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Campaign Play

Introduction

Mediterranean Sea, southwest coast of Sicily.
It was the early morning of 10 July 1943 when the first landing craft their ramps at Gela and the first units of US Rangers set their boots on Italian soil. Together with the British and Canadian units that had landed further east, the Western Allies launched an unprecedented landing operation to push open the gate to Fortress Europe.

The night before, on 9 July, American and British airborne troops had already dropped into enemy territory behind the planned beach landing zones to occupy important positions. This was to prevent or delay timely counterattacks by Italian and German troops on the day of the landing.

This operation, called Husky, was the beginning of the end of the Italian army as an ally of the German Wehrmacht. It was the additional front, long demanded by Stalin, and thus brought the necessary relief of the Eastern Front.

The mission of the US Rangers landed at Gela was to destroy enemy coastal batteries and caputre the important harbour town so that further troops could be landed without major problems. The Rangers were also tasked with securing the Ponte Olivo airfield a few miles to the north. The Axis troops were tasked with repelling the landing and destroying the bridgehead.

This campaign game simulates the first two critical days, 10 and 11 July, of the Allied landing operation at Gela and the airborne troops in the rear, as well as the counterattacks by Axis Italy and Germany.

In this critical phase, the players each take on the role of a company commander. At the start of the campaign, both players have a limited selection of troop formations which can be used repeatedly depending on the course of the campaign. Casualties reduce the combat strength of these formations and have an effect on the battles in further operations. Thus, it is the players’ task to fulfil the operational mission of the campaign, while shepherding their limited available resources.

To present the players with an even more intensive way of playing, this box contains the campaign ‘Gela Beachhead’. This is a historically based and fully dynamic campaign in which players have a choice of units to deploy throughout the campaign. The campaign could be set-up either historical or non-historical.
 
The campaign game spans a total of 6 out of 27 different missions over two days of combat. The outcome of each mission determines the further course of the campaign and the result. The players’ units can gain experience and thus become more effective in battle.
 
To make it easier to start playing, the campaign can be played in two modes. The standard mode is suitable for beginners. If you want to get deeper into the game and identify more with the available units, you can also play the optional Grognard mode, which asks the players to keep a record of their units in the so-called Troop Roster. In this way, the players record the losses and combat strengths of their units on a unit-by-unit basis over the course of the campaign.