Genre: WW2 operational (battalion and company) level turn-based strategy/simulation
Developer: John Tiller
Publisher: HPS Simulations
Minimum System Specifications: Pentium-based 133mhz+ PC with 32 megabytes of RAM
280 megabytes of hard drive space
Windows 98/2K/XP operating system (Win95 is not supported)
DirectX 8.1+ is required
Release Date: June 2005
INTRODUCTION At dawn on September 9, 1943, German troops defending the Gulf of Salerno region of Italy looked out to sea and saw a large British and American invasion fleet. Supported by destroyers and cruisers, waves of landing craft filled with troops from the British X Corps and the American VI Corps were approaching Salerno’s sandy beaches. Operation Avalanche, the next step in the Allied plan to invade the soft underbelly of Europe, was starting.
Salerno ’43 covers the Allied campaign starting with the amphibious invasion of Italy at Salerno, and later, the Anzio invasion. Salerno is the latest release in the acclaimed Panzer Campaign series by famed war game designer John Tiller. Published by HPS Simulations, previous releases in the series include Smolensk ’41, Kharkov ’42, and Sicily ’43, to name a few. The Panzer Campaign series has been well-received by the war gaming community and has a solid reputation for accurate period maps, deeply researched orders-of-battle, and excellent overall game play.
Salerno is an operational-level simulation from the player’s command perspective, with unit counters representing battalions. The battalion units can be broken down into companies for slightly more historically accurate game play at the expense of an increase in the number of units the player has to manage. I played it almost entirely at the battalion level. Salerno uses a typical hexagon tile map, with each hex representing one kilometer. The time scale per game turn is two hours during daylight and four hours at night.
In addition to the main Salerno historical campaign scenario and map, the game has scenarios and maps for the Allied Anzio and German Crete campaigns—it’s actually three campaign games in one. Each of the campaigns offers a historical scenario, a number of alternative “what-if” scenarios, and a few shorter scenarios covering notable segments of the campaign. With the added features of a scenario editor and order-of-battle unit editor, Salerno ’43 offers quite an impressive overall package.
INSTALLATION & OPERATION Installation is straightforward: just insert the game CD, and the Windows auto-run feature starts the game installer. I followed the recommended installation options and everything installed smoothly.
With its low minimum hardware specifications, Salerno should run on most Windows PC platforms. However, although I have a reasonably fast Intel CPU (2.4 GHZ) with 512 MB of RAM, the game map scrolling on my system was very sluggish. Changing my video settings from 32-bit to 16-bit made a big difference in the performance. The game did lock-up or crash to the Windows desktop several times; however, the auto-save feature saved the game at the end of each turn, minimizing the effect of the crashes.
DOCUMENTATION Salerno ’43 does not include a printed manual; however, online documentation is available via the in-game Help menu. Also, on the Windows Start Program menu you can access printable help manuals.
The introductory manual uses a small scenario to teach you the basics of playing the game. The General Help Manual explains the basic menu and dialog boxes and includes a keyboard shortcut listing (print this out and keep it close; you’ll refer to this a lot). The User Manual is very thorough and covers everything the player needs to know to play the Panzer Campaign series of games (they all share the same general interface and game engine). Finally, as if that wasn’t enough, there is a Campaign Notes manual, which provides excellent background on the Salerno, Anzio, and Crete campaigns and explains the designer’s approach to developing the game.
The documentation is well-written, clear, and thorough. It is also absolutely necessary to read the manuals before playing the game at any length. Salerno ’43 is a tactically deep and complex game. To get the most out of the game, you’ll need a good understanding of the game mechanics.
SETUP/GAME OPTIONS Starting a new game is when the depth of the Panzer Campaign game system first becomes obvious. When playing against the computer, the initial scenario, side, and AI strength selections are fairly straightforward. However, click on the Rules button and you’ll be presented with 22 optional rules, which provide a lot of flexibility in customizing the mechanics of the Panzer Campaign system. Want your air strikes to target every unit in the hex rather than you selecting the target unit? Select “Alternative Air Strike Resolution.”
USER INTERFACE The user interface is functional, though a bit confusing. Managing your forces during a game turn requires navigating three different interfaces: the normal Windows menu bar, a tool bar, and map/unit selection areas. Here’s a screenshot showing the main game window:
Clicking on a hex presents information on terrain, supply, and the units in the hex. To select a specific unit or units in the hex, you left click on the unit’s graphic. To move, fire, or initiate an assault on an enemy position, you use a left or right mouse click. Additional unit commands are invoked using the button bar. Many of the button bar commands also have a corresponding keyboard hot key.
Right clicking on the unit graphic presents a more detailed view of the unit statistics for every unit in the hex and shows special terrain features that aren’t obvious in the initial terrain view.
I found the interface to be somewhat cumbersome and difficult to use. It gets even trickier when the number of units in the hex exceeds the display window. Then you’re presented with scrolling arrows, which you have to click on to view the other units in the hex. Because you can’t see all of the units, it’s easy to select one and then forget that you did so. Lacking visual cues, I often found myself issuing commands to units that I didn’t intend to use. Sometimes an error message was my only cue that an “unseen” unit was trying—unsuccessfully—to carry out my command.
The entire user interface has an antiquated DOS feel to it. Compared to modern Windows-based interfaces like the Korsun Pocket series from Matrix Games, the Panzer Campaign interface can be frustrating and is definitely showing its age. Time for an overhaul, Mr. Tiller!
GRAPHICS The typical 2-D, top-down board game hex/unit counter graphics in Salerno ’43, while not stunning, are certainly attractive and functional. The maps are nicely detailed with recognizable terrain features. The terrain features and elevation are factored into the game’s movement and combat system. Terrain hexes include roads, rivers, beaches, impassable cliffs, vineyards, rough, broken, clear, brush, marsh, fields, village, town, and city.
The on-map unit counters are attractive and present the basic information the player needs to develop strategy and plan moves. The color scheme makes it easy to differentiate between your units and the opposing force. After selecting a hex, the Unit Box area at the left of the main map window provides detailed information on the units in the hex, with a detailed graphic identifying the primary type of equipment or soldier in the unit.
The only negative, graphically speaking, is the unit scroll bar—it doesn’t have a page down feature. In scenarios with a large number of units, you’ll spend an inordinate amount of time clicking on the small red scroll arrows to see all the units in the stack.
The Panzer Campaign series includes an oddly designed 3-D isometric view, which isn’t particularly helpful. Here’s a screenshot of the 3D game board; it definitely reinforces the feeling of a game series rooted in early DOS graphics:
Overall, the graphics will not win any awards, but are effective and work fine with the other aspects of the game.
SOUND Quite frankly, the sound is the weakest part of the game. The background music, movement, and combat sounds are of poor quality, unrealistic, and reach the annoying stage very quickly. I often played the game with the sounds turned off.
TRAINING A small introductory scenario, with accompanying help file, gently introduces the player to the game. However, this game is so rich in detail and options that the introductory training only scratches the surface. Plan on a steep learning curve to master all of the game’s features and functionality.
MULTIPLAYER Salerno ’43 has a great multi-player option. Any number of players can connect over the Internet (or home LAN). The first two players to connect become the “commanders” of their side’s overall forces. Additional players can join either side, and the commander assigns them responsibility for organizations within the overall force structure. The game also supports a two-player hot-seat mode and play-by-email (PBEM). Given the length of all but the shortest scenarios, the PBEM option will probably be the most practical.
AI On defense, the computer AI provides a reasonably challenging opponent. It takes advantage of defensive terrain and knows how to build a line of units to block an advance. It will probe your line and attempt to penetrate and isolate individual units that get out ahead of your main force. However, the computer AI does seem to lack situational awareness in terms of its opponent’s flanking movements. I found it very easy to surround and isolate computer units. Also, the computer AI is very poor at guarding objective points in rear areas. I was able to routinely drive fast-moving recon units deep behind the AI’s front lines to capture high value objectives.
On offense, the computer is capable of identifying holes in your line and sending in units to attack any weaknesses. However, when faced with an organized defense with no obvious attack avenues, the computer quickly stalls, even when it has enough force to conduct an attack at advantageous odds.
For example, Salerno features a couple of historically accurate German counter-attacks. As I played through the game, the German units would assemble for the attack; probe my line, and then just stop and sit there.
That said, I was very impressed at one point when the computer-controlled German forces were preparing for one of these counter-attacks. I watched a German engineer unit build a bridge that allowed the German attack force to bypass my heavily defended bridge at a nearby road junction.
On the whole, the computer AI, especially on defense, is not bad and will give the player a decent single-player experience. But the best opponent is still another human being!
GAMEPLAY Salerno ’43 continues the Panzer Campaign series tradition of deep and complex operational-level game play. The player commands a historically accurate battalion-level force of infantry, artillery, and tanks. Each unit is assigned a specific number of Movement Points and is rated for its hard (anti-tank) and soft (anti-infantry) attack values, defense, and range.
During each turn, the player may command units to move, fire, and assault. Each action the unit performs costs Movement Points. At the scale modeled, only artillery units have long-range attack capabilities; firing on or assaulting enemy units generally requires the player’s units be adjacent to the enemy unit.
When firing on an enemy unit, combat results are calculated by comparing the attack value of the firing unit to the defense value of the target unit. A separate Assault value is used to calculate combat results when assaulting enemy units. Assaults must be used in order to force the enemy to retreat, allowing your units to move forward toward their objectives.
For naval gunfire support, the game includes unit counters representing the capital ships available to the Allied player. I was surprised at the relative ineffectiveness of naval gunfire support as modeled in the game. In Samuel Morison’s Sicily-Salerno-Anzio1, there are many references to the effectiveness of capital ship gunfire in the Salerno and Anzio invasions.
Air combat is more abstract. Each game turn, the player is presented with a dialog box of available air missions, either reconnaissance or air strike. Ground units have anti-aircraft ratings that are used to calculate damage against an attacking air strike. Air interdiction of units traveling across the map and interception of air strikes and reconnaissance flights by enemy fighters is also modeled.
Units can change into special rail or travel modes, which increase their movement capability at the risk of being more vulnerable to enemy attack. Movement features include roads, railroad lines, city/town rubble (which can be cleared by engineer units), congestion, obstacles, bridges (some engineer units can be assigned to build bridges), and ferries. Units can also “dig-in” to improve the defensive capability of the hex.
A unit’s combat capability is affected by its overall strength, morale, and fatigue. Combat results in the loss of men, vehicles, or guns and increases fatigue. Combat can also cause units to become disrupted or broken, with corresponding reductions in capability.
Engineer units can build or destroy bridges, improve a unit’s ability to dig-in, ferry units across rivers and canals, lay and or clear mine fields, and clear rubble.
Command and control is represented through battalion, division, corps, and army headquarter units. These units have a command radius rating that influences the supply capability and combat recovery of units in their chain of command within the command radius.
Weather conditions are represented by five different ground conditions that affect movement: normal, soft, mud, snow, and frozen. Weather (and night turns) also affects visibility when spotting units for ranged artillery attacks.
The player’s overall game strategy is determined by the scenario creator. Winning involves earning victory points by capturing strategic objectives on the map and destroying enemy troops.
One aspect of the game play was very frustrating. During the computer’s turn, the game stops for a few seconds to display each of the AI’s combat results for units firing or assaulting. On large scenarios this can take more than 20 minutes. With campaign games of at least 80 turns, that adds up to a lot of time staring at the screen, trying to understand the individual combat results in the context of the overall military situation. I’d prefer an end-of-turn combat summary report.
SUMMARY Salerno ’43 is a solid addition to the Panzer Campaign series. The sheer depth of the tactical options will satisfy the grognard, yet it is still quite approachable for the more casual military gamer. The maps, orders-of-battle, and scenarios are thoroughly designed and play-tested. The only drawbacks are some quirky interface issues, the cumbersome combat reporting during the computer’s turn, and a steep learning curve.
Any fan of the Panzer Campaign series or any military gamer with an interest in the Salerno, Anzio, or Crete campaigns will find this game a good addition to their military gaming collection. However, the Panzer Campaign game system is starting to show its age. The time has come for HPS, Tiller and company to upgrade the Panzer Campaign interface or risk falling far behind the look and feel of modern computer war games.
THE REVIEWER Jim Cunningham is a long-time war gaming fan. He got his start in the early 60s with Avalon Hill’s Gettysburg and then moved on to Panzer Blitz and the wonderful SPI series of military simulation board games. Frustrated at the difficulty in finding human opponents, Jim took quickly to the early Apple II and computer gaming. He has fond memories of many lost hours playing Midway Campaign and other classic Apple II titles. Still an avid gamer, titles currently on his PC include Rome: Total War, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Call of Duty, Medieval: Total War, Korsun Pocket, Across the Dnepr, and Civil War Bull Run. Jim’s day job is CTO of the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
1) Samuel Eliot Morison. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volume 9, Sicily-Salerno-Anzio. University of Illinois Press, 1954.
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