Lardy Craig Ambler takes a trip to Italy to play Carroceto, the second scenario in the Anzio: Wildcat to Whale scenario pack.
A game characterised by lethal dice rolling: the British suffering fifty Kills and only three points of Shock. My only question is where I can get dice like that!
Unusually, both my usual wargaming opponents were available in the same week. Last night, Dave and I fought to an epic draw (see below), tonight was Neil's turn. As I didn't have time to set up anything new, we'd fight the same battle as before. Not only that, but I would play the Germans again, and decided to set up in almost exactly the same way as before, looking forward to seeing how the two games would differ.
Well, it was indeed a very different game...
Terrific game of IABSM last night. Dave and I fought Scenario #4B from the Blenneville or Bust!scenario pack: Near Avaux. A hugely entertaining clash with the fortunes of war swaying backwards and forwards each turn, and with a truly epic climax!
A quick AAR from John Thomas: a clash between the Soviets and the Japanese in 1945.
More early war tanks from Battlefront: this time Soviet T-28s. Bad picture, but these are nice little models.
With Battlefront flirting with the Sino-Soviet confrontations in Manchuria just before the "official" start of WW2, they have released a whole new set of early war Soviet kit. Here are the BT-7A tanks i.e. the BT-7 tank with a howitzer rather than a normal tank gun.
Here's an AAR that's been on my to-do list for some time. John has designed and is playing an IABSM scenario around the Operation Biting raid at Bruneval, where the Paras went in to capture some German radar technology.
A great AAR currently in two parts. You can see the details of the historical raid at the beginning of part two.
As promised, here is Topi's AAR from playing the first scenario of the Blenneville or Bust! scenario book campaign: West of Pierrecourt.
To quote his introduction: "Kicked off our Blenneville campaign this weekend. A German panzergrenadier recon unit tries to stop the American machine in the bocage country. 'Greenhorn, this is nothing compared to Kursk' was the German motto, as more and more American troops arrived. Quite a few spoilers to the scenario, so be warned."
The last of Topi's four East Africa 1940 battle reports: the Italians advance again.
The next battle report slurped from Topi's blog covers an Italian attempt to bash through a British blocking point. It all looks a bit crowded to me!
The next battle report slurped from Topi's blog contains a bit more information about the background to his East Africa 1940 campaign. That's in addition to an amusing tale of a ragtag bunch of militia taking on the might of the Italian army. Proves you don't need tons of troops and Tigers on the table to have fun with IABSM!
I've found a new source of After Action Reports! A gentleman named Topi, from Finland, has an excellent blog with five IABSM AARs. It will take me a few days to catch up, but catch up I will!
Here's the first: his first game of IABSM. It's East Africa, British versus Italians, and Topi's English is a lot better than my Finnish!
Now that I've re-catalogued all my late war Soviets, I can clearly see where the gaps in my collection are. One such gap was transport for the Scouts. Looking at the lists, I saw that lend-lease White scout cars were an option, and as I happened to have three of them lying around in the lead mountain...
Here's the cleaned up Battle for Liberation gallery for the British Air Landing Company. Landed by glider or transport aircraft, these are better equipped than the parachutists, with anti-tanks guns, pack artillery, and even tanks.
One thing I do like to do is to make sure my troops have enough transport: I'm a real fan of "tail". No surprise then that the latest addition to my collection are the Soviet engineer trucks from Battlefront i.e. their usual trucks with some cargo added in!
Chris Stoesen has released another scenario book for IABSM, In The Name of Roma!, containing a selection of platoon and company level scenarios for the Italians on the Eastern Front.
I've already got the book, and it looks excellent. Here's the blurb from Chris' website:
In July of 1941, the 80° Roma Regiment of the Pasubio Division boarded a train bound for Romania. Along with the rest of the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia (Corpo di Spedizione Italiano), they would advance through the Ukraine alongside their German allies. In the coming months, the 80° would be engaged in brutal fighting across 1400 miles of the Eastern Front – covering most of that on foot.
IN THE NAME OF ROMA is a wargame supplement that contains 30 company and platoon level scenarios covering the actions of the 80a Roma Regiment from August to December of 1941. You’ll follow the 80th from the open steppe to the Donetz industrial basin, including the amphibious attacks across the Dnieper, and the fateful decision of Column Chiarimonti to attempt to seize Nikitovka.
IN THE NAME OF ROMA includes:
Though primarily written for the Too Fat Lardies rules systems (I Ain’t Been Shot Mum; Troops, Weapons, and Tactics; and the newly released Chain of Command), the scenarios in IN THE NAME OF ROMA work equally well with Arc of Fire, Bolt Action, Flames of War or your favorite rules system.
IN THE NAME OF ROMA is available for $11 US. Send the money via PayPal to cstoesen@corecard.com and I will e-mail the PDF to you as soon as possible.
I have finally finished my squadron of Cromwell tanks for the later British force. These models, all fifteen of them, are all from Plastic Soldier Company, bought for a grand total of £51!
The models are very nice, and with plenty of options. You can have the normal gun or the 95mm howitzer support weapon; you can add the allegedly-fictious, boccage-clearing prongs; and you can add the cover that sits over the exhaust grill and stops the enemy spotting a tank starting its engine from the gout of black exhaust fired straight up in the air!
Mine are organised into a Squadron HQ of three tanks (CinC with exhaust hood, 2inC with prongs, support tank), then four troops of three tanks each (two with exhaust hoods, two without).
Here are some shots of one individual tank and the whole squadron:
Brian Cantwell continues the Blenneville or Bust! campaign with action around the small village of Avaux. Will the British armour manage to smash though the German lines? Read on to find out!
Sorry there hasn't been much from me lately: all my time has been spent painting up my 15mm squadron of Cromwell tanks, courtesy of Plastic Soldier Company. I'm just finishing the basing now, so pictures etc soon.
Meanwhile, here are three battle reports. Hedgerow Hell is one from last weekend, the other two are from last year.
Hedgerow Hell
First Run at IABSM
Second Run at IABSM
Here's something we don't see very often: two AARs about the same game. The Mad Padres and James Mantos each provide words and pictures about the Slugfest at the Crossroads: a squadron of Shermans encounter German tanks and supports in France, 1944.
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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