Italians in Russia, 1942

Fancied a change from the 19th century so I dug out my WWII collection and revisited a scenario we last played a decade ago: "l'ultima carica", the last cavalry charge, carried out by the Italians in Russia in 1942. The charge was by a regiment, but the game covers the larger action by roughly one Italian composite division vs three smaller Soviet rifle divisions and a tank brigade. I'll get straight into the action with photos: a few scene-setters, then two or three each for the first and second phases, and a climactic one.

The mighty Italian armour! On this sector the Italians had a battalion of Semovente 47/32 and a few L6/40 light tanks, backed up by Bersaglieri motorcyclists. Tanks are Heroics & Ros from my collection. Bersaglieri by Dave W.

It's a big battlefield, 36km x 24km, and the game covers several days of action. It's pretty flat country. The hills are gentle rises. The green patches are balkas: steep-sided ravines with woods and villages in them. Soviets have crossed the Don at north table edge and are exploiting south. Italians are a mix of remnants from the river defence, plus reinforcements rushed up, and are trying to counterattack and shore up the line. White counters indicate Objectives: the line of hills across the centre of the table, and the two main villages in the balkas in the foreground.

Soviets have three rifle divisions: 197th top left, 203rd top centre, 14th Guards top right backed up by 652nd Tank Brigade. Against these four formations, the Italians have three: "Yagodniy Group" around the lefthand village, "Chebotarevskiy Group" around the right, and a Bersaglieri battlegroup moving up to plug the gap in the centre.

View from the Italian left, where the Semoventes are approaching to support Yagodniy. The 197th (top centre) is ignoring the solid Italian line on the hill in front of Yagodniy and has shifted across to help the 203rd (top right) contest the central hills against the Bersaglieri.

Lots of bloody and confused action in the central sector, including an overrun attack by the fearsome L6/40s. 100mm howitzers add beef.

Chebotarevskiy sector was quiet initially while the Soviets focused on tidying up the remnants of the CCNN "Tagliamento" Legion on the hill top left. These were dug in so they resisted the Soviet armour for a surprisingly long time.

The valiant CCNN blackshirts being assailed by mixed battalions of T34s, T26s, and Lend-Lease American tanks. 14th Guards divisional artillery trotting up in the background.

Mid-game: Soviets have finally cleared the blackshirts off their hill. The tanks and the Guards Rifles can now combine to attack the tough Italian position around Chebotarevskiy.

In the central sector, 197th and 203rd Rifle Divs have driven back the Bersaglieri with loss.

My Soviet infantry are from Irregular Miniatures. (I think this range is currently out of production but hopefully back soon.) I do like my command stands keeping the red flag flying.

The Italian Yagodniy group HQ musters its reserves to head off and try to help the Bersaglieri. The unit in the foreground is XV Guastatori assault engineers. Their flamethrowers and the Semoventes will wreck the 197th, which has already taken losses against the Bersaglieri.

The climactic assault: tanks and SMG shock troops converge on the Savoia dragoons in Chebotarevskiy. If the Soviets can take this, they will have enough Objectives for victory.

The weight of Soviet numbers and fire would have been too much for the Italian cavalry, except that Mark had a wild card up his sleeve (each side got dealt an event card each turn, to use as and when they wished). This let him re-roll their saving roll, needing 3 or less on D10, and they squeaked it.

Reflections.

Brain Pain. The luxury of playing BBB roughly every other week for 15 years is that we all know the rules backwards and can concentrate on strategy and tactics. We forget how hard it can be to wrestle with unfamiliar rules. My brain hurts!

Rediscovering WWII. But the brain pain was worth it. WWII is up there with the late 19th Century as my two favourite wargaming periods. In both, the trinity of infantry-cavalry/armour-artillery is in reasonable balance and the battles can offer a lot of maneuver, which is what generates decisions and makes games interesting. We all enjoyed the game enough to persevere with the rules. I expect I'll knock up a better QR sheet, refurbish some old scenarios and work up some new ones, and get more WWII on the table occasionally from now on.

Tatty Old Troops. In this and a couple of other recent games, I've had to improvise by putting figures on my old card sabots. If this WWII ruleset sticks (and it looks like it will), at some point I ought to get round to actually basing the tanks and troops properly for it. Likewise the ACW collection I inherited from a friend. Decent bases make a difference both aesthetically and functionally.