LongLeftFlank Posted March 4, 2001 Share Posted March 4, 2001 Does anyone know of any historically accurate CM scenarios relating to the Italian campaign, particularly Cassino or Anzio? A search turned up one fictionalized scen relating to Cassino, but alas the download link didn't work. Also, has anybody done Italy terrain mods (red earth, olive orchards, adobe buildings etc.)? Think Poles, Kiwis and Fallschirmjager at each others' throats in the ruins of the abbey.... Elefants pounding poor old Willie and Joe as they huddle in pouring rain on the Anzio beachhead.... 88s used as monster long range sniper rifles... 75th Rangers taking 90% casualties in a single night... and of course, Audie Murphy slapping the s**t out of Ralph Fiennes who gets horribly burned in Cyrenaica sometime in 1942 and yet takes until 1945 to die in Tuscany in a clean bed tended day and night by a beautiful Canadian nurse while whining about his love life. (Oops, sorry, that's the "Pretentious and Narcissistic Pseudohistorical Movie Remakes We'd Like To See" Thread) Many thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanderer Posted March 4, 2001 Share Posted March 4, 2001 Please forgive me if this is a daft thing to say. But how do you make an Italian scenario when there is no Italian stuff in the game? Like tanks and stuff, infantry would be ok wouldn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canuck Posted March 4, 2001 Share Posted March 4, 2001 hehe yeah I was really interested in doing a scenario or operation for the Moro river crossing but then I realized that the game was built specifically around the Normandy campaig. You could still make one I guess it just wouldnt be terribly accurate. All though the Italians basically surendered before the Allies could even make it off the landing craft so most of the tanks and such would be German Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongLeftFlank Posted March 4, 2001 Author Share Posted March 4, 2001 I'm not talking about Italians actually doing any fighting at this point, other than some partisan raids. They just provided the venue... but that's kind of their fault for following Il Duce. Don't forget, there was a lot of really nasty positional warfare going on in Italy all during the time covered by CMBO. Same armies (plus the ANZACs), and mostly the same gear. General Mark Clark (probably the worst US general of the war... but if you want to debate that, please start another thread! ) got all pissed off because his triumphal entry into Rome got knocked off Page One by D-Day. And at that point they were only half way up the Boot. Kesselring held the Allies to a slow painful crawl with very limited resources right up to the end of the war. Just ask Bob Dole. And from a gaming perspective that's kind of the neat thing about Italy-- at a tactical level, the odds were frequently even or -- at Anzio -- in German favor. The Bulge aside, you don't really get that anywhere else in 1944-45 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forever Babra Posted March 4, 2001 Share Posted March 4, 2001 hehe... Cool nick there, lefty. ------------------ Out of commission, become a pillbox. Out of ammo, become a bunker. Out of time -- become heros... Stereotypes The Un-Rant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Dorosh Posted March 4, 2001 Share Posted March 4, 2001 I have two Italian campaign scenarios at my site - one an operation based on Ortona, which was part of the Moro River battle. ------------------ CANUCK: Clothing, Equipping and Employing the Canadian Soldier in Combat Mission Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeT Posted March 4, 2001 Share Posted March 4, 2001 Longleftflank, by now you should have some Italian scenarios I worked up. Let me know what you think. BTW, it is easy to "redress" German infantry as Italians. It has been done and once the desert mod is out you will be able to use them. MikeT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongLeftFlank Posted March 4, 2001 Author Share Posted March 4, 2001 Wow, Michael, that's one heck of an impressive site you have there, with a fantastic collection of Canadian scenarios. I was kind of underwhelmed by the CMHQ "Canadian" site -- maybe you ought to take the label over. BTW, A number of my family members (North Nova Scotias, Cape Breton Highlanders and PPCLI) fought in a lot of those battles. Also, according to my Mum, who was interested in military history as a girl, they evidently acquired a disinclination to take German prisoners after the Kurt Meyer thing-- used to shoot them in the woods apparently, making no distinction between SS and Wehrmacht. Kind of belies our country's reputation as a nation of bleeding hearts, eh? I'm going to pillage all your scenarios as soon as I get to my T1 connection at work. Many thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forever Babra Posted March 4, 2001 Share Posted March 4, 2001 Originally posted by LongLeftFlank: I'm going to pillage all your scenarios as soon as I get to my T1 connection at work. Scenarios are small -- just a few K of text each. Get them now. C'mon... I know ya wanna... ------------------ Out of commission, become a pillbox. Out of ammo, become a bunker. Out of time -- become heroes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Dorosh Posted March 4, 2001 Share Posted March 4, 2001 Originally posted by LongLeftFlank: Kind of belies our country's reputation as a nation of bleeding hearts, eh? Can you imagine sitting in an assault craft on June 6 1944, turning to the guys next to you, and saying "By the way, back in Canada, in the year 2001, homosexuals will not only be allowed to serve in the Army, but will have the right to marry each other in Ontario. People without jobs will be paid by the government not to work. Cigarettes will be banned from all public offices, shops, and many retaurants. Mass murderers will not have to serve more than 25 years in prison, it will be legal to look at pictures of grown men having sex with 6 year old children, and parents will not be allowed to physically discipline their kids (who will not be taught about Juno Beach in school). They wouldn't have believed you, but if they did, I wonder if they would have went down the ramps? I like to think they would - it's still the greatest country in the world to live in - but things have indeed changed so very much! [This message has been edited by Michael Dorosh (edited 03-03-2001).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted March 4, 2001 Share Posted March 4, 2001 Ahhh, should've known. A Canadian discussion. LOL! Anyway, LongLeftFlank, BTS will be doing the North African, Italian, and Agean Sea (Greece/Crete) campaigns in CM3. But until then MikeT and Clubfoot will be releasing the Desert Rat Total Mod set soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongLeftFlank Posted March 4, 2001 Author Share Posted March 4, 2001 Just to clarify... With apologies to the Bersaglieri and Ariete fans among you, my original request had nothing to do with gaming the Italian WWII experience. I don't have a huge fascination with the Desert War either, much less with Graziani's boys' role in it. It's the Italian Campaign itself (sans Italians, except as bedraggled refugees) that interests me... Strategically, this campaign was pointless, at least after Sicily and the Capitulation -- Churchill's "soft underbelly" obsession again. But operationally, it is where the Allied armies really learned to fight and win, the hard way, against the later war Wehrmacht. Anzio, for example, was a hard school whose lessons paid off big time in Normandy. OK, so we're looking at Mark II Shermans with lousy optics and no wet stowage, blah blah blah. Other than that kind of minor nitpick, it's perfectly reasonable to build historically accurate scenarios in Italy 44 with CM-1 and that's what I was looking for here. Thanks everyone, for pitching in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco Bergman Posted March 4, 2001 Share Posted March 4, 2001 Since I am a New Zealander, it ought to be no surprise that there will be (after the UK Sherman rebuild) a set of HR NZ 4th Armoured Brigade Sherman textures for the Italian front from Gordon and myself... be nice to have some scenarios to use them in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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