After Crete, Malta, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria, but always in Mediterranean Sea, Vance Von Borries goes to Sicily and the Allied landing of 1943. The game published by GMT is a simulation using a scale of 3 days a turn, battalion-regiment counters and with 5.5 miles hexes. The map shows all the Sicily with its very rough and mountainous terrain and the different landing sites; but also the south of the Italian boot: Calabria. In fact, historically, the Allies concentrated on Sicily to secure the Mediterranean, but without any more strategical thought. The designer suggests an interesting "what-if" with the different plans to invade both Sicily and Calabria. Of course this is more complicated for the Axis, but more interesting for the Allies, and requires deeper thought from everybody. The game is ziplocked with one standard map, one countersheet and two booklets: first for the rules and second for the scenarios and game replay. Four scenarios are given: the first one is a learning scenario with the US landing in Gela, the second one to recreate the historical events, the third and fourth to explore hypothetical situations on both sides of Messina Sound. The game progress All the scenarios last 14 turns (with the exception of the first one just for training). The sequence of play is very classical with movement-combat, sandwiched between a strategical and a reorganisation phase. Each turn begins with the strategical phase for both sides: one political sequence for the fall of Mussolini, one sequence to determine state of supply and after that the Allied Play can start. The Allied Player begins by transporting troops by boat between Africa and his controlled ports, next he moves his units, then he fights; after combat a motorised exploitation phase is available. The German player does the same and a reorganisation closes the turn. During this phase, replacements can arrive and engineers can perform destruction and repair of ports, and the construction of strongpoints for Axis. Each unit has five values on the counter: attack, defence, movement, stacking and effectiveness. The effectiveness is used like a morale check to decide the success some actions; the units need to roll less or equal than its number. The counter indicates also units without ZOCs, those that are motorised or armoured. Most of the units have two faces, the back is the reduced one after a loss. Each nationality has his colour, and the counters are pleasant and readable. All the graphics are good and worthy of GMT. Allied Problems The Allied player, in spite of his theoretical firepower, will have big problems in his action to liberate the island. Indeed, despite the low number of German troops, and the low quality of Italian troops, drawbacks will be experienced. First, chronologically, is the landing itself. If the action is easy because nobody is present on the beaches, it can be blocked quickly because of the rugged countryside and the slowness of the troops. After its landing, a unit needs to pass an efficiency test to move half its movement factor, say one hex or two. In addition, the follow-up troops are few and you need to protect the precious beach units to assure your supply. All of this guarantees a small beachhead, quickly blocked by Axis units rushing to hold the line or counter-attack. The second drawback that is soon experienced is supply or rather its rarity. The rule looks like Fortress Europa, where each port gives some supply points, each of which supply one counter. The mechanism is clumsy because every turn you need to count each counter and the distance between them and the port, to choose those which will not eat. I think a system like Longest Day would have been better, with supply given by division with headquarter counters. Here poor or reduced troops will never have supply, and the players select best troops from each division to make kampfgruppen or battlegroups. As Allied player cannot supply everybody, he must make brutal choices; and it gets worse when the storm arrives (8 or more on D10 each turn), because supply is cut in half. Lastly, the next drawback is troop quality. Each counter has a quality level to define its effectiveness. Often, Allied units are poor, with effectiveness less than 6, while German troop range between 6 and 8. Given that, difference effectiveness between enemies is a dice modifier for combats, and that this effectiveness is checked for defensive reaction before attack, and on other occasions during the turn; a poor effectiveness is no help to conquering the island. The only advantage for the Allied is the number of units, and their air and naval power. German Advantages For its part, the Axis player, has less units, but has some big advantages, which are very useful in resisting the Allied invasion. First of these advantages is the terrain itself. Sicily is a volcanic island, with very tortuous terrain. There is little country for mechanised units, and only few roads to cross the island. It is very easy to organise a powerful defence around communication axes and rough terrain. Even if the defence line is not totally foolproof, terrain and ZOC crossing costs will be sufficient to block Allied troops. The Allied Play will have to clear German roadblocks allowing the historical fighting withdrawal. This can be improved with audacious overruns or by changing landing sites (with scenarios 3 and 4), but interior lines and the opportunities to establish roadblocks will always be there. The second advantage is the troop quality, with very good combat factors and effectiveness for all German troops, combined with motorised movement. These two qualities allow him to move fast and strike hard in attack, and to refuse combat or reinforce a position in defence. Imagine a small Italian unit, attacked by a big armoured column, with an 8-1 ratio and -3 to the die, a successful reaction roll and all the Hermann Goering is here, downing the ratio to 1-1 and +1 to the die. The principles are the same as other games of the designer such as Operation Mercury. Of course German panzers cannot be everywhere, but the road configuration and their speed make them seem to be ubiquitous. With two or three powerful stacks, German can seriously threaten Allied beachheads and frighten an over-confident Allied player. Italian troops hold the line with their poor values and Germans are used in attack to kill everything small and in defence two hexes behind the front, to reinforce Italians attacked. Of course something can go wrong and attrition will exert its effect, but this can take a long time. In fact, it is time for German to evacuate Sicily when no more Italians are available! Scenario 2 Historical Tempo Scenario 2 begins 9th July with operation Husky II and closes 19th August with - normally - the fall of Messina. Allied forces are split in two parts: in the South West, Americans around the port of Gela and, South East, Commonwealth (Anglo-Canadians) near Syracuse. The English boys rush along the coast to Messina, capturing Catania and along the volcano of Mount Etna. US boys instead, hold the German forces and take the rest of the island; Palermo (and the Mafia), Agrigento and the temple. The game often finishes with an Allied marginal victory; hard to do better as the designer says in his notes. Scenarios 3 and 4: What-if... Once the rules are assimilated with the historical scenario, it is time to explore alternative history with both the last scenarios. Firstly, the Allied player has more options to explore. He can execute two landings, one in Sicily with two alternatives (Husky I and II) and one in Calabria, with three choices (Baytown, Buttress and Goblet). In Scenario 3 the first landing must be in Sicily, but in Scenario 4 you can select. In both cases, things are much harder for the German because he must reallocate his resources between a very exposed Calabria, and a Sicily that cannot be evacuated to Italy if the Allies are already there. Husky I, in west Sicily, is interesting to explore because it is easier to succeed, but it is a long way to Messina... The landings in Calabria gather very few troops and are only here to grab some Victory Points and block some German reinforcements; but it can become a bloodbath for both, especially for the Allied player if the axis player gets some good units back from Sicily. Interesting to explore theoretically, but less fun in practise! Conclusion: A Serious Game Invasion Sicily is a very interesting game with good operational rules to simulate WWII actions in some detail. The game recreates successfully the history with lots of choices for both sides. The difference with, for instance the situation in France 44, is that here the Allies are not supermen with everything working for them. Here they need to earn their passage with hard fighting. The game is also interesting for the Germans because they have good troops and possibilities to slow the enemies. The more serious problem is the lacking of historical narrative. Of course, you have a good bibliography but nothing to understand directly what you are busy recreating. I had to search in my old issues of S&T to find something consistent (two games on the subject), to understand events and found I made the same moves with my troops as my historical counterparts. So, in my opinion, the simulation is realistic! Back to Perfidious Albion #98 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com