Coming Soon!

No Retreat! The Italian Front will be released soon! I have been very busy with the details of the design work and haven’t been able to spend much time online telling you all about its peculiarities and qualities. So please, let me correct this lapse today.

Why This Game?

This is the fourth game in my “No Retreat!” series, which premiered with No Retreat: The Russian Front, my favorite WWII topic. This was followed by the North African Front (1940-43) game. The third was about the French Front (1940), published by Victory Point Games, and currently on GMT’s P500 list as No Retreat: The French and Polish Fronts, with the Polish campaign added in for this version. My initial goal was to make just the first NR! game, but things got out of hand and I was somehow goaded into adding more and more titles to the list. My goal right now is to make five games total, the final one covering the West Front (1943-45). This series is a tribute to the old Avalon Hill “Classics”: NR1 = Russian Campaign, NR2 = Afrika Korps, NR3 = France 40, NR4 = Anzio, NR5 = D-Day. We now are at number four: The Italian Campaign.

Ever since playing “Anzio” as a young teen in the late 70’s, I was fascinated by this grueling campaign, where an irresistible force (the Allied war machine) met an immovable object (the German defensive expertise) in a long, frustrating battle for both sides. I embarked into this project with much trepidation, because to do the situation justice will require that this title will be the most complex of the NR! line. I found out that there have been precious few wargames that fully portray the whole front from 1943 to 1945, and probably for good reason. There were few exciting breakthroughs; the battle lines were short and linear, with long lull periods punctuated by a few weeks of intense activity. Yep, it has all the ingredients for the making of a predictable, long, boring game, and it’s maybe why very few designers got really interested in the topic. But this is exactly the type of simulation I think the “No Retreat!” game system can cover well; hopefully you’ll find that I have succeeded in making it fun, relatively fast, and full of interesting options and surprises.

Inner Workings

I found that the few existing simulation of scale/topic had an inordinate number of Game-Turns, seemingly taking forever to play; or too little, not simulating well the frontline dynamics. I tackled this by using relatively few turns for a game of this scope, each lasting a month. This is a large chunk of time compared to the ground (10 miles per hex) and unit (divisions) scale, but players can declare a “Major Offensive” during some turns, segmenting the one-month long turn into smaller one-week “mini-turns” that will see a lot more action.  Other turns will be played in a few minutes if using the new “Attrition” Rules, neatly taking care of the inevitable lulls in the campaign. The unit counter count is very low— a trademark of the NR! series. This also speeds up play, and makes each decision critical. The combat system is  similar to that of my very first game : “The Russian Front”, but with notable differences in some of the combat results;  some of you may have noticed that the ground and unit scale is the same as the second game of the series: “The North African Front.” I have “spiced” things up, adding more options into the Combat Tables, making months-long slugging matches in the mud, trying to breach the “impregnable” German mountain defenses, into a lively wargame challenge. As with the other No Retreat! titles, there will be no “sure thing” in this game, and the successful player will be the one able to best manage the chaos of the battlefield!

The Event card play is also improved with a new set of special icons making it easy to see at a glance the capabilities and timing options of each card, the Event texts were also streamlined. Sea Invasions make an entry into the NR! rule set this time, simulating in a simple but effective way the many complex amphibious operations that made this campaign so fascinating. I have also added in a 3-player option that in fact speeds up play and is really fun, especially when combined with the flip-flop side-switching rule. But all in all, if you have ever played any of the other NR! Games, you’ll feel right at home.

Event Cards

The Event card “engine” is the very heart of the game. Players simply never know what sneaky card their opponent might play on them. Consequently, perfect planning of moves or attacks is never entirely possible. For example, can you afford to temporarily weaken your line, or will your adversary be able to play a Major Offensive card allowing him to fully exploit the weakness during the now multiple-weeks turn, thus creating an unexpected breakthrough?

Event cards are an excellent indicator of the tactical and strategic resources a player has at his disposal; if you start your Player Turn with a large card hand, lots of “Reserve” markers, and your opponent has none, then things are potentially very good for you! The cards you have in reserve represent energy you can spend, not only using the main card Events, but also the all-important “alternate uses” of the cards, that are always playable at all times,  paying for replacements, counterblows, Strategic Moves, etc. With a low card count, your options are limited; sure, a player can still “get by”  while holding only a card or two and no Reserve markers, but the game’s battle initiative is probably being held by the opponent who is holding more!

Leader Cards

When the NR4 game system was laid out I intended to use the same type of “Plan” cards that made an appearance in NR3 “The French Front”: each player picks/draws a special card at the start of the game, giving him specific High Command goals to achieve at set times in the Campaign, earning special Victory Points. Alas, I rapidly came to the realization that both sides did very little, if any, long-term planning besides getting the Italians rapidly out of the war (Allies) and defending the industrial north of the peninsula at all costs (Germans)! In fact, both succeeded in their own main endeavor, and the rest of the campaign was more of a “and what do we do now, sir?” improvisation in planning. So that original “Plan Card” concept was scrapped. Instead I put more emphasis on the Commanders actually in charge, their abilities, and influence on the overall situation, also making for some other fun “what-if” variations in the Orders of Battle (what if Rommel was in charge of the whole front, or Montgomery staying in Italy?).

Counterblows

What does the “counterblow” rule represent? We wanted players to have some ability to act when it is their opponent’ s turn and to reward the careful management of the precious Event cards. Players need to plan the use of their “counterblows” for local spoiling counterattacks/moves launched in reaction to the enemy offensives. We did not go as far as to allow an actual attack by the defender (this is what players should do on their own turns), but it’s close. And because your troops are leaving their positions to engage the enemy, they lose their defensive terrain benefits—thus, some risk is involved in launching a counterblow. It is a good idea to use this rule to quickly wipe out pockets of surrounded enemy units, and to allow your units a chance to advance during your opponent’s turn (if a “CA” result is rolled, and followed up with a successful counterattack of your own). you can also use it to put pressure on enemies on hard-to-take difficult terrain, fortifications, lowering their defensive advantages, or even as an end-run advance. A counterblow can also happen by a CRT result, to be resolved next turn, representing a drawn-out engagement. There are myriad possibilities for a well-timed counterblow, but alas all of this fancy footwork often has a cost in Event cards, and you never have enough of those!

Combat Results

The Combat Results Tables are a bit unusual. As an attacker, even at lower odds, you do not suffer many losses (save for the occasional “EX” result), but you could get a “CA” or “CR” result, and that opens some interesting possibilities. It gives your opponent the option/ obligation of counterattacking and possibly upsetting your position—thus making it easier for them to charge at you during your opponent’s upcoming Player Turn. Alternatively, on a CA result your opponent might simply “pass” the opportunity to counterattack and opt to simply play it safe and stay on the defensive. The tables are also more tailored for the counterblow rule with a new “CB” sub-table added for more variation of that combat result. Upon study of the two odds-based different CRTs, you will notice subtle differences between them that have a substantial impact on how to play each side. The tables were also tweaked to simulate better the harrowing “set-piece battle” engagements of the Italian Campaign, the increased importance of firepower support and of the small scale unit’s tactical abilities.

Attrition

I strongly recommend using the Advanced Rules’ “Attrition” table. This was added to this title to be used for the frequent “lull” turns of this; it not only speeds up play, but is a pretty good historical representation of the long stretch of inactivity seen by both sides, especially during bad weather. The “regular” combat tables will portray the same, but will demand more of that precious playtime. Attrition will make the Germans sweat some more and use some of his precious Reserves in keeping the integrity of his front line, stopping the Allies getting good “jump off” points for their next Major offensive: use it!

Some History

This is not the place for me to explain in full detail this riveting campaign. There are excellent books out there that do it better justice, but here are some historical facts that I think stand out and show that this was not a mere “side show”:

• The conflict on the Italian front spanned over 22 months, and the Allied Armies suffered over 310,000 casualties; in comparison the Northwest Europe battles caused about 766,000 casualties.
• The number of troops landed in Sicily during “Operation Husky” rivals the number landed on D-Day in Normandy, in fact a case could be made that it was slightly larger.
• The German losses were even higher than the Allies’, even when mostly defending in strong mountain positions: Their overwhelming firepower, in artillery and aircraft accounts in part for this (German Russian Front veterans often told it was far worse to be under a British Artillery Bombardment than anything they endured from the Soviet Army) but the German Army’s tactic of defense by aggressive counter-attacks also cause the extra casualties.
• Given the disproportionate difference between both sides’ military resources, one can wonder how the defenders, mostly marching on foot, with few guns, low supplies, and virtually no air support could hold their own and contain two Allied armies equipped with thousands of guns, tanks, airplanes, and supplied by the industrial might of America. Yet they did!

Of course the “Forces of Democracy” prevailed in the end, but with more planning and decisiveness, perhaps the Italian Campaign could have been concluded far earlier than historically happened in favor of the Allies, putting an even bigger dent in Hitler’s crumbling empire. Or perhaps, with more resources, the Germans could have shut down for good the gates to Rome, denying access to the peninsula up to the bitter end. I hope that this little game helps you find out how and why things happened the way they did in Italy in 1943-45, and what could have happened if the Generals in charge had acted differently. To paraphrase a famous Avalon Hill game’s box blurb: “Now YOU are in command in this realistic Italian Campaign game”. 

Even if your Armies are crumbling, supplies missing, and troops deserting; hang on Commander, as there is No Retreat!

Author: Carl Paradis