Just recently my attention has turned to board wargaming, which has the great virtue of enabling a game to be left in situ with a minimum disturbance to domestic life. Avalon Hill's ANZIO game, covering the course of the 2nd World War 1943-45 Italian campaign, has provided the opportunity for this foray into a new field. "A complex study in frustration" the blurb calls it -- just like the real thing. But, to a wargamer, determined to master the initially daunting intricacies of the rules, it becomes an absorbing pursuit. How to perfect a winning strategy within the demanding limitations of weather, terrain, rates of fortification, shipping shartages, diminishing replacements, and enforced withdrawals of key divisions to less forgotten fronts - that is the question. Only in the intense planning and execution of calculated risks can the answers be attained. It certainly compels a tactician to practice his art within a realistic and fairly comprehensive strategic perspective. In the campaign to date, the Germans have their work cut out to stem the onslaught of audacious, confident, and well reinforced Allied forces which never look back after making a successful initial invasion in the Rome area. Board wargames of this type add a new facet to the hobby, and, once conversant with the ground-rules, the discerning player can always modify the existing rules to eliminate what he judges to be irrational bias. He can also introduce factors neglected by the makers - e.g. no provision is made in this game for supporting naval firepower, which undoubtedly helped deter German counter-attack on the northern coastal sector of the Anzio beachhead. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 153 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1974 by Donald Featherstone. 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