Greece 1940 : the Italians invade !

Having painted up the Greeks and with George coming to the dungeon for a game it was a chance to give the Greek/Italian 1940 project its first run out. The plan was to create some terrain which gave the feel of the rather desolate and often snowy Greek mountains in the winter of 1940. I wanted a theatre that felt and looked different to our games in Sicily, Norway or NW Europe. I’m also attracted by the limited impact of the Italian Armour. We’ll see how this develops as we go along.

For this first game the Greeks are all mountain troops so playing as Elite, they are outnumbered by the Italians who are supported by their characteristic 1940 Armour ! But the Italians of course suffer from some poor leadership which will make them hard to activate if they get pinned or lose any squad leaders.

In this battle the Greeks have set up a defensive position protecting a key road junction they are dug in on the surrounding hills with some strong defensive artillery. The Italians must break through to capture the road junction.

The Italians are supported by the Regina Aeronautica

But having dropped a single bomb in the first turn the Greeks are lucky to hit it early in the second turn !

Both sides now bring their infantry on

Italian infantry use the dry river bed as cover, whilst their armour ‘hide’ around the buildings ?

A second Italian tankette  can be seen just beyond the infantry in the ditch

The Italians are slowly developing their attack and focus on knocking out the two Greek AT guns

With support from their mortar and their flamethrower tankette they achieve this, suddenly the way to the objective is open.

The flame tank leads the way, alThough each turn it has to roll to see it it’s fuel has run out it seems to have an inexhaustible supply ! It causes a lot of problems for the defenders.

As the battle develops the Italians drive forward with their infantry but with poor leadership they are held back by defensive fire, the tankettes though have broken through

The last Greek infantry has to regroup and make a desperate charge to assault the leading tankette they manage to get a grenade into the tank and it blows up, but them they are wiped out by the flame tank !

Both sides are now desperate to grasp the objective, both sides throw their commanders into the fray but the Greeks win the contest.

In the final turn the Greek antitank rifle knocks out the armoured car. More Italians rush for the objective and although they have the numbers they don’t quite have enough to claim a clear win.

In the end a fun and very close game despite the differences the forces balanced quite well. The look is getting there although I’m thinking I might need a different base cloth ? I do have some more rocky terrain to get painted up. Certainly great fun to get the Greeks out on the table.

Thanks as always for passing through the blog 

Matt ❤️