Hollow Legions Unboxing

At dawn on October 3, 1935, about 100,000 Italian troops crossed from Eritrea into Ethiopia in three big columns. Back in Rome, Mussolini told a packed Piazza Venezia that Italy had waited 40 years for its place in the sun. Haile Selassie pulled his armies back 30 kilometers, so nobody could doubt who’d started it.

Mussolini liked to brag about his eight million bayonets. He didn’t have them. Five years later, his army went into a world war with thin armor and too few trucks. Plenty of Italian units fought hard anyway. Hollow Legions puts that army on the table, from the Ethiopian highlands to the frozen Don.

Getting It

This is the third edition, which MMP released at the very end of 2021. It’s a lot more than the Italians now. MMP pulled the desert rules, boards and overlays out of West of Alamein, updated them and moved them in here. ELR’s Soldiers of the Negus came along too, with its Ethiopians and eight scenarios.

MMP lists it at $172 and has it in stock. Ritterkrieg has it in stock too, on sale at $155. As usual, the links are at the bottom of the article.

Contents:

• A revised Chapter F for the desert
• Italian Chapter H notes, revised
• Updated Chapter A pages that add the Ethiopians
• A Chapter F divider
• Five counter sheets, one of them Ethiopian
• Eight 8″ x 22″ geomorphic mapboards, boards 25 to 31 and 25e
• Eight sheets of desert overlays
• 53 scenarios, plus the A Line in the Sand mini-campaign

It isn’t a complete game. You’ll need the ASL Rulebook, and a good chunk of the scenarios use boards from other modules.

I dug out my original for comparison. The 1989 Hollow Legions came in an odd old-school box, much wider than the new one. It only had two mounted desert boards, a small set of counters and eight scenarios with the Italians. Back then, that was the whole module.

This exact copy was the prize in a giveaway right after the video. That’s why you’ll see me fighting the urge to punch counters. The giveaway post is still up.

Chapter F Gets a Makeover

The Chapter A pages are short. They update the Italians and add the Ethiopians, with a new footnote for them. The real news is Chapter F, the desert rules, which got a full overhaul.

Everything’s printed a lot crisper, and the examples look new, or at least redrawn. My old copy looks sad next to it. The old version had colored bars down the margins to flag DTO rules. Those are almost all gone, and it reads much cleaner for it. There’s still one here and there, if you hunt.

Chapter H for the Italians is much easier to read than my old copy. There’s even a small erratum slip for one of its charts. Expect all of this to show up in the electronic rulebook and the pocket rulebook sooner or later.

Italians, Ethiopians and a Mortar Argument

Four of the five counter sheets are mostly Italian. You get squads, leaders, crews, support weapons, vehicles and guns, plus a run of DTO markers like tracks and paved roads. The print quality blows my 1989 counters away.

There’s also a set of British 3-inch mortars rated as 81mm instead of 76mm. Players have argued for years over which one’s right. I’m staying out of that one.

The fifth sheet is all Ethiopian. There are elite, first line and conscript squads, leaders, support weapons and even a radio. Their color is awfully close to the Allied Minors. Maybe that’s on purpose.

Sand, Hills and More Sand

Eight sheets of overlays carry the desert terrain, like hills, sand, dunes and wadis. Almost all of them have new artwork. People sure do love cutting out overlays.

Board 25 is the only board with much on it. It’s a big desert hill with gullies running off it, a handful of buildings and some orchards. Board 25e is the old escarpment overlay printed onto board 25, with desert up top, the escarpment in the middle and more desert below.

I compared it with my old overlay, and the art’s completely redone. On the old one, the color change at a crest line was so slight you could barely see it. On 25e, it jumps right out. Once boards went to the thinner Starter Kit style, printing that giant overlay was practically printing a board anyway. So MMP printed the board.

Boards 26 to 31 are open desert with a few bits of terrain on each. That’s the desert for you. There weren’t many roads or much terrain out there, so the scenarios build it up with overlays.

From the Highlands to the Don

The 53 scenarios run from Ethiopia in October 1935 to Leros in November 1943. They cover the war in East Africa, the desert, Tunisia, Sicily, the fight for Rome after the armistice, Yugoslavia and the Russian front. Tobruk and Rome get their own insets, since the fights there are packed so close together. The numbers match the scenario table right under the map.

Red markers are the fights where the Italians or the Germans attack, and blue ones are where the Allies, the Soviets, the partisans or the Ethiopians do. Scenarios 35 to 42 came from West of Alamein, 51 to 58 are the original Hollow Legions eight, and 253 to 260 are Soldiers of the Negus. The rest were out of print until now.

A Place in the Sun

The eight Soldiers of the Negus scenarios are the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, mostly Ethiopians against Italians and their Eritrean troops. I never picked up the original, so these were all new to me. Our Place in the Sun opens the war on its second day, when an Ethiopian band turned up in the neutral zone against the Emperor’s orders.

In Criniti’s Escape, Ras Imru’s army swarms an Italian pass in December 1935, flipping L3 tankettes and tearing off their tracks. The Golden Mountain is the Italian night raid on Amba Work, and then holding it. At Mai Ceu in Kebur Zabagna, the Emperor throws the Imperial Guard at a dug-in Eritrean camp. Last Hope at New Flower closes it out at Addis Ababa in July 1936.

Don’t expect much armor. A few of them don’t use desert boards at all. Showdown at Tug Argan Pass jumps ahead to August 1940, with the Italians going after Indian infantry on the hills in front of Berbera, in British Somaliland.

Sand in Everything

The desert war starts six days after Italy joined it. In Across the Wire, the 11th Hussars run into Italian tanks and trucks on the frontier in June 1940. Camp Nibeiwa is the first blow of Operation Compass that December, and it runs 10 turns. In Ci Arrendiamo and “They’re Here! Reverse!”, the Italian 10th Army tries to break through the British roadblocks at Beda Fomm in February 1941.

Then Rommel shows up, and the Germans take over a lot of the desert fights. There are AARs on the site for Blazin’ Chariots, Khamsin and Half a Chance, where the Ariete waits for the Crusaders at Bir el Gubi. A Line in the Sand strings three Alam Halfa scenarios into a mini-campaign. It’s built for team play, with one teammate on each scenario.

Tunisia gets five scenarios, including two at Kasserine Pass. In The Taking of Takrouna, the Maori Battalion climbs a cliff-ringed hill held by the Trieste Division in April 1943.

Rome and the Armistice

Sicily has four, from the glider landing at the Ponte Grande in A High Price to Pay to the Big Red One at Alimena in Danger Forward. Then Italy’s armistice was announced on September 8, 1943, and the Germans moved on Rome that night. It got ugly fast.

Flea Circus, All Roads Lead to Rome, The Hunters Become the Hunted and The Battle for Rome all put Italians against German paratroopers around the capital. In Too Little, Too Late, Italian tankers try to hold the Parma bridges. Rachi Ridge is the German drop on Leros that November, and Stew has a replay of it.

Winter on the Don

Thirteen scenarios follow the Italians in Russia. Bridge to Nowhere is the Pasubio Division’s dash to the Bug in August 1941, and Stew replayed that one too. In Savoia!, Italian cavalry charges the Soviets on the Don in August 1942. There’s an AAR of The Art of Dying from a week later.

Then the Soviet winter offensive hit, and the rest is the retreat. It doesn’t end well. Blocco Nord fights its way through Arbuzov and Chertkovo. The Alpini hold the Don in Red Don and at Arnautovo, with an Agony at Arnautovo AAR on the site. They finally break out at Nikolajewka in Tridentina Avanti!

Not many of us have played much DTO. It’s probably the last theater most players get to. Scott and I made a New Year’s resolution to finally set foot in North Africa in 2022. With the Italians and the desert in one box, a lot of players got their first real shot at it.

Where to Buy

MMP: Hollow Legions

Ritterkrieg

Debriefing

Hollow Legions grew up. The 1989 module was two boards and eight scenarios. Now it’s the Italians, the Ethiopians, the whole desert and 53 scenarios from Ethiopia to Russia. The new Chapter F and board 25e alone make it worth the shelf space.

If you’re new to the desert, read Chapter F first, then start small. Blazin’ Chariots is 6 turns on three boards, and there’s an AAR to check your work against. Save A Line in the Sand for when you’ve got a team.

Academy Out!

GET TO THE CHOPPA…!!!

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