A solitaire replay of the Basic Game of _Anzio_, started August 17, 1979 and finished the next day. ------- Dave Bieksza // "Peace Through Superior Firepower" bieksza@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu // ST:TNG, _The_Arsenal_of_Freedom_ ------- Returning to the problem of how to stop an Allied invasion at Termoli, the Germans saw five good places to station the 16 Panzer Division. In hexes V-48 and X-47 the division cramped expansion of the south end of the beachhead and posed a serious threat to destroy the port facilities in Termoli during construction. In hex U-47 the division was tripled in defense, and it occupied a terrain feature that normally became a No Man's Land (the Allied Initial Lift could move adjacent). Hex U-45 was not as vulnerable as first believed, because the Allied Initial Lift could not surround the position; the location's advantage was a severe constriction of the northern end of the beachhead. Finally, hex V-42 prevented the Allied Initial Lift from securing a bridgehead across the Sangro River, thus protecting the city of Pescara. Since control of Pescara pertained to the Victory Conditions, the 16 Panzer deployed in this hex. Five British divisions and U.S. rangers landed at the Termoli beach. Overreacting to the presence of the beachhead, the Germans encircled the Tommies with nearly their entire army. The fixation on halting the expansion of the beachhead led the Germans to place as much of their forces as possible on or behind doubling terrain. In consequence, the Nazis facing the South End Allies were one division short. And part of the defenses were held by two armored replacement regiments, on a mountain behind the Sangro River. The U.S. 3 and 45 Infantry Divisions came ashore and joined a 3-1 attack on the replacements which gained a foothold over the river. The Nazi defense loosened up considerably, partly to contain this advance and partly to release a division for the corps in the south. A major mistake was in not replacing the 16 Panzer Division, now no longer doubled by the Sangro, with a stronger unit . The Allies attacked at 3-1 odds and inflicted a whopping three Steps in losses. The dazed survivors retired behind the Pescara River and the Hermann Goering Division filled the gap in the line. Although Pescara was now liberated, the panzer parachute division held a toehold south of the river which posed a long-term threat to the city's security. An Allied attack pushed it away and secured a toehold north of the river. To stretch the defenders even thinner, the Allies continued to attack. A fight with the 16 Panzer reduced it to a cadre (inverted status) and almost destroyed it frontally. Then the Hermann Goering Division was forced to retreat into High Apennine terrain; it was *December* before the Hermann Goering could be relieved by a replacement regiment, rebuilt to full strength, and recommitted to the fighting. The Allied line extended to the Tordino River, an excellent cushion for the defense of Pescara. But the length of the line meant that U.S. paratroopers and rangers had to occupy static positions. The situation in the south was equally favorable to the Allies. As mentioned previously, the Germans lacked a division to seal off the peninsula completely. Led by Canadian infantry, Western troops from Messina penetrated as far as the headwaters of the Agri River. With a third division the Germans established their line, but could not prevent the Frascati Panzergrenadier Brigade, on the mountain behind the Basento (stationed there to prevent a repetition of the Allied breakout in the previous game), from being cut off. So the Luftwaffe troops joined the Nebelwerfers on a mountain on Route 96 and ersatz regiments screened the exit from Taranto. By a terrible oversight, a gap was left near the Ofanto River. The Allies concentrated for a decisive blow in the east. All the Messina forces smashed the replacement unit behind the Basento and exploited with Breakthrough Movement, contacting the two brigades on Route 96 and a panzer division outside of Potenza. At the same time a U.S. division and a British brigade appeared near the Ofanto and attacked more replacements. But the two-thirds chance of generating Breakthrough Movement failed to materialize, so the Allies missed surrounding the two brigades. Even so, the Nazis were forced to yield much territory, and during the first week of October the ring around the beachhead was broken to establish a long line across the peninsula. It wasn't until November that the Allies followed suit, being short of units themselves. When the weather turned to mud, the strong units north of the Pescara River were withdrawn and the southern Allied army attacked the replacements near Eboli. Unexpected Breakthrough Movement forced a panzer division to abandon Salerno. Now if the Allies could liberate Naples they would again be victorious. The focal point for the struggle was the mountains east of the city. Using a strong attack against a weak defender and a diversionary attack against a strong defender Allied units managed to remain adjacent to both. The Germans craftily counterattacked the Canadians and actually forced them to retreat. Unfortunately, the 26 Panzer Division was badly damaged in a diversionary attack. The Allies shifted over to this unit and forced it to retreat, thus gaining a foothold in the mountains. Before long the Nazis were cleared out of all the mountains except Vesuvius. At the same time the Allies were enjoying success just to the north. A corps led by the U.S. 3 and 45 Divisions destroyed the Nebelwerfers and some replacements above the crossroads outside Campobasso and used Breakthrough Movement to clear out most of that mountain chain. When a second Nazi counterattack on the forces approaching Naples was forced to retreat, this corps jumped on one of the battered divisions and in so doing cut the bridge over the Volturno at Capua. This achievement signaled the end of Allied progress. A series of 2-1 attacks on the Germans in the plain terrain outside Naples caused the attackers to retreat with heavy casualties in each case. The Germans, formerly reeling on the brink of disaster, managed to rebuild four divisions to full strength. With the arrival of December, it was clear that the Allies would have to stage an invasion. Four tough divisions lined the beaches near Rome, and a group of miscellaneous units sat on the mountain overlooking Terracina. But the beach defenses at Golfo di Gaeta were almost an afterthought. Because the bridge over the Volturno was still under enemy control, the Germans could guard the beach south of the river only at the cost of weakening the front line. The most powerful unit, the 2 Parachute Division, should have been ordered to the coast, but instead the 305 Infantry Division, down to its weakest Step, went there. Naturally the Allies invaded here. The first wave obtained an Automatic Victory against the 305 and the second wave surrounded two panzergrenadier divisions under strong frontal attack just outside of Naples. The Allied attacks were completely victorious; Naples was liberated in the third week of December. However, the Germans still had two weeks to recapture the city. Two parachute and three panzer divisions plus the 44 Infantry Division attacked across the Volturno. Four of the divisions managed to hold their ground. The Allies counterattacked with two 1-1 battles while arranging other units such that the attackers could retreat into a solid line making an enemy attack in the Naples area unlikely to succeed. (The Germans needed only to cut the supply line to the city.) Unexpectedly the paratroopers were forced to retreat, so the Germans could not approach the city after all. The Allies were victorious again, thanks to several serious enemy blunders. But good luck helped them too -- casualties were so light the Allies still had two accumulated replacements at the end of the game. A replay of a solitaire game of _Anzio_ with all the Basic Game Supplementary Rules in use, started September 30, 1992 and finished October 3. ------- Dave Bieksza // "Peace Through Superior Firepower" bieksza@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu // ST:TNG, _The_Arsenal_of_Freedom_ ------- The Air Superiority Supplementary Rule had a major impact on the choice of invasion beach. The column shift for German attacks was significant, and all invasion beaches save one lay in the area of German air superiority. So the Allies landed at Golfo di Salerno. An advantage of landing here was a large Initial Lift -- the beachhead perimeter was so long that the Germans could spare only two divisions to defend against the forces advancing from the Strait of Messina. The Germans also had a problem blocking entry from Taranto. The invasion cut the main road to that sector (a Zone of Control on Route 7 in hex P58), and Allied interdiction (another Supplementary Rule) halved the Movement Points available to the Nebelwerfer brigade. Thus the Germans could not completely seal the entry area. The safest hole to leave was Route 106, but even then the Allies had an opportunity. The forces at Taranto, both British airborne units, were able to pass through Potenza and attack a panzer ersatz unit at 2-1 odds (decreased from 4-1 due to defensive air power). Success would have trapped the Frascati brigade against the map edge and F. Basento ... but the attackers retreated. (Thereafter the British paratroopers permanently camped at Taranto forcing the enemy to block the long map edge. As a bonus, these units were also eligible to participate in the second invasion.) A disadvantage of landing in Golfo di Salerno was that, since the Germans initially deployed on Vesuvio, the beachhead could not expand northwestward far enough to open the port of Salerno. That meant there was insufficient supply Capacity to attack out of the beachhead. But the disadvantage was minor. Faced with the expanding entry area from Taranto, the Germans allowed the beachhead to contact the forces approaching from the Strait of Messina as early as the third week of September. The Axis defense now consisted of an S-shaped line from the mountain south of Vesuvio to the map edge south of F. Ofanto. Attacking on the Allied right would simply shorten and strengthen the enemy line, but attacking on the left would extend and weaken it. So throughout October the Allies attacked north and east of Salerno. The territory gained was minimal, most notably forcing the enemy flanks back to Vesuvio and behind the Ofanto. November opened with a major push in the Avellino sector. In three closely-spaced 1-1 attacks, the Allies retreated on the left and stood firm on the right, but in the middle the defender retreated. In hopes of generating some momentum from this rare event the attackers, a pair of U.S. infantry divisions, advanced after combat. This was in the area of German air superiority, so the Axis counterattacked; the 29th Panzergrenadier Division surrounded the U.S. infantry by attacking the Canadian division. Bad die rolls for either or both of these attacks would have indeed generated solid Allied momentum. But both die rolls were good. The U.S. infantry remained surrounded, and its mandatory attack was just two points short of minimum 1-4 odds! Thus both divisions would be eliminated before an attack against the 29th Panzergrenadier would be resolved. With the elimination of these divisions a significant amount of the Allied offensive strength was lost. For the rest of November, Allied pressure near Avellino gained enough ground to force the Germans to pull back from Vesuvio. Allied pressure then shifted to Vesuvio, in part to capture the air base of Napoli and in part because of the plain terrain aiding armor (another Supplementary Rule). Meanwhile, the port of Salerno was finally opened. (At one point an inverted British division was sent to Sicilia in order to make supply Capacity available to the U.S. 1st Armored Division.) On the third try the Allies finally did not retreat. (On an unsuccessful try the British Commando brigade was sacrificed in a commando raid.) At the same time -- the second week of December -- the Allied second invasion came ashore at Termoli. There was little choice in selecting this beach. German units completely blocked the beaches at Terracina and Pescara, doing so as early as November, and a strong division occupied the mountain at Frascati. The German response was to abandon a considerable amount of territory. The new defensive line ran from the mouth of the Volturno to a fort at the mouth of the Sangro. A mountain division unable to Strategic Movement had to be abandoned, but nearly all the troops in the German rear came up to make the defensive line extremely strong. (The Allies made a slight mistake in opening the port of Termoli. Now a commando raid could not grab an objective in the rear because there were no port facilities to put it in supply as required by the victory conditions. Still, a single commando unit could not attack with more than two points, so modest garrisons would have made the objectives perfectly secure.) Nevertheless, the German withdrawal left four objectives in Allied hands: Salerno, Napoli, Foggia, and Termoli. One more for victory! Pescara was just a short distance beyond the Sangro, but the Germans had a fort and plenty of Steps in the way. Worse, the fort could not be undoubled by a commando raid because of a garrison in Pescara. So the Allies made an attempt to reach Cassino by attacking across the Volturno in conjunction with a commando raid to untriple the defender on the mountain. The attackers retreated. There was no point in playing the final turn and a half, the Germans were victorious. One final note. Several times the Allies were able to annoy the arrival of enemy reinforcements with Naval Interdiction. The bridge over F. Serchio (hex E22) was the only bottleneck on the west coast where naval support fire could meaningfully prevent Strategic Movement. When the bridge was interdicted the reinforcements had to use the less favorable road on the east coast. A replay of a solitaire game of _Anzio_ Advanced Game I, started April 6, 1993 and finished April 14. ------- Dave Bieksza // "Peace Through Superior Firepower" bieksza@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu // ST:TNG, _The_Arsenal_of_Freedom_ ------- As an experiment to see if the Allies could ever win, the invasion would occur at Rome against the usual defense (the concentration at Napoli) and the German Standard (i.e., historical) order of battle. The Initial Lift was able to gain 2-1 odds against the 2nd Parachute Division at Pratica di Mare. The die roll of "2" was the best possible -- no losses to the Allies and a retreat for the defender. Although just one adjacent hex was unoccupied, the Retreat through Zone of Control Table allowed the 2nd Parachute to escape as an Inverted Counter! The 82nd Airborne Division had dropped into Rome, so all the Italian Fascist units (with the usual single exception) defected to the Allies. The Germans immediately wiped out seven divisions at the cost of just three steps (despite a two-thirds chance at high odds of a loss to the attacker). The beachhead was nearly sealed off. The division and replacement units originally at Viterbo were enough to defend from the Tevere to the coast -- the Allies had little reason to go north. Three divisions (16th Panzer, 15th Panzergrenadier, Hermann Goering) blocked the major roads east of Rome, and the Frascati Brigade blocked the road south behind the canal. Unfortunately, the 2nd Parachute had chosen to take refuge with the Frascati Brigade. A commando brigade came ashore at Terracina and both surrounded and undoubled the Frascati Brigade. (The Nebelwerfer Brigade, which had no other pressing duties, should have been stationed at Terracina to prevent this.) The Allies attacked at 5-1 odds and destroyed both defenders, but the die roll of "6" meant there was no breakthrough movement. Now it was impossible for the Germans to seal off the beachhead, so they decided to attack -- if Roma could be recaptured the Axis would regain air superiority. The three divisions attacked the easternmost hex at 2-1 odds ... and rolled a "6" as well! They retreated into the mountains near Tivoli, too indigestible a lump to attack directly so the Allies surrounded them cutting off their supply lines. Two divisions could have attacked at intentionally low odds and retreated out of the pocket, but the Germans decided to take a chance. Two divisions near Lago di Bracciano attacked an Italian unit behind the Tevere at 2-1 odds. A "6" would have been devastating, but the Germans rolled a "1" and even got breakthrough movement to an adjacent mountain. The Allies had no choice but to lift the isolation. Instead they attacked the mountain positions repeatedly -- in fact, through the entire month of October. All the attacks were in vain. The Allies gave up after the Germans built their first three forts here. The problem was that neither Allied army -- the one at Rome or the one in the south -- was quite large enough to generate some momentum. The army in the south had had a good idea: all units concentrated at Taranto, where they had greater mobility than if they had been on the map. The Germans responded by breaking down the 1st Parachute and 29th Panzergrenadier into regiments. Four blocked entrance from Taranto between the Fortore and the Ofanto, while the fifth plus the 26th Panzer occupied mountains astride the road to Napoli. The Allies successfully attacked across the Ofanto, forcing the enemy to withdraw to the Fortore and abandon Foggia. But then mud slowed down the offensive. Except for two "weeks" in the middle of December, mud was continuous from the second "week" of October. A 2-1 attack on a surrounded parachute regiment only forced the attackers to retreat. The logjam was finally broken when a strong British division transferred from the northern army to the southern. Another 2-1 destroyed the regiment, motivating the Germans to fall back to Cassino. There the 26th Panzer was surrounded and attacked at 1-1 odds by more forces from the northern army. Though the attackers were forced to retreat, they did so such that the 26th Panzer became isolated. It easily retreated in an attack at intentionally low odds out of the pocket and repulsed the Allies' 2-1 attack, but now it was isolated more firmly than ever. It could not retreat out of the pocket and both terrain and Allied dispositions prevented a rescue. In all the playings of this game, the 26th Panzer became the first major unit to be eliminated due to isolation. (The best the Allies had been able to do in the past was "starve" two armored replacement units.) In the third "week" in November the Germans finally established a continuous line from the mouth of the Fortore to the mountain outside of Civitavecchia. The Allies formed thier own only belatedly; having failed to win so many times, they failed to realize that with the destruction of the panzer division they had secured the majority of the objectives -- only two lay behind German lines. Beginning at the end of November the Germans initiated an offensive to retake Roma, Anzio, and Terracina. But the necessity to maintain a continuous line meant the Germans could concentrate only in one area. At the end of December they had barely recaptured Roma, so the Allies won at last.