MONTE CASSINO SCENARIO

[Philippe]

I wonder if what we're seeing here is as much enthusiasm for hacking the existing game as it is disapointment that the scope of the original game was so limited.

Salerno to the Gustav line is slow going but could have been covered by the highlights. And while the attempts to break through the Gustav line weren't very successful, they do have a very real what-if lurking in the background that is much more real than, say, the basis for the Sealion game: what might happen if you did a better job on one of the various offensives than Mark Clark did? Was Kesselring's success inevitable, or was Smiling Albert good? And was he simply good, or just a lot better than Mark Clark?

Historical simulations can't really answer that kind of question, but they can shed a lot of light on what's involved, and that's why many people play them. The slog up the entire boot to the Alps would be a quite a grind (even if covered in highlights only), but the stretch from Salerno to Anzio is quite interesting, and the airborne assault on Crete can't really compensate for what's missing. I haven't bought Salerno because it doesn't really look like good value compared to the other titles. A shame, because I really like the Italian front (probably because of a TV series that I watched when I was a kid).

If HPS came out with a dozen more scenarios for the game, some of which were played out on a campaign map of central Italy, I'm sure that would put an end to any talk of hacking map editors. The official product (and the attendant Volcano Man _alt scenarios) would be vastly superior to a first-time solo amateur production.