Sicily 1943 : Taking the Initiative Part 1

For a while now I have been pondering the long and conflicted history of Sicily and more specifically how I have three collections/periods who all fought for Sicily through the ages. The Greeks Athenians and Spartans, the Norman’s and Arabs and then WW2 Allies and Axis powers. I thought it would be kind of fun to try and find a scenario that we could play the same battle but over the three different periods ?

I found a scenario which I think might work in this little book I have had for ages

The scenario is described as taking the initiative a small force is holding out against a much larger attacker while reserves are brought up to try and hold the river crossings. As is my want I tweaked things a bit, the Italians would be defending in this battle the Americans assaulting. The river would be crossable for infantry. I added in the potential for both American and German paratroopers to arrive. Basically a D6 would be pulled from the bag each turn and rolled, this gave an increasing likely hood as time went on that more American Paratroopers would arrive but a fairly unlikely chance of Fallschirmjager arriving ! The American objective was to get to and capture the two nearest bridges.

The terrain setup for 1943, the small Italian force is dug in the far village with some artillery and mortar support near their baseline.

They have also sent two small tankettes forward to help the defence ?

Turn one starts and the allied commander rolls a ‘one’ bringing on a unit of Fallschirmjager 😂 the Americans start their advance to the first bridge crossing armour and infantry in trucks

Second turn and the Allies manage to call in some American paratroopers as well who immediately assault an Italian sniper position on the hill

The battle is just starting to hot up and the Italians bring on some reserve infantry to guard one of the second bridges

A British Hurricane flying over from Malta supports the assault

The American armour make it into the village but foolishly pause at the junction to fire, the Italians have positioned an antitank rifle in the olive grove and a lucky shot knocks the track of the leading Sherman, it is immobilised for the whole battle and completely block the road, everything else will now have to skirt around the village wasting time !

After this success the Americans counter and manage to land a mortar round directly on the Fallschirmjager squad they are wiped out

The American log jam is kicking in and slowing their progress down. To add to this the small Italian flame tank melts the tyres on the M8 Greyhound, it too is no immobilised in the village.

General Patton rushes across the bridge to find out what the hold up is (at this point I put all my efforts into the Fallschirmjager capturing the General but sadly this was just a dream), the Second Sherman starts to move around the village to progress.

Some Italians were hiding in the village which is targeted setting one of the buildings on fire

The Hurricane sweeps about trying to pin down the defenders

Whilst the Henschel attempts to shoot down the Hurricane. The Italians in the forward village hold on as along as possible

Chaos in the village with burning vehicles

View from the church

Italians strategically pull back from the village to create a second defence line. Sadly and but perhaps not before time the flame tank takes a hit and whoosh !🔥🔥🔥🔥

The Americans are now starting to outflank the village

But at this point they are still some way from the two objective bridges

A shot from behind the American lines

Unlikely as it seems second and then a third unit of Fallschirmjager are activated on the table, but these are then attacked by American paratroopers who also arrive on the table

The Americans advance slowly but relentlessly towards their objectives, much of their infantry has been thrown back but the Americans push forward with their armour. Claiming both bridges

The bridge on the left is still contested but the Italians have made the Americans pay dearly for the victory.

Once again a fun game played out over the day. Bolt action giving quick and flexible rules. The plan is to reset the table at some point to play broadly the same scenario but in the two earlier periods, this will probably be in 2026 now.

We had a trip to Manchester on Saturday, a bit of shopping a splendid Model Railway show and an Art gallery where we saw this lovely Lady Butler picture of the Crimea. I would definitely put this on the wall if I had it.

Finally have been been painting some units are only partly completed but these WW2 German zombies are the only unit to get finished so far ……..not sure when they will get some action if ever ? But I did have some good ideas about how I would use them…..we’ll see.

Once again thanks for popping by and reading my progress

A few more games and things before Christmas, I have no real intention of stopping over Christmas anyway

Thanks Matt❤️

Freemans Farm September 1777 : AWI

Our AWI campaign has reached mid September 1777 so fighting is taking place in more than one location across the country. Whilst Washington is retreating from Brandywine, Burgoyne is in the thick of the Saratoga campaign.

The Battle of Freemans Farm is fairly well known as it pits too fairly equal armies against each other in what is effectively a ‘meeting engagement’

The scenario which I have used previously is taken from Black Powder rule book 1st Edition.

The table setup, I have enough figures now to provide all the relevant units and to increase the size of all the regular/militia units up to 16 man units which for rebels and Patriots means they only reach half strength at 8 rather than 6 men and therefore have greater resilience. It does mean the table/battle is a little bigger than our normal AWI battles. Hamilton and Morgan’s Brigades will start on the table, both sides have a further two brigades to bring on at their discretion. The only limitation for the Americans is they must come on on one of the two roads as the area is quite thickly wooded. So onto the action…..

Hamilton starts his brigade towards the stream and opens up with his artillery.

Morgan’s sends out his Rifle armed skirmishers and awaits support 

From turn two it starts to arrive with Poor and Learned’s Brigades, now for the Americans they had a choice where to enter but Benedict Arnold decided to feed both reserve brigades down the same road towards Freemans Farm itself. Whilst the Rebel skirmishers can be seen exchanging shots with the advancing British the road is also getting quite congested. In fact the Americans suffered a number of early activation failures which put them on the back foot and threw their reserves into a bit of a mess.

The British continue to advance and with the Americans seeming hesitant they use the cover of the word and the extra time to drive over the bridge whilst their is no opposition

British reserves with Fraser’s mixed brigade arrives along the road, with nothing in front of them they advance as quickly as possible, looking to outflank the American position

The final British reserves Von Breymann’s brigade of Hessians arrive and advance towards the bridge.

Already the American position is looking slightly precarious they are spending time reorganising their brigades which have become entangled.

Given the extra time Hamilton forms his leading regiments into line and advances upto the edge of the wood 

The British reserves are a long way form the action but already their light troops are crossing the stream

The hessians continue to demonstrate at the bridge, they need do little more than tie down the Americans around the Farm as the weight of the British attack is going to hit further to their right.

The American regiments at the T junction on the road get their first volleys away, but the British are looking ominous firmed into line.

Still the Americans are struggling to get their troops into order, they actually break one of the British regiments who are driven off the battlefield, but the British artillery now has a clear view of the Rebels and they open up across the open ground. The Americans have little answer to this pounding and suffer on the road.

Finally the Americans are in something of a defensive position along the road but the British have concentrated at the T junction and the Americans are struggling to hold.

The British are beginning to outflank the Americans, and in this part of the field have numerical advanced age as well.

Eventually the pressure breaks the front American unit, and the weakness of the American defensive position is revealed with the next regiments in line weaker Milita !

Learned’s brigade has taken up a strong position around Freemen’s Farm, but they are matched by the Hessians who exchange fire across the bridge.

In a bold move the American charge into the wood to drive off British skirmishers, but the remaining elements of Poor’s Brigade are driven back, in a single turn three American Regiments are forced to flee the field and the American left wing is collapsing.

Suddenly the American centre is gone as well and their position is untenable as the British bring more and more numbers upto the road. Arnold decides to save his army and orders a full retreat from the field. Hoorah Burgoyne has won a famous victory.

Well that didn’t play out as expected, the attempt by the Americans to concentrate backfired and they ended up caught in a poor position the tables turned and they had little choice but to give up the field to the British who really were flying today. A fun battle which we will revisit again at some point. Particularly pleasing to see the British manage to get into line and give the Rebels some volley fire which apparently they don’t like one bit !

Between gaming I have kept up the painting although these are the only figures to be photographed

Again bought at the show last week, amongst my ECW haul we’re a fairly random bag of Musketeers. They are pretty old sculpts Essex perhaps and slightly bulky but I wanted to use these as first fire markers. So have have quickly painted them up and put them on single bases.

Here are a couple performing in front of a unit. Once the unit has fired they will be removed. These will look aesthetically better than the white cotton blobs previously used. At a push they might get used as a couple of troops of Musketeers if I don’t have enough.

Finally I have been  testing out/ refreshing my knowledge of my Zombie Walking Dead rules in anticipation of a game over Christmas. The plan will be something that looks the part but I used the paper sheet for the test.

That’s it for now but another game set up for tomorrow where we are back to Sicily 1943 with the Americans advancing against the Italians again !

Thanks as always for thanking the time to check what I have been upto.

Matt ♥️KBO