From NoelW: Hawkin’s Hill: The Italian Job (143 points)

We can see the Snowlord’s Peak in the distance as night falls. It’s so dark we can’t see our intentions in front of our faces. But we know as long as we’re travelling up hill, we’ll have reached the peak by daylight. So we bend our backs and plod wearily on.

Surprisingly, the mountain is neither as steep nor as arduous as we’d imagined. Clearly our many struggles in the mysteriously varied terrain of this island has left us fitter than we thought we were, and we're patting ourselves on our backs at how easy this supposedly inaccessible mountain turns out to be.

Dawn clambers the shoulder of the mountain behind us as pink as a flamingo made of Turkish delight. In as little as fifteen minutes we realise that we’ve actually climbed no more than a few hundred feet, because, over there, is the actual mountain. We’ve merely struggled up a toehold of the foothills. There are miles of rugged terrain still to cover before the full ascent. 

And directly across the valley is yet another obstacle. Stretched in our way is another army, none of whom look too friendly. Dressed for the desert, they’re probably lost, but we’re not going to stay and find out.

Discretion being the better part of valour, we’re heading further west. A creaky sign leans in the wind. On it is perched a vulture, pointing without absolute no hint of the sinister towards O’Grady’s Gulch.

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I thought I’d begun my WW2 Italians about 3 years ago. When I looked at my records (yes, I keep records!) I found it was nearly 6 years. Perhaps it's time to finish them.

So here are 20 Perrys’ Italians, including heavy mg and mortar. 

I really like these figures – but then I really like just about everything the Perrys make (currently I’m trying to convince myself that I have absolutely no interest in the War of the Triple Alliance in South America, Alan Perry’s latest project. But am I listening to myself? Why should I – no-one else does!)

Scoring: 17 figs @ 5 = 85 points, 3 prone figs @ 2.5 = 7.5 pts and 2 not very large crew served weapons @ 4 = 8 pts + 30 pts for Hawkin’s Hill = 130.5 pts. (So 131?)

A very nice force indeed. i do like your prose by the way, keep it up. According to the rules guns are guns and get 10pts each so an extra 12pts to your tally gives 143.