Tag: sicily 1860

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Book Reviews wargaming

Sicilian Interlude

I bought Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy No.118 for January/February 2022.

My magazine buying is haphazard – appropriate for the erratic in me.

This edition certainly caught my eye, enough to part with £5.50 – around the cost of a small 1/72 tank kit.

Sicily for some strange reason has become the epicentre of my wargaming interests.

Originally it was just Romans versus Carthaginians.

Then Renaissance interest emerged albeit in the context of mainland Italy and Spanish/Aragon influence.

Both of these interests have failed to come to fruition.

Then the Normans arrived and I headed south with them – Roger of Sicily beckoned. Except that dragged me back to Normandy/England and the Scandanavians.

A trip to Palermo helped maintain Sicilian interest though.

Byzantine wall painting fused with Arabic wood carved ceilings encased in heroic Norman structures – a legacy of Roger of Sicily
Baroque Sicily was a significant player in the mediterranean
Ever the great market place – a crossroads on the sea
Norman grandeur to be found in the suburbs of Palermo
A bronze helmet from the pre christian Greek era of influence
The baroque gate facing the old port beyond. it manage to survive the WW2 allied bombing of dogged german defence of this old city. Even today some built up areas areas are still simply cleared ground – old plots awaiting a new life 80 years later

However the Normans in the South project stalled at the end of 2020 as Garibaldi hove into view.

Garibaldi has taken me to the Island again in my 2021 project – the Wars of Italian Unification.

Neapolitan Cacciatori elite light infantry from 1859 – Garibaldi did not have it all his own way.
Regular Piedmontese by “lucky Toys are in some cases touching 28mm and come multi pose “ish”. They stayed out of Sicily but headed south when Garibaldi was getting to much hero worship.
A collection of units from the Army of the South 1860 – lucky toys again large 25mm 1/72 figures ripe for skirmish actions
My essential troops for 1848 – Austrians wearing the transitional uniforms that make them look less Napoleonic yet fighting much the same way – except of course in 1848 the troops still wore shakos, breeches and tailed coatees with turnbacks. this new style only really arrived in 1850 and by 1859 was already dated!

Garibaldi and the Unification Wars project is currently stalled as well.

Now my Fauxterre projects around the interwar 1930’s era hover over the western mediterranean as inspiration for an imaginations campaign.

So the magazine promised me much. And yes it was a good buy.

My Key Connections were

  • Miniature Reviews – Butlers Printed Models H39 and Lorraine 38L VBCP for Fauxterre 1930+
  • Lundehogda 1940 – a Norwegian campaign scenario that looks adaptable to use for Fauxterre 1930+
  • Stepping Stone to Europe article – all about Sicily and its strategic geographic position – touching on Greeks, Normans, even Austrians (1859 in Neapolitan Lands?), Garibaldi and Operation Husky (1943)
  • The very last “Desperta Ferro” – although 1300 era (so a bit late for my Normans in the South project) were dragging my thoughts back to medieval Italy and Sicily and some glorious castles I had seen watching the pro cycling – Giro d’Italia.
  • Spedizione Dei Mille Garibaldi 1860 – One of the actions that propelled me into reading more about Garibaldi……
Irregular Neapolitans ready to fight the Garibaldini reviewed by Guy Bowers in WSaS108, however I have them looking vaguely like French 1848 Line Infantry fighting? you guessed it Garibaldi – this time in Rome…….
  • the section “An Offer you can’t refuse” – figure choices – amongst the 28 mm and 15mm usual suspects, Irregular Miniatures Garibaldi figures in 20mm get a mention…….
The irregular 20mm Garibaldini reviewed by Guy Bowers in WSaS108 – in COLOUR
Garibaldi – The man himself from unloved “lucky toys” where 1/72 stretches to 28mm on occasion !!!!
  • Carving out an Island Kingdom – back to Roger of Sicily and his multicultural Kingdom – a quick one pager about this amazing character.
  • This thing of ours – Chris Breese – writing about our hobby and who might join us. I actually met Chris at Fiasco in 2021 by his fantastic display. Great communicator and unlike me able to deliver his vision of Stoke Field 1487 – a late late show in the Wars of the Roses complete with Irish and German interests.
  • I failed to take a pic but did get one of the equally grand rennaissance demo next door…….

My discards were minimal out of 21 articles. Excellent work by the editor Guy Bowers.

Of the other articles I learnt some new ideas from those on figure conversion and scratch built walling.

Street fighting the Punic Wars or Gangs of Rome go south, looks good visually while Assault on Johnny 1 was a nice scenario for the parachutists amongst us.

The features section included

  • Killing Yamamoto – interesting but not my thing
  • Defend the King – again interesting and contemporary with Norman/Saxons/Viking wars so very enjoyable
My converted 1/72 Normans in the South – shields on left straight lift from osprey of a certain family.
Been there done that – 28mm Vikings by Garrison circa 1977 – they were shown the door by the hobby at the time……………
  • Guardian of the Shrine – Napoleonic Zombies – must be very compelling but again not my thing – well the zombies bit anyway
  • Six steps to Naploeonics was an ok read but seemed to side step the material problems with the demise of the 15mm metal market segment, no mention of 6mm and the rise of 28mm – it seemed to keep taking you towards bigger battles with large 25mm and out of most peoples budgets. Its sister article about Warlord Epic Battles – bulk plastic 15mm units did not get a link but seems complimentary?
Back end Napoleonics 1848 Austrians are still visibly of that era, handling the same smoothbores.
The 1st War of Unification ended in 1849 with an Austrian Triumph, ten years later the styles are bleeding over to ACW era – kepis all the way. In this case some English Legion Volunteers who served Garibaldi’s Southern Army.

So this particular edition was actually packed with interesting material. I don’t read just what I prefer – often periods or rules I don’t do give me ideas, that can be transferred. At the end of the day its all wargames in some way or other.

happy reading

In my 2021 year end post this model theatre appeared and originates from Palermo and celebrates the history of puppet theatre – wargames stories in another mode?

Categories
1/72 scale figures 20/25/28mm figures Mid 19th Century Wargaming miniatures painting wargaming

The Painting Pedestal: Brigata Dunne

Gabriele Esposito has written a fine Osprey about the Italian Wars of Unification. In fact he has two: Part 1 covering Sardinia/Piedmont plus the two Sicilies while part 2 covers Papal States, Minor States and Volunteers.

They are Men-at-Arms series Nos 512 ansd 520.

This quartet of Ospreys are excellent resources for Italian Wars of Unification.

This particular unit is based for my preferred rulesets by Neil Thomas and Piquet Field of Battle.

With only 12 figures for a battalion they may not be to some people’s liking. Equally they are 1/72 and plastic so 28mm metal fans will have no joy here.

I am quite taken with MAA 520 because it is not just the colour plates that offer so much opportunity and variety. Often in the past Ospreys offered little on uniforms beyond the text for the plates – much of the other text dwelling on potted histories and organisation. These MAA’s offer lots of uniform detail. The black and white plates are very relevant (not always the case in Ospreys), well chosen and in the case of volunteers lots of choice.

I have discovered that there was an English battalion of volunteers in the Sicily campaign of 1860 during the Second War of Unification. It was followed by an English Legion which saw no action. They were all part of the Brigade or Brigata named Dunne after its English Commander.

Plate H1 showing an english volunteer of Brigata Dunne also figures on the front cover of MAA 520.

I used Strelets 1877 Russians in summer dress as they offered the nearest thing to this figure in my view. You might say – well there are plenty of ACW figures that would fill the gap. Well I did look and somehow none looked the part when compared with Strelets 1877 Russians.

Plastic Solder Review complained about the missing bayonets which applies here as well.

I can live with that – 1/72 plastics is often about compromise. I am pleased with the result. In this case Guiseppe Ravas’ illustration made the job easy.