Memoir in Sicily

Bruce dropped by today for some holiday gaming so I pulled together two Memoir 44 scenarios in order to my 1/72-scale figures on the table. I found two Sicily scenarios on the web and started putting together the armies. To my amazement, I didn't have enough Canadian tanks!

I found four diecast Shermans that Tim had sent me and quickly primed and painted them. After I applied the matt sealer, I noticed all four started to get a crackled finish. I've never seen this before. About the only explanation I can come up with was that I didn't let the primer cure adequately. I'll need to do some more washing to try and dull that down some.

The first scenario we played was Regulato: The Canadians must take the town and the Germans need to get off the board to the west (left). Bruce's attack was devastating and things quickly got desperate for the Germans. I think Bruce won 6-0? It was bad.

We switched sides and Bruce played a lovely holding action. He sacrificed his tanks  to tie up the Canadians while shuttling his infantry off the exit point. The Canadians managed to eke out  a 6-5 win. Note the model railroad quality road net I put together...

The second game Leonforte and Assoro. The neat thing about the scenario was the key objectives for the Canadian were on the left and right flanks. The board was also bisected (left to right) by a river which funnelled the attacks onto the two bridges that lead into the towns.

Bruce had a heck of a time as the Canadians. First, an Italian tank rampaged on his west flank which pretty much forced him to play on the east side of the board. On the east side he got mauled badly trying to push an attack across the bridge. Not his fault--there wasn't much he could do but keep feeding troops in. Eventually the body count gave the game to the Germans.

We switched sides. On my west, the light tank took a pounding from Bruce's spoiling attack.  Not sure what the figure to the right of the tank is doing ("Barnetson's in charge? I'm out."). I was okay with the west flank bogging down as I intended to push the right.

I ran into the same issues Bruce did in terms of a killing zone, but I managed to get enough tactics cards put together (firefight, armoured attack, armoured attack, and one other) to get over the water and rampage with my tanks. It was a close game.

Up next: I have the club on Tuesday and I might bring out a Memoir game. Maybe an early war game? I also have some Battlelore figures that I am painting.