Tactics in
Fading Legions

"Behind wooden walls beat hearts of iron . . . "

— Austrian Adm. Wilhelm von Tegetthoff,
private letter to his mistress, June 1866

During the age of nationalism, the Austrian Navy fought two campaigns at sea. The first came in 1864, when an Austrian squadron sailed into the North Sea to challenge the Danish blockade of North German ports. The Austrians fought the Danes at the Battle of Helgoland, winning a strategic victory by breaking the blockade. Meanwhile, Austria’s Prussian allies fought an inconclusive sea engagement with the Danes at Swinemunde.

Two years later, the Austrian fleet fought the Italians in the first open-sea battle between ironclad fleets, at Lissa in the Adriatic. An Austrian victory, it prevented Italian seizure of the strategic island of Lissa.

Hearts of Iron is loosely based on our Great War at Sea series of games, but uses the large counters found in Napoleon in the Desert or Rome at War. The “search” part of the game is very similar. There are two operational maps, one of the North Sea and Baltic and one of the Adriatic. The tactical partof the game is more detailed, with armor (or lack of it) and ship design playing a much more crucial role.

In addition to the Danish, Prussian, Austrian and Italian fleets, there are the American Mediterranean Squadron that the Austrians believed would fight alongside the Italians, and the Turkish European Fleet that entered the Adriatic to support Austria.

As with all of our naval games, there is a wide variety of both operational and battle scenarios, based on extensive archival research into the original reports and dispatches.

Links:

• Wooden Walls: Helgoland 1864
• Denmark's Fleet
• The Battle of Lissa
• War Clouds
• Designer's Preview
• Austria's Wooden Walls

STK #0608

Price: $74.99

Status: Coming Summer 2008!

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