Secret Santa,

Santa did come to town...
    and I must have been really good.

Well done Chris in running the Secret Santa program. I received from Santa some serious support for my 1939 Poles. This will also move Poland up to the front of the queue as my current Poles are painted as the infantry for the 10th Cavalry Brigade (Mechanized), so I need to paint up regular infantry and National Guard troops. But first I need to order some.

These support options give me BARs, machine guns, motors and the UR Wz.35 anti-tank rifles. This was an over the top present. Thank you Santa and thank you Chris.

A Gaming Santa

Well I have taken up the task to paint for a secret Santa project and after some research and a lot of hustle I have completed the project and it will go out in the post this week. I do hope the little boy or girl that receives this will be please and I am sure all of this figures will shoot true.

Thank you Chris for organizing this.
I hope everyone has a lovely holiday.

Secret Santa 2016

Santa's elves discussing the need for more primer and paints.

I hope all of Chris's Christmas Elves are hard at work painting for all of the good little boys and girls. I for one finished mine off last night.

As we in the United States are about to start the holiday I hope you can all take the time to enjoy the season with friends and family. Best wishes to one and all.

In the Name of Roma

Fellow Lardy Chris Stoesen wrote In the Name of Roma as a supplement for I Ain’t Been Shot Mum, Troops Weapons and Tactics and Chain of Command. All I can say is this is so much more than a wargaming supplement. It tells the early campaign history of the Italian forces in Russia in great detail. While I have read a much about the Russian Front the Italians part in the campaign is an area that I knew little of outside of the Stalingrad campaign. This supplement fills a large gap in my knowledge of the campaign and has me looking for more. Thank fully Chris offers that "more".

This eBook is broken down into several blocks. There is one that covers the history of the 1941 campaign for the Italians in general and the 80o Roma Infantry Regiment in particular. Order of Battle and gaming materials are next followed by the six campaigns and 30 scenarios. While this is a TOOFATLardy supplement, it is easily used for any platoon or company level game system.

Chris Stoesen covers the units and the order of battle in great detail. We read of the L3/33 being used successfully against Soviet infantry and their T37 tankettes. There are games were the Italians are using their Legion (CCNN), Bersaglieri or Esploratori platoons. All interesting and colorful units in both the history and for the table top.

There is the struggle on the Italian side of using their limited transport capabilities (often civilian vehicles) to move their battalions around. Logistics being almost more of an obstacle for the Italian Corps in Russia (CSIR) than the Soviet troops. These troops were promised both a short campaign and logistics from the Germans. They received neither.

With six campaigns and game aids any arm chair historian or wargamer will find this meaningful reading. At 285 pages there is a lot of meat here. The bibliography alone is worth the price of this eBook. I hope Chris Stoesen will continue to write such insightful supplements.

Latest Addition to the Zoo

I have added to my animal farm having finished up this morning two Panthers and a Stug courtesy of a contest held by Chris Stoesen last September. I am a slow painter at times. Thank you Chris, I hope you like the results.

These goodies will be seeing action both in Normandy as well as the streets of Berlin in 1945.  The Berlin reference comes from “Mohnke business at Berlin Zoo” in the recent article in Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy. I am a big fan of WSS and it is one of the few gaming magazines I subscribe to. It is well balanced in its coverage even in theme issues. This gem, “Mohnke business at Berlin Zoo” is a great example of balance in an issue that covered a theme dealing with the conquest of the New World.

And the Winner is…Me!

I want to give a shout out to Chris Stoesen of Wargamer’s Odds and Ends fame. A little while back he was running a number of contests on his blog and I took the time to answer the questions fully by looking through his older blog posts.  

I enjoys especially the post An Early Christmas: Expansion of the Italian Navy Porto Corsini, but than again I was a sailor and I am always drawn by sharp looking ships.

Oh, back to the contest, I won. So two days ago a rather heavy package arrived containing two panthers, four Marmon Herrington III, two Soviet 76mm IGs and a Stug III. My late war Germans are very happy.

So thank you very much Chris. All will be put to effective use, including the Marmon Herrington III. I found out they were used by the Rhodesians until the late 70s.

Thank you again Chris.

Here are the prizes.