Robert Ellis, 19 May 2022 ~ #UnboxingDay
CUSTOZA is a game from Italian Publisher,Europa Simulazioni, and covers two battle from the Italian wars of Unification; the first battle of Custoza in 1848 and the second in 1866, as a part of the wider war between Prussia and Austria (The Seven Weeks War.
Its an interesting game of a pretty much ignored period of history, in gaming terms, any way.
click images to enlarge
Opening the box and we have a nicely laid out black and white rulebook, although the version that you can download has some colour illustrations. There is actually one copy of the rule book in English and one in Italian, and also the TEC, PAC and Objective maps are provided in both languages.
The game has two very nice maps which have an excellent ‘period’ feel to them which I think is very attractive indeed.
There are three full counter sheets, one of which consists on informational counters and game markers. I very much like the counter design as they represent the uniform colours from the appropriate periods. I should note that there are actually separate sets of counters for each battle, and that the ‘uniform’ colour change to match the uniform of that year. Counters with a red centre band are for the 1848 battle, while those with black horizontal band are for the 1866 game.
So, for example, 1848 Italian Infantry Regiments have blue ‘tunics and trousers’ while in the 1866 game they have grey tunics and white trousers.
Its a nicely presented game, although a pity that the rule book is only in black and white. The counters are something like 9/16″ although described as being 5/8″ and are a little bit on the thin side for my liking. However, the printing and die cutting is good and there is next-to-no colour bleed on the counters.
A few smaller scenarios are provided apart from the campaign games, and the set-up instructions are a bit long winded and would have been improved by more visual aids, and a few more examples of play would have been helpful.
At the end of the rule book you will find some interesting background information and design notes. I also found that the developer, Nicola Contardi, was very active on the games CSW page and was quick to answer a few rules questions for me.
A nice game for anyone interested in the period. I will do a more in-depth review and maybe an AAR as and when I get chance.
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