Who is Salvador Mundi?

     "As a proud owner of the Salvador Mundi special, I have to say that they are indeed great games.
     "I especially love the two Soviet-Finn war games, great two player games, with both sides being so completely different to play."
     —Frederic Levesque

Our most popular special ever (now out of stock) gives you six of our hard-core wargames for a special low price of just $90. These are our traditional hex-and-counter wargames, the foundation of 119694_avalanche Press in its early years.

Invasion of Italy

We brought this game out in 1994 as our very first offering. It covers the Salerno landings of September, 1943. British and American forces storm ashore and are faced by the veteran German 16th Panzer Division and a number of other formations.

The game system is fairly detailed. Units are mostly battalions, with a few special companies thrown in for good measure. Each is rated for the usual wargame factors: attack strength, defense strength, and movement. However, tank units also have an armor rating, ranging from 1 (small, weak vehicles not found in this game) to 4 (the mighty Panther and Tiger tanks). Anti-tank units are rated on a similar scale.

Each unit also has a morale rating, reflecting its training and cohesion as well as enthusiasm. Veteran German units are usually 5, with a handful carrying a 6 and the fearsome Luftwaffe paratroopers rating 7. The standard Allied unit is a 4, with the American paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne only getting a 5 (this battle coming before their heroic actions in Western Europe) and the British "Desert Rats" division also a 5.

These ratings are compared to "shift" the combat odds up or down. So a German counter-attack that begins at mere 1:1 odds can quickly go up the scale if it has armor superiority (say, 4 vs. the standard American anti-tank strength of 2, for two "shifts") and better morale (say, 6 for the 16th Panzer's infantry against the usual American 4, for two more). Suddenly those even odds become 5:1 in the Germans' favor. Units also fight better when combined with units of their own regiment and division.

If the Allies can hang on, they get to bring their artillery ashore, and here they hold a significant edge. Each artillery unit can provide offensive or defensive support (adding strength to units of its side that are within range). There are two counters for each unit, one representing the men and guns, while the other is placed at the target location. An artillery unit can fire twice (place the counter once on its front side, once on its reverse) before it must replenish its ammunition. While Allied supplies are close to unlimited, the German player must use this resource very carefully.

The map is divided into hexagons, a standard wargame convention. Each represents an area 2 kilometers across. The Allies are trying to land on the beaches, establish themselves and then push north to Naples (off the top edge of the map). The Germans have to stop them; usually the best way to do this is to meet them right on the beaches and throw them back into the Mediterranean. Doing so exposes the Germans to fearsome gunnery support from Allied cruisers and battleships. In game terms these function pretty much as floating artillery units with massive firepower factors. The German does get radio-controlled glider bombs to try to sink them.

Map artwork was by wargame veteran Mark Simonitch, and still holds up 10 years after the game's release. The counters meet the standard of the 1980's, but are by no means equivalent to more recent 119694_avalanche Press releases. Function al, but no more than that. The box is pretty sturdily made and that's about the best to be said about it.

MacArthur's Return

This game released simultaneously with Invasion of Italy in 1994, and while on the surface it appears to be similar it actually uses a different game system. The subject is the 1944 American invasion of Leyte in the Philippines, site of Douglas MacArthur's famous "I have returned" landing.

Once again most units are battalions with a handful of companies, but the game system is not as involved and there are no armor or morale ratings. Each turn, the American and Japanese players each select several "impulse chits" detailing what their units can do. "Full" is the best, and lets units operate fully. They can also "Move" or "Attack," or pick a "Half" chit which allows a limited combination of the two.

The catch is that the Americans have more and better chits, reflecting their superior supply and command arrangements. The players draw these chits several times to make up a turn (the number of these "impulses" varies with the weather), and it's possible that one side (usually the Americans) will get to operat e several times while the other only goes once.

The Americans come to the battle with more troops, and most of them are better than the typical Japanese unit. They also have more artillery (once again offering offensive and defensive support, though the involved artillery ammunition rules of Invasion of Italy are not present here) and a powerful fleet floating offshore. The Japanese have one division (nine battalions) of troops as good as the Americans, and though most of their other units are weaker they do usually get a benefit for jungle training where only some Americans do so. The Japanese can make kamikaze air attacks, and have a small parachute unit that can land behind American lines.

The map is divided into hexagons, this time at a scale of 4 kilometers across each one. Artwork on this one was again by Mark Simonitch. The counters are more attractive than Invasion of Italy, especially the "jungle capable" units with their unique camouflage patterns. While the box is not as dreadful as Invasion of Italy, it's nothing to write home about.

Red Parachutes

The game system used in Invasion of Italy (called "Decisive Battles" in our early marketing) was always intended for very large games: multiple maps and many, many hundreds of counters. Red Parachutes is not quite such a "monster" game, but it is very large: only one map, but 960 counters.

The subject is the Soviet airborne assault across the Dnepr River in September 1943. The Soviet player has hordes of tanks and infantry to command, and attempt to force a crossing of the broad and looping river. The airborne brigades are useful, but like their historical counterparts found it is very difficult to gather them together once they've landed and make a dent in the German positions. Instead, the Red Army is going to have to surge across the river in the teeth of enemy opposition.

This is old-school wargaming at its finest: masses of tanks clash while whole rifle divisions evaporate in a single turn if a crossing goes wrong. As before, units are battalions with a handful of companies thrown in for good measure. But the scale of combat is unlike any of the other games. While Soviet power is awesome, the German player has panzer divisions to hurl against their bridgeheads.

The map in Red Parachutes is often called a true work of art. It was also done by Tom Hannah. Brien Miller's counters were a serious step forward as well, and the box is quite attractive.

Operation Cannibal

In 1996 we returned to land war in Asia with the original game that tested the system used in MacArthur's Return. Operation Cannibal was actually part of a larger game on the entire Arakan campaign and in retrospect we probably should have published it in its entirety instead of breaking off this portion. That said, this portion makes for a very tense little game. The British player is trying to drive down the Burmese coast to seize the port of Akyab, while the Japanese use their superior mobility to frustrate this. Once again units are battalions with a handful of companies, but this time the Japanese are pretty good. Most of their units are jungle-trained, whereas the British have only one such unit (the very capable "Trip" battalion) plus a unit of Gurkhas. This time Brien Miller did both map and counters, and they are quite nice. The box is serviceable but was not our best work.

Red Steel: Clash of Armor at Kishinev

Eight years later, it's hard to say exactly why we published this game. As a historical study, it's top-notch. And as a player's game, it has the best competitive balance of all the seven presented here. It's also the most physically attractive by a wide margin.

Red Steel is focused on the Romanian crossing of the Prut River in 1941 and drive on Kishinev. While the are German troops present, the game does focus on the Romanian campaign and that has always been the game's weakness from a sales standpoint. At the time a now-defunct game publisher was referring to "Rumanian trash" in their ad copy, and we wanted to counter that image. That was not the best of reasons to publish a game on a particular topic, though.

Red Steel uses the same game system as Invasion of Italy and Red Parachutes, and here the system reaches its full development. It's more accessible than the other two, as the rules have been divided into "Basic" and "Advanced" booklets.

There are some new wrinkles in the game: the Soviet player has powerful forces and greatly outguns the Romanians. But this being June, 1941, and the start of the Axis invasion, the Soviets are somewhat ill-prepared. The Soviet player must draw chits to see which division will move, and it's possible that not all will be activated in the same turn. A careless Soviet player can easily leave gaping holes in the line if a division fails to activate and move into position.

The Soviets are lavishly equipped with tanks, but went to war with poor maintenance practices and a shortage of mechanics. Every time a tank unit moves, it has a chance of breaking down and losing strength.

On the Romanian side, their lone armored division is no match for the Soviet tank divisions, with fewer and smaller vehicles. But it does have good morale, and will always move when so ordered. The Romanians bring a plethora of bizarre units into play as well: river monitors, a cavalry division, elite border guards and bridging engineers.

Strategy can be fairly complex. The Soviet can choose to be aggressive and try to toss the Romanians back across the river, and has the strength to do so. But if the Red Army's divisions fail to activate, they can be left very exposed to counter-attack. There's also the threat of a pair of German divisions, stronger than any other in the game, which can outflank an overly aggressive Russian once they enter play.

The Romanian player has several viable strategies: attack across a broad front, concentrate the few good Romanian units into a wedge and drive for Kishinev, or play for time and wait for the Germans. Any of these can breed success or turn into disaster.

The counters, this time by Paul Driscoll, are the most attractive of these seven games. The map was done by Mark Simonitch under a pseudonym, and is also a very fine piece. The box design was runner-up for Publish magazine's award for best packaging (not simply a game industry prize). All together this game is probably the best value of all seven.

Winter Fury

Winter Fury portrays the battle of Tolvajarvi in early 1940. Its map covers a large area to include the twin battles of Tolvajarvi and Ilomantsi.

The game can be played separately, in which case the Soviet task is very similar to that in Blood on the Snow: force their way across the map. This time, there are three Soviet divisions and the snow is not nearly as deep. Also, the Soviets have more ski-capable units of their own: a whole regiment of Soviet skiers, plus two battalions of "Red Finns."

When played together with the now out-of-print Blood on the Snow, each player must decide how to allocate reinforcements. Once committed to one battle, they can't be withdrawn to help in the other. This adds a huge element of uncertainty to both games. Winter Fury has a map by Peggy Gordon. Game scale is the same: two kilometers across each hex.