New 15mm WW2 Manufacturer: Waugh Games

/

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:

  • Tiger I
  • Panther
  • King Tiger
  • Jagdpanther
  • Panzer LV70
  • SdKfz 250/1
  • Opel Maultier

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!

Flakpanzer I Ausf. A from Minairons

/

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.

AAR: A Game of IABSM

/

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.

TFL: The Chain of Command Challenge

/

I don't often post about the TFL WW2 platoon-level game Chain of Command as this site is really reserved for TFL's company-level games.

I do, however. enjoy a nice game of CoC every now and again, so am happy to help Rich promote the "Chain of Command Challenge": a 20%-off offer on the rules, whatever the format.

Here's what Rich said on Lard Island News:

The Chain of Command Challenge

It’s not often we’ll be so direct as to ask “Do you prefer CoC, or the alternative?” but a very comprehensive review of Chain of Command and one of the alternative rule sets out there aimed at platoon level actions has certainly got people talking.  You can read Trailape’s comments on his blog here: http://trailape.blogspot.com.au/2015/09/so-youre-platoon-commander-comparing.html

Now, we’re not making any claim for Chain of Command to be the biggest, best or anything else, but we do know that we all have a huge range of rule sets to choose between and often it takes a bit of a poke with a sharp stick to get us to jump in and try something new.  So, we thought that now would be a great time for us to launch the Chain of Command Challenge to encourage those gamers who’d been thinking about giving Chain of Command a try but who hadn’t quite got round to it yet.  For the remainder of September we are slashing 20% off the price of the rules in hard copy, PDF or tablet-friendly format making Chain of Command fantastic value and this the ideal time to make that jump and give them a whirl.

Of course, as Hans is telling us, we mustn’t forget that Chain of Command benefits from all sorts of nice free to download support products like the notes of bigger battles which can be found here: Big Chain of Command

But there’s much, much more than that.  We are rolling out free Army lists which will eventually cover the whole of WWII as well as producing a range of scenario and campaign supplements to make your gaming even more fun.  Why not check out Lard Island News and search for  Chain of Command Free Downloads to see the whole range of what is already available, or even try one of our Pint-Sized Campaigns, a whole campaign for the price of a pint of beer!

To take part in the Chain of Command Challenge you can find the rules at this great introductory price on our web site here:  Chain of Command Products. And just to make things a bit more fun, we’d love to see your reports on your blogs, Facebook or Twitter feeds (hashtag #spreadthelard ), on the TooFatLardies Forum or Yahoo Group, or simply post your comments in a reply to this post.  Why not take the Chain of Command Challenge today?

Potential IABSM Market Garden Game in Sweden

/

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.

Vasily Grossman: A Writer At War

/

I've just finished A Writer At War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army 1941-45, edited and translated by Anthony Beevor & Luba Vinogradova.

It's a great book: an account of the second world war from a Soviet perspective from a writer who, today, we would say was embedded with various Russian armies throughout the war.

Beevor's editing is superb: at the start of each chapter, he sets the scene to the excerpts from Grossman's writings, placing each one in its proper historical context. He then takes a back seat and lets Grossman do the talking.

As an example, I was going to pick an exert from Grossman's writing that was directly to do with matters military, but the piece below, about what had been done to the Ukraine by the Germans, is one of the most powerful I have ever read:

"There’s no one left in Kazary to complain, no one to tell, no one to cry. Silence and calm hover over the dead bodies buried under the collapsed fireplaces now overgrown by weeds. This quiet is much more frightening than tears and curses.

"Old men and women are dead, as well as craftsmen and professional people: tailors, shoemakers, tinsmiths, jewellers, house painters, ironmongers, bookbinders, workers, freight handlers, carpenters, stove-makers, jokers, cabinetmakers, water carriers, millers, bakers, and cooks; also dead are physicians, prothesists, surgeons, gynaecologists, scientists — bacteriologists, biochemists, directors of university clinics — teachers of history, algebra, trigonometry.

"Dead are professors, lecturers and doctors of science, engineers and architects. Dead are agronomists, field workers, accountants, clerks, shop assistants, supply agents, secretaries, nightwatchmen, dead are teachers, dead are babushkas who could knit stockings and make tasty buns, cook bouillon and make strudel with apples and nuts, dead are women who had been faithful to their husbands and frivolous women are dead, too, beautiful girls, and learned students and cheerful schoolgirls, dead are ugly and silly girls, women with hunches, dead are singers, dead are blind and deaf mutes, dead are violinists and pianists, dead are two-year-olds and three-year-olds, dead are eighty-year-old men and women with cataracts on hazy eyes, with cold and transparent fingers and hair that rustled quietly like white paper, dead are newly-born babies who had sucked their mothers’ breast greedily until their last minute.

"This was different from the death of people in war, with weapons in their hands, the deaths of people who had left behind their houses, families, fields, songs, traditions and stories. This was the murder of a great and ancient professional experience, passed from one generation to another in thousands of families of craftsmen and members of the intelligentsia.

"This was the murder of everyday traditions that grandfathers had passed to their grandchildren, this was the murder of memories, of a mournful song, folk poetry, of life, happy and bitter, this was the destruction of hearths and cemetries, this was the death of the nation which had been living side by side with Ukrainians over hundreds of years."

IABSM AAR: Tanks Forward!

/

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!