A riddle for the mind...

What was tougher than any US Special Ops, deadly in or out of water, likes flowers, so bad-ass that other countries had to have the same type of unit and they loved blowing up stuff?

Go on, think about this.

Give up?

Why, it was one of the deadliest WWII commando groups ever assembled and trained, the Italian commando underwater unit called "Decima Flottiglia Mezzi d'Assalto", aka La Decima or Xª MAS (i.e. 10th Flotilla).  Essentially, it was comprised of four different parts during its fight against the British Royal Navy and Allied shipping with these being the Gamma Frogmen, manned torpedo craft, midget submarines, and assault motorboat craft. 

Mamma Mia, Con tutto questo, è tempo di mettersi in gioco!

Up for review are two solitaire WW2 Naval games about the "Decima Flottiglia Mezzi d'Assalto", aka La Decima or Xª MAS (i.e. 10th Flotilla). Though simple, both games comes thru with more fun than 90% of most Naval games ever made. And yes, I have a lot of them, and they are generally a rules lawyers dream. Not so with these two games.

"Depths of Courage: The Attacks on Algeciras Harbor July-Dec 291942" and it's companion "Depths of Courage: The Attack of Gibraltar Harbor Sept 1942" both by High Flying Dice, LLC. Both designed by Paul Rohrbaugh and with graphics by Dariusz Buraczewski 2018.

Both rule sets have 6 pages with 1 and 1/2 pages of actual rules, 1/2 page of scenario variants and 2 pages showing a sample of the game map and a page on how to read the counters.

1.0 Introduction (to both games):  One would think that trying to game an elite group of frogmen would be hard to do. But for High Flying Dice Games, LLC, it seems like it was as simple as baking a cake.

Decima Flottiglia Mezzi d'Assalto has been brought to life finally, within these two games, and "Depths of Courage: The Attacks on Algeciras Harbor July-Dec 29 1942" (DOC:TAOAH) and "Depths of Courage: The Attack of Gibraltar Harbor Sept 1942" (DOC:TAOGH).

Before anything is said, both of these games are only concern with the Xª MAS attacks in the Bay of Algeciras using the 2-man human torpedo (S.L.C.). And there are at least another 4 or 6 (I lost track) planned for the "Depths of Courage" series of solo games. I do know one will concern the Brits, specifically Lt Cmdr Crabbe (UK) and his Chariots.

The game Depths of Courage: The Attacks on Algeciras Harbor Dec 29 1942 - July 1943" covers the attack by Xª MAS in December 29th, 1942 and the attack in May-July 1943.

While the game "Depths of Courage: The Attacks on Gibraltar Harbor Sept 1941 covers the attack by Xª MAS in Sept 1941. And for the most part both games share the same rules and play. It is in a small section of the scenario rules where the games differ. Pretty easy to play.

For those who may have forgotten or don't know where these two harbors are located, the harbors are actually across from each other - one is in British territory and the other is in Neutral Spain in the Bay of Algeciras.   (see graphic to the left).

Battle Campaigns of the Mediterranean: 

The Battle of the Mediterranean was the name given to the naval campaigns fought in the Mediterranean Sea between June 10, 1940 to May 2, 1945. Outside of the Pacific theater, the war for the Med was the largest conventional naval  actions during WW2. This was due mostly with the Allied forces struggle to supply and retain the key naval and air base of Malta.

By the time of the Sept 1943 armistice between Italy and the Allies, the Allies sunk aprx 83 Regia Marina (Italian Navy) warships for 195,100 tons and 83 submarines. Kriegsmarine(German Navy) losses in the Med from the start of the campaign to the end were 68 submarines. The Regia Marina and Regia Aeronautica Italiana (Italian Air Force) had sunk aprx 145,800 tons of Allied surface warships, with an additional 169,700 tons sunk by the Kriegsmarine. A total of 315,500 tons with the Allies losing 76 warships and 46 submarines.  Out of this,  "Xª MAS was responsible for sinking 86,000 tons of Allied warships and 131,527 tons of merchant shipping. Not bad for a very small, well discipline group of men.

One of the fallacies during and after WW2 has been the belief of the ability of the Italian Armed Forces. Most, wrongly accuse the Italians of  being terrible fighting men, lazy, and incompetent. This fallacy was perpetuated not only by the Germans, but also by the English and the US (even today so called "Special Ops" web sites still call them incompetent and give erroneous information on anything Italian related including the Xª MAS.).

However, Italian ships were very well design, as well as their subs and their aircraft. The individual infantry weapons, clothing, and tools were good. The average fighting man was just as brave and when well lead, gave a good account of themselves as would any other nation's soldiers would do.

And when battles were lost, the Italians learned, just like the US did (can you remember Kasserine Pass, anyone?) unlike the Germans, who failed to learn time and time again about the Russians.  Where the Italians did fall short is their food rations in requiring more water than any other country to cook and where did they fight? Yuppers, Nord Afrika.  

This unit was better than anything the Allies fielded.   Xª MAS was so good, that every country, once they found out about Xª MAS, had to have a unit like it. Even Germany put together combat frogmen after Hitler found out about these guys. The US put together the UDT frogmen that was used to great effectiveness in the Pacific and on D-Day. (and we all know what became of the UDT force - what?!? Skippy, you don't know? Why Skippy, they became the Navy SEALS.).

Xª MAS excelled at sinking ships in the Med. Whether they used the 2-man human torpedo, or the fast assault boats, or was one of the 50 Gamma frogmen with Limpet mines, they simply excelled.  BTW, S.L.C stands for Siluro a Lenta Corsa (Slow-running torpedo). The operators nicknamed it "Maiale" (Pig).

One of the strangest chapters in the units history is when the Italian Armistice was signed in Sept '43, part of the Xª MAS served with the Allies and part of them went north to the puppet state setup by the Germans and served with the SS in Northern Italy. These troops  became even more bad ass as they were used for hunting partisans, Yugo guerrillas  and dealing with them. I won't go into detail about them or the other half that stayed behind to support the Allies. Somethings, one has to look up and read for them-self and this is one of those times. Be aware, that both sides of this unit continued to sink ships, after Sept 1943, although no tracking records were kept of the tonnage destroyed. 

Suggested reading for more info: 
1. Italian Navy & Air force Elite Units & Special Forces 1940-45. By: P. Crociani & P.P. Battistelli, Illustrated by M. Stacey (Osprey Publishing, 2013)
2. The Black Prince and the Sea Devils: The Story of Valerio Borghese and the Elite Units of the Decima Mas. (Da Capo Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2004)
3. The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean Volume II, November 1940-December 1941. Edited by David Brown, (2002).
4. Frogmen First Battles. By: William Schofield and P. J. Carisella
5. (Branden Publishing Company, Boston, 1987).
6. Sea Devils-Suicide Squad By J. Valerio Borghese, by Translated James Cleugh.

Game Maps: The graphics for both are truly a work of art.  Don't get me wrong, High Flying Dice Games has some of the best graphic designers out there, with each bringing his or her own unique talent to the company. But this person has that extra "humph", that naval games need. 

 

How many times does all one see is the same shade of  "blue", for water. BORING. And if you look closely at both game maps, you will see that the water changes shades. I noticed it right off.

I have never heard of this graphic designer before, but I did let Paul know how much I enjoyed seeing his work and to keep this person around and use them more often, especially on the next 3 or 4  or 5 Depths of Courage series games coming out.  I hope he does stick around, as I would like to see more of his game designer graphics in other games. Besides, Dariusz has the right stuff,  that I am calling this the "Dariusz- touch". Very nice work. 

Counters:

The same can be said for the counters too. I love the coloring of them! I can see the whole counter.

Again, soft colors, no direct red or green (except up in the left corner) but pale versions of those two colors.  The info counters and Xª MAS counters are readable, a little bit bigger than 1/2" (more like 5/8, I'm thinking).

Here are the front of the counters for the games. The difference in counters is the three capital ships in each game. The game has 11 counters representing Cargo ships (5) and Patrol Boats (6). The Italian counters are the S.L.C.'s (4). And of course the four various counters for keeping track of things. for a total of 22 front/back counters.

And as with all games that High Flying Dice Games sell, there is a card set available for $* to replace the standard card deck that is used.  

Note: $* price has changed and I am not sure what it is...

2.0 What else is needed?  One six sided die (1D6) and a standard card deck is needed (unless you buy the special card set for this series.).

3.0 Errata, oops, I mean Addendum:*
*NOTE - High Flying Dice Games fixed all the errors in the game rules and the game maps. I know that set the company back a little bit, but it just goes to show you that HFDG is quality. A lot of the major companies better take notice! If any addendum comes up, I will list it.

4.0 Final Impressions: The game play was nerve racking. The first game took roughly 45 mins as it is different from the Eagles system I have been playing for while and had to learn it. But after a couple rough starts and getting the small addendum from Paul, I finally was able to get into the swing of things. And played 3 games before sleep overcame my body last night. It's not so much that the game is hard to win, it has to be to have any chance of being a good game, but it is one of those games that grabs ya by the hairs of the chin and makes one play one more to see if a greater victory can be won.

There are very few games like that these days, but I tell ya, this is one of them. (the other ones seem to be other pocket games, notably Rattenkrieg, Dueling Eagles and Showtime Hanoi.).

The big difference between this game and it's sister game is that the "Scire" (a sub) can be sunk. If it is sunk, it will make it hard for the Italian player to win. I will look at the game later this week and write something up about it. But as it stands now, these games are a worthy addition to anyone's gaming library. Inexpensive (not cheap, as that takes away from the quality of these two games), fun to play, and will be one you will go back too, and so will I.

5.0 Now for my favorite part - my ratings:
Complexity of the game = LOW to LOW-Middle (decisions, decisions, decisions)
Fun Level = HIGH (the only thing missing is the the salty sea spray!)
Nail biting = 9 fingers worth, lost almost all of those nails...
Length of typical full game = 30 mins to ??? (slow poke!)

Out of the 3 games I played while writing this review, the Xª MAS won 1 minor victory and had 2 losses. I didn't care, as I had fun playing and the tension was there. I would never compare a game to what the actual combatants went thru, but I am wondering if it equaled at least a 1/10000% of what they experience for a nano-second.

The bun says get it, play it, enjoy it!

Thanks for reading!
-ab out

 

Also I need to add, this blog is considered to be a living blog. Changes will be made to it as needed to clarify, correct errors or update with new information.  Added graphics back, though I forgot where I got them and revised the review a little bit.