Zombie – July 15, 2017

Fight to survive in the abandoned streets of a post-apocalyptic world infested by unnatural creatures hungry for your flesh. Scavenge for scarce supplies whilst battling against the dead and the living alike; there are no laws, there are no rules, only the fight … this is the initial sentence that Warlord's authors use to introduce this skirmish game.

Last Saturday Maurizio (a member of La Piccola Armata) prepared a scenario inspired to this game and, in general, to tv series as “The walking dead” and “Z Nation”

All miniatures on the table are painted by Maurizio

Building are prepared and painted by Maurizio (the great part of them) and by Flavio.  The scenario arranged was large and very realistic so it is very difficult to render it with some pictures. Below some imagines of the comic book store with the billboard of Saul Goodman on the roof

Other details of the comic book store from the sidewalk and …

… from the inner. The level of details is so high that Maurizio put mini-comics on the shelters and on the table as in a real shop

Other details of street fights

And finally some bikers … the characters that cannot be lacking in a post apocalyptic game

WWII German railway gun

During WW2 some German generals were remembered for their innovative strategies but German Army maintained also some traditions that are typically of previous conflicts. One of this "traditions" are the so called "railway guns".

Generally they were a large artillery piece, often surplus naval artillery, mounted on, transported by, and fired from a specially designed railway wagon. Many countries have built railway guns, but the best known are the large Krupp-built pieces used by Germany in WWII and WWI.

The largest artillery piece of this type deployed by Germany in WW2 was 80 cm  Schwerer Gustav. Below an original image with Nazi gerarchs.

Maurizio, one of my club mate, decided to convert a 1/72 self-propelled siege mortar in a railway gun. Below another original photo

The effect to merge a railway locomotive and a siege mortar can be this

I took some pictures in a Italian scenario prepared by Ezio and Flavio. The idea is a short break for a military convoy that has to be refuelled

Unfortunately for railway gun the rise of the plane effectively ended their usefulness. Similar to battleships, they were massive, expensive, and, in the correct conditions, easily destroyed from the air

Might and Reason – July 8, 2017

Last Saturday my mates played a match at “Might and Reason”; the rule system written by Sam Mustafa some years ago. It is an old set of rules but it is simple and perfect to recreate battles of XVIII century. The period that the Anglophones call “Lace wars” and that for the French speakers is the “Guerre en dentelle”.

My club members do not decide to recreate an historical battle but only a “hypothetical” struggle of the “War of the Austrian Succession”. The fight sees a French army with a contingent of Bavarian troops as allies against an Austro-Hungarian force supported by Balkan grenzers.

All miniatures are painted by Ezio and Riccardo and are 15mm scale

On the field there were 27 French units against 25 Austro-Hungarian ones; it means 400 infantrymen, 120 cavalrymen, 12 cannons and 20 commanders.

Below some imagines of the Austrian cavalry …

… and the Austrian infantry

An overview of the field after the Austrian first fire

Some units of French dragoons and …

… the French Swiss regiment

It takes them around 6 hours to finish the battle and the final score was a Austrian victory

WWII Normandy - Green devils June 2017

During Normandy campaign two German parachute divisions were involved in struggles with Allied troops: the 2nd and the 3rd fallschirmjäger.

I haven't find original photos of Normandy villages with German troops but only with 
Americans

The village prepared by my club mates is realistic but with Germans 

The 2nd division was one of the first unit that tried to repel Allied landing during Overlord operation at Carentan. I painted my fallschirmjägers to be adapted to Italian and African conflict theatres so they wear the Luftwaffe tropical uniforms. During Normady campaign they used the Sumpfmuster 44 that was more green than the camo uniforms I painted.

Below some pictures. The first-one shows some members of 2nd German parachute division captured in Normandy. The second photo are my miniatures

The 2nd Division was well equipped with MG42s, panzerfaust and Gewehr 42. In the photos below an example of Gewehr 42 in a real combat and one my miniatures with this rifle while is throwing a granade in a house of a Normandy village

Panzerfaust was a one shot anti-tank weapon that German troops started to use after 1943

Copyright http://fjr6.org.uk/uniform-equipment.html

During the war a lot of villages (Carenat, Caen etc) were bombarded by the Allies. Below a photo of Carentan wiht members of 101st Aribone and after some of my miniature in a ruined house.

The last two imagines show my miniatures near a Sarissa ltd building prepared by my club mates to be a German HQs

La Piccola Armata - June activities

Also last month our club saw events and battles.

In the first weeks of the month some of my mates continue their training for Dbmm. 
Below the Teutonic Knights painted by Filippo

On 24th and 25th June we hosted the annual Dbmm tournament. 

The following pictures are some miniatures painted by one of our invitee: Lorenzo

And below a moment of award ceremony

The second "Garibaldi all'attacco!" tournament continues and ...

... playtests for the new ACW rules system too

But it is not possible to play battles without persons (as Flavio) who prepare sceneries or ...

... other friends as Aurelian or Ivano who paint new miniatures