Up the Deadlier Boot?

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Would anyone care to recommend other cities to add to this map? It always bugged me that John's scenario had so much unused terrain.
 

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SICILY

Large Cities:
Palermo, Messina, Catania

Medium Cities:
Trapani, Marsala, Agrigento, Ragusa, Siracusa

Towns:
Enna, Gela, Termini, Sciacca

SARDINIA

Large Cities:
Cagliari

Medium Cities:
Sassari, Olbia

Towns:
Oristano, Nuoro

CORSICA

Large Cities:
Ajaccio

Medium Cities:
Bastia

Towns:
Sartene, Corte

ITALIAN MAINLAND

Large Cities:
Roma, Napoli, Bari, Taranto, Reggio (di Calabria), Livorno, Florence, Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Venice, Trieste, Milan, Turin

Medium Cities:
Udine, Treviso, Vicenza, Padova, Verona, Trento, Mantua, Cremona, Ferrara, Parma, Modena, Ravenna, La Spezia, Savona, Piacenza, Alessandria, Novara, Como, Bergamo, Pavia, Pisa, Siena, Arezzo, Forli, Rimini, Ancona, Perugia, Ascoli, Pescara, Terni, L'Aquila, Reggio (SE of Parma), Foggia, Barletta, Caserta, Salerno, Benevento, Potenza, Brindisi, Lecce, Castrovillari, Cosenza, Cantanzaro

Towns:
Bolzano, Ortona, Anzio, Cassino, Termoli, Chieti, Comacchio, Terracina, Gaeta, Gallipoli, Crotone, Frosinone

That should give you a pretty good spread of cities. I mentioned Ortona as it was the site of a bitter struggle between the Germans and Canadians which compared to a mini Stalingrad due to the intense street fighting. I have linked to a few Wikipedia articles of interest. The Wikipedia article on the Italian Campaign is well worth a read.
 
I played Up the Deadly Boot a long time ago and enjoyed it immensely. I found it to be a very carefully balanced scen that is difficult but not impossible to complete by April, 1945 when played as a bloodlust scen (i.e. to the death). Only by playing it in an ahistorical but highly efficient manner did I manage to completely eliminate the Nazis by January, 1945.

I would be concerned that adding extra cities might unbalance the scen in that the Allies would have to capture additional cities, thereby upsetting a very tight time line for winning.
 
I have fond memories of it as well, although I think I cheated by sailing north past Sicily altogether! I would probably make it a little less urgent, perhaps on the scale of one week per turn. It could benefit from Tot's larger unit roster (and Fairline's beautiful units).

I also realized the screenshot map I made would allow for a Dragoon/Anvil landing as well....
 
As a short update, I designed a slightly larger map (90x114) that includes the northern Med coast from Marseilles to Trieste. Part one of the scenario starts with HUSKY and ends with BAYTOWN; the second set of files should be able to last through the end of the war.
 
Wow, Michael Daumen; great to see one of the old masters of civ2 scenario design back in action. Good luck with this Michael!
 
I have Sicily pretty much where I want it. Part 2 - from Avalanche to the fall of Rome - seems too easy. I want to add a Part 3 for the rest of the war.

If there is interest in playtesting it I can get the files together.
 
I would like to give it a go. One thing I would suggest is varied terrain. I much prefer it when there is a bit of variety to the landscape as opposed to wide open plains, and the war in Italy was dictated by the harsh terrain!
 
I would like to give it a go. One thing I would suggest is varied terrain. I much prefer it when there is a bit of variety to the landscape as opposed to wide open plains, and the war in Italy was dictated by the harsh terrain!

I made Part 1 movement costs high to encourage a thrust the long way around Sicily. Italy itself has valley terrain beneath major rivers, which is impassable to non-infantry units; Seabees can transform it (albeit with the house rule to do so only where there are roads) as well as the low-defensive value line terrain.
 
Here are the files for Sicily and Italy. I am concerned with (1) the speed and ease of taking Cassino, (2) the deployment of units for Operation Dragoon, and (3) getting the Fritz-X bombs to attack.

You can play the air forces in a hot seat game, although that prevents you from seeing what happens during the Axis turn. If you don't they tend to get a little overzealous attacking the wrong parts of Sicily.
 

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Hi Mike. I'm sorry to take so long to get back to you. I've played several turns (3rd attempt) and I think it has the makings of a great scenario.

My main question is this: Why so many civilizations? It's frustrating to have the AI control the Allied airforces. I'd like to be able to utilize them in coordination with my ground units. Btw, allied air units land on Italian airbases and are then attacked by Axis ground units.

Allies, Germans (including fascists) and Italians are the main civs needed IMHO. And maybe the communists, who controlled the partisans and who didn't always follow Allied orders. eg. the execution of Mussolini and his mistress.

There needs to be some reason that the Allied player can't simply keep the bulk of his units on the landing craft and land higher up, either on Sicily or on the mainland. Historically, it was a question of air superiority. Allied airforces could only control the airspace over southern Italy from Tunisia, so that's where they invaded. Having conquered Sicily, they controlled the airspace as far as Naples, so they invaded at Salerno. Careful balance of air forces are the key to forcing the Allied player to advance "up the deadly boot". Another reason to give the Allies control of their own airforces.
 
It's frustrating to have the AI control the Allied airforces. I'd like to be able to utilize them in coordination with my ground units.

I have not seen the scen, but because of past experience with Nemo's SECOND FRONT, I would never attempt to play a WW II scen where a player is not in full control of all his land, air and naval units and able to coordinate their actions.

SECOND FRONT must be played as a hot seat game where there is a civ (A) for Allied ground and sea units and a seconf civ (B) for Allied air units. Although a player controls both civs, the results are a bloody shambles because neither civ can see what the other civ is doing. I shudder to think what would happen if air units are put under control of a certifiably moronic AI.

The whole idea makes no sense to me. One might as well eliminate all air units.
 
Keeping the Air Force separate nation requires the player to secure airbases - especially the ones on Corsica and Sardinia - in order to maintain air cover. I thought that combining the civs would result in an easier game that would require greatly reduced aircraft movement ratings. For me, the hassle of flying reinforcements up from the edge of the map for several turns outweighed the inability to see what happens on the AI turns.

The extra Fascist civ allows me to do two things. First of all, I can have mines that prevent moving up the Italian coast entirely in Part 1 - addressing the other concern. Making the mines Fascist ensures that they are removed once the invasion begins. Along with this, I can obsolete the Nazi-controlled Italian units while leaving the Fascist-controlled ones on Sicily until the end of Part 1. Using the eliminated civ and Leo's Workshop allows more than 80 unit types in the game.
 
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