Operation Husky – Flames of War Returns to the Med
By Richard Steer
Before the liberation of Italy, there was the liberation of Sicily – Operation Husky. Sneaking in just ahead of the new Late-War Italian Campaign book for Flames of War, Battlefront has published a set of army lists that cover this campaign in Flames of War.
The release is a set of free PDFs published on their website, with free access to the lists on the Forces list builder, so this article won’t tell you anything you can’t already see for yourself. But I’m super excited about it, so I want to talk about it anyway.
The History
As the campaign in North Africa drew to a close, the Western Allies had a decision to make about where to attack next. Landings in Northwest Europe in 1943? Or keep pressure on in the Mediterranean by invading Sicily, Sardinia, or Greece? Logistics won the argument, and the agreed target was Sicily. On 9 July 1943, just less than two months after the surrender of the Axis forces in Tunisia, Operation Husky began.
The campaign lasted five weeks. Following airborne and amphibious landings, the British and Canadians ground their way up the east coast of the island, while the Americans headed west. Everyone’s target was Messina, the coastal city at the northeast tip of the island. In the end, the Axis won the race, successfully evacuating over 100,000 troops across the Strait of Messina to the Italian mainland during August.
The Allies would soon follow them with multiple landings in September. Eighth Army crossed the Strait of Messina, Fifth Army landed at Salerno, and the British 1st Airborne Division captured Taranto by sea. The liberation of Italy was underway.
The Missing Pieces
The existing Mid-War book for the Mediterranean theatre, North Africa, is true to its name. It contains a solid set of lists for the Western Desert in 1942. Moving into 1943, however, there are gaps in the lists that prevent it from being a comprehensive book for the Mediterranean theatre in 1942-43. To field German forces in Tunisia, Sicily, or Southern Italy requires your own research to build forces from the Eastern Front book. The Italian lists are limited. The Canadians and French are missing entirely.
Operation Husky goes a long way towards filling those gaps. It’s a historically self-contained set of lists that are perfect for themed games. It adds units that were missing from North Africa, and creates additional variety for Mid-War list-building.
There are still gaps in Mid-War. The Free French at Bir Hakeim. The Vichy French in Operation Torch. The Bishop. But Operation Husky has closed some big ones, which makes it awesome. It’s free. You should download it.
US and French Forces
The American PDF brings across Rifles, Parachute Rifles, Rangers, and M10s from North Africa, and adds five new Formations: a Veteran M5 Stuart Company, Veteran versions of the Sherman, Rifle, and Armored Rifle companies, and a French Goumier Company. Support-wise, the list includes Veteran Armored Recon Platoons and an M5 Stuart OP.
The Veteran formations are mostly Careful Confident Trained. The exception is the Stuarts, which are Aggressive. As far as I can tell, the cost of these stat changes matches the existing Command Cards in North Africa, so this isn’t providing anything new, but it’s nice not to have to use a card.
The unit formations all appear to be identical to North Africa, except for the list not having the M3 Lee, and the Veteran Rifle Company getting 57mm anti-tank guns. As a bonus, the Green Rifle Company also gets access to the 57mm Anti-tank Gun, which wasn’t in the North Africa list.
The Goumiers are assault monsters: Fearless Aggressive Trained with Assault 2+. Note that the unit’s 60mm mortar is Direct Fire only and does not get an artillery template. The Formation itself is basic, with a Company HQ and two or three Goumier Platoons, and no support weapons. These are not treated as Allies, and could sit well as Formation Support or a cheap second formation to give some assaulting punch to a US Force.
British and Canadian Forces
The British PDF takes the North Africa Force chart, strips out the unit types that didn’t cross the Med, and adds three new formations: a Veteran Rifle Company, a Canadian Rifle Company, and a Canadian Sherman Squadron. The document notes that the Canadians and British are fully integrated in the Force chart rather than being Allies.
The Veteran Rifle Company has the same structure as the normal Rifle Company, but sees every unit become Veteran for +1-point each. The infantry loses Deadly, so remain Assault 3+, and the skill bump boils down to an improvement in their Tactics rating. The big win is the artillery, with a Veteran 3-inch Mortar Platoon, and the Company HQ acting as a Veteran spotter. The Veteran 6pdr Anti-tank Platoon is Confident, rather than Fearless as in North Africa, for a slight points reduction.
The Canadian Rifles are a variant of the Veteran Rifle Company, with its units gaining Rally 3+ at no extra cost. This is where FOW’s 100-point system breaks down: in my view, Rally is the most valuable stat you can have for an infantry platoon, and Rally 3+ is huge. It should be worth something, but +2-points over and above the basic Confident Trained platoon would be too expensive, so we end up in a situation where the only reason to take Veteran Rifles instead of Canadians would be for cheaper 6-pounders.
The Canadian Sherman Squadron provides a new option: true veteran armor. The formation has an HQ and two to five troops of Shermans, with no other tank options. The Shermans themselves are Careful Confident Veterans with a 3+ Remount.
I would like Battlefront to clarify that the Rifle Company/Platoon Command Cards, such as PIAT, can be applied to the Veteran and Canadian versions. It’s a shame that we still don’t get a Bishop Troop, the British Sherman Squadron isn’t restricted to exclude tanks such as the Churchill that didn’t serve in Sicily, and there’s that niggle about the pricing of the Veteran and Canadian Rifles, but overall, the British PDF is an excellent addition to the game.
German and Italian Forces
The Axis PDF combines the Germans and Italians into a single Force chart with a shared Support tree. The Force chart brings in formations from both North Africa and Eastern Front, while adding four new Formations for each nation.
The major addition for the Germans is Herman Göring versions of the Panzer, StuG, and Panzergrenadier companies. These are rated Careful Confident Trained and come with a significant points discount, giving German players an interesting new option.
The Italians have the most interesting additions in this release. New units include the Renault R35, the Semovente 47/32, and 65mm, 75mm, and 105mm artillery pieces. These are all units that were present in previous editions, and are finally making a welcome reappearance in V4.
There are two new infantry formations: Fucilieri Rifles and Coastal Rifles. Both are Reluctant Green Aggressive, with the Fucilieri getting better Rally and Follow Me stats.
Reflections
This is a brilliant little release. The three PDFs could easily have been combined into a book, and have all the production value that we have come to expect from Battlefront’s books.
Instead, Battlefront has published them for free. I hope that they continue this practice and explore other campaigns with lists that apply historical constraints to the existing books and expand the variety of units in the game. Examples could be Norway in 1940, a proper representation of Tunisia, or Italians on the Eastern Front. Tightening up on the history is moving V4 towards what many of us remember so fondly about previous editions.
Mid-War Dynamic Points has already been updated to include the Husky forces, so these lists can be played against any other Mid-War force. However, in my opinion Flames of War is always at its best when played as themed games with the forces in their historical context. On that basis, I encourage you to play infantry-focused Husky-vs-Husky games to make the most of this release.
Battlefront has been on an absolute roll recently. They’ve leveraged their flagship releases for this year, Blitzkrieg and Liberation of Italy, to provide a series of free weekly expansions for other books. Among others, we’ve seen Mid-War Matildas, Tetrachs, and Beutepanzers. Operation Husky is the pinnacle of this: a full set of lists for an entire historical campaign.
Have I overbought the hype about this wave of PDF lists? Are there campaigns that you’d like to see get the Husky treatment? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
