Arcola, The Battle for Italy 1796

The game was designed to tempt players to purchase OSG's previously published and larger wargame Napoleon in Italy.

Napoleon, in a risky move, divided his forces to try to meet and defeat both prongs of Alvinczi's attack.

[2] In 1983, Avalon Hill republished the game in a small box with a mounted map, retitled Battle for Italy.

[7] The eight pages of the original rule booklet were reprinted on both sides of a single 8.5" x 11 piece of paper; the game mechanics remained unchanged.

On the plus side, he noted that "Certainly the feel that this is warfare Napoleon Bonaparte style is conveyed and to a greater degree that other games of the same period and same level."

It is going to require a fair bit of imagination if Arcola is to succeed as a carrot to tempt gamers to go for Bonaparte in Italy.

"[5] In Issue 28 of The Grenadier, Marion Bates commented, "The game does play quickly and offers a very balanced contest between two relatively equal players.

Bates concluded, "Unfortunately, neither player has a great deal of flexibility in his approaches to strategy, though it is still a pleasant enough way to spend an hour and can be a nail-biting experience.

Scoleri concluded, "This appears to be an excellent introductory game for someone interested in the period but probably lacks the [complex positional rules] desired by [hard-core gamers].

[7] David Lent, writing for Centurion's Review, reviewed the Avalon Hill edition and found the original rules reprinted on a single sheet of paper were annoying, noting "Subsequent pages are not next to each other and you have to flip over and search the paper for the next page in the sequence.