Another quick trip to Mark Luther's Flickr archive provides us with today's AAR: an Eastern Front game set in...well, I've called it 1944 but on reflection it's probably more like 1943.
Whichever, it's a Soviet attack on German positions in 6mm, and well worth a look! Click on the picture below to see the gallery.
Waugh Games, a wargaming retailer/online shop based in Teeside, is now producing its own range of resin 15mm WW1 and WW2 vehicles.
At the moment all that is available is a handful of German vehicles, but they look good to me and are very competitively priced.
The vehicles are in resin, with integral bases (which won't please everyone, but that I quite like) and metal turrets/gun barrels.
Currently listed in their store are:
And at the moment they are running a series of promotions that make the models even more affordable.
They need some good pics to really sell the models, but here's the Opel Maultier:
Now I need some Maultiers for my Gebirgsjaegers, so I'm going to buy some (probably the three for £7.50 offer...very good value) despite the fact that although, as I said, I like cast-on bases, the base shown above is VERY big and, if you look carefully, there do seem to be lots of bubble-holes in the paneling on the main body of the truck. Or maybe they are supposed to be, or will look like, bullet holes. We shall see!
Another great 6mm After Action Report from Mark Luther, this time centring on th action around the Broekhuizen Bridgehead, where the Monmouths will try their best to take a town.
Click on the picture below to see more:
I'd been wanting to add Minairons' 15mm Flakpanzer Is to my early war German army for some time, but had been put off by the cost: £17.25 for a box of two makes for just over £8.60 per model, and they are mostly plastic. Must be something to do with the import from Europe, but that makes them even more expensive even than Battlefront!
Anyhow, a Plastic Soldier Company sale gave me the excuse I needed to get them, so get a box I did.
The models go together pretty easily, although I did have a problem with bent gun barrels. They arrived a bit bent, and must have been battered during the construction process somehow, as one barrel needed gluing to keep it from falling apart, and the other took ages to get properly straight.
The crew figures that you get with these models are nice, but pretty damn tall. The chap standing up leaning forward slightly, must be at least 6' 9" tall; and the kneeling guy is as tall as a standing infantryman from most other manufacturers.
Here they are painted up. In summary: nice models, but crew very tall, and very expensive for what they are.
Another blast from the past from Mark Luther: this time from December 2009, a 6mm game of IABSM set in Poland in 1944.
Click on the picture below to see the report.
Excellent battle report from Topi featuring a what-if scenario from the Market Garden campaign.
Click on the picture, below, to see more:
An excellent battle report from Vaggelis featuring scenario 14 from Chris Stoesen's excellent IABSM scenario pack: The Campaign for Greece.
Click on the pic below for the full report:
Hello All!
Well I'm back from San Francisco and feeling somewhat jet-lagged. Even flying business class, eleven hours there, three days of conference (including entertaining, which also included a great concert from the Killers and Foo Fighters: the former being particularly good) and then ten hours back is a lot to take.
The obligatory shot of the Golden Gate bridge
And one of the Bay Bridge at night
[RUGBY SPOILER ALERT]
I managed, however, to stay awake long enough today to watch Japan beat South Africa at rugby: an unbelievable result that came from an incredible performance from the Japanese team. To give you an idea of their guts, with one minute to go they were three points behind and were awarded a penalty on the Springboks' five yard line: three times they made the decision to go for the try rather than the safer kick-to-draw option.
Which nicely sets us up for today's IABSM battle report: a pick-up game from Charles Eckart which comes with no pictures but some great story-telling. Click here to see the AAR.
Long time Lardy Thomas Nissvik (you can see his gallery in the 2015 Painting Challenge, and several AARs in the appropriate sections) has posted this piece of news on the TFL Forum:
My buddy Daniel asked me to post this. I will be participating as an Umpire, but Daniel is running the event.
"I plan to hold a big game event next year. The event will be a four day event, probably a Thursday to Sunday thing. It will be based on the 101. Airborne sector during Market Garden and the fighting around Hell's Highway. Rules will be IABSM (I Ain't Been Shot Mum) with a good amount of some local "house rules". Knowing the rules is not necessary as all tables will have umpires. It will be for friends so it is not some commercial event or open to the public.
A pic from the Lardy D-Day Games Day showing British Paras in action around Ranville
My thought is to do this some time in August (when most people have vacation) in the a place which is only ten minutes by car from Arlanda airport and about forty minutes from Stockholm central by train. The idea is to rent a community house. It has a pentry so it will be possible to make food. I am still inquiring with the people responsible and will visit the house in September. I will ask all participants for a modest entry fee to cover the rental expense for the house (which will be fairly low).
It will be played over several large tables with the Son bridge in the south and Uden in the north. Each player will command a force or battle group either consisting of elements of the 101. Airborne, XXX Corps or the German forces. Each force might be equalling a reinforced company or so. I also have plans of having people being commanders of the whole Airborne force, XXX Corps and so on, responsible for coordination, allocating resources, reserves and supplies and communication as well as some higher level support units (especially when it comes to the XXX Corps).
The idea is not to cover the whole Market Garden operation so the Nijmegen, Arnhem, Eelst/Driel sector will not be covered. Some tables will be connected to each other making it possible to send troops directly over to the next while others while require some "extra move points" or "deductions".
I plan to use my friends Koen, Jocke, Laffe and Thomas as umpires. Myself also being one but more on a coordination level. Perhaps they will also have some force responsibility depending on how many will join. All of us will obviously do our best to bring forth the necessary terrain and so on.
I would like to ask you if you would be interested in joining this. Perhaps you also know some people who would be interested in joining as player participants or as umpires, full or part time?"
So, anyone interested?
Cheers/Thomas
Those of you who haven't been to a Lardy games day before should visit the AAR section of this website and see the reports from previous events. They are at the bottom of the right-hand column of AARs.
It would be great if this happened, so if you do fancy a trip to Sweden next year for a big game of IABSM, let Thomas know by replying to his post on the forum here or by e-mailing him at thomas.nissvik@gmail.com.
Big game of IABSM on Saturday: a four-player mash up using one of the climatic scenarios from the Operation Barbarossa scenario pack Vyazma or Bust!
Epic game during which the fortunes of war swung back and forth like a pendulum in an earthquake!
Click on the picture below to read all about it:
Played a great game of IABSM last night using one of the scenarios from the Blenneville or Bust! scenario pack.
Click on the picture below to see the action...
Great battle report from first-time contributor Miliarakis Vaggelis: IABSM in 10mm.
Cracking photos!
Click on the picture below to see them all:
Another fantastic AAR from Kimber at Brooklyn Wargaming, this time featuring his superb new Pegasus Bridge model amidst his usual cracking terrain.
Another great AAR from Brooklyn Wargaming, this time covering scenario #09: Gela 2 from the Sicilian Weekend scenario pack.
Click on the picture below to see the whole report:
Yesterday's game was a continuation of the Vyazma or Bust! campaign I've been running for John and Dave.
Today's game involved a battle of constantly shifting advantage as each side alternatively received two waves of reinforcements.
Click on the photo below to find out whether the Soviets can hold the bridge at Urk!
James Mantos and the Mad Padre got together for one last game of IABSM before the Padre heads off to his new posting.
Click on the picture below to read their reports:
Another great 6mm IABSM after action report from the files of Mark Luther.
This time, the T-35 behemoths emerge to do battle...click on the picture to see more:
It was the Battlefront 40% sale on their Fate of A Nation range that triggered my interest in the Six Day War: with the need to know which and how many of their figures and vehicles to buy leading me to put together army lists for the four participants: the Israelis, Egyptians, Jordanians and Syrians.
Do feel free to comment on the accuracy of the lists, designed to be used with Charlie Don't Surf!, as the Lardy rules closest to the conflict. My research has been mostly book and Internet based, and I'm sure there are those with better knowledge than I out there reading this!
You can find the lists on the special Six Day War page in the CDS section of this website, or click on the image below to go there direct:
Giles cartoon used courtesy of express newspapers
Having played a couple of 6mm Franco-Prussian War scenarios, it was back to IABSM for Saturday night's battle.
This game is from a scenario that appeared in the TFL Christmas Special 2006: one of the scenarios from Chris Stoesen's mini-campaign set in the Saar region of Germany in 1939 as the French invade.
Click on the picture below to see whether les gens braves can make a success of their attempt to clear a village of German troops. As the title suggests: Tanks Forward!
The second platoon of US Paras are now done.
For these I used Battlefront figures rather than painting another platoon from Forged in Battle. Nothing against FiB, I hasten to add, just fancied a change.
These are nice figures in my favoured slightly-cartoony style. There are a couple of differences with the FiB set: the Battlefront have no dressing-packs on their helmets, and they all have these irritating little daggers strapped to one leg. On the plus side, however, the platoon comes with three machine gunners with a tripod-holding crew, which are very nice indeed. Also of note are the chaps throwing a grenade: nice action pose.
So now all I have to do is decide which manufacturer gets the vote for platoon three. Let me know what you think I should do: FiB again, or Battlefront again, or someone else?
US Paras from Battlefront
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.
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