For the Empire: Canada & New Zealand in Italy
by
Flying Pig Games
This is an expansion for Old School Tactical Volume 4
This is an expansion for the game Old School Tactical Volume IV: Italian Theater 1943-45. The parent game has been as greatly acclaimed as the other in the series. I am really pleased to say that you now get to fight in the environs of Monte Cassino. This means that you now get to fight with the British Empire's troops and also the German Fallschirmjäger (roughly hunters from the sky). They were also called the Green Devils in comparison to the British Red Devils of Arnhem fame. The campaign in Italy was an infantryman's war from first to last. It was a slow slog up the Italian Peninsula. For the Allies, it seemed that there was always another mountain to climb and fight over or an entire mountain chain. 'Smiling' Al Kesselring made the Allies pay for every inch of Italian soil they captured.
As is the norm with Flying Pig Games, the game comes with a very large map with 1" hexes. This means that the counters are also large and extremely easy to maneuver whatever your scale of dexterity is. Of course, this also means that the counters' information is large enough to almost read across the room. The counters have the obligatory picture of the units and weapons you will be playing with. It almost seems like Flying Pig Games has been developing games for us senior citizens in the Old Grognards Home at Shady Acres. With new elite units on both sides, the tactical battles are tense and portray the battles of the campaign to a "T". There are five scenarios about the fighting for Monte Cassion, one of my favorite battles to read about, and three for the savage battle for Ortona. Thank you, Flying Pig Games, for allowing me to review this excellent expansion to an excellent game and series. The only problem with this series of games is that at some point it has to end.
This is what Flying Pig Games has to say about it:
"When Great Britain once again found herself in war, she sent out a call to her Commonwealth allies. They stepped forward and answered the call, as they always had done.
New Zealand was in the thick of the action from the beginning. The Kiwis fought bravely in the Balkans and Greece in the battle for Crete and were a key force in the North African campaign.
The New Zealanders came to Italy with the same amount of fight. Among the many battles they faced, they were tasked with a difficult struggle to take the fortress at Monte Cassino.
The Canadian Navy fought vigorously in the battle for the North Atlantic, but the army was static, stationed in the British Isles. But they were itching to get into the scrap.
They got what they wanted when their soldiers and tankers were added to Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. They were bloodied and they learned.
They carried on to the Italian boot and fought their way North through difficult terrain against a determined enemy that always had the advantage. Many battle honors were earned, one being the terrible Christmas in Ortona."
This is what comes with the game:
A large map (30" x 41") game map (hexes are 1") that depicts urban ruins and Italian countryside for units to fight on
Two sheets of counters which add Canadian and New Zealand units, including the M5 Ram, the Fox Armored Car, AT74 Sticky Bomb, 6-Pounder ATG, Sherman V, 2" Mortar, Sapper squads, and much more
Also added are the German Fallschirmjäger
A full-color playbook with 14 scenarios involving these units
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Robert Peterson
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