The Invasion of Sicily 1860 - or How to Kill off Garibaldi .

I decided to set up a game to play with my newly painted toys , it was to be an meeting engagement between the invading force of Garibaldi and his 'Thousand' and a force of Neapolitans sent to intercept them . The Garibaldini will come on at the point marked with the red arrow and the Neapolitans the white one . I took the part of Garibaldi (well I have a beard - and a red tee shirt !) and 'A'  took control of the Neapolitans .

The forces moved quickly down the road and Garibaldi deployed his Sicilian skirmishers and then a series of failed command rolls meant they would not leave the shelter of the stream bed . 'A' started to move aggressively down the road .

Although the Neapolitans had a poorer command system they got lucky and deployed into line and brought their artillery up to support it .

Trying to save the situation Garibaldi called on the first Battalion of Redshirts to follow him and charged the enemy line - in a protracted melee they lost heavily and I managed to get Garibaldi killed ! - sigh ! - it went down hill from then on .......

To make things worse the next Redshirt unit was shot to pieces as it tried to cross the bridge  and its Commanding Officer was killed as well .

The Sicilians finally move forwards and halt further Neapolitan advances - but it was to late !.

A Neapolitan eye view of the conflict .

The Author removes yet move of his troops to the 'Great Filing Box in the Sky' , 'A' took great glee in handling the camera at this point ! .

The Blogger puts a brave face on it !. Well a disastrous day for the Unification of Italy - but a good wargame ! , the 'Black Powder' rules worked well and the game was played in about 2 hours . I believe Garibaldi was only wounded and is now trying to muster his depleted forces to have another go at the Neapolitan oppressors .