenarios.
The victory conditions are stiff, the Allies have to reduce the Axis to holding four cities or less by September 1944, which given that north of Bologna there are no less than five cities as well as two in Sardinia and Corsica, it is a tall order. If they use an amphibious invasion after June 1944, the requirement is three cities! Historically the Allies didn't breach the Gothic Line until 1945. If the Germans keep the Allies entirely out of Italy by September 1943, they immediately win, so the Allies have to attack soon.
The initial setup has US 5th Army in Tunis and 9th Airforce, the British have 8th Army and the RAF in the Central med. Both armies are armoured. The British also have three garrison armies, and both the USAAF and RAF have a couple of sorties on them. I realised later that the various British 'garrison armies' are actually supposed to represent the various allied contingent Corps (Poles, French etc) and combined with the two British tank unit attachments are actually quite powerful when reinforced albeit without the staying power of a full army.
The Italians have around ten ground units around Italy including two in the mobilisation box, and a rather battered air unit on Catania in Sicily. The Germans main units are 8th and 10th Armies in Rome and Taranto respectively, plus a couple of garrison units in the north with another in the mobilisation box. A rather battered Luftwaffe unit is based in Naples, in range of Sicily, Taranto etc.
There are lots of restrictions on where naval invasions can take place on this map, which are listed separately with diagrams. The Allies can't simply sail from Tunis to Venice! The approach needs to be more step by step. The biggest restriction is that on the western coast of Italy they can only land around Genoa or Naples as otherwise the Axis garrison requirements would be enormous.
There is an awful lot of stuff going on with events, reinforcements etc. Both the Germans and Italians have 'tanks' events (there arent any German panzer armies) although the German tanks are withdrawn later on. A special rule is that destroyed German units go straight into the mobilisation box so they can be reactivated the same turn. The Germans get another field army later in 1943 (the 4th).
The Allies start with two invasions, a paradrop, tanks plus Ultra and Free Forces events. The British invasion is single use whereas the US one comes back after four turns. There is another US invasion on the reinforcement track, plus 7th US Army and 12th Army Air Force. The provision of all the invasion counters mean the Allies can continuously threaten amphibious landings.
From June 1944, resources available to both sides drop markedly as resources are devoted to the D Day invasion. Both the British and Germans get limited production per turn thereafter, and the Germans lose their 'tanks' event.
I spent some time thinking about attack options for the Allies (and re reading the rules on amphibious invasions). While it was tempting to go for Taranto, it is essential to knock out Italy on the first turn which requires taking two Italian cities. Sicily was the obvious choice as it is air range of both the British and US. I'm using the fixed historical weather as it is so crucial to the course of the campaign, which mean July, August and September 1943 are clear weather.
The operation started with the USAAF and RAF attacking the German and Italian airfields. The RAF had mixed success but the US did very well. After repeated strikes both Axis air units were rendered inoperable.
8th Army then landed west of Catania, with air support they assaulted the German garrison unit and eliminated it. The various bonuses made this a fairly likely result.
Eagle eyed readers may notice that a German unit has arrived at Salerno. It moved down there in the strategic movement phase which happens for both sides before the operations phase.
US 5th Army did much the same thing at Palermo, although this time the US were fighting Italians. Both Allies committed their air forces to ground support to increase the combat differential. I didn't use the paras as I had other ideas for them.
With Palermo and Catania captured, Italy surrendered and all the Italian units were removed. I'd forgotten to use the Italian tanks in the battle for Palermo, but their intervention wouldn't have changed the result.
In a bold move the Allied paras dropped into Caglieri on Sardinia. They siezed control of the port and the British shipped in 9th Army who could clear Corsica and Sardinia, while providing a handy airbase for operations against Northern Italy.
In the production phase the Germans rebuilt their destroyed garrison units in Northern Italy, they will have to figure out how to defend the entire peninsular with five units next turn!
The Allies couldnt invade in August (the next 'surprise attack' event is in September) so the Germans sent 10th Army to block easy access to the toe of Italy and sent three garrison armies to defend Genoa, Trieste and Venice. These are all pretty safe as they are out of Allied air range, whereas the Luftwaffe moved north of Rome to give them air cover. 8th Army and a garrison defended Naples and Monte Cassino. I'll worry about defending Salerno next turn when the invasion threat reopens.
The Allies kept two units on Malta to threaten invasions in the Adriatic and south coast while rebuilding their airforces. British 9th 'Army' completed the occupation of Sardinia and Corsica, ending up on a port to threaten Genoa. Otherwise August was quite quiet.
September was the last turn of good summer weather and the Germans concentrated on the defence of the Bay of Naples with two field and one garrison army. Taranto and Bari were abandoned (but still Axis controlled).
The British simply occupied the ports on the southern coast and sea transported a garrison unit in as well. The US pushed up by land as far as Salerno but didn't have the MP left to attack. The Allies also moved another unit by sea into Catania but kept a 'floating reserve' in Malta.
In October the weather turned to 'poor', reducing the effect of armour and air and restricting units to assault combat only. The Germans occupied the Gustav Line along the Rapido and Sangro rivers with 8th and 10th Armies, but left a garrison unit in Naples.
The Allies used their 'surprise attack' to amphibiously assault Naples, supported by all the adjacent Allied units to get extra combat bonuses. Now what I SHOULD have done was use the surprise attack for a land assault, as it gives you a +2 combat modifier, but in all the excitement I completely forget...
The Allied attack failed by a very fine margin and Naples held out. The Allies have now got their air units based on mainland Italy, but still too far south to be able to support attacks at the top of the Med. They do keep hammering the Luftwaffe however, and generally the Allies have air superiority now.
November had a brief gasp of good weather and the US conducted a ground assault against Naples. The Germans threw in their tanks and the attack was defeated. Naples continued to hold out. 8th Army occupied eastern Italy as far north as the Sangro, Allied air could relocate to Foggia in future turns.
The weather in December was 'severe' so both sides contented themselves with rebuilding their air forces and shuffling units around a bit. In the main it was stalemate on the Gustav Line. Another German field army (4th) had arrived, so with the Allies getting closer, it was sent to garrison Venice.
In January 1944 however, the weather cleared a bit and 8th Army conducted an amphibious assault on Trieste! The USAAF suppressed the Luftwaffe and the RAF supported the attack. Once again the Germans threw in their armour and once again the invasion failed. Dear me!
February was more ineffective slogging on the Gustav Line in poor weather. Naples continued to hold out against assault.
March saw the arrival of more US aircraft as another airforce marker turned up. They sea transported to Corsica where they could cover northern Italy. The allies now outnumbered the German 3:1 in the air.
The Allies conducted another assault on Naples which failed once again. It was starting to look fairly hopeless for the Allies at this point.
However the British conducted another amphibious assault in the Adriatic, aimed at Venice. The Luftwaffe was completely crippled by the USAAF so unable to intervene whereas as the British threw in the RAF, tanks and an Ultra Intelligence event. As before German armour raced to intervene.
But this time It wasn't enough and the Allies got ashore. Well, that is a turn up.
In April the weather was still poor but German 4th Army moved out from Trieste and conducted a counterattack supported by the Luftwaffe, German armour and support (assault) attacks by the two adjacent garrison armies. The Allies threw in everything they had, including those very useful British tank events. The German attack failed.
The Allies responded ferociously. The US assaulted Naples (again) but this time overran the garrison and captured the city. 8th Army assaulted the Sangro sector of the Gustav Line and pushed German 8th Army back. The icing on the cake was that the last Allied floating reserve assaulted and took Trieste, incidentally isolating German 4th Army who were now completely cut off.
The isolated Germans dropped to 'low supply'.
Time marches on. Heaps of casualties in the eliminated boxes and lots of events to come on the time track.
The weather cleared in May and would remain fair until September. The trapped 4th Army tried to break out west via Venice and once more both sides threw in every support element they could muster. This was the last turn the Germans could use their 'tanks' event as in June they would lose it as Normandy attracted Hitlers attention.
The Allies broke through the Gustav Line decisively now. The US advanced to the gates of Rome while 8th Army pursued (German) 8th Army up the Adriatic coast where it halted south of Bologna. The Axis now held only five cities, if they were reduced to four they would lose, so were forced to fight for Rome. The newly arrived US 7th Army (armoured) was sea transported into Venice, along with a US air wing.
In the logistics phase, the trapped German 4th Army remained unsupplied and was removed. The Allies now controlled the entire stretch of land from Venice to Trieste. A reorganised German garrison unit occupied Zagreb to keep the supply route from Germany open.
In June the Germans reorganised their defences as best as they could, the real risk was that with its flank hanging open, Rome could be isolated (with a hefty negative combat modifier). The partially rebuilt 4th Army appeared west of Milan, a garrison unit moved down to support the LOC of the Rome garrison (you can see it in the next photo) and German 8th Army garrisoned Bologna.
It was all too little too late however, as British 8th Army launched a fairly speculative attack against Bologna to isolate it from the south - if it failed 7th US Army would attack it. In the event 8th Army rolled 6:2 and with all the various force modifiers, it was enough to push the Germans out and Bologna fell.
Only holding Axis four cities in June 1944 was an immediate Allied win, and I didn't need to play the July - September turns. Well that was a turn up, just like the North Africa game, the Axis held out for months then collapsed in the last few turns. I really enjoyed that and I appreciated the subtlety of the scenario design after playing a few turns, even if it was weighed down the many, many special rules to cover the peculiarities of the campaign. Yes I made some mistakes with the rules (again) and operational decisions (again) but it was still and enjoyable and challenging game. Another scenario with lots of replay value.
tbh the level of abstraction is so high with this game system it does often feel as if you are playing the system rather than a strategic game, but it does give a flavour of strategic decision making and I now completely appreciate how important the capture of airbases was to further an advance and what a huge advantage command of the sea was for the Allies. I'm just kicking myself that I didn't use one of the 'surprise attack' events ot mount a 1000 bomber raid on the Gustav Line to break the deadlock there! Maybe next time.
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