Finally Fielded

The first outing for my newly nearly finished Italo-Abyssinian War figures (For the First War in the 1890's not the pre-WW2 Second War).

15mm based for Principles of War, mixture of Irregular (bulk of the Abyssinians), Tin Soldier UK (Most of the Italians and leaders on both sides) with a few Essex thrown in. A simple straight up fight. Order of Battles were based on the lists in the PoW Colonial supplement.

From Furness Wargamers in the Colonies

Using the hidden maneuver base for the initial Abyssinian deployment and moves, including a couple of dummy bases, Alan managed to get his units close to the enemy using strategic moves. The inability of the Italians to spot anything helped the natives carry out their deception and force an overload on the Italians right flank.

The Italian right had moved itself onto a ridge where its artillery could open up on the advancing hordes. The Abyssinian artillery set itself up on an opposing outcrop, and a rather weak artillery duel commenced, while the forces approached to with charge range.

The two elite Besaglieri (Sharpshooter) units were taking on an Abyssinian command almost single-handedly on the Italians left flank and were pushing deep across the board, as the Abyssinians fell back in front of it.



In the centre the elite Imperial Guard remained stationary and taking flanking fire as the Negus transferred the majority of his PIPs to the command in front to get enough of them to charge in or to remove shaken results.

The Italian Right collapsed after the Abyssinian Cavalry finally hit, but they had valiantly held out for three rounds of close combat before finally breaking. With no reserves available to stop them the Abyssinian cavalry now gaining unfettered access to the Italian rear, the position of the colonial invaders looked untenable.

This game went better than I expected. Had thought that the Italians might overwhelm the Abbysinians, as I had substituted out the Native contingents for Italian Regulars. Alan certainly enjoyed smashing the colonials. Could of done with a crib sheet of the move sequence and other options and I had forgotten to bring any 'fired' and 'shaken' markers, had planed on using the bullet and heart counters from the Zombie range of boardgames.
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