A couple of truck-mounted DShK HMGs for anti-aircraft protection. Can also be used against infantry, but are vulnerable to counter-fire. Battlefront models: very nice.
I've actually mounted the HMGs on thin wooden bases so that they can be lifted out of the trucks for ground use.
A real first on today's update: an AAR in German!
Those of you who don't speak German need not worry: the report, or spielberichte, is in two parts. First up are some words which Google and I have translated for you and, secondly, there's a great cartoon strip version which is in German...but you can always look at the pictures!
Anyone who knows me knows that I love the 'tail' part of an army as well as its 'teeth'. Well, a couple of months ago I updated the manufacturers' directory with MMModels, a group of wargamers who make their own models where none are available and offer them to the public on an on-demand basis, whose catalogue includes lots of lovely 'tail'. Here's a quick review of the first models off the production line:
First up were some British vehicles all based on the Austin Tilley chassis. They are a staff car, a utility vehicle and a truck. All three are lovely little vehicles with plenty of detail that paint up nicely. Recommended. You can see all three in my entry in the painting challenge (as well as everything else mentioned below) but here's the Austin Tilley truck, with a Soviet infantryman (what I had handy!) for scale:
Next were some more British vehicles, this time based on the Scammell heavy tractor chassis. They are the Scammell Artillery Tractor and the Scammell Heavy Recovery vehicle. These were not quite so pleasing. Maybe it is me, but I couldn't get the back wheels to sit properly, and I think the front wheels look a bit Heath-Robinson and weedy too. There were also quite a few bubbles in the resin. Still, it's good to have some proper heavy artillery tractors, and the recovery vehicle looks okay too. Here's Ivan, again, with each:
Now onto the Germans. Only thing I've painted so far are some Opel Blitz buses. Very nice models that, again, paint up nicely. I really liked these, and will use them for very late war eastern front games, either as scenery or asersatz troop carriers. The picture below is a little misleading: the buses are actually quite a nice size.
Finally there are some Peugeot trucks. I'm afraid I didn't like these very much at all. There were also quite a lot of bubbles in the resin. Anyway, they paint up okay, but aren't a patch on the trucks available from other manufacturers. On the other hand, they are quite cheap: £4 each unpainted.
So a mixed review so far for MMModels. Lots of unique models not available anywhere else, good pricing, but variable quality (all would look fine on the tabletop though).
Great AAR from Grah, who moves from Stalingrad to Normandy with this pic-heavy AAR of a recent D-Day game.
I found a new source of IABSM After Action Reports today: a blog by a member of the Metropolitan Wargamers of Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York City, aptly named Brooklyn Wargaming.
Kimber has recently discovered IABSM, and has written a review here.
He has also posted a couple of short After Action Reports from the Where The Hell Have You Been, Boys?scenario pack.
#1: Find the Guns
#2: Holding the Pointe
#4: South of Vierville
An AAR covering the next game in the Bashnya or Bust! campaign I'm currently playing against my regular opponent, Neil.
Following the events of the last game, the initiative had passed to the Germans. Their objective: to take the ford at the village of Sorok...
One of the good thing about Battlefront extending its range to the Soviet-Japanese border conflicts of 1938/9 is that it's a great opportunity to fill in the gaps in my Japanese WW2 army.
Here's one example: I finally have the Type 41 75mm infantry/mountain guns that form part of the brigade assets of a Japanese infantry regiment. Nice models.
Another great AAR from the Mark Luther archive (all available on Flickr but gradually being added here too). This is another IABSM game in 6mm: this time it's action on the Eastern Front as a German column retreats.
Added a couple of archive battle reports from Amokfigur: these date back to 2006 and are taken from a website that declares itself in hiatus. Well, I hope all is good with Amok and he's still playing IABSM...and I do love the way that King Tiger is painted.
Heldenhausen
Somewhere in Russia
Craig Ambler finishes his Vyazma or Bust! campaign with Scenario 3B: The Outskirts of Vyazma. I can't wait to see what he makes of Bashnya!
Craig Ambler continues his Vyazma or Bust! campaign with Scenario 2A: the Bridge at Urk.
Scrivs and friend took their amazing Keren game to the Partizan in the Park show. Some excellent new additions, including this great Sikh stretcher team:
I've had problems painting late war German tanks ever since I first started on them. How do you get that camouflage looking right without using an airbrush?
Of course, the simple answer would have been to get an airbrush...but I haven't, but have finally worked out how to do it. The answer? A sponge!
The Battlefront 15mm Konigstigers below were painted with a base coat of dull yellow, then stripes of sponge applied green and brown paint. Pop a brown wash over the top and there you are. And where did I get the sponge from? Well Battlefront put loads in all their boxes as part of the packing!
I like to try and keep the list of WW2 15mm figure manufacturers as up to date as possible, so it's annoying to have missed MMModels.co.uk off it for so long.
They produce a nice selection of "tail" models (staff cars, vans, buses, tank transporters, landing craft etc) to order. I haven't got any myself at the moment, so can't really comment on the quality, but they certainly look good from the photos. I am about to put together an order which should keep them busy for a little while, and will report back once I have them in my hands.
Here's the promised second AAR from the OML2 game of Bloody Omaha...
I have two AARs involving Mike Whitaker's fantastic Bloody Omaha game. Here's the first: the warm-up game played a week or so before Operation Market Larden 2.
Great report, great photos!
I was lucky enough to be able to make Operation Market Larden 2 this weekend: a day of Lardy wargaming organised by the Wyvern Wargamers.
This was an excellent day's gaming at which I played Chain of Command for the first time in the morning (my apologies to my opponents for the slightly flukey at-the-last-moment victory!) and Mike Whitaker's brilliant rendition of the Bloody Omaha scenario from the Where The Hell Have You Been, Boys? D-Day scenario pack in the afternoon.
There will be a proper AAR posted shortly but, for the moment, here is a sample shot of the afternoon game.
Craig Ambler has decided to celebrate the launch of the Bashnya or Bust! scenario pack by running throught he Vyazma or Bust! campaign again.
Here is the AAR from his first game: Izdeshkovo.
Two bits of painting finished today: the Soviet flamethrower teams and German Wirbelwind needed for the Bashnya or Bust! scenario pack.
Well the big news this week is the launch of Bashnya or Bust!, my latest scenario book for IABSM. Here's the full info, but if you liked Blenneville or Bust! and Vyazma or Bust!, you'll love Bashnya!
You can buy Bashnya or Bust! either from the TooFatLardies website, or from the Buy Stuff page on this website. Doesn't bother me which one you use!
Bashnya or Bust! is a collection of fictional scenarios for IABSM set on the late war Eastern Front as part of the Kaunas Offensive. Soviet forces are attempting to drive through German defences in the Chera valley in order to break through into Germany itself, the Germans are trying to stop them.
The pack contains thirty-one individual scenarios set up in a five-step pyramid campaign i.e. scenario 1 leads to either scenario 2A or 2B; the result of this second game leads to one of scenarios 3A, 3B, 3C or 3D; and so on until scenarios 5A to 5P.
Although written as a fictional campaign booklet, no two scenarios are the same: each is unique and is also designed to be played as an individual game. Each of the three briefings for each scenario (Umpire, Soviet player, German player) contains enough background to give the game the same sort of context as with the background to an historical scenario.
Bashnya or Bust! is deliberately designed to give players who don't have enough time to write their own scenarios a huge number of games that they can play with little or no preparation at all. All you have to do is print out the three briefings, set up the table according to the map, make up the deck from the list of required cards, break out the figures and dice, and start the first turn. You don't even need to print the pack out in full: just the pages you need for the scenario you're going to play.
The campaign is structured so that you'll get maximum use of the standard forces presented in Vpered Na Berlin, with well-designed and balanced scenarios for IABSM, or indeed any company level rule set you happen to game with. Anyone who has a company-sized force of Germans and Soviets for late war, eastern front should already have enough figures to play any or all of the games.
Bashnya or Bust! follows on from the popular Vyazma or Bust! and Blenneville or Bust! campaign/scenario packs, also available from the TooFatLardies.
Bashnya or Bust! contains an introduction, details of the campaign structure and forces involved, sixteen different maps (some games are played across the same terrain, albeit in a different direction), thirty-one different scenarios, and a collection of templates allowing you to print off Blind markers as appropriate. Please note, you don't need to print this out like a book (although you can if you wish): Bashnya or Bust! is designed to allow you to just print the scenarios as you use them.
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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