SAGA - La Piccola Armata tournament - Dec, 21 2019

Last week end my club mates organized and played a SAGA 2.0 tournament. The participants to this event were 10 and they played for all the day. Below some of them during the first phase of the game

They deployed a lot of different armies: Jomsviking (Eugenio), Normans (Antonio), Umayyads (Falvio), Huns (Aurelian), Welsh (Alberto), Later Romans (Enzo), Irish (Riccardo and Giancarlo) and Vikings (Bartolomeo and Paolo)

Below some pics of the various armies took part of the battles

The tournament is organized by Riccardo and divided in three rounds

At the end the winner was Eugenio with his Jomsviking ... below a photo of him with his battle helm

but my friends have decided to give away a box of Gripping Beast miniatures to be awarded with a draw among all the participants ... this time the winner was Antonio

At the end it was a funny day for all respecting the typical wargamers tradition ... see you nex time.

Rapid Fire Nov 30, 2019

Some week end ago Maurizio and Ezio played another test game using Rapid fire. The idea is to test a new rules set for ww2 in alterative to Bolt Action.

Maurizio and Ezio painted a great number of pieces to play this scenario. The German army (the 130th  division Panzer Lehr) must counter attack an English infantry division placed in a Normady village. The Panzer Lehr had double points respect his enemy.

German units are painted by Maurizio while the English-ones by Ezio. Scenario and terrains prepared by Ezio.

This is not a real battle report but I kind of album of pictures to show the amazing miniatures painted by my two club mates with some brief reference to their game

Below the German HQ are discussing of the best way to reach the enemy

The panzer division is approaching to his objectives

The initial deployment

Maurizio placed his artillery near a hill starting with a preliminary bombardment

The Panzer Lehr starts his attack

The English troops try to defend their positions but …

… it is hard and the cathedral is taken by the German troops

Some English tanks try to destroy the German panthers but they have not luck and …

… they are forced to go back

At the end the battle is a German victory

SAGA Age of Magic ... we ara coming!

After a very long break, in the last weeks I started to paint again fantasy miniatures.

I have a great number of old Warhammer and Mordeheim miniatures … I painted them years ago … I think 20 years ago… and my painting skills are a bit increased so I decided to paint them again …

The two humans are Mordeheim miniatures while the dwarf is part of a warhammer set for artillery … I modified a bit the standard bearer with the effect below

I prepared also two “special characters” equipped with black powder weapons ... the harquebus is a bit large but the effect is acceptable ... they are fantasy miniatures!

I had also some very old Bretonnian archers ... Their poses are too static in my opinion so I change some heads ... using a Fireforge plastic sprue ... and I decided to change the colors schemes

I have to finish the command group of the old metallic great swords but I painted again a group of them. I want point out that the beastmen in these photos are not painted by me but are Maurizio’s creatures

Black powder November battles

My club mates are continuing also in November to test their skills to play Warlord Black Powder rules system.

They started with an impossible battle that sees English troops vs other English soldiers… they explained me that a part of the English army was formed by Scottish and Welsh rebels lead by the 1st Viscount of Beresford who decided to start a rebellion against the Duke  … but I do not believe them :)

Another day they played a battle between historical allies … Prussians against Austrians

I want point out that all miniatures are painted by my friends (mainly by Aurelian, Ezio, Nevio, Riccardo, Filippo) and that are 15mm scale … I never painted this kind of scale and I can only to comment that the impact on the tables are fantastic in my opinion.

The last picts are related to a battle fought between Aurelian and our Italian Iron Duke

A detail of the Scots Greys …

… and another detail of the Swiss troops that fought for the France

To end … an overview of a part of the match

185th Italian parachute division Bolt action/Rapid fire – Folgore (Lightining bolt)

After painting the Italian armoured division Ariete I could’t not to paint the first Italian parachutists unit: the Folgore (“Lightining bolt”) division. This unit was initially raised to be involved in Operation Hercules (the planned Axis invasion of Malta) but in June 1942 it was sent to Africa.

In North Africa it participated in the Battles of El Alamein, where it was the protagonist of a strong resistance against the attacking Commonwealth forces, managing also to drive off some attacks conducted by tanks and heavy infantry.

For some of the photos I was inspired to an old Italian newspaper that published coloured illustrations very "epic" during the Fascist regime …

… for one my picts I decided to apply some “effects”

The only original colourized photo I found is related to a Cannone mod 47/32 (called also Elefantino).

It was used both as an infantry and anti tank gun but it was effective only on light and medium tanks. During the Second El Alamein our artillerymen fired between 500 and 100 metres to be sure to hit the enemy

I painted also some MMG

All miniatures are Waterloo 1815 20mm and I changed some heads to increase their variety

I painted also some support unit as the medic team. For these unit I choose a mix of Early war miniatures and Waterloo 1815. The effect is fine

The Folgore division fought superbly during El Alamein battle but it suffered such high casualties that they never regained their former effectiveness. In the course of the second Battle of El Alamein the division was completely destroyed and therefore officially disbanded on 23 November 1942. Below the memorial stone place years after the battle by the survivors of the unit

The translation in English of the Italian words is: “Luck and not bravery went amiss”

To complete my infantry army I painted also a SPA-Viberti A.S.42 called “Sahariana”.

It was an Italian reconnaissance car developed to contrast the English Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) actions.

To support the Sahariana I painted also some Bersaglieri motocycle unit. Also in this case I modified the original photo to celebrate this soldier and his way to find a kind of protection in a sunny landscape