Victory at sea – August 5, 2017

Also during the Summer the club was opened, generally normal people go to the sea in this period but in a wargame club sometime the sea can arrive in the club.

Thanks to Ezio’s idea and miniatures we played some naval battles using “Victory at sea”. My mates played a couple of battles during this month but I took part only to the one fought on 5th August.

During ww2 the Italians and the Royal Navy fought some naval battles with alternative success.  The Italian Royal Fleet (Regia Marina) had generally a good reputation but during the war it suffered some defeats. The lack of radar systems (only in the late war our ships will be equipped with a radar device but it will be too late), the idea not to develop carriers, a command chain not flexible (all Italians commanders’ decisions had to be approved by Italian HQ’s – Supermarina) and the lack of gasoline reduced significativally the efficiency of Italian actions. 

The scenario is inspired to an historical situation. The idea was to create a “Battle Matapan prelude" with three Italian heavy cruisers (Trento, Trieste and Bolzano) and their destroyers (“Soldati” class) against four British light cruisers (HMS Orion, HMS Glouchest, HMS Ajax and HMS Perth) and their destroyers escort (two “H” class, one “I” class and one “V” class).

Below a photo where, in the foreground, there are the Royal Navy forces and, in the backgroud, the Italian units that have to reach them.

Some pictures of the Italian force and …

… a detail of Italian heavy battleship Bolzano in the game and during the war

Maurizio (and for a little time me) had the control of Italian navy while Ezio, Enzo and Flavio lead the Royal Navy.

After to be individuaded, the British force tries to confuse Italian units with smoke.

The Italian ships goes directly against the enemy force while British units change course to intecept them ...

As soon as the ships are in contact the English navy starts the bombardment

... but now it the turn of the Italians

The game continues for other turns with a continuous bombardments. At the end the Royal navy sinks an heavy cruiser and the Italian forces turn back to their bases

Might & Reason - Zorndorf battle – July, 22 2017

With a great delay, I’m writing a kind of battle report for the match we fought some Saturdays ago. The idea was to recreate the battle of Zorndorf using Might & Reason rule systems. I have to be honest … it was the first time a I played with this rulebook but the system of game works well as in all games written by Sam Mustafa.

The battle of Zorndorf was fought on August 25, 1758 during the Seven Year’s war between the Russians, commanded by Count William Fermor, and the Prussian army under the rule of King Frederick the Great. Unfortunately the battle was inconclusive and was fought in a land with more linear obstacles (ie marshes, woods and so on)

The historical researches and the preparation of the battle is totally thanks to Ezio

Below the map with the orginal deployment …

… and the initial deployment in the match. Please notes the fire in the village in the bottom of the photo … Ezio was so accurate to recreate the battle that he decided to put the fire into the village because, before the struggle, some light Russian cavalry regiments got to burn the village at the back of Prussian army.

 All miniatures are 15mm and they are mainly painted by Alberto M. (another club member). On the table there were around 51 units plus the commanders.

I had the control of Prussian troops. For me it was the first match using M&R rules so my initial attack was not so coordinated. I attacked on the center and I used my two wings of cavalry as screen. The Russians were under the commander of Ezio and Flavio

My first fire

After the cannons' fire my troops advance …

… brave men

My cavalry regiments on the left try to reach Russian light cavalry but the terrain is covered by marshes and it is not a great idea to do it. In real battle these regiments will be redeployed on the center after some hours

On the right my cavalry tries some skirmish attacks against the Russians.

I continues my attack on the center …

On the right my remaining infantry units are steady. In the real history they attacked the  Russian Observation Corps  after the main attack in the center was repelled.

On the center the struggle continues and the Russians decided to use their cavalry to repelled my troops.

This action was particular strange because we found in an Osprey publishing book the same imagine

On the right it is a cavalry match

Considering that on the center I started to have some troubles, I decided to redeploy the cavalry regiments on the left …

… while I’m recreating the line

On the right my cavalry is destroyed by the Russians so I start to move infantry against Russian Observation Corps with a little screen of two cavalry regiment of my reserve

The real battle continues on the center but my cavalry does not create holes

The final position of the two armies …

… a draw as in the real battle

Below a schematic explanation of the real battle mouvements

I know that it is a very long post but I cannot publish some further detail of the battle

Russian infantry

Prussian cavalry

A detail of Russian cannons that are firing

King Frederick the Great

Russian cavalry against Prussian infantry