Game of the Week, July 21 to 27

Hi everyone,

It’s Monday again, and it’s time for Game of the Week!

This week’s Game of the Week is Panzer Campaigns: Sicily ‘43. With the planned invasion of France still in early planning, the collapse of the Axis forces in North Africa culminated in Tunisia. The Allies looked for the next logical location for invasion. A landing in Sicily would directly threaten one of the Axis members, Italy, and not require a redeployment of the significant Allied forces now available.

Panzer Campaigns: Sicily ‘43 covers the full Operation Husky: The Conquest of Sicily: July 9 - August 17 1943.

Panzer Campaigns: Sicily ‘43 is the new 4.05.3 version, and our product description encapsulates this campaign well:

By July 1943, the tides of war had turned on the Germans. Tunisia fell in May leaving no Axis territory in North Africa. On July 5th, they launched their last great offensive on the Russian Front at Kursk and were nearing their "highwater mark" when the Allies struck at the "soft underbelly" of Europe by invading Sicily. The Invading American and British forces took 38 days to capture the island due to skillful defense and fighting withdrawal in some of the most difficult terrain in the war prompting one author, Carlo D'Este to call this battle a "Bitter Victory". Can you capture the island faster? Should the Allies have opted to have Patton invade western Sicily instead of covering Monty's flank? Find out with Sicily '43.

The game features 51 scenarios which include all the forces that were historically allocated to the campaign.

The longest campaign scenario is 381 turns, with most scenarios a very playable sub-30 turns.

The master map (66,500 hexes) covers the entire the entire island of Sicily from Trapani and Palermo in the west to Messina and Syracuse in the east.

In addition to the aforementioned scenarios and campaigns, Panzer Campaigns: Sicily ‘43 includes a Getting Started scenario to introduce new players to the game system. The included scenarios are a good mix of small (Division), medium (Corps) and large (Army/Army Group) engagements. 

The Order of Battle has over 1,800 units from the Italian, German, Luftwaffe, American, British, Canadian and French forces that participated in the campaign.

We have included a lot of historical documentation and notes with this title, you can review each by clicking on the links below.

Design Notes

Situation Map 1

Situation Map 2

Situation Map 3

Situation Map 4

Planning Map

There has been a range of books covering The Sicily battles in 1943. Following are some representative books for anyone that would like some more background on the campaign. You can click on the book images below to be taken to the Publisher or Amazon, if applicable.

Informational

The Rick Atkinson Liberation trilogy is a must read to understand the Western Allies path through North Africa, Italy and ultimately Western Europe. “The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944” is the second volume in the series and a perfect background to put the Sicilian campaign in context.

A recent title covered the disastrous airborne landings that preceded the amphibious invasion. Many brutal lessons were learned to the benefit of the subsequent airborne operation in Normandy. “Slaughter Over Sicily: The Airborne Massacre” by Charles Whiting is a very revealing book.

A fascinating book that pulls together the scarce German records that survived the Sicily battles. A very worthwhile read to get the Axis perspective, “Sicily 1943: The German View” by Pier Paolo Battistelli.

“Bitter Victory: The Battle for Sicily, 1943” by Carlo D'Este is viewed as one of the most authoritative accounts of the campaign.

As the titles says, “Operation Husky: The Canadian Invasion of Sicily, July 10 August 7, 1943” by Mark Zuehlke provides an insight into the first combat experience of the Canadian First Infantry Division and First Tank Brigade.

Now for video content:

The Mack has a series of videos covering Sicily ’43. You can access the playlist here.

The introduction video is below.

Pewpewchewchew also tried the title out, you can see the playlist here with the first video entry below. 

The subsequent three videos can be accessed via the following links:

Getting Started Panzer Campaigns Sicily 43 Part 2

Truscott's First Real' Clash Panzer Campaigns Sicily 43 Part 1

Truscott's First Real' Clash Panzer Campaigns Sicily 43 Part 2

Following are some historical background videos, worth your time:

From Real Time History:

And from the Imperial War Museum:

Following are some in-game screen shots of what to expect. Each image can be clicked for a full-sized view.

As mentioned, the build we are making available today is a the new 4.05.3 A range of new features were included, and you can read the Changelog here. All new purchases will be this latest version.

If you don’t already own this title, what are you waiting for? You can buy it directly from the dedicated product page.

We hope you enjoy this week’s Game of the Week. Like all WDS titles, there is a lot of game play included at a very attractive price.