Tuesday, August 10, 2021

From Salerno to Rome - Conclusion

With still three months/turns to go, but now with a knowledge/better understanding of the Victory Conditions, this session came to a sudden, but not unexpected conclusion.

The New Zealanders have broken through on the east coast.
The French, with help from the Poles and Canadians have pierced the centre
and the US inflicted casualties on the west coast.

German losses are getting close to giving the Allies victory,
so it was time for them to pull back to avoid any more casualties
while attempting to repair the lines.

All focus is now on Anzio as if the Germans can take the Supply Depot hex
they will have won.

Hex duly taken after repeated bombardments.

All rather sudden and brutal.  I think VPs for losses would have been better as a cumulative total score.  This avoids the reduction of losses when units are removed or replaced.  It also gets over the point in time issue.

The supply depot only came into play with a major invasion and I'm not sure Anzio was worth the trouble.

However a most interesting and challenging simulation of this campaign.


6 comments:

  1. Is this one of the GMT Dark Valley series? Too lazy to go back through the blog to find out. Looks interesting. Cheers, Mike

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    Replies
    1. It's not by GMT. It's from an Italian publisher Dissimula Edizioni

      More info on Boardgamegeek:https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/280162/salerno-rome-world-war-ii-italian-campaign-1943-19

      I would certainly recommend it for the period.

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    2. Thanks kindly, looks very tempting. Cheers, Mike

      Delete
  2. It seems a bizarre way to end, with the allies nearly winning on the major part of the peninsular. Failure at salerno might have made the normandy landing plans more cautious but not materially changed the outcome in italy.

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  3. Mr Artillery clarified off-line that he meant Anzio.

    Yes, I think it is just there for game balance. I felt that I was doing well as the Allies. Whether it was historical progress/losses I don't know. I think some of these games deserve multilayered victory levels. GMT's Holland'44 is another example of where game mechanics can distort play.

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  4. Yes i think victory conditions in historical games should always reflect the participants historical aims.The destruction of the beach head would be a great propaganda victory but the aim was the defence of the italian peninsula. Nevertheless if it was fun to play thats the important thing!

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