Anzio Airfield, almost picturesque isn't it?

Anzio is an L shaped map, part of a harbour. It is very tight and close with fighting coming in waves as control points are routinely lost & retaken. It is an exciting map with the emphasis on mixed infantry and vehicle combat. Planes help but with only one per side and the fact that they are limited by the geography to hit & run attacks makes them a damned nuisance but not dominating the map.

Salerno, tough to climb.
Even tougher to hold once there.

Salerno is a slightly larger map with a central hill being fought over. In an interesting twist the central capture point cannot be spawned from, only held. So waves of troops and vehicles will come from either of side spawn points or work their way laboriously up the hill. The steep hill makes vehicles slow and easy pickings for planes. With no static AA guns bar those on the heavily contested central point you have to rely on the mobile AA guns which is easier said than done when those same guns are usually working their way up the hill.

Parachuting in onto the Beach in Operation Husky.
Watch out for snipers, they do like taking pot shots while you drop in.

This is the Italian version of the Omaha Beach map with British troops forming a beachhead and fighting inland to subdue the defenders. Thankfully this map is a lot nicer to the attackers than Omaha with more tanks provided for them as well as a much more open beach to assault up. It is a blast - literally with the defence gun and cruiser pounding away with large shells, sniper fire hissing past you, grenades flying everywhere and tanks frantically trying to shell each other into oblivion. It is a meat grinder for both forces and a good map as a result.

Monte Cassion, if you are allied you will be
doing well to ever see this particular sight.

Sadly the second assault map of the pack is not quite so balanced - at least for public play. The Germans have a very heavily defended position with plenty of artillery pieces to pound away with. The map requires co-ordination with scouts picking targets for the allied artillery to pound away at. Because the fixed cannons don't respawn than an allied team can clear a path to then work it's way up the mountain to the ruined monestary at the top. Sadly this is done in game by French forces and I will admit to being disappointed that the New Zealand Army wasn't represented in this map. Public play on this is brutal with the Germans having a serious defensive advantage.

Baytown, home of bridges and nasty massacres.

This is a wider mixed forces map with infantry, vehicles and planes all getting a chance to shine. Two steep plateau areas are connected by bridges and islands with each side having three spawn points to fight over. It is a fun map with forces often trading entire sides of the map and enemies facing frequently quite withering fire from the heavily defended slopes.

Monte Santa Crisco, large map.
The aim is to dominate that mountain.

Again a wider map, this is a race to capture spawn points on a central mountain. Once on the mountain the fighting is mostly close quarters with reinforcements of tanks taking some time to trundle in from the initial spawn point.

Enemy incoming!

What all these maps offer are carefully constructed choke points and areas of contention that mean the fighting is never too far away if you choose your spawn point carefully. Better yet the changes to the tanks make them much more useful as a team effort when two people drive. One to man the secondary anti-personnel/anti-aircraft gun and the driver to maneuver and fire the main gun. It is a clever design change and has meant that co-ordinated efforts become much more likely than the base game. Almost everything else is just fancy dressing and doesn't really make a great difference. Yes the health crates are more plentiful than the health cabinets of the original game, making the medic a less needed class, but isn't a big change as medics are one of the lesser used classes in the game.

The two new weapons are cute and all, but they offer no improvement or detraction. What is an issue is the co-incident changes that the 1.3 patch has brought. In particular damage by guns being reduced in power against planes. On some maps, Salerno in particular, this is just brutal with competant pilots able to entirely stall an assault for an extended period of time - about the entire round. This isn't the expansion's fault and is something that Dice will hopefully address in a future patch. But it is a problem now. It is made worse by the more effective bomb load the medium bombers carry which mix speed, reasonable agility and a heavy explosive punch.

Guarding in the bell tower on Husky.
It just seems natural for a sniper to be up here...