It Never Snows

It Never Snows is a Standard Combat Series (SCS) game covering the pivotal Market Garden offensive in September, 1944. Using a system based on the well-received SCS Game Bastogne, It Never Snows covers the landings and ground offensive endeavoring to link up with them at 600m per hex with units generally companies. Each turn is half a day making for a 17 turn campaign game (uniquely playable among Market Garden games).   The expansive five map area allows each of the airborne division fights to be geographically isolated and separate, as was the case historically. What this does is that it allows each situation to be gamed as its own little tactical puzzle—making it such that a player might be “winning” in one region while “losing” in another, at the same time. Both players are always “in the game.”   While the Allied player is busy dropping paratroopers, establishing bridgeheads and running a ground offensive to link up with them, the German player must devastate the airborne forces clinging to Arnhem, defend the various river crossings and counterattack to sever the Allied supply lines. Both players are attacking and defending at the same time, every turn.   Following on the heels of Bastogne, It Never Snows uses a tactical model with a minimal amount of rules overhead which shows both set-piece as well as “on the fly” attacks and the effects of indirect fires and air support.   A fantastically detailed OOB shows the insane array of German units being scratched together to defeat the Allied offensive—from displaced sailors to the deaf, from elite armor to barely trained school units, from highly motivated SS to penal units being pushed into battle at gunpoint. Against the elite airborne troops of the Allies, this menagerie is hardly the German army many wargamers envision when they think of World War II.   Scenarios: Campaign. All five maps, all 17 turns. The full meal with players selecting their own landing sites. Historical Drop Zones Campaign. Almost the same as the above, only with the actual drop sites listed so that players can see the real thing and not have to do that planning themselves. Sept 18: Foothold. Here the initial drops have already happened and the battle is underway. By passing on the first turn air drops, this is a much quicker version of the campaign. Sept 20: High Water Mark. This 12 turn game places the player in the shoes of the Allies at the very moment the success (or failure) of the campaign is determined. The Witches Cauldron. A small map area scenario covering the defense of Oosterbeek. Hold Until Relieved. The battle for Arnhem in a small map area and only 6 turns. Hail Mary, Full of Grace. A small area, 6 turn scenario covering the 82 Abn Division’s crossing of the Waal river and the effort of the Gds Armored Division to link up with them through Nijmegen. Hell’s Highway. A small map area, 8 turn game covering the German attempts to cut the XXX Corps supply line.