Opera Buffa: The Assault on Lissa, July 18-19, 1866 2026

Opera Buffa: The Assault on Lissa (OB) is a variant game for There Must be a Victory that was published in issue 26 of Against the Odds magazine (July 2009). The Italian fleet bombarded the Austrian forts securing the harbor of Vis for two days, and were about to land their marines before the Austrian fleet arrived on July 20th. OB allows players to explore the “what if” of a more aggressive Italian bombardment, and earlier assault on the Austrian held port, that may have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

Can you do as well or better than your historical counterpart?

Each copy of Opera Buffa is composed of the following:

• Two 11 by 17 inch hex map sheets. • One sheet of 106 single-sided, un-mounted counters. • This set of rules.

A turn represents an hour and a half of time. Each hex is about 200 yards across. Each naval unit represents 1 warship (several ships in the case of the Italian transport, a battery of 6-10 cannon or 100 men (infantry). Players will also need one standard deck of playing cards, a six-sided die and one ten-sided die to play the game (a custom card set for the game is available).

—description from the designer