Recommendation for Italian scenario?

[DerBlitzer]

I'm looking for an interesting scenario in Italy for CMAK, not too large, good for PBEM. I'd prefer historical or semi-historical, reasonably balanced, with a map of mixed terrain, and not winter. I've searched through Boots and Tracks, and the Scenario Depot, but haven't quite found the right one. I know the criteria is somewhat limiting. Anybody have a recommendation or two?

[patboy]

Originally posted by DerBlitzer:

I'm looking for an interesting scenario in Italy for CMAK, not too large, good for PBEM. I'd prefer historical or semi-historical, reasonably balanced, with a map of mixed terrain, and not winter. I've searched through Boots and Tracks, and the Scenario Depot, but haven't quite found the right one. I know the criteria is somewhat limiting. Anybody have a recommendation or two? [/quote

Your criteria are very limiting, but one criterion may be got.

I have in mind two historical scenarios, one huge, the second large, but very very very interesting,

Primosole night july 13 and Primosole day july 14 the design made by David Inglett.

Enjoy

Pat

[The_Enigma]

You should give the The Proving grounds a look over too, am pretty sure ive seen some semi/historial sceanarios up on there (you would have to have a route round the cmak section but i am positive there are some there).

[Sgt Joch]

Take a look at "San Michelle" by Kingfish, available at TPG. I'm playing it PBEM now and it's very well done.

[DerBlitzer]

Yes, Primosole and San Michele both look good.

I also found a number of good historical scenarios by a designer called Hans on Scenario Depot. But boy, does he make some crazy ones --- which include the use of a rail gun, a Japanese attack on an airfield, the Korean War, and even an 1881 gunfight! Anybody play any of these?

[Corvidae]

Maybe make one.

During the italian campaign, a german airborn battalion took up position in an abandoned monastary that overlooked a key road the allies needed.

The americans spent several days trying to dislodge them, to no avail.

The british also joined the effort, and fed the meat grinder, for nothing.

A segregated, coloured, brigade was sent in, and briefly took the main gate before being forced back out.

And then a lost company of canadians stumbled into the staging area to ask directions.

The canadian comander offered to take the monastary by noon the next day, and told the american and british comanders to gather all the alcohol in the area to the main square.

That evening the canadians vanished and the americans laughed about the "scared" canuks.

But befor dawn they heard the sound of a battle raging in the monastary.

By 10:00 am, the fighting had stoped, and by 11:00 the canadians returned, escorting the captured survivors of the german garrison.

The canadian demand for alcohol was imediately met, and the canadians shared a drunken binge with their german captives.

I believe this to be a historical account,

[junk2drive]

Originally posted by DerBlitzer:

Yes, Primosole and San Michele both look good.

I also found a number of good historical scenarios by a designer called Hans on Scenario Depot. But boy, does he make some crazy ones --- which include the use of a rail gun, a Japanese attack on an airfield, the Korean War, and even an 1881 gunfight! Anybody play any of these?

Most all of them. Played or playtested all of the PTO, Korea, Vietnam, SCW, AIW and early war scenarios. I have made mods for most of these.

Enjoy.

[patboy]

Hi J2D, I would like to visit you site looking some PTO mods, but I can't find a link!

Pat

[The_Enigma]

Originally posted by Corvidae:

Maybe make one.

During the italian campaign, a german airborn battalion took up position in an abandoned monastary that overlooked a key road the allies needed.

The americans spent several days trying to dislodge them, to no avail.

The british also joined the effort, and fed the meat grinder, for nothing.

A segregated, coloured, brigade was sent in, and briefly took the main gate before being forced back out.

And then a lost company of canadians stumbled into the staging area to ask directions.

The canadian comander offered to take the monastary by noon the next day, and told the american and british comanders to gather all the alcohol in the area to the main square.

That evening the canadians vanished and the americans laughed about the "scared" canuks.

But befor dawn they heard the sound of a battle raging in the monastary.

By 10:00 am, the fighting had stoped, and by 11:00 the canadians returned, escorting the captured survivors of the german garrison.

The canadian demand for alcohol was imediately met, and the canadians shared a drunken binge with their german captives.

I believe this to be a historical account,

lol reminds me of a film, soemthing along the lines of a bunch of Allied troops enter some town ... long story short end up playing poker with the italians/germans ... they all end up the other sides uniforms and a fist fight all over the town starts for there returns iirc

During this, a recon plane flys over reporting that the combat is furious and is hand to hand etc

cant remember what happened at the end but i remember it being very funny

[junk2drive]

Originally posted by patboy:

Hi J2D, I would like to visit you site looking some PTO mods, but I can't find a link!

Pat

I deleted my website. You'll have to search through cmmods, keyword Pacific.

[patboy]

Ah! Thanks.

Pat

[DerBlitzer]

In my search for scenarios, I've found a few with some inventive objectives. Grabbing the flags can get a little dull, and for those of us who like historical situations, it often feels too abstract.

But there's Rearguard at Cheru, for example, which has an interesting twist for the Italians, who are facing a British attack. The Italian objective is to hold off the Brits until Ethiopian reinforcements arrive, at which point the weakened Italian troops are supposed to exit, at the same time trying to prevent Brits from capturing flags.

Also, Sigh Bridge 1940. The British are retreating to Dunkirk, with the Blitzkrieg on their tails. There's a bridge blocked by debris and mines. Both the Brits and the Germans want to clear it. The Brits must cross the bridge and exit beyond to win. The Germans must capture flags beyond the bridge, and prevent certain British "signal" trucks from exiting. Very interesting set up.

I assume there must be more like these.

As for the monastery scenario, I'm not sure how you'd handle the alcohol incentive...capture hidden Italians (representing wine bottles) and march them to a town square, at which point the Canadians' morale rises 10 points?

[Kingfish]

Originally posted by Sgt.Joch:

Take a look at "San Michelle" by Kingfish, available at TPG. I'm playing it PBEM now and it's very well done.

Thank you, but I have to be honest the map is not as accurate as I'd like it to be. This was pointed out to me by Perry Rowe ( a.k.a "ropey" of these boards) who visited Italy in 2004 to retrace the route his Grandfather, a soldier in the 2nd New Zealand Division, took during WW2.

Perry took several excellent photos of the area around San Michelle for After the battle magazine, and he was kind enough to share them with me. For one thing, the location of La Fattoria is much closer to the village than what I have in my scenario. The village was also much smaller back in '44. I am currently working on an improved version of the scenario.

In the meantime, may I recommend The Villas of Tuscany or Strada in Chianti. Note that although the posts say the scenarios are available at the Proving Grounds they've actually been moved already to the Scenario Depot II.

Enjoy.

[Hans]

Ah yes. well I'm slightly insane.

SB Sigh Bridge 1940 and a number of other SB (Small Battles) scenario use unusual victory conditions. A few use engineers to remove obstacles/repair/build something. A few have survival of the player (as a HQ unit or tank unit) as the victory condition or taking a piece of non-flagged terrain.

One had as a victory condition the taking of a French town. Along with your assault forces you had a press crew from Signal magazine along - they needed to see some action but couldn't be killed. (SB Coup de Main 1940).SB Block at El-Arish AIW has as a victory condition the survival of a corrupt Egyptian Colonel and a lowly driver - the driver being a guy I knew, from my days in the Middle East.

I too grew tired of taking the flags.

I've tried a wide range and variety of different victory conditions. From taking prisoners, destroying certain types of units or variations on the exit. The use of dynamic flags has also been useful.

SB Blood for Oil PTO also has an unusual victory condition for the Japanese paratroopers who are trying to prevent the Dutch from blowing up the refineries at Palembang Sumatra.

There are about thirty others with non-standard victory conditions, unfortunately I didn't keep a separate register of victory conditions.

Junk2Drive and I worked on a number of Pacific scenarios. Hopefully at some point in the future there will be a pacific module. (for CM2 or 3)

[Sgt Joch]

Originally posted by Kingfish:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Sgt.Joch:

Take a look at "San Michelle" by Kingfish, available at TPG. I'm playing it PBEM now and it's very well done.

Thank you, but I have to be honest the map is not as accurate as I'd like it to be. This was pointed out to me by Perry Rowe ( a.k.a "ropey" of these boards) who visited Italy in 2004 to retrace the route his Grandfather, a soldier in the 2nd New Zealand Division, took during WW2.

Perry took several excellent photos of the area around San Michelle for After the battle magazine, and he was kind enough to share them with me. For one thing, the location of La Fattoria is much closer to the village than what I have in my scenario. The village was also much smaller back in '44. I am currently working on an improved version of the scenario.

In the meantime, may I recommend The Villas of Tuscany or Strada in Chianti. Note that although the posts say the scenarios are available at the Proving Grounds they've actually been moved already to the Scenario Depot II.

Enjoy. </font>

[DerBlitzer]

One had as a victory condition the taking of a French town. Along with your assault forces you had a press crew from Signal magazine along - they needed to see some action but couldn't be killed. (SB Coup de Main 1940).SB Block at El-Arish AIW has as a victory condition the survival of a corrupt Egyptian Colonel and a lowly driver - the driver being a guy I knew, from my days in the Middle East.

Ha ha! I'll have to look these up.

By the way, Hans, I thoroughly enjoyed your Encounter Norway 1940, even just playing against the (dumb) AI. Great map. Would love to see more Norwegian scenarios...

[Hans]

Well I have about 5 Norwegian scenarios in the design bucket. Main reason was the lack of armour on the Allied side (one can do a what if about the French but...)

SB Encounter Norway is a favorite of mine, a random reinforcement scenario it comes out different each time you play it. Taking that bridge - and surviving can drive German players mad, or at least I gather from the emails I've received.

Which side did you take against the AI

A few others CMAK that I believe have non-standard victory conditions are:

SB Recon North of Rome

SB Bonfire 1940

SB T2 Recovery

SB Limbang, Royal Marines

SB Retaliation AIW

SB Outpost Eerie Korea

SB Denmark 1940

[DerBlitzer]

I took the Norwegians against the AI. At one point, the AI had one German tank try to go down the steep embankment, beneath the bridge. Scratching my head on that one. Still, a good fight for a while, but I ended up winning with a wide margin (I ended up getting all the reinforcements, and I don't remember if I gave the suggested modification to the Axis.) My brother played it the same way, got the all the reinforcements, did use the mod., and also won easily. But as I said in my review of it on the Scenario Depot, it would be much better PBEM.

Thanks for the list of scenarios with unconventional objectives. I'll be taking a look...

[dieseltaylor]

Eritrean Camerone

Very different with quite a build-up. Very atmospheric : )

[Sequoia]

Hans and other makers of scenarios using the "Minor" nations; I have a favor to ask. First I am happy to see more Norwegian scenarios on the way. As some of you may know, I have made uniform mods for some of the smaller Nations not included in the game and plan on doing more. I made a set that converts Poles to Norwegians because that's what Hans used in "Encounter Norway". I thought the Poles were a good choice but then some Brits showed up in the scenario. Since the Polish and British Uniforms share some of the same bmps the Brits were wearing uniforms with Norwegian arms legs and sides but British torsos. Would it be possible for you to use French for Norwegians in scenarios in which both Norwegians and other Commonwealth appear? I can make a new mod set that converts French to Norwegians.

In other news: Hans has made a scenario using French for Greeks. I have a mod set for that and am planning on improving it with Evzones advice.

Stoffel has made a scenario using Brits for Belgians. This is fine and I made a mod set to go with it, but using French for Belgians would be a better choice because most Belgians speak French anyway and the helmets would be a better match.

I'd love to see more scenarios with 1940 Belgians as well. If some one uses the French I'll make a set of Belgian Uniforms for them.

Stoffel and Painfbat have made several scenarios using South Africans for 1940 Dutch. I have posted a mod set for the South African but I have also sent a test mod set using CMBB Romanians to these two gentlemen. Using Romanians for Dutch has several advantages including the proper helmet shape and no need to mod most of the German forces opposing them. I'd like to encourage any one considering Dutch 1940 scenarios to use CMBB Romanians.

I will soon release a flag and portrait mod for India (unfortunately I think moding skin color is unworkable) and have some other projects I'm thinking of. Thanks all.

[Hans]

Hello Sequoia

I tend to use the nationality whose equipment is closest to what I need. I'm afraid that in the past I haven't thought of the Modders needs. Except for a few I used in CMBO I don't use any mods at all.

Take a look at SB Sino-Japanese PTO and who I had to use to make that one work! The same with the Spanish Civil War where I tended to use a mixture to get the equipment I needed and differentiate between the various types of troops, Spanish Foreign Legion, Moroccans, a half dozen different militias, Dynamitos etc etc

Unfortunately geting designers to agree will be difficult I cannot even get the majority to use a standard ID for minor battles, ie PTO for Pacific, 1940 for early war POL for Poland etc.

I salute your work. We'll see if the module for CM2 will be easier to work with.

[Sequoia]

Originally posted by Hans:

Hello Sequoia

I salute your work. We'll see if the module for CM2 will be easier to work with.

Thanks and I salute your work in creating scenarios for the smaller Nations. Have you a good source book for the TO&E of the small countries?

[Hans]

I use a variety of source books. For the French I'm using the series by Lee Sharp. Recommended for detail freaks

[Dook]

Originally posted by Kingfish:

In the meantime, may I recommend The Villas of Tuscany or Strada in Chianti. Note that although the posts say the scenarios are available at the Proving Grounds they've actually been moved already to the Scenario Depot II.

I just wanted to put my own plug in for the beauty of Kingfish's maps. I snipped out a small section of his Strada in Chianti map, placed some flags, and had a great map for a battalion-sized, PBEM fight that has been going on for 6+ months (Yes, we're two working dads who play slowly).