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Sunday, March 5, 2023

First Piedmontese and a Little WWII Action

Having started down the road of expanding the 18mm SYW project into the War of Austrian Succession, by fielding four Spanish infantry regiments, time to turn a little attention to other combatants.

With an initial focus of the war in Northern Italy, a logical next step would be to muster out a few Piedmontese regiments.  That is what we have today with two regiments of foot.  The first two regiments are Savoy and Piedmonte.  Figures are Old Glory infantry led by a Eureka Miniatures' mounted colonel.  No flags have been distributed to the regiments yet. 

Regiment Piedmonte
Regiment Savoy
More Spanish and Piedmontese infantry are in work as they wrestle for space at the painting desk with the first of a few Hanoverian infantry regiments.  After the next batch of infantry units musters out, I think it time to put some artillery into the production line.

On the gaming front, last Monday's WWII tactical game saw the Americans defending three bridges against a powerful German counterattack.  While I do not have the photos to put together a battle report, the outmanned and outgunned Americans held off their attackers to secure a minor victory.  In the attack, the German left and center were cut to pieces by small arms and mortar fire.  Only the German right remained viable as this platoon pressed on toward two of the bridges with armor in support.  Besides knocking out two StuGs on the last turn in an airstrike, the Hollywood moment came when a Tiger I was coaxed into a compromising position and then blasted at close range by a Bazooka team popping up from the hull of an abandoned tank.  Surprise!
Take that!
photo courtesy Richard L.
The Germans were not amused...

Sticking to the WWII theme, Sunday saw Matt and I contest Lillehammer in our ongoing Norway 1940 series of games using Bolt Action.  This time, the British and Norwegians were attacking against a small but deadly group of Germans.  Having suffered mightily from mortar and machine gun fire, the allies were slowly (but often quickly) cut to ribbons.  On the last turn, Norwegian ski troops slide into town to take the key crossroads.  Unfortunately, they too were cut to pieces by German reinforcements also moving up into the town.  Eight Norwegians fell in this murderous fire with not a single skier left standing.  Game goes to Matt.  Well played!  Oh, the allies did manage to knock out a Panzer I with an ATR after having fired at it constantly throughout the game.  Notice the Pz I smoldering in the background as the skiers attack.
So close!
photo courtesy wargamesinthedungeon
Both games were great fun!

40 comments:

  1. Three cheers for the doughboys! And that's a cool campaign you and Matt have going on in Norway, as well.
    You'll always get a notice from me with WWII in the title ;)

    V/R,
    Jack

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    1. Thanks, Jack! I will try to work WWII into more titles.

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    2. My pleasure, and don't worry about tailoring to me, I just wanted to know I'm always watching, just don't tend to comment when the subject is something I'm not familiar with. Kowtowing to the heathenous crowd is the path to madness!!! ;)

      V/R,
      Jack

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    3. Jack, good to see you continue looking-in no matter the content.

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  2. Good to see the expansion into Italy. Good battle reports, WW2 skirmish type games always are a treat to read about.

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    1. Indeed, it is good! Next WAS game will not require proxies for Spanish or Piedmontese! Well, not all proxies, anyway. Maybe if I can scratch out some time, I can provide more complete accounts of these two WWII actions. Check in with Matt's blog for a full battle account of the Lillehammer fight.

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  3. The Norway game and setting looks good. I like the ski troops.

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    1. Who does not enjoy seeing ski troops on the table? Matt sure sets a fine table.

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  4. I like the look of those Piedmontese regiments. There is also notjing better than knocking out a tiger tank with a bazooka

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    1. Thanks, Neil! Well, I did not deliver a knock-out blow on the tiger I but hitting it in the flank caused a bit of damage and stunned the crew.

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  5. Two more excellent regiments Jon and I look forward to seeing them flagged:). The WWII games sounded fun and certainly a close call in Norway as to which side would win, coming down to almost the last few dice rolls it would seem.

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    1. I look forward to seeing these lads flagged too. I need to find a source first.

      As for the WWII game, Matt really had this situation in hand from early on. My sweeping into the village on skis was a last-ditch effort. We will let Matt tell the story of wreaking havoc with his mortar and MGs.

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  6. Good to see more figures muster out of the depot……one win and one loss for the Germans is not so bad. The allies had a tough job at Lillehammer counterattacking..what might have been πŸ‘

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    1. Always good to see units mustering out, isn't it? You presented a very tough fight for the allies in this contest. The Killing Field was just that. some units barely made it out of the tree line. I need to rethink my strategy and tactics.

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  7. Fine additions to the WAS throng there Jonathan. Great sounding games too, attacking is never easy, especially so in WWII when ones opponent tends to lie down to fight, most ungentlemanly πŸ™‚

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    1. Thanks! You ought to see the number of units churned out in January and February. I surprised myself.

      Attacking is a difficult task, for sure. In the Lillehammer game, Matt shot my troops to pieces.

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  8. What was the rule system being used for the first game?

    Matt’s Norwegian table is always superb, a great period / theatre to do and of course the ski troops make it so!

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    1. Do you remember Victory Games old Ambush series? Well, these rules started out with that as the foundation and have been seeing frequent modifications over the last two months.

      Matt certainly sets a high bar for table display.

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    2. I did have Ambush and enjoyed it - fairly meaty as I recall, as were a lot of Victory Games designs.

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    3. One of my All-Time favorites was VG's The Civil War. A classic design.

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  9. More nice work on your WAS expansion Jon and the games look to have been good too ....I will check out Matt and Richard's respective blogs for more details!

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    1. Thank you, Keith! Matt will likely have a battle account up soon but Richard L. is not a blogger. I may have to revisit this battle and build a more detailed account of the action.

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  10. Another fine looking regiment Johnathan!

    Christopher

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  11. Wow! Very nice Piedmont infantry! I'm eager to see them with flags as I love Piedmont flags.

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    1. Glad you like them! If you have a source for Piedmontese flags, I would be very happy to see them.

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    2. I used http://www.bandieresabaude.it/Bandiere031.html . I don't know if the link is visible here. I will send it as an e-mail too.

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    3. Thanks, AndrΓ©! Your link worked.

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  12. Excellent paintmanship Jonathan.

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  13. Great seeing units being mustered out and excellent looking games, a 50/50 result is surely pretty good?
    Best Iain

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    1. Much appreciated, Iain! A 50/50 result is good but winning and losing really does not matter when you are enjoying a good game with friends.

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  14. Some nice looking troops and games. πŸ˜€

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  15. Lovely looking new toys Jonathan…
    And a couple of nice games…
    Your certainly living the wargaming life.

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks, Aly! For me, a wargaming life is preferred over a non-Wargaming life.

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  16. Piedmontese flags in progress, Jon (https://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/2023/03/standard-of-french-irish-regiment-fitz.html see the end of that post), but no ETA yet. Too many things going on at the moment!

    Cheers,

    David.

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    1. Thanks, David! I saw your post with your trio of flags early. Looking forward to seeing more when time permits.

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  17. Popping a Tiger with a bazooka is no simple feat!

    Liking the red uniforms on those Piedmontese too!

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    1. It was a big surprise to the Tiger crew!

      I, too, like the Piedmontese uniforms with matching waistcoats and breeches.

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