Carole is a regular contributor to the painting challenge, most recently amassing huge numbers of points with her latest late war figures. See her gallery here.
Now we get a chance to see some of her collection in action with her first AAR for the Vis Lardica site.
It's 1944 and somewhere west of Caen. he British need to clear a village, the Germans need to hold it. Find out what happens by clicking either here or on the picture below.
Another great battle report from Mark Luther: this time covering my favourite, early war period.
Here you can see Matilda Is and IIs in action against German infantry and gunners against a backdrop of Mark's excellent 6mm terrain.
Click on the pic to see the gallery:
Just a quick six-pic AAR today as the Mad Padre heads into the Western Desert.
Click on the pic to see the report...
As per my post, below, I ran the morning game of IABSM at the recent Market Larden event.
I couldn't, however, do the afternoon game, as I was down to play Fighting Season: the new ultramodern variant for Chain of Command.
Step forward Geoff Bond, who kindly agreed to step into the breech and run the afternoon IABSM session using my figures and scenario. This was especially brave of Geoff as, by his own admission, he was a bit rusty re the rules, only having played once this year. Lucky the scenario was a small one, eh?
Click here, or on the photo below, to see a quick report on the action.
PS Probably best to draw a veil over my performance playing the British in Fighting Season...but the Taliban really shouldn't have shot my medic!
Apparently, when told that I had off-table support in the form of a 50mm sniper; a 50mm HMG and Javelin missiles, I said: "Haven't you got anything bigger?".
As Rich said afterwards: "Two dead, including a female medic; one platoon scarred for life; an ordnance bill topping half a million quid...all in exchange for sixteen dead Taliban and about fifty civilian casualties. I'm not sure Robert made a smooth transition from playing eastern front WW2 to modern day peace keeping in Afghanistan!"
June 2015 saw the annual Market Larden event in Evesham. Around fifty Lardies travelled deep into the heart of tractor country to play a variety of TooFatLardies' games. I was originally due to attend just as a player but, when one GM dropped out, stepped in to run the morning game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum!
As I didn't have time to prepare something new, I delved into my library of scenario packs and decided to play one of the games from the Bashnya or Bust! book i.e. late war, eastern front.
Click here or on the picture below to see the battle report from the game. My thanks to Ralph, Noddy and Jamie for being excellent players, and to Ade for organising the day.
Another superb IABSM battle report from Brooklyn Wargaming, this time scenario #08 from the Sicilian Weekend scenario pack: Americans and Italians run into each other "East of Butera".
Click here or on the picture below to see the AAR.
Another short but sweet battle report from the Stipsicz Hussars: this time an early war encounter between the Ardennes Chasseurs supported by French tanks and a German invasion force.
As always, forgive my poor translation...click here or on the picture, below, to see the report.
Another great 6mm AAR from Mark Luther: an encounter on the Eastern Front in 1944: see the Panthers run amok...at least for a time!
Reading some of the posts that people have written about the AARs on this website, I would just like to emphasise that they, and the painting challenge, are meant to inspire.
Yes, some of them are full of amazingly painted figures placed amongst amazingly beautiful terrain, but others (many of mine, for example) feature averagely painted figures amongst workmanlike terrain. Who can forget the fact that I used to use green ring binders as hedges!
So don't be put off by what you see here: be inspired!
Here's Mark Luther's latest piece of inspiration. Click here or on the first picture below to see the whole AAR...and if you scroll down a bit further: yes, it's a reminder about those green ring binders from me!
Bit further...
Bit further...
1940's action amongst the ring binders!
Another IABSM battle report, but up a scale this time.
Here is a 15mm Eastern Front game that comes from Brooklyn Wargaming's website, which is in itself a good place to visit.
Today's action is from the early part of the Battle of Kursk: a Soviet tank advance west of the Oktiabrski State Farm. Click here or on the photo below to see more...
No posts for three days? Shocking! Nothing to do with me watching three hours of Game of Thrones every night for the last three days: no sirreee, nothing to do with that!
Well, anyway, what can I say...except here's another blast-from-the-past 6mm IABSM battle report from Mark Luther.
It's Italy, 1944: can the Allies build the bridge they need...click here or on the picture below to find out.
Another epic game of IABSM in 6mm from Mark Luther: this time a continuation of the battle I posted last week.
Click here or on the picture below to see more.
What should I have been doing this afternoon? Well either painting some more US Airborne figures, or some of the six alien races for Q13 I have on the go at the moment, or uploading more 19thC battle reports to this site so that I can get that section finished and move on.
What have I actually been doing?
I've actually spent a very pleasant afternoon re-organising all my US forces for IABSM, amending the photo galleries of the Rifle and Tank Companies to bring them properly up to date, and finally getting around to constructing the gallery for the Armoured Rifle Company. Seems like I need an awful lot of half-tracks of the M2 and M3 variety, along with a handful of 1.5 ton trucks!
Five down, an awful lot to go!
But seriously, I do think that properly cataloging your troops is an important part of our hobby...a part that's sometimes sadly neglected. I have a master spreadsheet of all my figures (all 15,000 of them) by period and unit, which also notes how many times each unit has been on the tabletop. Dividing one figure by the other then gives you a master efficiency quotient, so that I can see which of my armies are the most cost-efficient!
Then I have OB workbooks, where I list each force I've built by order of battle. This is really useful when playing pick-up games, as I can just print out a force's OB, then add or subtract units as required. The galleries on this website are a reflection of these spreadsheets: so far they're complete for my WW2, Vietnam and sci-fi armies, but I haven't even started on my 19th century, ancients or fantasy collections yet!
Thousands of them? Let me just have a look at my spreadsheets and I'll tell you exactly how many there are!
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I keep a workbook with how I painted each army in it. Very useful when adding extra units to an already existing force.
Nerd?
Maybe so, but then to me the spreadsheets are all part of the fun!
As some of you may know, I have started putting together a company of US Paras, plus supports, in 15mm.
The MMG Platoon proved a successful test paint, so I decided to bite the bullet and get on with the first of the big paints, the first platoon.
Being a bit sick of painting Battlefront figures, and wanting to spread my cash between manufacturers, I decided to get my first Airborne platoon from Forged in Battle. I like their vehicles, their infantry is metal, and some of the poses I'd seen in various images looked very good.
Well that platoon is now finished, and very pleased I am too. The poses proved excellent, the castings were almost totally flash free, and there wasn't a dud figure in the pack (Battlefront take note!). Here they are:
As you can see, they have taken the paint very well indeed.
For those interested, my painting method was as follows:
Phew! That's twenty-five steps for each of the 32 men (three squads of ten and two Big Men), but worth it as I'm very pleased with the results. Here's my favourite figure:
Now onto to platoon two, for which I have figures from Battlefront.
Another of Mark Luther's amazing 6mm games of IABSM: this time with action on the Eastern Front as panzers try to battle their way through to a vital road junction. Who will win the fight amongst the sunflowers?
Click here or on the picture below to find out.
Apologies for the few days without a post: been a bit busy in the real world!
Anyhow, to return with a bang, here's another IABSM battle report from Brooklyn Wargaming, with a game taken from the Where the hell have you been, boys? D-Day scenario pack: cracking stuff!
Click here or on the picture, below to see the full report.
The second of three AARs from the Stipcisz Hussars in Belgium. It's only a teeny-tiny one, but included for completeness!
Click on the pic to see more.
Trawling through the Internet, I came across the website of the Stipsicz Hussars, a group of war gamers from the Nederlands with a few TFL AARs in their records.
Here's the first of them: a snippet of action in the Western Desert. Click here or on the photo below to see the full report, and here to go the the Hussars' website itself.
Another tank-on-tank game set in the Western Desert and taken from the Operation Compass scenario pack. This time it's a clash between Italians and British tanks at Mechili.
Click here or on the picture below to see the full report.
I'm slowly working my way through loading mark Luther's 6mm IABSM battle reports onto the site. Some lovely terrain, so worth doing properly.
Here's another from 2008: it's the early war, and French and German reconnaissance units clash near Juniville.
Click here, or on the picture below, to see more...
I've taken the plunge and finally decided to get myself a company-plus-supports of US Paras.
I think it was watching Band of Brothers again that did it: it was either the Paras or early war Poles, and somehow seeing Dick Winters and co. charging round Normandy and onto Germany tipped the balance.
It also means I'll be able to play the multitude of available scenarios involving US Airborne forces using the proper figures!
Here are my first efforts: the Light Machine Gun Section:
The figures are from Forged in Battle: I decided I needed a change from Battlefront and Peter Pig, and so decided to give FiB a go. It's not a conversion though: I've only got the machine gunners, above, and a single platoon of infantry so far. We'll have to see how the first platoon paints up before deciding which manufacturer will have the privilege of providing platoons two and three!
Uniform-wise, they are portrayed in the drab uniforms worn for D-Day. I think this provides a more iconic image than the more green gear worn later on in the war. You'll note that I have painted on the eagle insignia: I did try using those teeny-tiny transfers, but they proved too fiddly to manage, despite Model Dads video tutorial.
Right: on to the first platoon now...
Vis Lardica is a website devoted to wargaming and military history, with a special emphasis on the company-sized rulesets produced by the TooFatLardies: I Ain't Been Shot Mum (WW2); Charlie Don't Surf (Vietnam); and Quadrant 13 (science fiction)
Welcome to Vis Lardica, a not-for-profit website mostly dedicated to the company-sized wargaming rules produced by the TooFatLardies, but encompassing my other gaming interests as well.
If you need to contact me, you can do so at:
vislardica@gmail.com
If you have enjoyed visiting this site, please add a link to it on your own wargaming blog: www.vislardica.com.
