Garibaldines' operations in Calabria, 1860

 Some pictures and a brief after-action report of our latest game of Rebels & Patriots.

The scenario is set in Calabria, 1860. After the conquest of Sicily, the first troops of the Army of the South (Garibaldi's army) landed in Calabria to march northward. The game involved a small garrison of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies in this hilly region. The scenario is Assault at Fort Glory, Paolo was the defender, and Edoardo was the attacker. 

Kingdom of Two Sicilies (Trait: Cunning) 12 points

• 4 skirmishers unit @2 points each
• 1 light artillery @4 points
• +1 skirmishers dummy unit

Garibaldines' army (Trait: Familiar Face) 24 points

• 3 shock infantry @6 points each
• 1 medium artillery

The Garibaldines, army was led by Nino Bixio, but one unit was led by Giacomo Medici. Their plan was simple: a frontal assault supported by the artillery fire. But some rivalries probably existed between the commanders, since Medici's unit refused to take part in the action for most of the game.

The defender led a sortie against the artillery, but the unit was wiped out (even if caused some casualties between the artillerymen). Bixio's unit was the first to approach the walls, but the general was hit by a cannonball and lightly wounded (+1 honor). Medici's unit was unaffected, while the third unit wavered. After a rally, the assault was restarted and fierce fighting across the walls ensued, with the defender pushed back thrice and retaking the position four times. Some Picciotti (skirmishers) reinforcements arrived to help the battered Garibaldines, but they received confusing orders and shoot their allies. On the eve of the tenth turn, the time was called and the game ended. Total honor scored 5 - 1 for the defenders. Suspicion of betrayal and rivalry arose between the Garibaldines. Overall a nice game, we found the scenario a bit easier for the defender, but definitely would play it again.

Medici's unit assaulting the fortification

One of the last assaults

Nino Bixio hit by the artillery fire

The defenders gun

the Garibaldines' artillery

Additions to my Garibaldine and Kingdom of Two Sicilies armies

 A brief update and some pictures of my Garibaldine and Kingdom of Two Sicilies armies. If you wish to be updated more frequently, please follow my Instagram page @arsenaledelnano

Italian Wars of Independence is one of my areas of interest. As a wargamer,  I find the many small clashes very appealing, especially considering I am currently playing large skirmish rulesets stemming from Lion Rampant.

I had a couple games of Rebels and Patriots with my two new 28mm miniatures armies: the Garibaldine army from the Expedition of the Thousand in 1860, and their opponent: the Kingdom of Two Sicilies army. I will post some after-action reports one day. After the last game, I felt I lacked variety, so I was prompt to add a couple of units to my armies, and here they are (the bases are not finished yet).

For the Garibaldine, I painted generals Nino Bixio (on the right) and Giacomo Medici (on the left) to serve as officers and to be fielded in an all cavalry unit, even if historically, the Garibaldine had almost no cavalry, except a small unit of mounted scouts (Guide a cavallo). 

For the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, I painted a medium artillery unit, to help fight those pesky red-shirts! Some mistakes were made in the uniforms, but I like the overall result, and will probably order a second unit to paint it correctly rather than correct this one.

All the miniatures are from a relatively new Italian manufacturer, Shako64, which produces an interesting and expanding range for the 1860-1861 campaign. They fit well with the existing Mirliton miniatures and with Perry miniatures size. I will post some comparison pictures another day. The miniatures are mostly painted with new Contrast paints, which I find a bit fiddly with Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic 19th-century type uniforms, but they are still pleasant to use.

Rebels and Patriots, first AAR

First game and first thoughts with Rebels and Patriots, Osprey Wargames last rules by Michael Leck and Daniel Mersey.

Rules took definitely a lot from Rampant mechanics, but most of all from Rampant mentality: they aim to provide a fast fun game, both cinematic and historically plausible, through reflecting the ebb and flow of the 18th to 19th century warfare without dealing with a lot of minutiae.

Quick insight: they succeed in giving me the feeling of being a company commander of the period, without sinking me in a lot of details to remember. 

If you're looking for a ruleset with lot of tables for different weapons this could not be your first choice, but probably you'll missing a lot of fun.

Since my Risorgimento miniatures aren't painted yet,  I used Franco painted 1/72 Napoleonic figures to test the rules. We deployed a French and a English company.

English 24 points

Line Infantry x2 @8 points

Light Infantry (Rifles) @6 points

Shock Infantry (Highlander) @6 points

Light Cavalry (Scot Greys scouting) @4 points

French 24 points

Line Infantry x2 @8 points

Light Infantry (Voltigeurs) @6 points

Light Infantry (Dragoons scouting) @4 points

Light Artillery @ 4 points

Skirmishers @2 points

English (commanded by Franco) used the terrain better: their cavalry hidden behind woods and charged against formed Voltigeurs. They inflicted a lot of casualties (4), but Voltigeurs didn't faltered and the following turn delivered a deadly volley against the cavalrymen, who ran away.

On the other side, French failed to cover decently their Dragoons behind the woods, taking some silly casualties from English Riflemen. French artillery was deployed over one hill, but failed to contribute in a significant way.

The battle revolved around the central hill, quickly occupied by the English infantry, but French failed at dislodging them. Franco was pretty aggressive, ordered his highlander to charge downhill (BTW being uphill only provide bonus during defense): they destroyed one French line infantry taking only light losses.

They engaged and badly hurted a second infantry unit the following turn, but this time they were repelled in disorder. At this points French Dragoons (hidden better behind the woods) took the moment and charged the Highlander routing them.

Despite this French were soon in such a bad array any more offensive was impossible for them. Luckily the game ended before the last two English unit (both without any significant loss) can reach them.

Probably a lot of mistakes was made, but a lot of fun was had too, overall the game flowed well (and I just read the rules once).

Some thoughts from the first game:

• Cavalry, even if light, charging formed infantry in good order may (if it can avoid being shot ) inflict heavy losses, nonetheless cavalry seems to be a one shot weapon against good order infantry, lacking staying power.
• It's very useful to place a lot terrain, particularly fence and other light covers and not just broken terrain and woods. This would help reducing shooting deadliness.
• Shock infantry may be very powerful in attack: combining first fire, charging, being in close  can bring the needed score to hit the enemy a 2+, pretty deadly!
• Morale tests influenced only by last action losses helps making unit less fragile and stay in game for more turns despite greater casualties rate from firing. I found the morale and order test well thought, overall.
• The game turn continuing after a failed activation has been a very welcomed news. So did the casual charge movement, very well integrated in the order system.
• The officer are more useful now, but I had like more Officers being separated from their "guard unit", since when inside infantry they're quite slow and looks more like sergeants than colonels, but just my opinion and shouldn't be too hard to house rule.

Eventually I think Dan and Michael succeed in create a ruleset easily adaptable to European theater from Seven Years War to French Prussian War, encopassing a lot of (to me) interesting conflicts. I'd resist the urge to buy lots and lots of miniatures! 

Great Expectactions 2019!

Happy new year!

A short post about expected club activities in 2019! New releases, new rulesets and an old ruleset coming back!

Rebels and Patriots

It's only a matter of weeks before the release of Rebels and Patriots, the new ruleset of Osprey Wargames series. I suggest you to follow Dalauppror's blog for latest news about it and previews of the mechanics.
Even if aimed at North American conflicts in 18th and 19th century I plan to use this ruleset for Italian Risorgimento, as stated in previous post I'm painting a Garibaldini army and Naepolitan army.

Heavy Gear

My mates Luca and Paolo started playing Heavy Gear (a sci-fi mecha based wargame) last year, here some pictures of their games. Maybe I'll post more in this blog in the future.

Lacquered Coffins

A totally new front for 2019: aerial warfare! We decided to give Lacquered Coffins a test. Alberto got some sample planes in 1/300 scale (we think the models are from Museum Miniatures)  and I'm going to paint them.  More on this blog soon!

Warfare in the Age of Reason

So after a new ruleset, back to an old one: after a long waiting this year we are going back to 18th century battlefields with Warfare in the Age of Reasons, using 3rd edition of the rules, published in 2016. Thanks to Luca's efforts we're gonna have an Austrian and a Prussian armies ready to fight over out tables!

Ordinary stuff

Of course we're gonna keep playing all the other things: Lion Rampant, Tercios and so on...

New project: Rebels and Patriots

Recently Dalauppror announced a new ruleset from Osprey Wargames based on the same mechanics of Lion Rampant, by Dan Mersey: "Rebels and Patriots", going to be released early 2019. The rules will adress the wars in North America from about American War of Indipendence to American Civil War at a large skirmish level, as Lion Rampant, Pikeman's Lament or TMWWBK. The temporal span covered by Rebels and Patriots is about 110 years. During this period some major changes in both technology and tactics occurred, but I believe Dan and Michel will be able to abstract a good Horse and Musket ruleset.

I'm not particularly keen on American Warfare, but considering the level of abraction of these rules, I'll definitively give them a try for Italian Wars of Indipendence (Risorgimento), since there was plenty of small clashes and few big battles.

I recently started collecting figures for that period, specifically Garibaldi's campaign of 1860 in Sicily, so expect more updates on this project in the next months! For the first time in my short wargamer's career, I aim to be able to play with a new ruleset at release day one!