Italy: 1918
Game Design: Hjalmar Gerber
PRELUDE TO PEACE
"We were no longer the frightened troops nailed to the earth by a storm of steel in many different forms. We were advancing into enemy held territory, victors at last, after all those months and years of fear and stultification. Death was still about, perhaps only just round the corner, but the dice were no longer weighted against each of us. It felt good to be alive on that sunny autumn morning on the Plains of Lombardy." [Gladden, p. 178]
Across the Piave: Italy 1918 is a simulation of the two major battles that took place in the Veneto region in the last year of the Great War. The Battle of the Piave, also called the "Battle of the Solstice" in Italy, was a part of the last desperate offensive of the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire to bring about a decision in its war with Italy. After its failure the disintegration of the Habsburg forces accelerated. This situation presented the Italian leadership with the opportunity to score a glorious military victory in the last days of the war in order to enhance the Italian stature at the peace conference to follow in Paris. The resulting battle is called Vittorio Veneto, like Waterloo, sharing its name with a town north of the actual battlefield.
The 11" x 17" map represents the Italian battlefield using large hexes with contact boxes between. The 280 counters represent the combat forces involved in the struggle.
