Ortona (wargame)

But as they advanced, they discovered the "ditch" was actually a deep narrow gully that the Germans had strongly fortified with dug-outs and machine gun nests.

On 14 December 1943, the Canadians finally entered the streets of Ortona and discovered the Germans had organized a street-by-street defense, with snipers, strong points, mines and booby traps.

[2] As critic Richard Berg noted, the Canadians have the advantage in numbers, but the Germans "have taken excellent adventage of the terrain to give themselves a strong defensive position."

[3] The short 8-page rulebook covers artillery fire, command mechanics, German pre-plotting oif mines, and the possibility of armoured units breaking down.

Although Berg didn't believe this game would "set heads spinning and registers ringing", he did think it was a "good, solid work, even if marred by a rather slipshod approach to rules writing and a lack of color."