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 ❤️

Sicily 1943 Bolt Action and the Greeks

Gaming on Friday in the dungeon saw the Sicily Collection on the table to introduce Erik to Bolt Action as an alternative to Chain of Command. Not based on anything particular we played the standard breakthrough scenario. Giving me a chance to play the Italians for a change. Here  are just a few shots of the action.

The Americans are a mixed force with support in the form of a Sherman and a armoured car.

The objective line for the GI’ s is to get beyond the winding road running across the table

I encouraged the Americans not to hold back with potentially only 6 turns to break through so they came on pretty quickly 

The Italians did have some armour support but really frustratingly this was immobilised and knocked out really quickly by the Sherman, this left the Italians struggling to hold back the US armour, but they were having more luck holding back the American infantry which started to take some serious casualties

Realising the Italians had nothing to hold them back the US armour pushed forward

Ignoring the risk of being overrun the Italians focussed their fire on the American infantry keeping them pretty much pinned down

As the game got closer to the end the Americans rushed the Sherman off the table for maximum points, the Italian defenders are gradually being whittled down but they have blunted the advance of the American infantry.

In the end the American were able to claim a fairly clear win as several Italian units had been knocked out holding the line, but they did pretty well holding back the US infantry, a fun game and it felt fairly close right up tot the end, losing the Italian armour early on didn’t help the dense. Certainly a good introduction to bolt action first edition.

In the words of the famous Bard it’s all ‘Greek’ to me ? Well not quite, finally I have some painting to share it seems like these chaps have take a long time, but now I look back I guess my mistake was attempting to paint the whole lot in one go. The positive of course is they are now all completed and ready for action. I give you the Greeks 1940/41

Support weapon teams including a sniper

Artillery support, the guns are actually french 37mm which I understand the Greeks did purchase. The benefit of the Great Escape games is the guns crews can be purchased separately. So the AT guns can also serve with the french if needed.

Command squad

One of the 4 squads. 

Here are all four, I just didn’t see the point in putting them each in the Photo Booth. The figures are all METAL (David) and great sculpts from Great Escape Games. This force is all Evzone elite mountain troops and I plan to purchase a couple of regular infantry squads to fight alongside them. From my reading so far the Greeks really didn’t have any armour and the fighting I’m looking to play is very much the mountain conflict with the Italians, so for now the force will be entirely infantry and support. 

For those interested a size comparison, the Greeks are chunky chaps (very well fed) warlord Americans, Italians to the left, crusader Paratrooper and British older metal warlord, then a crusader British in think. I can live with the variations.

Finally another walk out in the South Western Lake District.

The beauty of Wasedale

Sca Fell to the left, my target for the day, and Sca Fell Pike in the centre (for non UK followers this is the highest point in England at 3209 feet)

Two more games planned this week before we are away again on a family holiday in the South West.

Thanks as always for popping by 🙂

Matt ❤️

The Battle for Bridge : Operation Sealion

This week we had planned to play out in the shed but the weather in a crazy twist became too hot ! So we stayed in the dungeon for a return to our Sealion campaign. The Germans are pushing inland on S-Day plus 1, having secured much of the south coast of Kent on S-Day they are driving North towards Canterbury. The direct route along the A2 has a potential pinch point at the Village of Bridge where the  Nail Bourne (river) cuts the road.

The Germans recognising the challenge have sent a small recon force who have successfully captured the bridge. The British have missed the importance of the objective, luckily the retired colonel of the Barham Yeomanry has taking things into his own hands and called all the home guard forces for the area to attempt to take back the bridge. The local population can only hope the regular British army will reach the village to support the battle before the Germans are able to get their support to the village.

Looking North up the A2 towards the Village of Bridge, a German Stuka has been called in to support the small German force.

The German recon force holding both bridges (which are the objective for the day) including motorcycle MG teams rushing up the road.

The first wave of British are the Home guard and local residents, including the mounted Barham Yeomanry. The British also have Bofor Anti-aircraft gun

A view from behind the windmill to the village of Bridge and the objective bridges on the Nail Bourne

The A2 is a very straight Roman road linking the coast to Canterbury. The advanced German infantry cross the bridge and dig in to the small white cottage by the bridge

German armoured cars push forward to hold the advancing Home guard back

The RAF enter the battle

As the battle progresses both sides begin to bring reserves on, the German rush forward in trucks

The RAD 8 takes a hit and bursts into flames blocking the road unless a heavy tank can be brought forward to push it out the way. Home guard can be seen edging along the rear of the houses but they come under fire from German machine guns dug in on the other side of the river.

British regular infantry finally starts to reach the battlefield

The spitfire swoops on the German infantry knocking out one of the trucks luckily the majority of the infantry are able to dismount unharmed

The British bring on a Matilda II whoch drives the German AC back towards the bridge

The Yeomanry gallop forward on their horses catching a German unit in the open behind the white cottage they are nearly wiped out

More German reserves are pushed forward, this Pioneer Hanomag armed with a powerful antitank weapon

The Matilda strikes and another armoured car is burning, but behind that you can see a large crater where sadly the Yeomanry were targeted by the Stuka a direct hit saw them literally wiped out !

British regulars advancing down the A2

Matilda pushes the AC off the road and prepares to rush the smaller of the two bridges, you can really see from the photos the intensity of the battle which focussed around the white cottage the British bringing more and more troops to assault it but them being driven back by the defenders.

The Matilda attempts to smash the German vehicle but fails to destroy it and they become locked on the bridge

The Germans attempt to advance on the right, but a Vickers tank has managed to take the bridge, and only the arrival of German armour will be able to drive this away

The Matilda is hit but rather than destroyed it is driven back off the bridge. The infantry behind assault the German Armoured vehicle but they too are driven back, lucky for them only move back onto the bridge.

In the meantime the spitfire has been chasing the German bomber but has been unable to knock it out. And that without anymore photos was about the end of the battle, both sides had taken massive casualties, the British did manage eventually to retake the white cottage, but with German tanks moving up the road they have limited resources to hold the village. Always fun to renew the Sealion campaign, a tough battle for both sides with a lot of infantry casualties.

Earlier in the week I also played  another  CoC game down with George

The Germans find themselves defending another wood

The British launch a cleverly planned mortar barrage which hits hard

Almost finished, the Germans fight back making it a tense and close battle but eventually the German morale breaks giving the British a fine win 👍

My Partizan loot, not too much just some bits and bobs. What I did buy secondhand was a couple of boxes containing lots of bits for a Star Fort. It was very cheap so I wasn’t too worried whether it was complete or not (I didn’t unpack it at the show) so when I got it all out back at home here is what I found.

A basic triangular shape, 10mm SYW figures shown above

This extended version with my ECW figures

A bigger version with extra bits added including the broken wall sections.

I played around a bit and it does seem to be missing some sections, and the shape seems slightly odd ? It would be easy to make a couple of extra sections, above is how it might look in the corner of the table which I guess is most likely as I wasn’t planning to play any siege battles in the near future. Food for thought anyway depending on when and how I might use it ?

That’s it for now likely more to come soon although very little progress on painting.

Thanks as always for visiting

Matt ❤️