The Southern Front, 1917ish

 Somewhere in the Italian Alps...

It's quiet and cold. But not for long. Well, it's still cold but not quiet.

Bomber squads advance on the Austrian left.

Overview of the Austrian advance.

Austrian bomber squad reaches the trench on the Austrian left.

The Austrian stormtroopers reach the trench and force the MG back in a close assault. 

The Italian leader issued a Heads Up! to help the MG crew recover a damage point and was rewarded for his effort by being struck down.

The Italian bomber squad charges the stormtrooper unit and forces them to abandon the trench.

A view down the trench line from the Italian right.

The plucky Italian bomber squad put up the most spirited defense of the game.

Things don't look good for the Italian rifle unit on the right.

Austrian MG crew at the bottom of the slope catches the Italian bomber squad in its sights, to no effect.

Another go-round for these two units!

The Austrians captured the communication trench entrance.

The Austrian rifles were sacrificed in mutual destruction with the Italian bomber squad.

The LMG squad which did virtually nothing, finally moves up to mop up the now empty trench.

*****

Rules used were Trench Hammer with the assault rules from the Expansion.

Had to look up a few rules here and there but basically after turn 2, it wasn't necessary much at all.

I don't really feel that fighting with squads makes a great deal of sense on the Southern Front, since I can't find anything that suggests that Italian units used the kind of squad specialization common on the Western Front. And while the Austrians did have stormtrooper squads, again I'm not sure that the regular infantry broke down into specialized squads even later in the war. 

That said, it IS fun and that's what I wanted. I have Burning Mountains for historical accuracy. I also have H.MG. or even Fistful of Lead : Bigger Battles or GASLIGHT for company-sized units (which probably makes the most sense).

Speaking of mountains, inspiration for the "mountain" came from Tim Gow's 32nd Battle of the Isonzo - in my case, I relied on floor cushions, empty boxes, DVD cases and my foam hills.