More Lancieri! (finally)

Well, it took me way too long, but I finally got around to knocking out two more WWI lancieri :

As with the previous two, the heads are provided by Dulcop grenade lobbing arditi. The bodies and horses provided by Armies in Plastic - I believe a set of Egyptian lancers in this case, maybe? 

With these two, I can now field two squadrons for my reduced-base-size One Hour Wargames army:

And this is plenty for the standard OHW force builder (a max of two cavalry).

I am aiming to do some OHW Battle of Pozzuolo del Friuli scenarios (the cavalry played a role in the rearguard as the Italian 3rd Army retreated from the rapidly advancing Germans and Austro-Hungarian forces in 1917) and 1918, Vittorio Veneto (the cavalry pursued the retreating Austrians in the last battle of the Southern Front). 

However, not to be unduly limited by the ruleset, I want to allow for the possibility of fielding a full regiment of 5 squadrons and an MG section.  As it happens, I have the figures on hand, I just need to keep at them. This has the benefit of giving me something to paint without spending anything further.

Those will have to wait for my Blessed Sisters to at least field a "legal" 300pt Grimdark Future: Firefight force (5 models - canoness, sgt, banner, storm rifle, and HMG).

I hope to have all of the above figures (11 models total) finished well before the end of the year.

But that requires deciding on a paint scheme!

Country Road

Inspired by a rewatch of Many Wars Ago combined with a couple of situations I came upon while scrolling through Infantry in Battle, I put together a little scenario for the Southern Front.

An Italian column is in retreat when a scout comes under fire and orders a halt. In Many Wars Ago (Based on  Emilio Lussu's A Soldier on the Southern Front), the commanding officer become incensed that the column has halted and orders the scout shot. Hilarity ensues.

In the movie and the book , an already dead soldier is used to convince the commander that the execution was carried out.

 In my scenario, the lead, well you can call it a platoon of four sections and a platoon leader, takes cover in the treeline and the platoon leader organizes an effort to eliminate the gun so the column can pass. The Austro-Hungarian force has improvised some defensive cover on a hilltop. It consists of a machine gun team and a security detail of 8 men (all of my "sections" are 8 figures), and low ranking leader type to oversee the whole thing.

The PL starts in the road. He is very brave or very stupid.

A group of soldiers on the Italian right draws a portion of the Austrian rifle fire.

A section is sent forward on the Italian left and struggles to reach the hill.

In the middle things are going terribly as MG and rifle fire take their toll.

The Italian assault reaches the objective. Bayonets clash!

Alas this did not go well for the Italians. As a result they failed two morale checks and can't advance towards the enemy - except for the one stuck in close combat. The PL takes off at a run to rally them but he is nowhere close.

The PL sends the adjacent section to storm the hill and to relieve the stalled effort.

They reach the top and finish the job. The MG team is struck down and the game is over. Italian victory!

 

Rules were Contemptible Little Armies(CLA), played at the author's stated scale of 1 figure = 1 man (although he's clear that it's whatever you want it to be). The pathetic rifle ranges were adjusted to cover the entire table (I may use Bolt Action's shorter, more cinematic ranges next time). 

Shooting in CLA is figure to figure - which allows the Austrians to split their rifle fire between Italian units. Most rules I have are unit to unit shooting, which would severely hamper the Austrians. That said, in CLA, in practice, I tend to do either figure to unit, or small subset of unit to unit. It works for me.

I think going forward I will implement GASLIGHT's method of distributing hits on a target unit - that way, your group of figures may score three hits on the target unit, but all three end up on the same individual.

The game went 10 turns overall, which surprised me, as I had thought 6 would be sufficient. However, the Italians, due to poor movement dice, took forever to get to the hill let alone engage in close combat. 

There needs to be a win condition for the Austrian force, too - perhaps casualties inflicted or "hold out for X and then retreat", otherwise there is no natural stopping point other than a fight to the last man for one or the other side. I'll be setting it up for another go soon.

1917 Fictional Strafexpedition Game 5 (Final game!)

III Battalion, Sacher Regiment, was ordered to infiltrate into Italian territory and disrupt enemy reinforcements and supplies from reaching the front.

The battalion's second-in-command, Major Nino Aigner, was assigned to personally lead the effort. Ninth and Tenth companies, accompanied by 2nd company, 501st Sturmbattalion, would proceed south with all due haste, bypassing an enemy trench position dug into the northern end of a prominent hill. A detachment of III Battalion's machine guns would engage the enemy trenches to provide cover for the infantry advance.

Initial advance.

The hilltop defenders fought fiercely and, though suffering some losses, managed to silence the attacker's machine guns.

Two companies of Italian reinforcements arrived via the road from the south. The Italian's lead company engaged Ninth company in a firefight as did the surviving hilltop defenders, who had relocated to the southern most position on the hill top. 

With clear firelanes to their target, Ninth company was decimated, and the survivors routed.

The sturmcompany came under heavy fire but held on as they attempted to close with the enemy. Meanwhile Tenth company advanced, keeping close to the woods.

The Italians continued to arrive, including an infantry company, a cavalry squadron, and a field gun battery. Two companies opened fire on the sturmcompany, shooting it to pieces.

With just a single company remaining, Major Aigner was forced to order a withdrawal.

The Italians had stopped the Austrian advance with ease.

******

The scenario is "Infiltration" from One Hour Wargames (scenario #25).  I opted to use One Hour Wargame forces, treating each two-base unit as a company, but for the rules, I used Trench Hammer v2, with some rules from the Expansion. 

This was my second go at this - I had not calculated how dramatically different the movement rate is in Trench Hammer compared to One Hour Wargames. In the first go, the Austro-Hungarian force made it to the exit point two full turns before the arrival of the second Italian reinforcements.

That didn't sit well with me.

I reset the table and adjusted the arrival schedule. Whether it worked better or not depends on who you wanted to win, but at the very least it seemed fairer to me for the Italians to at least get their force on the table.

You could argue, quite convincingly, that I made a mistake in the schedule - arriving on turns 2 and 4, rather than turns 2 and 5 (the original is 3 and 6). 

That's OK - the game served its purpose - to try out two-base units with Trench Hammer - and honestly, when I first conceived of this, it was going to be a straight up five-game campaign following the model given by Neil Thomas in OHW,

If we look at the campaign as a competition between the battalions of Sacher Regiment, then II battalion was the clear winner. They defeated the Italians in two battles before I ruled them too worn out to proceed further. I battalion won their first but lost their second. And III battalion lost their first - therefore, no second.

The Italians only won two of the engagements and so, on that basis lost the campaign. However, as they stopped both the left and right flanks from advancing beyond the second row, that looks to me like, at the very least, a minor victory.

For giggles, I made this map after the fact using the maps from One Hour Wargames to show how I picture the scenarios connecting:

I battalion is the left column, II battalion is the middle, and III battalion is the right.

I had decided that if I made it to the bottom row (or if I needed a tie breaker) in any column, they would be river-based scenarios, with the river running left to right.

I also think It'd be possible to make a larger map of many One Hour Wargames tables and then when sides meet, that's the scenario that gets played. Not sure if I'll do that, but it's an idea!

This campaign, besides being a good bit of fun and an opportunity to get my WWI collection on the table, served its purpose overall, which was to figure out which rules I want to use and what I want forces to look like. The last game, with two-base/four-figure companies is the winner (I may go back to single-figure bases, but use four-figure companies) and I can use Trench Hammer or "Machine Age" rules (with my various modifications) from OHW with the same setup and have equally enjoyable games.

Favorite pic (from 1st game that didn't count): Lancieri charge sturmcompany

Although I'm still preparing my goals/plans/ideas for the coming year, I do believe that in 2023, we can eventually expect a return to the Southern Front, for a campaign, possibly using a map, and very hopefully with air support. 

Lancieri e Cavalleria Ride to the Sound of the Guns!

With great satisfaction, I am pleased to announce my first unit of Italian cavalry is complete. They can serve to represent "Lancieri di Novara" and/or "Genova Cavalleria" at the battle of Pozzuolo del Friuli, or, of course, generic units otherwise.

I really need to finish those base edges!

The figures, again, are Armies in Plastic horses and Egyptian Lancer bodies, with heads supplied from the Dulcop Italian infantry/arditi grenade throwing figure. The AiP WW1 British lancer body, with the cartridge belt across the chest is more accurate perhaps, but then I'd have to do something about the puttees. I guess I could mix the three figures together, but this is close enough for my purposes.

To my astonishment, I quite enjoyed painting the horses - maybe more than the figures themselves. I think the change in tune was due in large part to the toy-soldier look and not worrying about shading their coats as I had tried in 1/72. 

I have always loved horses (my maternal grandfather owned a stable of harness racers) but this was the first time I ever looked into their markings. I do love that one facet of our wonderful hobby is the rabbit hole you can fall into when looking for info when painting figures.

I have another unit of cavalry to assemble for the Italians (Austro-Hungarians won't have any), but first there are three lizard warriors primed and ready as well as machine guns with crews for the Italians and Austro-Hungarians (yet to be assembled) in line ahead of them.

First Arditi are Complete-y!

 I apologize for the title of the post. I'll show myself out.

Still here?

 Here they are, the first of what will be two arditi stands:

I know there are who people would prefer I paint eyes or rosy cheeks or shadows and stuff. My painting style inspiration for 54s has always been Britain's Deetail figures and their Seaforth Highlander set 5188 and similar.

 

The figures are by Dulcop and feature one of their least animated poses - which is hard to imagine. Indeed, they almost ended up looking like a synchronized swim team:

Where's Esther Williams?

But wisely, I think, I reconsidered the basing arrangement.

The straps on the guns are brittle to say the least - the lump on the middle figure's strap was there already - and I believe it was glued together as a repair by the previous owner. The strap I repaired has s similar lump but it's not visible in this picture. Trust me, it's there.

I have the next three ready to enter the painting queue - they are jumping the line because I am nearing the completion of the rifle infantry and assault troops for these armies(for now). It also took I think three days from start to finish and maybe an hour or two tops of total effort. I still have to do a few head swaps for the Italian cavalry (and then paint them), order additional machine gun teams for both sides, and paint some single figures to function as gun crews.

I don't need any of those things to field an interesting and amusing game, so it feels like I am entering into the home stretch here at least for the core of this collection (I see adding British and Germans as a nice to have, but not necessary, side project to this)

As a result, I am tempted to pick up the pace to complete everything for this collection - but I also know that's a sure fire way for me to burn out. Slow and steady wins the race.

WWI Italian Cavalry

I can't tell you how many books I have read about the Italian/Southern Front in WWI, but it's a lot. Over the last six years now, I've read books both lengthy and all too brief. One oft repeated mention is that the cavalry gave up their horses and fought as infantry from early in Italy's entrance into the war.

This, it turns out, is not entirely accurate.

While reading through some Wikipedia articles on the battles of the front (I am reading Asiago, by Francis Mackay, and I was struck by the need to look up something or other), I ended up on the page for Caporetto and  stumbled upon reference to the "Battle of Pozzuolo". This was a battle that I had either not heard of or had forgotten. 

The article was brief, but included this sentence:

The cavalry brigade that fought at Pozzuolo was renamed the Pozzuolo del Friuli Cavalry Brigade and a detailed history of the battle can be found in the brigade's article.

Well, it never hurts to read up on the specific units in an action. My world was about to turn upside down.

With the "Genova Cavalleria" under heavy attack the lancers of the "Lancieri di Novara" began to harass the left flank of the enemy in repeated cavalry charges.

Say what????

uncredited painting from https://www.reddit.com/r/wwi/comments/dp9wqg/a_painting_depicting_the_battle_of_pozzuolo_del/

Apparently, the cavalry did fight dismounted for a time in 1916, but by the end of that year, they were back on horseback. Both the Wikipedia entry for the unit and the Reddit link above give descriptions of their actions in October 1917 (Caporetto/Pozzuolo).

There is a picture floating around on the web (and on sale on eBay) of Italian cavalry in pursuit of Austrians in late 1918 - either as part of the 2nd Battle of the Piave in June or during/in the aftermath of the Battle of Vittorio Veneto:

https://www.bridgemanimages.com/en-US/noartistknown/wwi-italian-cavalry-squadron-of-italian-lancers-starting-in-pursuit-of-the-retreating-austrian-army/nomedium/asset/3130683

Also, feel free to Google the Italian cavalry in 1918 - you'll get plenty of photos and illustrations of lancers on horseback. All of my reading and I feel like I missed something crucial!

In any case, I think it's obvious what all of this means: I need cavalry now!

Of course, finding purpose made Italian cavalry in this scale is a difficult task. However, the Armies in Plastic WWI British lancer uniforms are close enough for me - a paint conversion should handle it. A head swap with the Adrian-helmeted WWI French figures will complete the ensemble.

Since I decided on using One Hour Wargames "Machine Age"  with reduced base size or maybe The Portable Wargame at some point, as well as Trench Hammer, a few two-cavalry figure units is more than enough.

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.

Austro-Hungary Responds to Italian Escalation!

Not to be outdone by the Italians, the Austro-Hungarian army has equipped its forces along the Southern Front with newly acquired machine guns of their own.

Astute readers will note that these are not the standard Schwarzlose but rather are models based on the German MG 08. 

Once again, this is a model available from Irregular Miniatures in their 54mm WWI line. The gas mask head is an option. I just like the way they look (for the same reason I have always liked the 1/72 Strelets WWI figures as they all have gas masks for all sides).

My "conversion" of the uniform to Austrian, besides the colors, was to simply paint over the boot upper as if it was a puttee. 

Assembling the MG took some effort, but then, assembling anything is not my strong suit (you should see me with Ikea furniture). I snapped one of the front support legs - thankfully it was only one, and it repaired easily with super glue. Attaching them at the correct angle nearly resulted in permanently gluing myself to the model. Twice.

In the end though, slapped over with paint and gloss, it looks the part.

I plan to buy one more MG team for each force again from Irregular eventually.  They are a great deal, even including shipping to the US, and they arrived quickly. However, I have more infantry to paint up in the meantime.

Italy Sends Bersaglieri to the Line!

Although greatly under strength, the Italian Bersaglieri prepare to square off against their Austrian foes!

The officer gets fancier black leather shoes.

These Waterloo 1815 figures painted up fairly quickly by my standard.

I attribute this to two things. One, there is an overall lack of kit with these figures - akin to Airfix WWII Soviets. The  other reason is that I discovered that if I take a little more time with each step, there is less need to go back and fix errors. Not no need mind you, but far less need. Who knew?

Sadly, there was some peeling when I removed the figures from their painting bases which you can see in the picture.

I will seal the bases with PVA and regloss the bases once I settle on what the final actual basing will be.

At present, I am leaning towards individual figures on the same size bases I use for my Great Game armies (I don't recall the size, so hopefully I have the order receipt from Litko so I can order more!). Trench Hammer works equally well either way, and H.M.G. which I would like to try, by default uses individually-based figures.

First Shots Fired on the Italian Front

Finally managed to finish my Austrians (Armies in Plastic WWI Germans) - all the bits that were bothering me have been retouched and a suitable gloss applied.

Of course, it wouldn't due to just let them sit and so, I commenced with my first infantry contact on the Southern Front using Trench Hammer.

The scenario is based on a actual historical event - three Austrian stormtrooper assault patrols burst out of hidden tunnels in the snow to surprise lightly held Italian positions. Ideally the Italians would have a machine gun on the table as they did in real life, but I am awaiting mine from England, so it will be awhile yet. 

In the meantime, two Italian rifle sections and their "leader" stand watch or mostly just complain about the cold and the incompetent fools who think this icy section of rock is worth protecting.

The eyes! The eyes! (they freak me out)

Without warning two Austrian stormtrooper assault patrols burst forth from the snow! (In Trench Hammer terms, one unit is a bombing section, and the other unit is being treated as an Assault section)

The Italians are caught completely unprepared and the stormtroops advance rapidly, firing rifles as the bombers prepare to unleash their fury.

As they get closer the Italian officer is able to get his men to start firing.

As the first units of Austrians reach the trench, another assault patrol bursts forth from a hidden tunnel. (Another unit I classified as a Bombing section)

A struggle ensues for control of the trench but the Italian infantry on the right give a good accounting of themselves, driving off two of the Austrian units.

The unit on the left on the other hand was forced to abandon the trench, which the Austrians took quick advantage of.

The Italian infantry on the right raced down the trench and close combat ensued. After forcing them back, the Austrians closed to assault again but it was not enough and the Italian defenders were victorious.

In Trench Hammer units are sections and have specific purposes - as they did historically in the British and German armies at least. Generally speaking each side fields a platoon with some support (which I don't have yet). Since Austrian stormtroops don't have a platoon organization to speak of, the assault patrol of 9 men being the basic unit of the company, this is an ad hoc attack assembled from three assault patrols. 

These troops are a specialist type of their own but are not directly accounted for in the rules. For German stormtroops the rules suggest making most of the sections Bombing units and so that's what I went with (After all, the Austrians were trained by the Germans).

The Alpini are Dulcop and were not painted by me - I just painted their bases (well some of them) to match my preferred green. They will do for now, but they will eventually get some paint.  I'm also not set on the basing I used here - I may move to 2 figures on a 2" square like I use for WW2.

Speaking of, painting, getting the Austrians done and on the table has inspired me to get back to painting. I will either extend my Austrians - possibly with some ordinary rifle infantry (assault patrols often led the way for regular army units) - or some of my unpainted Bersaglieri.

WWI Italian Front Organizing Considerations

Returning to contemplation of my WWI Italian Front project, I realized I had completely forgotten what my rationale was for the Austrian poses I had selected to paint That may have worked to my advantage as it forced me to dig through my source materials again and think through my intentions with this project.

According to Hell in the Trenches (Morisi, 2018), an Austrian sturmpatrouillen (assault patrol) consisted of 9 men:

• One patrol leader
• Two Grenade throwers
  
• Three Grenade bearers with rifles
• One sapper
• Two  riflemen to protect the rest "of the platoon" (these 9-men patrols are said platoons ).
  

 

At 1:1 the above could represent the aforementioned assault patrol. There are plenty of scenarios suitable for just an assault patrol or two. For a game of Trench Hammer, which I want to give a go, what does it represent?

Every base above represents an assault patrol in this case (the bases are "sections" in the rules, so say 10-15 men paper strength). What does four assault patrols represent? It's not quite anything in particular.

There is an example on page 173, of a company in the 31st Division crossing the Piave, and it consists of 12 sturmpatrouillen. So, while this is hardly definitive, the picture above represents  approximately 1/3 of a sturm kompanie It's not a singular unit the way a platoon would be in another army or time period, but rather, it's four independent patrols that, for the sake of the game, I'm putting under a singular leader.

To represent the proportional weaponry/functions of the individuals in an assault patrol, from left to right, I'm assigning the following unit types for Trench Hammer: 

1. Leader
2. Offensive Oriented Infantry (from the Trench Hammer Expansion Pack )
3. Bombing Squad
4. Another base of Offensive Oriented Infantry
5. Trench Raiders / Assault Troops. (Trench Hammer doesn't have a Sapper / Engineer unit type that I can find, but Assault Troops can clear a path through wire, so that seems like a fair choice).

All are rated as Experienced to give them an edge. 

Whether I stick with Trench Hammer or switch to single figure games (H.M.G. where 9 figures is an Austrian company, for example, or GASLIGHT,  or One Hour Skirmish Wargames, for 1:1 low figure count, for example) remains to be seen. Trying to find the right niche for these figures/this period, that isn't already occupied by my WWII collections or by my Great Game collection, is the challenge. However, this is a suitable starting point I think.

Alas, this rather enjoyable mental exercise was undermined by the discovery of just how small the ICM 1/35 MG crew figures are in comparison to AiP figures:

The figure is a British gunner with an Adrian helmet from the Italian Infantry equipment set.

These figures are just far too small even for my low standards of compatibility. They are a good bit slighter than my 1/35 Soviets and Germans for WWII even. So, plan B for the MGs (Irregular Miniatures British MG team with gun with a head swap) it is.