Reenacting the Polish Army 1939

This morning I attended an annual reenactment gathering in Madrid organised by Poland First to Fight group. The weather was not very helpful and I found a lower attendance than in previous years; but the reenactors put a brave face to this cloudy and grey morning and made a moving homage to the fallen, attended by top representatives of the Polish embassy in Spain and many Polish expatriates currently living in Spain.

As very recently TFL has released the Chain of Command lists for Poland 1939,  this photo report may result of interest for those painting Polish army minis.

Being social...

I saw it coming... I could not stay longer alone, in the shadows... I felt the need to be more social... after all, I've been doing it for over a year for professional reasons... why not in my honny dimension too? ...The tipping point was when I read Mike Whitaker's post.... Decision taken!

Yes, Anibal Invictus goes Twitter and has a new account @AnibalInvic    

Not yet clear what my publishing policy will be.  In principle I'll be less active and more passive:
Of course, I'll tweet my blog's posts, but there's a zillion of potential interesting sources that I'd like to tapper, test and eventually decide if I drop or not, depending on how useful I find them for my purposes. In the meantime, you are kindly welcome to sign-in as a follower. 

Chain of Command BEF 1940 Army List

And the third list today! The BEF 1940 Army List has been released this afternoon. You can download the pdf here

Summarising, in addition to the lists published in the Chain of Command book, we have now the following armies available from TooFatLardies:

• Poland 1939  http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1778
• Germany 1939  http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1791
• Red Army 1939-1940  http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1801
• Finland for the Winter War http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1813
• France 1940 http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1823
• Germany 1940 http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1832
• BEF 1940 http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1840

Chain of Command German 1940 Army Lists

No rest for Richard Clarke on Sunday! Hot from the press the German 1940 army list has just been released, to play against the French, Low Countries and Belgium armies.
Available here.

Chain of Command French Army of 1940 Lists

The release of new army lists continues at good pace. Now, the early war French Army lists to play the clasical Blitzkrieg era encounters is avaliable here. According to a post in the TFL Yahoo Group, BEF and specific German Army lists should be available during the weekend (...cross fingers).

NOTE: Notice that the FOO directing a  81mm  battery is repeated twice in support List Three. Have been confirmed by TFL that this is a mistake and the list should include the 81mm but also a 60mm mortar fire team to be deployed on the table. An amended version will be published in due time.

Chain of Command Finnish Army Lists

TooFatLardies has just released a new army list: time for the Finnish and the epic struggle against the Russian Bear in the Winder War. Together with the army lists you'll find a very interesting tactical notes 5-pager written based on contemporary sources by Nordic Lardite Ville Savin. You can download the materials here 

In the meantime, Baker Company has decided to lighten our wallets launching a most interesting Winter War Kickstarter project. Details here 

Chain of Command Early War Red Army Lists

TooFatLardies has released the official list for early war Red Army covering the period before Operation Barbarossa, suitable to play the invasion of Poland, the Winter War and the far east campaigns. As usual it includes infantry TOEs, weapon tables and support lists. If I'm not wrong this is the third official list supplied since the release of Chain of Command on August 21st.

Italians in Russia: The Forgotten Army

Fellow blogger and wargamer Chris Stoesen from Wargamer's Odds and Ends has publised a few days ago a scenario book called "In the Name of Roma" covering in 30 scenarios and 6 campaigns the trip to hell of the 80º Infantry Roma Regiment of the Pasubio Division, part of the Italian Corps in Russia (CSIR).

So, what? Well, I've been following with growing interest Chris' progress of the booklet through his blogs posts but on Saturday night I had the opportunity to start reading the 200+ pages of the final work... and could not stop until finished. I was confronted by one of the most fascinating and dramatic  war stories that I've read since a long time ago: from the story of the first killed in action to the desperate fights in December 1941 surrounded by overwhelming Russian forces.

The background of the Italian involvement in the Eastern Front is the desire of Moussilini to have a share in the spoils of a sure victory against the Soviet Union in 1941. Without regards for the lack of training, supplies or material to sustain a likely long campaign, he organised and sent  a corps of over 59,000 men along with other allies of the German Army. Note that at its height there were close to 235,000 Italians fighting in the Eastern Front, of which over 65,000 were reported killed (including prisiones in Soviet camps) and many more thousands were reported MIAs.

Chain of Command: Early German 1939 Lists

TooFat Lardies has released the Early German Army lists for Chain of Command, available at is blog page. The list include those early panzers and armoured carriers in the support lists that i really like to play. As a remainder, the Polish Army lists were released just a few days ago, time to put some  blitzkrieg games on the table