Mid - Imperial Roman Army - a first look

Even if I finished them in September i have only now the moment to post a couple of photos of my Trajan Romans.

The table and the scenario are not the best possible but my club is still loking for a new location and so I was forced to use my home table.

The army is a mix of A&A and Warlord 28mm miniatures and it is composed by 10 cohorts, artillery, 2 auxiliary alee, archers and cavalry (light and heavy). 

I deployed them in triplex acies with cavalry and auxiliaries as the wings

I took some picts to the cohorts and their command groups

Archers are a mix of western and eastern men

In the future I'll increase the artillery probably with a couple of new scorpions but for the moment I think that it is sufficient ... (in particular my wife!)

The skirmish units are Balearic slingers even if I painted them with late imperial color schemes ... I'm sorry but the warlord miniatures are very nice and considering that my next project is a late imperial army I could not resist. 

Finally a mix of photos with a part of high commands

L'Italia s'è desta - Battle report "Defense" July 2-9

Background

May 1859 – Italy. An Austrian division is attacking an Italian/Sardinian position. The Austrian battle order is typical: two brigades, a tactical reserve and artillery. At the beginning of the battle the Italians has two small detachments and they have a position to defend. 

Rule system:

L'Italia s'è desta! Created by Paolo M.

Miniatures

All miniatures are 28mm and are painted by Alberto M., Paolo M., Franco B., Franco Bel.

Battle orders

Austrian Army [20 units + 1 HQ]

 1^st Brigade: 7 units [including: 1 jager (hunter, elite +1), 1 grenadier (elite +1), 1 command and a field artillery]

 2^nd Brigade 7 units [including: 1 jager (hunter, elite +1), 1 grenadier (elite +1), 1 command and a field artillery]

Reserve detachment 4 units [2 infantry, 1 field artillery, 1 command]

Independent detachment 2 units [1 cavalry (independent) and 1 corps artillery]

Head Quarter [1 unit]

Sardinian Army  [19 units + 1 HQ]

1^st Detachment: 5 units [including: 1 bersaglieri (hunter, training +2) and 1 command

2^nd Detachment: 5 units [including: 1 field artillery and 1 command]

1^st Brigade: 8 units [including: 1 field artillery and 1 command]

Independent detachment 1 units [1 cavalry (independent)]

Head Quarter [1 unit]

Initial deployment

Sardinian forces: they deploy the units for first but they move after the Austrian army.

During the first round only the 1^st and the 2^nd detachment are on the field [Sector 2]

The HQ will enter at the beginning of 3^rd round [Sector 1]

The brigade deploy at the 6^th round [Sector 1]

Austrian forces: they deploy their units after Sardinian forces but move for first.

At the beginnings of the battle Austrian have on the table all the units but they have to line up their forces in the sector 3.

The independent detachment will enter at the 6^th round [Sector 3]

Set up

15 turns. The Austrians move for first

Victory conditions

The army that destroys 7 units of the enemy wins

or

The Austrians has to throw out Sardinian forces from Sector 2.

Battle report

Phase 1

The Austrians start moving their forces towards the houses on their right flank while Sardinians try to defend the position in the centre

 Phase 2

After a couple of turns the Austrian’s attack is concentrated on the houses

Defended by a group of Jager, the 2nd Austrian brigades assaults the houses. Meanwhile the cavalry try to outflank the enemy units

In the centre the situation remains substantially steady

Phase 3

At the 6^th round Sardinian reinforces arrive but it is too late

The 2^nd Austrian brigades takes the houses while the cavalry arrives at the backs of the Sardinians positions. The 2^nd Italian detachment is completely destroyed … The Austrians win.

Volvera 2015 - Sept 26-27

In September my club was involved in “Volvera 2015 - Exhibition”. The event is annually linked to the Marsaglia battle reenact-  a battle fought in my region (Piedmont) at the end of  XVII century – but for 2015 edition the promoters asked us to present Waterloo battle.

Thanks to the preparation of Ezio (another club member) we recreate a part of the battle: D’Erlon’s attack.

The scenario is prepared for 28mm and requires around 500 miniatures.

During the real battle, D’Erlon’s attack was the French unlucky attempt to break Wellington lines repelled by English cavalry that arrived till French batteries.

We presented the scenario for two days and we played it twice with Black Powder rules.

Miniatures are all painted by me (French forces plus a couple of English battalions) and Alberto (all English cavalry, Dutch forces and the remaining English units).

In the first scenario we played, the French tried to create on the right the "grande batterie" to permit the break in the centre …

… unfortunately the French columns broke against Dutch units and English cavalry charged them ... French cuirassiers were too far.

In the second game, French artillery was deployed in the centre and the cuirassiers forced the Dutch to form squares …

… this time it is the English cavalry that arrived too late.

During the two days the weather was cloudy and the miniatures exhibition was in a building not in the centre of town so the numbers of visitors was limited. The event was the opportunity to play for a weekend and to see again some club members.

An now a couple of picts …

The Black Gordon waiting on the slope

Napoleon and part of his HQ

The KGL lines

French commanders

A special thanks to all La Piccola partecipants: Paolo M., Alberto M., Alberto F., Riccardo G.

Garibaldi all'attacco - Dadi & Piombo - Summer 2015

I've just received the latest copy of Dadi & Piombo. This magazine is one of the most important Italian wargame publication.  Generally I don't speak of publication in my blog but this time it is an exception because one of my friends (and member of La Piccola Armata) wrote an article about the Italian independence wars.

Copyright P. Montinaro - Dadi&Piombo

The article is obviously in Italian and it is not my purpose to perform a summary. I’m writing these words only to introduce "Garibaldi all'attacco!". A wargame rule system created by Paolo. M. (the author of the article) related to the Italian independence wars. 

The Italian Risorgimento is a very interesting period but it is not well known by the majority of gamers. Paolo has written a simple system rules that is lean and well designed in particular for multiplayer games.

Copyright P. Montinaro - Dadi&Piombo - Miniatures by Alberto M.

Paolo and his team are been working on those rules for years  and, probably, by the end of 2015, it will be printed.

Last year it was organized a tournament in my club using this system and all the people who played were enthusiastic of the game mechanisms. 

Copyright P. Montinaro - Dadi&Piombo - Miniatures by Franco B.

This summer I played some scenarios and the next blogs I'll try to prepare a brief battle report.