Italy 1859

Set during the Second Italian war of Independence.

Garibaldi's Red Shirts are on the attack .

Also present is a Neapolitan Army and an army from the Papal States.

A very even battle with both sides looking like they would take the honours. In the end I think the Red Shirts morale broke just before their enemies morale collapsed.

Terrain and figures from Adrian's 15mm collection.

The rules were Volley and Bayonet.

Walmington-on-Sea under attack.

A couple of weeks ago the Southern Strategists got together for a Dads Army game.

This was much the same game as some of us played about the middle of last year.
The terrain setup was differently but the game was pretty much the same.

In short a German bomber had been crippled while on a bombing raid. Trying to limp back to Germany became impossible and the crew had to ditch their plane in some fields. Also on board was a high ranking German general on a very important spying mission.

With such an important man on board the Germans sent in their best group of fallschirmjager to assist him in escaping capture by the British.

The two German groups had to first link up and then split up if they wished. Their objective is to get the General off the opposite table edge.

The British players started the game thinking all they had to do was round up a few German airmen  that had been shot down.

The Germans were allowed to swap the General for a crewman until they were at a point were the British would be able to recognise him as a General when they would have to reveal him for what he is.

The battlefield.

The crashed bomber was the starting point for the aircrew.

This peaceful scene is about to be destroyed.

Walmington-on-Sea.

Hodges and Mainwaring with news of a bomber gone down.

Hodges tells the Reverend and the verger "It went down over there"

 Mainwaring along with Jones and Godfrey takes a patrol out from town to look for the Germans.

 He also sends Wilson and Pike off with a few more men. Frazer and Walker had already gone ahead to scout the Germans.

 Frazer and a friend spot some Germans. The local police are also on hand to help.

 Walker and friend (right hand side) start shooting at their enemy resulting in a large amount of return fire leaving Walker wounded. Wilson's group ( in the foreground) also get in on the act.

 Mainwaring takes his group through the trees and engages the enemy.

 By now the British have learned that there are more Germans than they thought and that they have split up into groups.

A group of Germans take on Frazer and his friend before the police arrive.

 Frazer and his friend take on a group of Germans but it's bad news. Frazer is badly wounded and his friend is killed.

The police rush over to the sound of gun fire.

Wilson is seriously wounded and out of the game. This leaves Pike in charge of this little lot.

Corporal Jones encourages the Lewis team to set up and take on the Germans.

A wounded Walker makes his way back to town.

After the fire fight with Wilson and Pike's men, the middle German group are reduced to just two men.

Another group of Germans sneak along using the hedges and trees as cover.

Jones and Mainwaring bring their remaining men back to the town and set up to prevent any Germans getting into Walmington-on-Sea.

With one German group held up by Mainwaring on one flank and what is left of the centre group trading shots with Pike and co in the middle the third group dash past the police and get off the table. In that final dash they also reveal that the wounded crewman is the General. Victory to the Germans.

Wilson, Walker and Frazer were all seriously wounded. Godfrey was on hand as a medic but in the end he didn't help anyone as he too was lightly wounded early in the game and never recovered.

The rules used are a free set called Rugged Adventures. excellent for this scale of game.

This was the third time some of us have played this game. In the first game the General was seriously wounded just one move from the table edge and victory. In the second ( the Friday night practice game) he was not so lucky and took a bullet when he was about half way across the table. And then in this game he made safely across the table and away, back to Germany.