Here are a few scenes from the first days of the invasion.
The American beachheads on July 10th, 1943. 3rd ID, a Ranger battalion and some engineers have landed at Licata in the west, the 1st ID at Gela in the center, and 45th ID around Scoglini to the southeast. The 82nd Airborne has landed inland from the Gela beachhead to screen the landings from the high ground to the north. This is more or less the historical disposition of the landings.
And here are the British 8th Army landings. The Canadian 1st and British 51st Infantry land on the Pachino Peninsula and will advance on Ragusa to link up with the Americans. The 50th and 5th Infantry land close to Avota and will move to take Syracuse.
Right away, the Italians counter-attack. The troopers of the 82nd hold the line.
After the 3rd ID clears Licata, the 1st ID and Darby's Rangers take Gela.
By D-Day+2 Axis troops are concentrating on the high ground above the Gela coastal plain. Here the Big Red One and elements of the 82nd engage an Italian Infantry regiment supported by three Mobile Groups of armor. Concentrating your forces is essential to have any hope of a decisive combat, but you can't strip too many troops away from your defensive line to do so.
Meanwhile 50th Infantry assaults Syracuse with the support of significant artillery.
The British and American beachheads are about to link up south of Ragusa. XIII Corps is poised to advance north against Augusta and Catania.
The advance of 8th Army has been essentially unopposed so far and is more or less conforming to how things went historically. On the American side I've concentrated my divisions much closer together than was actually the case due to my concern about the Axis troops massing to the north. I've probably over compensated and would be better off swinging 3rd ID out to the west and 45th ID more toward Ragusa as actually happened.
I'd say that so far Battles in Italy is accomplishing exactly what I wanted. The scale is just right for understanding the overall operation. I'm playing at about the speed I'm reading, making the game very nice for helping me visualize what's going on in Bitter Victory.
Why oh why does the game have to have such an atrocious GUI? :( I wanted to check it out a year or three ago, but I was simply turned away by this...
ReplyDeleteAfter playing for a few hours and a couple of glances at the manual, I can say that it isn't as bad as it looks. Like you the UI and over-busy map put me off for years. Once you get used to it though, it works. I'd be harsher in my judgement if the game had been released this year, but for something almost a decade old, it's turned out to be more playable than I thought.
DeleteI know lots of people complain about Matrix prices, myself included. Given the game is from 2005, is it worth the $40 download in your opinion? interface aside, the naval, land mix is interesting. Also how does it handle airpower?
ReplyDeleteChris, it's actually a really good game that models WWII combat at this level pretty well. Airpower is handled in a pretty abstract way: you have a certain amount of air interdiction missions that you can place each turn, and a certain number of airstrikes each turn that you can add into ground combats. The air interdiction missions cover multiple hexes and cost enemy units action points, making them move more slowly and possibly keeping them from attacking. The ground attack missions contribute positive column shifts to the CRT to be used for that combat. Very much a 70's-80's board game approach.
DeleteIs it worth $40? Probably, if you're interested in the major operations of the Italian campaigns. The game scenarios cover not just Sicily but Salerno and Anzio as well, and there's an editor. There are a number of player created scenarios available on the SSG web site, and to my amazement there seems to be an active player community.
There's no way you'll get the replay value out of it you get from Command Ops or Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm or CMFI. If you create new scenarios you won't see the distribution you're seeing for your Command Ops scenarios. If it's a choice of $40 on this or $40 on something more recent you've been wanting I'd be hesitant to get this. There's more to this game than meets the eye, but unless like me you just really want something covering this exact theatre and time period at this scale, you might regret the purchase.
Thanks Doug. I saw there is a Normandy one also that looked interesting. I think I might get this or Normandy. I've also been eyeing decisive campaigns Warsaw to Paris
ReplyDeleteNow that I've played this I'm almost certainly going to pick up Normandy. I'm planning a trip there in June, and while I have a decent idea of the American part of the campaign, I've never really studied the British campaign. As good as this has been for understanding Operation Husky, I imagine the Normandy will be as useful for Overlord.
DeleteI have DC:WtP. Like Case Blue, it's a great game.