Note: This is the original, unedited version of a review that appeared in BERG'S REVIEW OF GAMES (BROG). If you're interested in seeing more of Richard Berg's celebrated wit and insight in BROG, you can contact him at BergBROG@aol.com. AVALANCHE 1994 has been a good year for wargaming. I can't remember another year that's given us such a flood of excellent games- KOLIN, CAESAR, TRIUMPHANT FOX, AGE OF EXPLORATION, the MAGIC phenomenon- or such a crop of promising new game companies- Moments in History, Avalanche Press, Games USA. Truly a wonderful season to be a gamer, particularly since '95 bodes well to offer more of the same. I would include AVALANCHE in the above list of top-notch products. In a year that has seen the publication of a host of World War II games, AVALANCHE stands up there with the cream of the crop, the more so because it's the product of a fledgling game company. AVALANCHE is a grand tactical game of the Salerno landings in September, 1943, wherein the invading Allied Fifth Army, after initial success, was almost blown into the sea by the German counterattack, managing to hang on by their fingernails on the beaches until Monty, moving more lethargically than usual, finally crawled up from the Italian bootheel to bail them out. The Germans had an excellent opportunity to significantly affect the war in the Mediterranean but were only stopped by massive Allied aerial and naval firepower and a daring paradrop onto the beaches by the 82nd Airborne. Invasion campaigns generate their own drama, and the situation at Salerno is frought with juicy gaming opportunities. AVALANCHE is a battalion/company level game- one map, 270 counters, and four very useful player cards. The box cover is, well, it's a box cover. The boys at Avalanche Press had to scrimp somewhere, and the cover drew the short straw. She'sa only gotta one color, and it'sa brown, lots of brown, shaded to tan for some very obscure invasion photos (if you're doing an invasion game, put something more exciting on the cover than a picture of a truck driving off an LST). But, like that other outstanding-WWII-game-in-a-generic-package, THE LEGEND BEGINS, AVALANCHE's contents are much better than its outer trappings. The map is pure Simonitch- elegantly simple, clean, and easy to read- with a nice feeling of the Italian hills looming over the beachheads, while Brien Miller's counters are modest, yet attractive . My one complaint is the map scale (1.25 miles per hex), which seems a tad too large for me. I think this is done to make the entire battle area fit on one map, so some stuff gets fudged- one and a quarter miles sounds like a lot of ground for a company to be able to defend- while things can get kinda scrunched on the beaches. A two-mapper on a smaller scale (.75 - 1 mile sounds about right to me) would have been more satisfactory, although it probably would have added to the already tony 35$ price tag. So she looks nice; how does she run ? Dear boy, AVALANCHE runs better than Emmitt Smith. The names that grace Avalanche Press' masthead don't exactly start bells ringing in the old cerebellum (well, except for Mark Simonitch on the maps)-- Brian Knipple, designer and Mike Bennighof, developer, but these guys obviously have some ability. Not that their genius lies in creativity, indeed, there is very little 'new' about AVALANCHE; instead their talent is to combine well-known design elements, retaining what works and throwing out what doesn't, into a tight, seamless package, which, come to think of it, is just about the best you can ask from a game. AVALANCHE uses Igo/Hugo ("Oh No," you say, "Here's where the Berg-ites start laying on thick and fast"), which is my biggest problem with the design. AP's other game, MACARTHUR RETURNS, uses a nice chit-draw system, and I can't see why they chose not to use it in AVALANCHE, as chit-induced randomness is the best way to simulate the ebb and flow of an invasion campaign. Intrepid gamers can easily devise one of their own, but I think AP missed the boat on this one. I will skim over most of the other rules, as there's nothing you haven't seen before, and it's standard WWII stuff- six-hour turns, strategic movement along roads, headquarters-controlled supply lines, peripatetic engineers dashing about building and blowing up stuff, green units- and jump right into combat, wherein most of the game's detail is lavished. There's a lot more going on here than just lining 'em up and slugging it out. Both sides choose a morale level; any units beneath that level needing to pass a morale check to fight, the morale difference giving column shifts. Total your strengths, modifying for surprise attacks, unit integrity (it behooves one to keep those regiments together), air power, armor, artillery support, and the massive Allied naval firepower. The presence of leaders near the front can give a crucial column shift, and ammunition takes a hand, preventing players from blasting away at will with their guns and ships. Combat results are divided between step losses and retreats, and an advancing attacker may attempt breakthrough combat if he has a leader present-- this is hard to pull off, but devastating when you can do it. Optional rules allow different combat options (withdraw or determined defense vs. probe, blitz, or assault) and anti-tank fire. Although somewhat involved, most of this becomes second nature the second or third time around, and the end result is much more satisfying than "let's see if I can take your 6-4 with my two 5-6's." Success is dependent upon learning how best to balance morale, leadership, armor, and ammo. Complaints ? Well, I question the wide disparity between the artillery support values for attack vs. defense. All of my reading tells me that artillery is much more effective in defense, but in AVALANCHE guns are 4-5 times more powerful in attack. And I think the CRT tends to favor the attacker-- mainly 'cuz when I played the German line fell apart faster than a Democratic congressional campaign. So, you should be able to saunter through the rules quickly, spending some extra time getting the various combat elements down. I didn't have any rules questions to speak of, another pleasant surprise considering the "newness" of the designers. One big hole, however-- no counter diagrams for naval units or leaders, leading us poor, overstretched playtesters to puzzle them out for ourselves. Something to remember for the second edition. The historical scenario is really the only way to go; optional ones allow players to diddle around with various paradrops, but nobody's going to play those. To say that the Germans are a tad stretched is to understate the case-- one panzer division (although it's a good one) facing four allied divisions rolling in with the morning tide. Two key rules that players should remember because they have a major effect on the early going: i) you must have a combined combat strength of 3 or more to exert a ZOC, and ii) until the headquarters arrive, Allied units that move off the beaches are out of supply. These are important, because while the Germans must spread themselves thin to hold the Allies in check, all those 2-pointer German companies don't have a ZOC if left by themselves. This is balanced by Allied supply problems in the early going and a curious rule not allowing the Allies strategic movement for the first two days of the battle. What ? Did they not bring motorized equipment ashore until Day 3, or is this merely a sacrifice on the altar of the great god Play Balance (I suspect the latter) ? Powerful German reinforcements, including the 1st Parachute and Hermann Goering Divisions, start to arrive on the second day, and things get a little bit more interesting. I played the Germans, and I must say that the defense of Festung Italia didn't go at all well. As I mentioned above, the German beachhead line is pretty slender, although strengthened somewhat by a plentiful supply of strongpoints and fortifications. Not that they helped me very much though, as the Allies punched through them in a hurry. So, aggressive sort that I am, I launched a couple of armored counterattacks towards the green Americans, where I got clobbered, and at the rather isolated Ranger beach, where I had more success, but not quite enough to push the commandos into the sea and lost my best tanks in the bargain. The best German strategy in the early going is probably to backpedal, trading space for time (remember, the Allies can't move very fast until the third day), since they can't afford to lose very many units. Instead, I tried to hold at Salerno and Battipoglia, which was a mistake, because the Allied naval firepower can be devastating. The British captured both places with ease, catching me with a successful breakthrough combat at Battipoglia that captured the 16th Panzer division headquarters. While the embattered German commander packed his longjohns prior to a quick trip to the Eastern Front the Allies rolled inland against meager resistance, capturing 70% of their objectives by Day 3. My heavy stuff started to arrive, but by then the Allies had already consolidated their positions, their airpower started to get into action, and a series of unsuccessful German counterattacks ended with a decisive Allied victory. Who needs Monty, anyway ? Next time around I'll know better, and I can see how repeated playings will quickly lead each side into certain maximum strategies. Still, this is a game that plays smoothly and is a ton of fun, managing to capture more of WWII land combat than XTR's KRIM klones without slipping off the other end of the scale into the depths of GUDERIAN'S BLITZKRIEG/ENEMY AT THE GATES. I don't know what they're doing next, but I look forward to Messrs. Knipple & Bennighof's future efforts. Capsule Comments: Graphic Presentation: Solid, if not spectacular. The boxcover is quite bland but everything else is of the tastefully serviceable variety. Playability: Lots of stuff here that you've seen before, so you can jump right in and get cracking. The many facets of combat need a couple of tries to get used to, but in the end it all flows together nicely. Replayability: I can see that each side has a maximum strategy involved here, so after a couple of plays the game might become staid. Adopting a home-made chit-pull system would take care of this. Creativity: Not much. More of an amalgamation of many older, well-tried and well-tested WWII rules than a design full of original concepts. Historicity: Quite good. Manages to cover most of the important aspects of the Salerno landings without a lot of superfluous complexity. Wristage: About what you'd expect from a game of this type. Comparisons: There have been several Salerno games over the years. The old GDW AVALANCHE, of the never-ending turns, remains a closet favorite of mine. I believe there have been a couple of magazine games, which I have never played. ANZIO, of course, is on a different scale entirely. As far as WWII Western Front "battle" games go, AVALANCHE stacks up well against such games as the Gamers' Operational Combat Series and the old SPI VICTORY IN THE WEST trio (PATTON'S THIRD ARMY, OPERATION: GRENADE, and SICILY). Overall: Good clean fun. A meshing of comfortable old World War II concepts into a solid package --a fine contribution by some new kids on the block. FragilFox@aol.com