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Played the Sicily scenario a few times now, tried to trap the germans but they just run away.

Thought I would try the Italy scenario but that start by forcing you to invade Sicily.

So thought the campaign game would get me a better chance, of trying my own invasion of Italy with the US
and letting the British sort Sicily

But before troops hit the beaches the germans are withdrawing from Sicily

Is this Historically correct or just the way the AI is modelled.

P.S. Great game well worth the money, was a little unsure but no longer. Best computer wargame for ages.

If you do not invade with everything on turn 1 the Axis AI tends to sense a trap and run like heck while reinforcing and defending the beaches in the toe. As a human player I can tell you it is a place where the Axis can lose big if they are not smart enough to run under those conditions either.

Making the turn delay if you redirect the invasions (partially or entirely) allows the Axis at least one turn of shifting their defenses around. This keeps the Allies from having a 'killer' invasion without the Axis being able to respond.

This is just the way the AI deals with the situation. Not being constrained politically, it realizes that it's been losing the air battles over Sicily and decides there's too much chance of being cut off to make it worth trying to make a stand. The historical pullback by the Germans, although taking a few more weeks, was due to the risks inherent in staying on the island.

I can see the logic in the germans moving out of Sicily to the mainland. But it seems that they all move very quickly.

Doesn't this allow the Human player to blast the units as they cross the Straits with closely targeted Air attacks if the AI does the same thing every time.

The battle of sicily lasted from july 9th till aug.17th.
That's 5 weeks in game turns so it is historic in fact the overall commander Hube was congradulated for the effort.
The high command didn't think it could be held so long.
I like the way the ai retreats to the Etna line,very realistic

ORIGINAL: steelpanther14

I can see the logic in the germans moving out of Sicily to the mainland. But it seems that they all move very quickly.

Doesn't this allow the Human player to blast the units as they cross the Straits with closely targeted Air attacks if the AI does the same thing every time.

Daylight air attacks in the straights were regarded as suicidal due to the amount of flak cannons present. Pilots who flew over that area were on record as saying that the area was more heavily guarded than the Ruhr.
Night attacks had some limited success but if there was a backlog during the night, it was quickly relieved the next morning.

There was also the virtue that for the first 10 days of the evacuation, the Germans had complete control of local ferry craft. The Italians were awaiting high command to issue the retreat order and the Germans simply began pulling their units out of the island without telling the Italians. As a result they had complete control of rail/roads and transport assets around the straights.
At least this is my understanding of what occurred.