Casa del Priolo

Had the privilege today of playing a game of "I Ain't Been Shot Mum" on this beautiful table by Dan Albrecht. The scenario was Casa del Priolo, Sicily, 10 July, 1943. My partner Shane and I took on the role of the Italians, while Hunter Myers and his partner Jon played American paratroopers. 

Sicily, 1943

The Italians began the game in column along a road. The paratroopers began in hidden positions, though we highly suspected they'd be manning the pillbox and trenches on our left. Our mission: Move our tanks off the opposite end of the board.

Italian scouts lead the column.

The first turn opened with our lead scouts, mounted on motorbikes, getting hammered by off-board artillery. Apparently the Navy had zeroed in on the road ahead of time.

Artillery hammers the road.

To make matters worse, we stepped right into an ambush, with paratroopers firing from behind stone walls lining the road. One motorcycle squad made it through, one was destroyed outright, and the others were forced to dismount in order to return fire.

Bringing on the tanks.

To our left, we brought on our first tanks, which we advanced along the base of the hill. The Americans on that side stayed hidden.

Artillery and firefight.

A short firefight ensued on the road while artillery exploded around both sides. The paratroopers, having dealt out some death, moved back to a gully, giving them cover, and a route to the center of the board.

Infantry support arrives.

 

The road is nailed again.

We kept advancing our tanks, keeping an eye on the top of the hill. Our infantry, to their left, arrived by truck atop the hill. Dismounting, they attacked the end of the trench line. Upon entering the trench, they were immediately hit by the buzz saw of a hidden machine gun nest, quickly halting that advance.

 

The paratroop commanders strategizing.

On our right, the head of the column along the road collapsed, but we kept advancing. In the center, more truck mounted infantry arrived to support our tanks.

At about this point, my partner had to leave, so I was left to my own devices.

Fortification attack.

Thankfully, the artillery cleared a bit, or hit far enough away for a round or two to not cause issues for either side. I continued advancing the tanks and infantry below the hill, while the infantry along the ridge engaged the enemy. Some time around this point, a machine gun opened up from within the far pillbox, and paratroopers within the trench revealed themselves by opening up.

Moving the tanks.

Artillery in the distance.

 Responding to the new threat, the lead Italian tank engaged the pillbox, scoring hits with its machine gun. In a wonderfully cinematic moment, the infantry supporting the tanks leapt from their trucks, swarmed up the hill rifles blazing, and stormed the trenches, destroying a large number of the defenders and driving the rest away.

Dismount!

 

CHARGE!

Here, the paratroopers began to pull back, moving toward or into the gully on both sides. On the right, my motorcycle squad had dismounted and set up a machine gun, covering the end of the gully. My infantry on that side moved forward, following their opponents into the small ravine.

BOOM!

As we cleared the top of the hill and the rest of the fortifications, the tanks came to a halt. In the center a bazooka team had revealed itself, bouncing a shot off the lead machine's armor. We swung our turret to engage.

View from the gully.

 
More paratroopers began to reveal themselves, having been hunkered down in foxholes or taking cover in the gully. Along the road, my second set of tanks arrived. Just in time for the artillery to open up again. The bazooka fired again, scoring a direct hit, but, miraculously, I rolled a save of four 6s, saving the tank.

This never happens.

Though randomized by dice, the naval artillery had an uncanny ability to land right on my deployment zone. One of the fresh tanks was temporarily immobilized, while a truckload of fresh infantry was destroyed.

Around this time, we had hit the five hour mark and called the game. The paratroopers, whose actual win condition was to withdraw a number of their troops in good order, had begun to complete their task, with one squad only a couple of inches from the table edge. While my tanks were able to advance about halfway up the board, I wasn't able to flank the paratroopers like I had hoped. 

Trucks? Didn't we have trucks?

 

The naval bombardment, while dangerous for both armies, really did a number on both the opening and ending moves of the Italians. In the end, we decided that neither side really won, but neither lost either.

A very enjoyable and closely fought game.

The Season of Blood Bowl

Though I've still been working on historicals in my miniature hobby, and did attend a few more reenactments, most of this past season has been dedicated to the Games Workshop game, Blood Bowl.

Blood Bowl Game in Progress

After a board game day at the local game store, one of the guys and I got to talking.
"Remember that old game, Blood Bowl?" he asked.
"Yeah," I said, "I wonder if they sell that anymore?"

Turns out, they (Games Workshop) do.  The game, of course, has gone through some changes since it was originally released in 1984, but I was pretty excited to see that it was still in production.  I broke down and bought the "Second Season" starter set, and we convinced some other guys that hang out in the shop to start a small league.

The starter set came with two teams, Imperial Nobility (Humans), and Black Orks.  I opted to play the Orks, and painted them up in the colors of a local high school that closed down not too long ago.  Thus, the Black River Black Orks were born.

I started with the referee figures that came in the box set.  They don't get any use in the game, but they are a nice bit of flavor.

Elven Referee - Front

Elven Refree - Rear

Dwarven Referee - Front

Dwarven Referee - Rear

With the refs done, I moved onto the team's Star Player, Varag Ghoulchewer, who I nicknamed "Chulk" after a friend of mine who had attended Black River High School when we were teens.

"Chulk"

After Chulk, I worked on the Orks.  There were six, in total.  Big bruisers who worked great as tanks along the Line of Scrimmage.

Two Ork Blockers

After the Orks game the Goblins.

Goblin Linemen

And finally, to complete the team, a trained troll.  This is my least favorite of the miniatures, as it's really difficult to tell what's going on with the pose.  It unfortunately suffers from Games Workshop's habit of adding more and more and more to a sculpt, until it's so busy that it's hard to read.

Trained Troll and Goblin Tosser

For our first try, out local league started well.  We began the season with seven coaches, playing Black Orks, Skaven, Goblins, Chaos, Dark Elves, and Norse.  One coach, after his first game, had to drop out of the league due to scheduling conflicts.  Another had to drop out halfway through the season for personal reasons, leaving us with 5 teams to finish out the league.

Games played well, and we all had a great time.  Toward the end of the season, I put together a little diorama of Jim & Bob, the vampire and ogre sports commentators of the game's lore.  The miniatures are 3D prints from Ugni Miniatures, while the trophy is an original out-of-print mini that a friend of mine found in his stash.

Jim & Bob Watch the Finals

Congratulations to the Rutland Rats, a Skaven team, for taking the final and winning the championship game of our local league's first season.  For my part, I was in last place during the entire regular season, but was able to work my way up to 3rd place in the finals.  We're all very much looking forward to starting out 2nd season in January.

Skaven Players Celebrate their Win

Old Sturbridge Village 2022

 

Old Sturbridge Village Pastures

After a couple of years away, Gabriella and I made our way down to Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, MA for their annual Rebels & Redcoats event that took place on the first weekend of August.

Sturbridge is one of my favorite sites.  Though the museum portrays 1830, the village and surrounding area, with the exception of a couple of buildings, could easily have been lifted from 1770s New England.  In fact, when the Revolutionary War reenactors take over for the weekend, the museum staff look out of place in their stovepipe hats.

Our Weekend Home

Gab and I arrived Friday night, just as the sun was going down. In fact, we had just enough light to fill out our registration paperwork, but ended up erecting our tent in the dark.

The event was smaller this year than it had been in past years.  Both the British and American camps were set up on the village green, where usually there are camps in the village and in the surrounding pastures.

Trying to Stay Cool

Much of Saturday morning was spent attempting to stay cool, and training some new members of Warner's Regiment.  With a heat index of around 102 degrees F, and humidity of about 98%, our main concern was to stay hydrated, and not to succumb to heat stroke.  As such, when the Saturday afternoon battle rolled around, we took the field without our coats, choosing to fight in our shirtsleeves instead.  As it turns out, this was a good choice.  It was reported later in the day that, between reenactors and museum guests, there were at least 12 heat casualties.  For my part, I took a tree early in the battle, and cooled down in the shade while the rest of the unit crossed the open fields while fighting the British.  I wasn't the only one.  At one point an artillery officer came under the shade, looked at me and another gentleman, and said as he wiped his brow "I'm just going to stay here and 'Guard the prisoners.'"

Warner's Regiment during the Sunday Fight

Sunday was a bit better, but the heat was still above 100 degrees.  We again took the field without our regimentals, which seemed to cause a bit of confusion for our adversaries.  First, they are used to seeing us in green faced-red coats, and usually on the flanks of the main army.  On Sunday, we not only went out of uniform, we were also held in reserve after the initial attack.  As such, at a couple of points, we watched the Brits send units to their flanks, looking for us.  Not finding Warner's, the Brits focused on the main American line, at which time we were called up.  To attack the flank.

Overall, a great, though super hot weekend.  Ice cream, cooling fans, and an air-conditioned tavern were welcome, if not period correct, relief from the literally blistering heat.  Old Sturbridge Village is a wonderful host site, and well worth the visit.

18th Century Me

Taking a Tree for Some Shade

Photos by Sierra Skye Makaris and Birget Loveall