Cracking game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! at the weekend, with a scenario from the Fall of the Lion Gate scenario pack.
See if the British can stop the Japanese advance into Malaya at the village of Ban Sadao. Click on the picture below to see the whole report.
Those of you who read my post about Battlefront's Dust Cloud terrain markers will know that I have had some stuff on backorder from them for some time. One of the other things that was on backorder was their Desert Fort and expansion pack.
Now I can't remember exactly how this worked, but I think that they said they would only produce another batch of these if enough people agreed to buy them: a bit like a mini-kickstarter. Well I agreed to do so, and then promptly forgot all about it until the e-mails saying they were on the way started to arrive in my inbox, followed shortly afterwards by two quite big boxes.
Here's the fort itself:
It's a lovely piece of battlefield terrain. The walls and turrets are really chunky...and I've just realised I've set it up in the picture above with all but one of the walls the wrong way round...but you can see from the left hand wall what it should look like! Plenty of room for figures on those parapets, and for at least light guns on the tower-tops.
Here are a couple of views with a figure in them for comparison:
The expansion pack contains two ruined walls and two mid-wall towers that would allow you to double the length of two of the wall sides, provided you were happy to have the ruined walls included to make up two of the sides. Or you could just have the ruined walls as part of the original square fort.
Here's a pic of the fort set up as a square with on side bashed in:
In all, this is a lovely set of kit, ideal for portraying the desert forts of the western desert in the early 1940's. It would also do, of course, for sci-fi wargaming, and for Beau Geste-style games as well. Recommended.
PS Sorry about the pictures: I seem to have got most of the walls round the wrong way. That's what comes of drinking a bottle of wine whilst gaming, and then deciding to do a bit of photography afterwards!
The last building I had to put together from Commission Figurines was the gigantic Stalingrad Flour Mill.
Retailing at £45, this is a cracking piece: two joined buildings, one large, one small; five floors and a roof, with each floor having its own little ledge on which to place figures. You actually have to build it twice: once for the internal frame on which all the shelves sit, and once for the outside walls.
Here's a modern-day picture of the mill itself:
And here's a picture of my completed model:
Not the sharpest of photos, but you can see what I mean about the sheer size of the thing, and how well it compares to the actual building.
I painted this in orange, and then washed with GW Agrax Earthshade. It didn't need any sort of highlights dry-brushed on, so I didn't do any. The inside I left in raw mdf, as it looked okay and painting it would have been a real pain now that I had put it together. The outside pavement I did in the usual dark grey, black wash, light grey highlight, but I left the highlighter brush a little dirty from when I painted the orange on, so some of the pavement has a little bit of a brick hew, as if covered in brick dust or rubble.
The only thing I'm not 100% satisfied with the way I've painted it is the roof. You get two bits of flat roof, and then a sort of tunnel-walkway-attic as well. These I painted in dark brown, again with a hint of dirty orange in it. It looks okay, but I'm not sure quite how else to do it. Suggestions on a postcard please...
To finish, here are two close-up shots of the inside so that you can see how good it will be for actual wargaming. As I said above, cracking piece: highly recommended.
Yesterday saw the release of another pint-sized campaign scenario book for Chain of Command: The Scottish Corridor.
This supplement focuses on a German counter-attack on the salient held by 15 Scottish Division on the Odon river in the latter stages of the war. As ever, it is available for £3.60: the price of a pint in Richard's local.
Here's the blurb from the TooFatLardies website:
"The Scottish Corridor is the fifth Pint-Sized Campaign for Chain of Command, designed to be played using the campaign handbook, At the Sharp End.
"Twenty nine pages long, The Scottish Corridor follows the established Pint-Sized Campaign format, with an overview of the forces involved on both sides, their deployment shown on period maps and the course of the campaign described in detail before going on to present a mini-campaign covering the initial German counter-attack against the narrow corridor projecting down to the Odon river and Hill 112. A mixed force of two Kampfgruppe attack in the hope of isolating the British spearhead and restoring the line.
"The campaign is a total of six game tables with the duration running between six and eleven games. Briefings are provided for both sides, along with measurable objectives, period maps, force and support option listings and everything you need to play this campaign through to its conclusion.
"Like all of our Pint-Sized campaigns, this is available for the price of a pint in our local pub. We're sure that you'll agree, that is great wargaming value!"
Here's the second of the three buildings I purchased from Commission Figurines at Warfare.
This one is Potsdammer Platz, and very nice it is too. Goes together very easily - literally the work of minutes - and then simple to paint as well. This one I undercoated in dark grey, then added a heavy wash with black ink, then dry-brushed with dark grey, then light grey, then bleached bone to bring out the relief. Again I painted the inside dark grey.
Looks good to me and I can't wait to get them onto the tabletop.
You can find Commission Figurines by clicking here.
One of my purchases at Warfare were some of Commission Figurines 15mm ruined buildings in laser-cut wood.
I was quite excited by these, so let one of them jump to the head of the painting queue, and knocked it up in a few hours late on Sunday.
This particular building, Konig Strasse, is easy to put together: four walls slot together and then mount onto the four pavement pieces if pavement is required.
Painting was pretty simple too: I painted the whole thing orange, then put a very heavy black ink wash over the top. Once that was dry, I dry-brushed very lightly in orange again, and then in a bone colour to bring up the relief. The doors I did in brown, the pavement in three shades of grey. The interior I just painted all grey, with no washing or dry-brushing.
I'm very pleased with the result, and can't wait to build the others. I think they'll do for any big city: Berlin, Stalingrad and even sci-fi...and at £13 for the one below, quite good value too.
The Wasatch Front Historical Gaming Society (WFHGS) produce an excellent quarterly, free, full color wargames journal available to download from their site, called Warning Order.
Each issue of Warning Order features battle reports from their Friday night games, reviews of board games, figures, and gaming products, gaming analysis, and several regular features plus an editorial.
It's a very good read: I particularly like the regular Memoirs of a Miniatures & Board Wargamer and Blast from the Past columns...which shows you what an old fogey I'm becoming! The reviews are always useful as well.
Here's a IABSM battle report from the Spring 2015 edition (#40). Click on the pic of the front cover to see it.
A nice little battle report from Mark Luther dating back from 2010.
Click on the picture to see all.
I have noticed a dearth of AARs for the TFL company-sized games (IABSM, CDS or Q13) out there on the net at the moment.
Don't forget that the offer is always open to post any reports you might have up here on Vis Lardica: just send me in the words and the pictures and I'll do the rest.
In the meantime, plenty of content to browse on here: over 250 AARs and growing fast!
Another great IABSM battle in 6mm from Mark Luther, this time featuring the charge of the French Char B1 bis tanks near Juniville in France 1940.
Some lovely terrain, especially the central objective of the battle: Pommery Farm.
Click on the pic to see the whole report:
Superb After Action Report from Carojon featuring a game based on one of the scenarios in the All American scenario pack.
The tiny village of Pouppeville covered the end of one of the four designated exits from Utah beach on D-Day, so members of the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were dropped behind Utah beach to help in the clearing and securing of the area prior to the landing of the seaborne troops.
See how they do by clicking on the picture, below:
Although we don't really do Chain of Command (or CoC, as it's known) on Vis Lardica, I've played the game a handful of times and always had a great deal of fun.
I'm pleased, therefore, to post about the latest TFL "pint-sized campaign" scenario pack for CoC, Operation Martlet, released today.
From the TFL website:
"Operation Martlet is the fourth of our Pint-Sized campaigns for Chain of Command, designed to be played using the campaign handbook At the Sharp End.
"Twenty eight pages long, Operation Martlet follows the established Pint-Sized Campaign format, with an overview of the forces involed on both sides, their deployment shown on period maps and the course of the campaign described in detail before going on to present a mini-campaign covering this combined arms operation launched by the British 49th Division immediateloy prior to Operation Epsom to seize the Rauray Spur from the defenders from 12 SS Hitlerjugend.
"The campaign is a total of six game tables with the duration running between six and eleven games. Briefings are provided for both sides, along with measurable objectives, period maps, force and support option listings and everything you need to play this campaign through to its conclusion.
"Like all of our Pint-Sized campaigns, this is available for the price of a pint in our local pub [Editor's Note: £3.60 at time of posting]. We're sure that you'll agree, that is great wargaming value!"
Click here to go straight to the TFL shop and buy Operation Martlet.
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.
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:
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?
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.
