Anzio (game)

"Anzio" is a board wargame published by the Avalon Hill game company first in 1969 and again in 1971, 1974, and 1978. The title is slightly misleading as the game in fact covers the entire World War Two Italian campaign from the autumn of 1943.

The game map consists of two mapboards placed end-to-end, and is predictably covered with the mountains and rivers which did so much to impede the Allied advance. The heel and toe of Italy are not shown.

The game begins with the Fifth Army landings, which may take place at Salerno as in reality, or else at any of another set of initial landing areas (the permissible size of force which may be landed varies for each area), while Eighth Army forces enter the map on foot from the toe and heel of Italy. The German player has a chance to build fortifications, which may well cause the line to solidify for some months across the narrowest part of Italy, ie. the Gustav Line through Monte Cassino, which the Allies may eventually break with airstrikes. The Allied player also has the chance to conduct a second invasion (the Anzio landing in reality).

Combat units come in a wide variety of colours. Luftwaffe units are shown in a separate shade of blue, German regulars in grey, and SS units in black. US forces (including a Brazilian division) are shown in yellow, while the polyglot Eighth Army includes not just British forces but also Canadian, Indian (red), Polish (pink), South African and New Zealand (pale blue) units, as well as a Greek and a Jewish brigade. There are also several Free French units (dark blue). Some US and Free French forces are removed from the game in the summer of 1944 to take part in the Dragoon landings in the south of France.

The counters represent divisions, but the game also contains numerous extra counters for divisions to reduce in strength as they take combat losses or else break down into their component regiments.

In a review in "The Best of Board Wargaming" (1981) Tom Oleson praised the game's "satisfying realism", while criticising some points of obscurity on the map (eg. roads which nick the corner of a hexagon), the crudeness with which the Allied "thermonuclear" airstrikes of May 1944 are simulated and an anomaly whereby weak enemy units left near the front line can be destroyed in combat, thus generating extra exploitation movement for the victorious attacker.

Although the published game can only be started in September 1943, alternative scenarios for the "Diadem" offensive (which broke through the Gustav Line in May 1944) and for the autumn 1944 assault on the Gothic Line (north of Florence) were published in the Avalon Hill "General" magazine. Extension maps covering Sicily and the heel and toe of Italy have also been created by enthusiasts.

External links

*bgg|4173|"Anzio"