In February 1945 — after a static defense for nine weeks due to lack of ammunition, bad weather, and heavy losses — Brazil's FEB would get another chance to prove their worth as assault troops in Italy. "Operation Encore," a limited offensive aimed at capturing several dominating heights (including Monte Castello), began on February 18. While the newly arrived U.S. 10th Mountain Division attacked Mt. Belvedere on their left flank, the Smoking Cobras of the FEB advanced up Monte Castello for their fi fth attack on the position — this time, however, with air and armor support.
The FEB had spent four of its nine months in the front lines under the deadly gaze of the German guns on Monte Castello. That ended after a day of hard fighting when the tenacious Brazilians took the hill by sunset on February 21. The mountaintop was then held in the face of numerous German counterattacks. The Brazilians had finally conquered their demon of rock and snow.
| Brazilian | German | |
| Division 1 |
7 Squad Bases 1 M3A1 Half-track |
4 Squad Bases |
| Division 2 |
7 Squad Bases 1 Sherman M4A1 1x |
4 Squad Bases 1x |
| Strategy Decks | American Air Support 1 (* see special rules) Artillery 2 |
Artillery 1 Ground Support 1 |
| Starting Strategy Cards | 3 | 2 |
| Operations Cards | 002 Heavy Fog (* see special rules) 006 Merciless Assault 014 No surrender |
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| Deployment Zone | Any wood hexes. | Any rough and/or hill hexes The Germans may place 1 pilibox and 7 entrenchments in any hill hexes. |
| Starting Initiative |  |
Deploy First |
| Objective | At the end of a game round, the Brazilians win if they control the pillbox hex as well as all level 2 hill hexes adjacent to the pillbox (if any). | The Germans win if the Brazilians are unable to fulfill their objective by the end of Round 9. |
| Rounds | 9 | |
| Actions per turn | 3 | 2 |
| Reinforcements | - | - |
| Special Rules |
• Due to snow covered terrain, all units have -1 movement • Effect of Fog: The American Air Support deck may not be drawn from while the Heavy Fog Operations card is in play. At the beginning or each Command Phase the Brazilian player rolls a die. If the die roll result is less than the current round, remove the Heavy Fog Operations card from play. The Brazilian player may then draw from this deck 'Or the remainder of the game. • Brazilian half-tracks function the same as a regular halftrack except as follows: |
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| HINTS | The Brazilians must push forward aggressively to capture the Neutral Command Objectives and force the Germans back to the final ridge line. | The Germans must decide how much of their force to deploy forward to control the Neutral Command Objectives in order to have as many command points as possible for use in later turns. |
Medic
AntiTank
