The Twelfth Battle - Caporetto 1917

 

Santa brought me this. Great news, as you can never have too many battles of the Isonzo.  It's a solo game taking in the entire Italian Front over the weeks of the campaign.

Having sorted out the very nice components,  I set up the introductory scenario to try.

After the initial bombardment, in go the stormtroopers!

And the Italian 3 Armata starts to crumble

End of GT1. The defence has been breached in several places.

Meanwhile back on the Piave, there’s a lot of frantic digging.

Managed a draw (the historical result). Did I mention the counters are really nice?

I'm hoping to play through the full game in the next week or so.  Like many other solo games, I think it may adapt well to being played by a group over a Zoom link.

33rd Battle of the Isonzo - part 3

 

The Alpini assault was followed up by two companies of Arditi assault troops.  Meanwhile the Bersaglieri battalion moved up, encouraged by it's very noisy band.

But down the hill came the Austrian reserves and further unpleasantness ensued.

The Arditi took the position - just - but here come the stormtroopers!

The Bersaglieri managed to see them off - at a cost...

...and soon the rest of the battalion surged up to the top.

Just in time, the Austrian CO skulked off with his mountain gun battery...

...while down below the Bersaglieri band practiced for the surely inevitable victory parade.

A very entertaining game to run - well done to all the players for entering in to the spirit of the thing and for donating photos.

And finally: 

In the comments in the 32nd battle (see here), regular reader Brad DeSantis mentioned that his grandfather had fought - in the Alpini - during the Great War.  I duly named one of the figures as Caporal Maggiore Victor DeSantis.  Not only was he (the figure) present at this battle, but unlike a lot of his chums, he survived!  A small tribute to his service.

33rd Battle of the Isonzo - part 2

 

The Italian attack was led off by the Alpini battalion - off they went, dodging between the shellbursts.

Meanwhile, atop Hill 177 an  Austrian company was comfortable in it's trenches...

...until they fell victim to a well-aimed (or just plain lucky) Italian stonk.  Ouch!

The Alpini seemed to be doing well, as their timing skills were put to the test...

...but the Austrians weren't giving in easily.

From the valley it looked a very big hill!

Casualties soon mounted in among the Alpini.

Eventually the Alpini prevailed, but as they consolidated their position...

...the Austrians moved forward their reserve company.

Were the Austrians about to counter-attack?

        Would the Italian artillery ever hit anything else?

                    Find out in part 3 coming soon!

33rd Battle of the Isonzo - part 1

 The earlier, 32nd battle (see here and many other posts), was a fun game to run and play.  Having added to my Italian forces last year, another visit to this front seemed timely.  Thus it was that a few of us gathered to wonder at my latest creation - an even bigger tabletop mountain!

The Italian starting positions are in some or all of the woods nearest the camera, The Austrians are atop the alp.

Italian Brigade HQ admiring it's quarters.

All the old favourites were here - the Italian soup kitchen.....

...and the Austrian senior officers' latrine!

Having set up and issued briefings, the next step was some air recce...

...the Italians found what they were pretty sure was a mountain...

...while their opposite numbers were able to hazard a guess that an attack was imminent.  Well done chaps.

The Italian heavy artillery batteries firing from off table.  Or another table.

This was the debut outing of a rather lovely FIAT lorry.

Meanwhile, uphill, the Austrian gunners sneak forward a mountain battery.  What a rotten trick!

The opening bombardment.  I made both sides' gunners fire blind- the Austrians from behind the mountain and the Italians from behind a screen.  The results were entertainingly erratic.

A commanding position!

Great War Italian Bersaglieri - part 2

Here are the completed figures. Actually finished some time ago but I’ve been too busy to post anything. 

Conversions include these assault troops - rifles replaced with cut down shovel and pick axe from the Airfix British Support Weapons set. 

 

Great War Italian Bersaglieri - part 1

 Following the apparent success a couple of years ago (where does the time go?) of my Isonzo game, I felt motivated to paint some of the Waterloo 1815 (so HAT) WW1 Italians I had in stock.  So naturally I couldn’t find them. Time passed and they finally surfaced a few months ago - doubtless during a search for something unrelated - so I decided their time had come.  

Next port of call was the appropriate volume of Funcken. I have no doubt gushed on about these wonderful books before and make no apologies for doing so again. 

Painting in progress. The figures have the Italian version of the Adrian steel helmet, adorned with Bersaglieri cockerel feathers. Or to put it in a rather less respectful way, chickens on their heads. To some of the figures I added cloaks made from kitchen tissue soaked in PVA. At the same time I repainted some old metal figures. 

One of my favourite paintings in the Funcken series - a double page spread showing various Italian troops in action. 

Waltzing with Matilda?

 This was adapted from a Skirmish Campaigns scenario.  I’d used another from the same book a while ago - see the report here.  Mostly we used A Fistful of Lead.  

This time the Italians were dug in and asleep but expecting a possible British attack from the east. The wicked Brits spoiled it all by appearing from the west. Rotters. The attacking forces consisted of an infantry section (Jerry), a sapper detachment (Tim C) and a Matilda tank (John).  

The Italians had two rifle sections (Martin and Pete), platoon HQ and AT gun (Diego) and a tank platoon (Russell). They all started the game fast asleep in the tents. 

As the first Brits arrived one of the Italian sections woke up and while fire was exchanged Caporale Pete ran around shouting, trying to wake his comrades. Soon the gun crew turned out and ran to their weapon. 

Here, while the gun crew set up - and turn the gun to face west - Tenente Diego appears to be running off!

Some of Russell’s chaps made it to their tiny tanks (the L3s are about 1/56 scale, the crews hard plastic 1/35). 

The Matilda (a 1/48 plastic kit) clanks on from the NW, accompanied by the sappers. 

Cpl Pete and his MG crew engage the sappers from the dubious cover of the as yet uncrewed M13 (1/43 die cast/plastic model) . The MG fire soon did for the commander of the Matilda!  

And overview. The Brit infantry are in the SW corner. 

The tankettes are crewed and eventually the engines fire up!

While Cpl Martin’s section sneaks south behind the wall, the AT gunners engage the Matilda which shoots back….

…and grinds forward.  AT gunnery was of course resolved with a nerf gun and a block of Oasis. My gunnery was as usual pretty terrible. 

By now the British sappers have placed a charge on the M13….

…so the heroic Cpl Pete dashes forward to grab it. Sadly he then perished in a hail of fire. It’ll look damn good in the film though!

Russell’s tankettes we’re now on the move and merrily machine gunning the Brits. 

In other armoured action, the Matilda rather unsportingly ran over a tent, crushingly brave Lt Diego and one of his riflemen. 

The Matilda ground forward and crushed the AT gun. And got stuck in the gun pit. By now the crew was aboard the M13 but having failed to start it they bailed out!

Under fire from Italian MGs and tankettes, Jerry decided to sneak off. 

And finally - a loud bang brought the M13. - and the game - to an end. A points win for the Brits but their infantry have skulked off and the tank is stuck.  A bloody little game, the only players whose figures survived were Martin and Jerry - a 71% casualty rate!

Thanks again to all of the players for indulging such nonsense!