10mm New Model General

The Loyal Edmonton Regiment's first taste of combat was the engagement 3 miles south of Piazza Armerina on July 16th, 1943. After having chased off the 2nd Battalion of the 104 Panzer Grenadier Regiment from that position, the Loyal Eddies were ready to advance on Piazza Armerina itself. Was it going to be heavily defended?  What was the enemies strength? Artillery fire from the Germans on the Canadian position was countered with counter battery fire and the German guns were silenced. By nightfall the Germans had vacated Piazza Armerina and the Eddies moved in. With 3rd Brigade pushing past the Eddies (who are with 2nd Brigade) in Piazza Armerina, the Eddies were able to take a bit of a breather before they were again called into action. Lieutentant Colonel R.M. Crowe and Major J.H.W. Pope - Commanding Officer and battalion second-in-command of The Royal Canadian Regiment, checking a map outside of Piazza Armerina on 17 Jul 1943. They were the only two RCR officers killed i...

An old friend of mine, who I haven't seen in a while, was able to come over to try his luck with Crossfire. We decided to play the 'Bocage' scenario from the 'Hit the Dirt' booklet for Crossfire. It's a great scenario as it covers hidden deployment, the use of snipers, off board mortars, tanks and anti-tank guns. Brian chose to play the British (I have no American miniatures) so I was the defending Germans. My view looking North towards the British edge of the map. My objective was to hold a line of sight on the road intersection by the time the clock ran out. Start time was 0600hrs game would end at 1100hrs, advancing 30 minutes on every role of 5+ on a D6. I had three advantages, hidden deployment, 2 minefields and 2 stretches of barbed wire.  The British advanced quickly on the West side of the road. Finding an open field (red chip) the Brit commander figured an ambush was imminent. He called up his Forward Observation Officers (FO) to give them a...

After the landings near Pachino on July 10th, 1943 the Second Canadian Brigade pushed North.  Canadians entering Modica  By noon on July 16th they were three miles south of Pianzza Armerina when a large explosion on the road halted their advance. At this point the Loyal Edmonton Regiment was in the lead. "C" Company had been riding on the sherman tanks of the Three Rivers Regiment in the vanguard. "C" Company dove for cover as they came under machine gun fire from the nearby slopes.  German MG position Brigadier J.C. Jefferson ordered "C" Company to take the slopes on the right side of the road and "A" Company was ordered to clear the left.  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Poor Bloody Infantry (PBI) game takes place with "A" Company attempting to clear the left side of the roadway.  Here are our initial deployments ...

Pianzza Armerina, July 16th, 1943  (a Poor Bloody Infantry tabletop wargame) “It was some kind of country… everything went uphill! We had to march on primitive cobble roads; when these ended it was only a simple track. We couldn’t have done it without mules; no room for transport inland; this bears what I have said before – anything we did in England did not, in the end, prepare us for this terrain or fighting, other than (of course) stamina.” Interview, Private Stanley Chettleborough, Nov, 1983 Brown, Shaun R.G., “The Loyal Edmonton Regiment at war, 1943-45” (1984), Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive), 11, http://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/11 With the success of the Husky landings on July 10th, the Canadian Second Brigade pushed North from the landing beaches near Pachino. By July 16th they were within three miles of Pianzza Armerina when machine gun fire and a large explosion on the road halted their advance. "C" Company of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment who were i...

I'm looking forward to 2020 and hope to get back into gaming. So I'll list a few of my projects and thoughts. I recently purchased Commands & Colors Ancients (looking at purchasing the Medieval one soon) and enjoyed the system. I do however want to try to adapt it to a square grid as opposed to a hexagonal grid. Why?   I like straight lines maybe?? I also purchased some blank blocks with plans to put on some medieval unit stickers I made from an old RPG game called Birthright. It was an AD&D Campaign setting which had cards with images for units so you could fight large scale battles. they still need some work. I also created some stickers for ancient rome so I could have some personalized Generals/Commanders. Anyone recognize the faces?? lol. Who will they be commanding? Blocks maybe or these 10mm romans I'm working on. planing to put these plebs on 40x30mm bases, two ranks to a base except for the command, I'll put three ranks. And of course...

Edmonton Wargamer's Group - December 17th - game night Rules: Crossfire Players:   Chen-song (British forces) and myself (German Fallschirmjagers) The game was an introductory game for Chen-song as he said he's heard about Crossfire but hasn't played it. I was thankful to run the game as I have to dust the cobwebs off my brain as I hadn't played Crossfire for a while. British launched an assault from the West upon the destroyed village of Ambreville with the objective to seize two of the three houses at the crossroads. Heavy hedgerows, forests and orchards provided cover for the infantry but were obstacles for the pair of sherman tanks that were to be used as support. First (Red) Company made a push to the south of the village. 1st platoon was immediately caught in some woods where they were pinned/suppressed by German MG42 fire. 2nd platoon was able to flank further to the South and brought some fire upon the entrenched Germans, killing a squad of Germans...