33rd Battle of the Isonzo - part 1

 The earlier, 32nd battle (see here and many other posts), was a fun game to run and play.  Having added to my Italian forces last year, another visit to this front seemed timely.  Thus it was that a few of us gathered to wonder at my latest creation - an even bigger tabletop mountain!

The Italian starting positions are in some or all of the woods nearest the camera, The Austrians are atop the alp.

Italian Brigade HQ admiring it's quarters.

All the old favourites were here - the Italian soup kitchen.....

...and the Austrian senior officers' latrine!

Having set up and issued briefings, the next step was some air recce...

...the Italians found what they were pretty sure was a mountain...

...while their opposite numbers were able to hazard a guess that an attack was imminent.  Well done chaps.

The Italian heavy artillery batteries firing from off table.  Or another table.

This was the debut outing of a rather lovely FIAT lorry.

Meanwhile, uphill, the Austrian gunners sneak forward a mountain battery.  What a rotten trick!

The opening bombardment.  I made both sides' gunners fire blind- the Austrians from behind the mountain and the Italians from behind a screen.  The results were entertainingly erratic.

A commanding position!