Italians vs Spanish & Portuguese

We had an opportunity to try out a new scenario I wrote.

The Spanish Guerrillas have taken advantage of French forces going on a "foraging" expedition to move in an occupy one of their gun batteries which lies on the line-of-march of an Allied force.

While they hold the position, an Orc exploring officer races off to get reinforcements and is returning with a unit of Goblins to bolster the defences.

Meanwhile the Baron Petrochemicoli's force of Todoroni -- a company of the elite Bella Manicotti regiment and a company of light infantry -- have been ordered to retake the position. Colonel D'Kless has decided to accompany the toads to "evaluate" how well they get on with using the muskets supplied to them. Petrochemicoli is, of course, offended by any suggestion that he isn't a truly great military leader...

Goblins marching as fast as their little legs will carry them!

Sophie advanced the shorty green goblins along the north side of the valley, with the intention of linking up with the Spanish. As Lorna advanced the confident 3rd Companie of the Bella Manicotti towards them, they carefully avoided engagement for as long as possible. It's what you expect from gobbos.

Toads, making use of ammunition to create noise and excitement...

Meanwhile the gloriously enthusiastic Light infantry advanced towards the gun positions, halted and emptied their weapons in good order while being peppered with erratic gunfire from the treacherous point-eared tanned ones hiding behind the gabions. Sadly, what the Light infantry makes up for in enthusiasm, it lacks in ability to actually hit anything.^[1]

The Spanish hide and shoot, shoot and hide..

The Spanish resistance (or "getters in the way of proper soldiering" as they're known) take minimal casualties from the toad gunfire, thanks in part to Chris' ability to repeatedly roll 9s on a D10. (Later on, it was much funnier watching him trying to roll a number between 1 and 5.. and having many, many, many tries..)

Singing like mad, the Operato stands behind the troops.
So that any thought of retreating will require the
consideration of getting closer to the singing.

The elites adopt a battle formation, usually referred to as "Everyone hide behind Fred". At this point things got really interesting. The goblins decided it was time for a small fight (if it's a large fight, they can't reach up that high) and shot a number of toads. Sometimes in the face, but quite often in the knees because they're closer if you're only four feet tall. The toads responded by shooting away at various targets -- most decisively the serious wounding of Hogan, the exploring officer (and the most powerful figure on the table) before he'd really had a chance to get involved in the fighting) -- and also plunking away at the north end of the Spanish defence line.

Two of the toads ran away, badly wounded, shouting "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" and would have left a trail of blood, except that the club won't let me put red substances on the green battlecloths.^[2]

The Manicotti turn the tide!

The rest of the nearby front line toads piled into the goblins, beating them about their heads with the butts of the expensive, ornate and delicate muskets so thoughtfully provided by our pale, blonde and very, very distant Imperial masters.

The other flank of toads leapt the defences and, outnumbering the disturbingly stabby Elves, started to roll up their line. (And were also slightly relieved to have some sturdy earth banking between them and the effective musketry of Sophie's goblins.)

The light infantry are having a breather in this photo just before executing plan "pile over the wall and kick people". The battle was soon after decided to be a casualty-heavy win for the Italians. The poor Spanish got several figures suffocated in toad-slime although the Goblins took relatively minimal casualties.


It would all have been so different if anyone.. anyone.. had remembered to bring cannon ammunition with them...



^[1]To say I own these percentage dice, they're surprisingly unloyal.
^[2]Paint, ketchup. Actual blood.