Jackson Gamers' Axis & Allies miniatures game

Jackson Gamers' Axis & Allies Miniatures Game
Blood in Italy

This was our third "big Club" game with 9 players and a 6' x 6' table played at HOBBYTOWN in Flowood MS on Oct 21, 2006. Few of the players had retained andy memory of basic tactics for Axis & Allies. The game was set in Italy with American, British Canadian and Free French units attacking a hilly position defended by German and Italian units. Text by Jay Stribling unless otherwise noted.

Photo and Commentary by Jim Pitts

Three American Shermans advance towards the German positions. The center Sherman has already taken a hit. Hiding behind a building in the lower left is one of the defending German Pz IVs and concealed in the woods is a German Hetzer SPATG.

Photo and Commentary by Jim Pitts

Two of the Shermans are now bogged down in the stream, presenting lucrative targets to the two Pz IVs and the Puma armored car. Another Hetzer can be seen on the hill beside the maroon colored building. The third Sherman made it across the stream and into the woods, destroying the Hetzer there before it could get off another shot. In the background are more American tanks making their way towards the single bridge over the stream.

Photo and Commentary by Jim Pitts

British tanks assault a patch of woods on the Axis left flank held by Italian Black Shirts and infantry, supported by some Italian "tanks" (if a two-man tracked vehicle can realistically be called a tank) and also by a German Pz V crewed by SS panzertruppen.

The red square in the center of the woods outlines a position held by British "Red Devils." These were parachutists who had infiltrated that position in the darkness before the game started. Discoverd by the Italians on turn 2, they occupied almost all of the attention of the Italian troops who were defending the left flank of the Axis postion. After a game-long struggle, the Italian blackshirts finally killed or captured all but one of the "Red Devils." The cost to the Italians was so great that most of them left the field exhausted from their struggle in the woods with the parachutests. This commentary was written by the fearless commander of the Italians, Jay Stribling.

Photo by and Commentary Jim Pitts

The opposite air forces make it into action. In the middle ground a British Typhoon is being pursued by a Focke-Wulfe, while in the background a Me 109 and a Spitfire tangle over some Canadian tanks. The colored rings indicate a "hit" on the planes.

Photo by and Commentary Jim Pitts

Action increases in the center as a German Marder fires at an American Pershing tank (with a yellow disrupted ring around its barrel. Various burning vehicles can dimly be seen in the woods, including a German Hetzer and an American M-10 tank destroyer that strayed too close to a German panzer shrek.

Photo by and Commentary Jim Pitts

A closer shot of the dog fight between the Me 109 and the Spitfire. Both did minor damage to the other before they went whizzing past each other. The burning tank by the stream is a Sherman equipped with a flotation collar. It didn't have any trouble with the stream, but a German Panther tank brewed it up.

Photo by and Commentary Jim Pitts

The British Typhoon destroys the German Nashorn with rocket fire, thusly meeting the Allies main victory condition, in spite of anti air fire from a pair of German Wirbelwinds.