TTS Battle Day Game 2

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Game two of our To The Strongest battle day involved using Bevan’s collection of 28mm medievals: a clash between the Feudal French and the Feudal English.

The sides were fairly homogenous: each consisting of a core of Knights supported by some missile shooting peasants…longbows for the English, crossbows for the French. The English also had a couple of units of billmen.

We used the terrain rules as laid out in the book, which led to quite an unusual battlefield and both sides squatting opposite each other in one corner.

Bevan had warned me that TTS medieval was very little about tactics and more about just smashing into each other and trying to make sense of the resultant carnage, and he was proved quite right.

Initially, however, I did try something quite tactical: marching a unit of knights up the side of the forest on my left flank and attempting to curve round the end and hit some English infantry in the flank. This almost worked, but was stymied by the cards and some defensive advances by the rest of Bevan’s army which, if you want the technicalities, put my advancing knights into another unit’s Zone of Control (there’s a lot of ZOC-ing in TTS!) and therefore stopping them completing their mission.

After that failed, it was my turn to receive an English charge, one that punched through my line as the perfidious English aimed themselves at some mercenary crossbowmen rather than rising to the chivalric challenge posed by my knights. This lead to a general breakdown of everything into a smashing, crashing melee from which both sides emerged with just one or two victory coins left apiece.

It was then just a matter of who broke another unit first…with Bevan taking the honours as another unit of crossbowmen fell to an armoured steamroller.

A great, fun game that I look forwards to repeating next time we play.

Two-nil to Bevan, with one game to go.

IABSM AAR: St Aubin

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A lovely and impressive set of photographs from Desmondo Darkin that first appeared on the I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum Facebook group.

Desmondo and friends play a slight variant of IABSM where dice rather than cards/chips are used to govern unit activation. Now whilst we don’t countenance such heresy here at VL, if it helps spread the Lard, then go, Desmondo, go!

Click on the picture below to see the action:

IABSM AAR: Kicking in the Door

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Here’s an AAR from Alastair Birch first published onto the I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum Facebook page, so I hope he doesn’t mind me reproducing it here.

This is a cracking little encounter written by the big man himself, Richard Clarke, back in about 2005. I actually have a Word version of the scenario, designed for IABSM v2, although where I got it from I have no idea!

Adolf himself has told his troops that “the Soviet Union is a rotten structure, that we only need to kick in the door, and the whole thing will collapse before us”. Click on he picture below to see if that’s true!

IABSM AAR: Operation Sealion #04: Take the Heights

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Another great Sealion AAR, but not this time from Karim and friends at the Stipsicz Hussars. No, this time it’s Tim Whitworth and his friends at the “Like a Stonewall” wargames group who are playing out the action.

Click on the pic below to see whether the Hyde Home Guard Platoon, under the watchful eye of their daring commander Major fforbes-Cole MC (retired) can defend Paddlesworth against the Fallschirmjaeger Hun.

IABSM AAR: Operation Sealion #03: Capture the Port

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Another great AAR from Karim Van Overmeire and friends at the Stipsicz Hussars, again from the Operation Sealion scenario pack for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum!

This battle report features Scenario #03: Capture the Port, in which elements of the London Irish Rifles defend the small sea side village of Seabrook against the German 21st Infantry Regiment. The Germans had to capture this position on their way to Folkestone: securing the port of Folkestone was necessary to allow German armour to be brought ashore.

Click on the picture below to see if Seabrook will fall under the Nazi jackboot!

Salute 2019

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This Saturday it was off to Salute 2019 at the Excel centre in Docklands.

Salute is one of the cornerstone shows in the UK wargames calendar, and it’s easy to see why.

Firstly, the Excel centre is a great venue: easy access by car, parking right underneath (even if it is £20 for the day), huge amounts of space, and plentiful food and drink outlets. My only complaint would be that sometimes I find the lighting in the hall a bit dim, but that might just be my fading eyesight!

The queue to get in used to be an extreme annoyance - one could wait an hour - but for the last few years its been so under control that, for example, this year I arrived at Excel at 9.50, had a baguette and coffee for breakfast, and then walked straight in to the show without queuing at all. Amazing! The only question is why couldn’t they have organised it like this before!

The show itself was full of traders and demo games. There are loads of blogs carrying loads of reports on the show, so suffice to say that it took me all morning and some of the afternoon to get round everything.

The Lardies were running a stunning game of Chain of Command set in Malaya in 1942, a period near and dear to my heart (Fall of the Liongate and all that). I didn’t play, but enjoyed watching the action.

Also Larding away was Mike Whitaker with his Bloody Omaha game. Now I played this game a few years ago at one of the Evesham games days…and its a cracker. Mike had 486 figures on 144 bases on an 8x6 table on display and managed two complete play-throughs of the scenario. And people say my games are big!

Click on the picture below to see all the photos:

As per usual, I did spend a bit too much money, but it was all on absolute bargains, honest! I bought a bag of fifty brushes for £20, which should keep even an established ‘brushbane’ like me going for a bit; and then I also bought one of the “all you can see for £100” mdf sci-fi industrial set-ups from Troll Trader that I just cannot wait to get built and painted up.

The show was nicely crowded all through the day, except perhaps at lunchtime. I hear a lot of people saying that their mates didn’t go because they couldn’t be bothered, or it wasn’t their thing any more or something rubbish like that. All I can say is that they are wrong: Salute is still a cornerstone show and a must-visit for any wargamer in reach in the UK.

IABSM AAR: Battle at Parczew

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It’s September 29th, 1939, and Independent Operational Group Polesie are marching south towards Koch. Attacked by Soviet cavalry and tanks, the Poles are at first beaten back, but then counter-attack and manage to re-take the village of Milanow. This they then prepare to hold in the face of further attacks from Russian infantry with tank support.

The above is a condensed version of the background given to scenario #31: The Battle at Parczew from the September War scenario pack. I would play the Poles, defending Milanow; with John and Dave commanding the advancing Soviets.

Click on the picture below to see all…

IABSM AAR: Operation Sealion #02: Rearguard at Pevensy

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Karim van Overmeire and the Stipsicz Hussars are continuing to play through the Operation Sealion scenario pack, this time they fight scenario #02: Rearguard at Pevensy.

Will the British hold the bridges, or will the fearsome Hun get in amongst them? Click on the picture below to find out all…

IABSM AAR: Return to San Marco

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Tim Whitworth and the Like a Stonewall Wargames Group had a second go at the “Attack on San Marco” scenario from the “Cymru Am Byth” scenario pack.

Rather than start a new AAR, I’ve added the words and pics to the bottom of their first attempt.

Click on the picture below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Sidi Ahmed

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Another great battle report by Carojon and the Devon Wargames Group.

This time they have ventured into the Western Desert, with a version of the battle for Longstop Hill: the encounter that opened the way for the final Allied advance on Tunis.

What’s great about this AAR is that the forces are detailed as well: so it will be easy for you to replay this encounter yourselves should you want to.

Click on the picture below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Hauts-Vents at Cold Wars 19

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Matthew Matic and friends ran a game of IABSM at Cold Wars this year. Click on the pic below to see a few photos, including one that shows just how much kit goes into to putting on a demonstration game of this quality…

 
 
 

I’m happy to add any other pictures or info people have about the game: usual address of admin@vislardica.com.

 

IABSM AAR: Sealion #01: The Fight for the Military Canal

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It’s been ages since we saw anything from the Stipsicz Hussars, our friends in Belgium/Flanders, so I was really pleased when the following battle report dropped into my Inbox.

Here we see the first game from the Operation Sealion scenario pack: the British defending a vital bridge against assault from German Paratroopers.

Click on the picture below to see all, and it’s great to see the next generation of wargamers pushing lead round the table…

It’s hard to reach the middle of the table when you’re only nine!

IABSM AAR: Lardiarz or BoB: Near Vcheva

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Captain Cliche and friends have played another game based on one of the scenarios from the late war Bashnya or Bust! scenario pack.

This time, they have adapted scenario #5D (or scenario #5N): Near Vcheva. This is an encounter battle as two armoured forces meet to contest a vital junction.

Click on the pick below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Happy Christmas!

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This weekend just gone, John, Dave, Bevan and I re-fought the Battle of the Bulge scenario that we played a couple of years ago. You can read the AAR for that game here (opens in a new window).

I played the Germans in that one, but played the Allies today. A cracking game that was action, action, action from the moment battle was joined.

Click on the picture below to see all: