Markus Stumptner - 06:26pm Oct 31, 2001 PST (#3403 of 3419) "Around 8:00 PM, as the Prussian attacks swept through La Haie and Papelotte, French resistance suddenly collapsed." Chandler, The Hundred Days What does everyone think about the 3 S&T Italian Campaign games? Thats Sicily, Salerno and Anzio. I am assuming they all canbelinked for a giant game. other than that, I don't know a thing about them. Details please :) Well... this is a strange one. Personally I think that purely in terms of the game system it's one of the three or four best operational WW2 systems that exist, on a par with OCS and the Triumphant Fox system. It has a fascinating way in which you execute different missions with different divisions (and you can execute multiple missions subject to fatigue, with better divisions recovering faster). Better corps can execute more complex missions, and mission choice typically involves a tradeoff between toughness of attack and speed of advance. It reproduces the feel of being a corps or army commander like no other game I know, and it has many features that remain innovative today. The strength of ZOCs is variable and depends on terrain, so an armored regiment will be able to zoom past a coastal defense battalion without problems, but not vice versa. As the terrain gets worse, ZOCs geat weaker so you have to rely more and more on garrisoning hexes directly. The sequence of play is interactive, so no interminable waits till the other side has moved its units. That said... due to the unusual concepts it is hard to get into, in particular because most games start with an amphibious invasion, meaning the rules overload hits right at the start (the invasion rules are about 1/3 of the total and pretty much not needed after the first couple of turns). Also, since the rules are presented in order of the sequence of play, you have to wade through the invasion rules before you get to the normal play. This is why Tide of Fortune is probably the best introduction to the system - it's the only game that has no invasion and no invasion rules. (Note that there are some rule differences between the 3W Western Front and the S&T Italian games though.) It is chart-heavy, in general the games do have quite a bit of errata, including some counter errata. (Although they are far better than their reputation; the initial release, Sicily, was published with an unplayable set of rules that was cut down to half size by publisher's order and this has tainted public impression ever since. In fact the "reinstated" original-length rules published with Anzio are pretty good and work for all the 3 Italian Campaign games, and those for Tide of Fortune are OK as well.) Also, the victory conditions are generally rickety; this doesn't really hurt me since I tend to play them for study purposes, and they are excellent at bringing out important issues of the campaign. As Ken said, there is a fourth issue that links the four into a campaign and adds the air game (the other games have air support in a relatively abstract fashion which is actually the way I prefer it). I haven't played this and I am not sure how well it works. If you do it though, note that you are talking a 3 1/2 map monster. Physically, the counters are OK though not earthshaking, the maps are by Mark Simonitch -those for the 3W games, Tide of Fortune and To the Far Shore are OK, those for the Italian Campaign games are a thing of beauty. On consimworld there's a discussion topic for the series, and I posted an extensive replay of a Sicily game there last year (with some photographs). I pull one of these games out every couple of years, and just playing it gives me a real sense of enjoyment.