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 ❤️

The Battle of Maida July 1806

With a couple of games postponed due to real-life the dungeon hasn’t seen that much fighting. However, Saturday saw the Napoleonics back on the table. The battle will be well known to many as it is a popular one giving a fairly balanced and modest sized Napoleonic battle.

One of the many maps on the net showing generally accepted setup, historically the French probably shouldn’t have attacked and forced the British to, but they did in massed formation which was their undoing against the thin British line. Some might say the scene was set then for the whole of the Napoleonic period

Our setup, in reflection when tidying up I think I might have missed a unit off for the French which as the French general was a bit annoying next time perhaps ?

The setup form the other end of the battlefield.

The French advance of course otherwise we wouldn’t get much of a battle, the British reserves will arrive on turn three.

The accounts I have read discuss the lack of British skirmishers as they had been combined into Kempts’ light brigade so I stuck with that, the french of course had plenty, the British open up as soon as the french are in range.

They throw their columns in on the broths right only to be wiped out, other french Battalions chose to reform into line for the attack. (Historical hindsight of course)

To their left the french do charge home, but are also held for now

Coles brigade arrives to bolster the centre

The french Chasseurs charge in as well but their combined strength can’t quite break the combined grenadier battalion, they do shake it though and it is subsequently broken under artillery fire !

The British have now held their left

And the battle turns to the french left

Under heavy fire the Polish Battalions charge in and Acland’s brigade is just on the point of collapsing and fleeing the field, but somehow they pull out a fortitude save and hold on the field 🤬

In the final turn the french are forced to retreat with two of their three brigades broken and running from the field. It was a close run thing though and a splendid evening gaming 👍 you might just see, at the rear the French commander has left his Brandy on the field of battle. Perhaps it might have been different if I had given the french that extra battalion but it was close and fun which is good for me.

A bit of painting, although these are technically Turks, Woodbine figures, I had them spare from a previous bring and buy, rather than languish in a box I have painted them up as Albanians with their characteristic white Fez’s. The Albanians provided several brigades to support the Italian invasion of Greece and by some quirk their uniforms were very like those of the WW1 Turks. The rifles may be slightly wrong but I can live with that. 

Much of the rest of my time has been preparing Greeks, basing etc and revamping my painting station to create a bit more space going forward.

Well that’s it for now several more battles on the cards in the next few weeks 

Thanks for checking in

Matt ❤️

Italy takes to the sky……and more Christmas loot

The over indulgence of Christmas is finally settling down and I can share some more bits from over the festive period….

Firstly and the last item completed before Christmas some Italian airforce a C.R. 42 Falco for the Regia Aeronautica. A 1/48 kit as I prefer the larger models for 28mm gaming. A great model although I’m not really a very skilled model maker. The struts being quite a challenge, I went for an early colour scheme more colourful and ok upto sicily. The camo scheme is a very rough interpretation of an 1940’s scheme if you squint it is ok. Annoyingly the kit from Italiari didn’t come with a pilot , but I found one in another kit I had waiting in the pile. I do have quite a lot of plane kits in the pile ? 

Next up we did manage to play a couple of zombie games over the holiday, the games are fairly simple with the survivors/protagonists hunting for supplies whilst the zombies / walking dead gradually increase in number as the game progresses.

We at least has some fun and laughs, for those interested in computer games I made this model specially to represent a character in our current favourite game, and yes there are wolves in the forest !

Another shot of the same game with the undead horde arriving stage left as the survivors flee for their lives !

A few of the gifts I generously received as presents 

A game I ordered for myself with a view to some ECW campaigning during 2026, I have scanned through and it is more complex than I had anticipated but the map and game kit could be used in a simpler system if required. It does have a specific solo mode so I should persevere and try and get a solo campaign running

My son gave me these for Christmas picked up in a charity shop. The full set of 100 ! A great find and packed full of information and beautiful osprey illustrations.

Now looking forward to 2026 time for a new (extension) project pondering on this as we do, and having enjoyed collecting and painting my Italians I thought I would look for alternative opponents for them. This obviously leads to Greece which I had previously rejected for the Germans as the later Greek campaign was slightly one sided. However, now I have Italians I have plumbed for Greeks in 2026.

I’m sure we all often start with an osprey book …..this is a pretty good introduction

Some great illustrations as above, the Greeks having captured Italian tankettes…👍

Then scanning on the web I found Great Escape games were offering some excellent sale prices on some of their Greek range…job done so I ordered up a mixed starter force. The benefit of the Greco/italian campaigns are they had very limited armour so I don’t really need anymore, I already have the Italian stuff. Mainly infantry for the Greeks but with some older artillery and support. The GEG figures look excellent sculpts very like crusader figures (not at all like their horrible Norwegians!) so that is the first new project for 2026. One of the benefits is I don’t really need any terrain as between Sicily and Norway I can cover most of what I need.

Finally for this last ? Post of 2025 another shortish video really for my benefit to record all the painted stuff I have managed to finish in 2025. Do of course feel free to skip this alternatively enjoy 5 mins of Mozart 🙂

Thanks as always and I will likely see you on the other side of New year 

Matt❤️

Almost Christmas post…..and that was 2025

Christmas is nearly upon us, the weather has improved which is good. The children are back making the house feel busy. I am managing some hobby time though between family stuff. A couple of things completed in the last few days.

This slightly silly terrain piece (planes don’t really crash like this !) but I picked up from the bring and buy at battleground. It is a single 3D print which had a small broken piece at the bottom of the box. Not wanting to make it too specific I have given it non-specific markings and will probably add some smoke when it is on the table.

Also from the secondhand haul at battleground these ECW cavalry. Not sure on the make but they are quite old softer metal figures. Possibly Essex ? Anyway the riders are very slightly bulky but the horses match quite well with the others I have.

Here they are on the left, Peter Pig in the middle and Warlord epic on the right. They match surprisingly well , indicating once again that the warlord figures are really closer to 15mm than most people think. There was only one unit and a couple of odd figures in the bag but they make a nice extra unit.

It does give me that age old problem, as when they were placed in the box, there is no more space and I have at least 3 more cavalry units in the pile ! It looks like the ECW collection is going to move into its fifth box.

Finally I had mention some Christmas zombie games, the table has already seen some action, so I thought I would share a couple of photos of the current setup.

All vehicles are charity shop buys and looking for them is quite an addiction.

Are slightly larger battle is planned….

But for now my daughter has enjoyed rolling some dice in the dungeon which will do for me 🙂

And finally for those loyal readers who have made it this far I pulled together a short 3 minute ‘eye candy’ video of the games (most I think) that we have played in the dungeon in 2025. As to be expected no stats from me and certainly no hint of how much I have spent on my hobbies………just in case my dear wife stumbled across my blog by accident.

Have a great Christmas I will return to my Italian airforce work while the kids are out shopping 🎅🏽

Matt❤️