'Bitter Victory': A Developer’s Preview
By Doug McNair
May 2006

Avalanche Press’ innovative chit-draw activation system rises to a new level with Bitter Victory, our game of the Allied Invasion of Sicily in 1943. Designer Brian Knipple takes the land-battle system he introduced and refined in America Triumphant, Alsace 1945 and Red God of War, and adds rules for amphibious landings and airborne drops to give players a whole new range of options for taking on the enemy.

Historical Situation

To quote Brian’s historical notes:

“The invasion of Sicily was the Western Allies’ first attempt to gain a foothold in Europe, and the first large amphibious operation against enemy opposition. The battle in North Africa had ended in the total defeat of the German and Italian forces in Africa, and included more than 70,000 dead and 200,000 POWs. The Allied leadership had agreed in January 1943 that the follow-up to the campaign in North Africa would be the invasion of Sicily. Possession of it would provide airfields and ports to support landings in Europe and give the Allies control of the central Mediterranean.”

Sicily had the potential to be a very tough nut to crack, with plenty of highly defensible terrain to bolster the efforts of the Axis garrison. But Italian support for the war was already wavering by the time the Allies landed, and many Italian troops chose to surrender rather than resist. Before long, the Axis commanders decided that evacuation was the best option, and the majority of the Axis garrison escaped through the port of Messina. This gave the Allies their base at Sicily, but left them facing an undiminished enemy defending the boot of Italy.

A photo from another age, when we weren’t ashamed to show sacrifice. An American medic treats a wounded GI while Sicilian women look on.

The Game

Bitter Victory offers players four scenarios:

1. Operation Husky, the historically-accurate invasion plan. General Montgomery’s British Eighth Army lands on the southeast coast and drives north to cut off the Axis escape at Messina, while General George S. Patton’s American Seventh Army lands on the south coast and drives north, protecting Montgomery’s flank.

2. The 141 Plan, the riskier option for an earlier invasion, with fewer troops hitting the Axis at opposite ends of the island.

3. The Tunisian Followup, General Marshall’s brainchild for an invasion immediately after the conquest of North Africa. While it would have met with a much smaller garrison, it would have involved far fewer Allied troops, so the risk would have been much greater for both sides.

4. The Free Setup scenario, where the Axis player secretly constructs his own defensive plan, and the Allied player is free to plan and launch the invasion any way he wishes.

Both players gain victory points for eliminating enemy units. The German player also gains VPs for overrunning Allied-controlled beachheads and ports, repelling amphibious landings and airdrops or forcing them to abort, and controlling Sicilian territory at the end of the game. The Axis can rob the Allies of VPs by evacuating units from Messina before the Allies can destroy them. As for the Allies, in addition to VPs for destroying Axis units, they get VPs for every turn in which they control key Sicilian cities.

The Allied player also has naval support. Light cruiser Brooklyn pounds the Germans at Licata, 10 July 1943.

Most units in Bitter Victory are regiments and brigades, with a smattering of tank and commando battalions on both sides plus some Italian coastal defense divisions. There are also Allied landing ship, tank units (LSTs) and warships to support amphibious landings, and both sides get air points to support land combat.

Headquarters are the most important units, and at the start of each turn, players place the activation chits for their HQs in a common cup. Players then draw chits randomly one at a time, and whoever’s chit is drawn gets to activate the HQ corresponding to the chit and all units which are closer to it than any other friendly HQs. To be able to move and fight at full strength, HQs must be able to trace a supply path to their supply source (Allied-controlled ports and landing ships, tank (LSTs) for the Allies; Messina for the Axis), and units must be able to trace a supply path to their HQ. This gives both sides ample opportunity for maneuver, cutting enemy units and HQs off from their supply sources by maneuvering behind their lines.

Axis Strengths

The Axis player has a ready-made fortress in Sicily. All land areas except the coasts are rough, hill or mountain terrain, and the island is shot through with rivers. Rough, hills and rivers give defensive bonuses in combat, and mountain terrain doubles the combat strength of defenders and makes airdrops impossible. The northeast corner of the island near the Axis supply base of Messina is mostly mountains, and coastal defenses near Messina make amphibious invasions there very dangerous.

The farther the Axis forces fall back toward Messina, the better their natural defenses get. The Axis player also receives reinforcements during the game, so the longer he can hold the Allies back, the better his chances are of keeping control of at least part of Sicily and getting VPs at game-end for each hex controlled.

Allied Strengths

Because of the Axis defensive advantage, the Allied player cannot rely solely on frontal assaults to get where he wants to go. He must hold some of his forces back at start and use them for amphibious landings and airdrops behind Axis lines on later turns. Each amphibious landing and airdrop must be preplanned a number of turns in advance equal to the number of regiments/brigades landing in the same hex. So, the Allied player has a choice of making several small landings quickly, or a few large landings several turns down the line.

Where to land or drop troops is a key challenge. A surgically-placed landing directly behind the Axis front lines can be devastating if it goes off well. But if Axis units move into the landing zone between the time the landing or airdrop is planned and when it arrives, landing forces will either have to abort (giving the Axis player free VPs), or fight their way ashore. The latter option can be a disaster for the Allied player, since repelled landings or overrun airborne drops give the Axis player a huge windfall of victory points.

The Allies have another weapon in their ability to exploit the wavering morale of the Italian Army. The majority of the Axis forces on Sicily are Italian, and as the Allies achieve more of their objectives, Italian morale declines. This translates to extra bonuses in combat for the Allies after they’ve eliminated certain numbers of Italian units or occupied major Sicilian cities.

The Allied player can wait until Axis forces leave remote coastal areas to bolster the front lines, and then plan small, unopposed amphibious invasions or airdrops there. Those forces can then rush to take control of undefended or lightly defended Sicilian cities, thus weakening the morale of front-line Italian troops and making it easier for Allied forces to breach the main Axis line. The Axis player must therefore be careful not to deplete what reserves he has, since threats can appear from unexpected quarters without notice.

Get Yours Now!

Bitter Victory is another great addition to the Avalanche product line and should be very well liked by fans of previous APL games. Like our highly popular releases Defiant Russia and Red Vengeance, Bitter Victory pits a powerful attacker against a defender who must use skill rather than brute strength to hold back the invader and keep control of as much territory as possible. But Sicily offers invaders a completely different strategic challenge from the steppes of Russia, with land, sea and airborne forces contributing equally to the Allied effort to expel the Axis and begin the liberation of Europe. And at $19.99 it's one of the best deals around. Order yours now and start planning your route to victory!

Click here to pre-order Bitter Victory now.