Lentini 1943 - refought

I took all the terrain that I prepared for last year's big game down to Bristol for a game on Saturday, and an opportunity to play on my own table (I had played on Gela at the big game). It was a great day and we managed to fight to a conclusion in just a single day.

Ready for the off, hopefully not too different to what I laid out for the big game. I didn't bother with the quantities of scatter I had used before and the table seemed slightly narrower.


Most picture were taken from my flank as I commanded the German forces on their left (east) side of the table.

The British commence their advance


Don's (foreground) and my new Shermans in action. We had both used Italeri fast builds.


British Traffic jams, the advance pillbox held out for far longer than expected.


Another picture of my new Shermans in action (for a new unit they didn't do badly)


My Stug was bravely holding off a horde of Shermans until a lucky long range shot from a 6pdr caused heavy damage


Then my other stug (right end of the ridge) was taken out my a lucky round amongst a regimental stonk by a regiment of 25pdrs.


One of the pesky OP carriers


The British then proceeded to grind down the remaining defenders


A view of the other flank where the German defenses were also crumbling


End game as the British armour skirt Lentini heading for Ponte Malati. Too late to relieve the Commandos who had been wiped out


The last defenders, the German HQ in the bunker by the bridge.


My last troops (less than a company) are driven out of Villasmundo.


Overall a great day out!

Link to my previous pictures of the game

Fifty Crusaders

Hurrah, completed at last, delayed by the Shermans and then having a filthy cold. All the figures are Strelets, with the main mass of knights from their Mounted Crusaders in Oriental Dress backed up by Hospitalers and Templars from the Military Order Sergeants pack and a front rank of Turcopoles.



The Turcopoles are based so that a unit of four figures placed sideways can cover the same frontage as a closeorder cavalry unit of six.


Richard the Lionheart came from the Crusader Transport 1 set.


Now on with the Saracens and there are lots of them.

Sicilian Shermans

The extra Shermans need for the Lentini game are now painted. I had though about applying a three colour camouflage pattern, but in the end decided they would have more flexibility in use with the two colour pattern.
Now back to the Crusaders (medieval of course)

A slight distraction

as the postman calls with a couple of parcels. A collection of First to Fight items direct from the manufacturer and a couple of Italeri Shermans.

The Sherman are critical as I realised that I did not have enough of the desert version for the force I was providing for the Lentini game. They'll push to the front of the painting queue. The rest of the painting is progressing slowly but steadily

Pictures from Vapnartak 2016

Unfortunately we couldn't run a participation game at the show for some reason, even though there was enough space and spare tables. So a strange feel to my first but still enjoyable wargames show of the year. As always I took some photas of games that interested me

Russian Civil War - last train to Bokhara?




The Alamo






Prestonpans?, though to me it seems to be a variant on their usual static game.




Kaffir wars - fought with Black Powder


Crusades - multiplayer game using Lion Rampant


Latin American wars of independence using 20mm figures (I saw this at Salute)


Romans v's Celts fought with Lion Rampant as the Druid had magical powers, spot the wicker man


A very modest group of purchases

• Normandy Battlegames has been eagerly awaited and I've already read through it once and it has lots of interesting scenarios, but I'll have to sort out my terrain first as it uses a modular approach.
• A bag of Strelets and Miniart medievals from the flea market to add a bit of variety to my last units of Airfix Robin Hood Archers
• and a mortar to round off my Soviet Winter infantry

On the Workbench - February 2016

Should be a busy month with my mother moving house, but first I'll be off to Vapnartak in York on Sunday. It's always a good start to the wargaming year. This year the Lance & Longbow won't be putting on a game (we had hoped to repeat the Agincourt game from Salute) , but I'll be manning the society stand. To keep in the mood I've decided to concentrate on medievals this month, concentrating on the Crusades, so lots of Crusader and Saracen cavalry. I'll delay the WW2 winter Romanians until march. The other big event is a replay of the Lentini (Operation Husky 1943) game, where I provided the terrain for last years SOGG big game. This time I'll get to play on it.

Partisans

Another week away working on clearing our the sheds at my mother's. but I managed to complete these just before leaving. I completed two weak units using the Strelets Soviet partisans

A "summer" battalion


A "spring/autumn" battalion (the figures are nominally winter)

These will replace my existing metal partisans, which I think are Irregular Miniatures, they'll be up for sale at Vapnartak next Sunday.