Blackshirt Scenario 3: By the book

Background: The Americans, with a decent combined-arms force, need to punch through a large Italian infantry force, take the high ground, and exit the board. The map alignment is such that the Americans don’t have far to go, but there are a lot of blackshirts between them and the finish line.

Setup: The Italians set up on the board first. With almost no armor of their own they are dependent upon their field guns to stop the tanks, so I set them up to cover as much of the map as possible and pile the infantry around them.

The Americans start off-board and all can enter on the first turn.

Summary: The game is 36 turns, so the Americans had plenty of time to soften up the Italians and flow through the weak points. Eventually they focused on the southern half of the map, using off board artillery to knock out the 75s. The blackshirts scored some hits with their 88s, but the Americans had too many tanks, too much artillery, and too much time for them to hold out for very long.

By turn 20 the GIs had pushed the blackshirts out of the way and the armor started to break through. The rest of the game was mostly mopping up, but some Italian positions held on stubbornly until the end.

Ultimately the US controlled all 40m and 60m hills and exited 55 steps—more than enough for a major win.

Analysis: It was fun using the blackshirts in a battle, but this scenario is too long. The US had enough advantages in mobility and firepower that, preventing a major screw-up, they will eventually beat down their opponents and get the win. Around 20 turns would put more pressure and give the Italians a chance to stall them out.