A very quick I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! after action report from the Tracks and Threads blog: a few pictures of a 6mm game with Canadians fighting Germans.
Only a few pictures, but really nice ones, and it looks like a good game.
Click on the image below to see all:
Every time you think you have the complete set, you find out that you have missed one!
That is most definitely true of my list of WW2 15mm figure manufacturers: I thought I had them all, but then someone posts about Outpost Wargame Services, who have a range of 15mm Poles, the very army that I'm currently building.
Hangs head in shame!
Well I have put that right now: Outpost are added to the list, and below you'll find a couple of pics of some of their Poles. Might have to fill in the gaps in my collection with a few of these...once I get the bl*@dy cavalry finished of course!
Polish Infantry from Outpost Wargame Services
Polish Cavalry from Outpost Wargame Services
Another great after action report from Mark Luther: a 6mm game set on the Eastern Front featuring a Soviet assault on Kantemirovka Air Field.
This game has actually featured in another battle report (Chris Stoesen's Airfield Attack) but looks so good that it deserves another outing, and there are loads of new pics and, of course, Mark's as opposed to Chris' take on the game.
Click on the pic to see more and, if you have battle reports from games using any of TFL's company-sized games (IABSM, CDS, Q13) then feel free to submit them for inclusion here: it's a good way of highlighting your club or event.
Here is the final IABSM v3 army booklet for the 1939 invasion of Poland: the Soviets.
It's a set of comparatively simple lists, allowing you to field:
As always, you can download the pdf from the Poland 1939 page of the I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! section of the website, or by clicking on the image to the left.
That's now the set of the three main nations - the Poles, the Germans and the Soviets - done. I hope you enjoy playing this fascinating period.
My Gebirgsjaeger were originally bought to provide a late war German force for the eastern front...mainly in a desperate attempt to avoid painting the camouflage smocks that I would need for a contemporaneous company of Heer troops!
The figures will, of course, also do nicely for a Gebirgsjaeger force built from the new IABSMv3 Poland 1939 lists: although they will obviously need a bit of adaption to fit into the earlier OOB.
As always, I find it easier to see these things pictorially, so have now had a chance to put together a Gebirgsjaeger 1939 gallery...and very bare it is too, with lots of the late war equipment stripped right away.
Needs include some more infantry, to represent the bigger platoons, some earlier anti-tank guns, and maybe some pioneer types if only for completeness.
Click on the pic to see the gallery.
Some of you picked up on the fact that it was my 50th birthday last week. Thanks for all your good wishes and, to one particular person: no you can't have my collection when I keel over due to old age!
As it was my birthday, and I'd finished the IABSMv3 lists for Poland 1939 for the Poles, Germans and Soviets, I decided to take the opportunity to fill out my early war collection a bit.
You see, when I first started playing WW2 games, I tended to play IABSM as it was originally designed to be played: with each side consisting of a few platoons of infantry supported by a couple of guns and maybe a single platoon of armour. I also almost exclusively played France 1940 or Barbarossa games, having (at the time) this strange aversion to late war with its big cats and hordes of character-less Shermans.
I therefore only have a single platoon of most types of early war German and Soviet tanks, and understrength platoons at that.
Well, what's the problem, I hear you ask, you have everything you need?
Yes, but, the thing is, these days, although some of the best games I've ever played have been games with small forces on each side, I now occasionally like to play huge, power games, with swarms of tanks everywhere...I think it's an age thing: why buy a sports car when you can command a full company of panzers!
So, for my birthday, I decided to do a bit of filling out:
That's a platoon of Panzer IIs, a platoon of Panzer 38(t)s, a platoon of T-26s, a platoon of BT-5s, and a couple of SdKfz 222 armoured cars as well.
[All bought from Hannants, BTW, a very good source of Zvezda kit: ordered Wednesday, arrived Saturday, discount included in price.]
You may notice that all the tanks ordered are plastic Zvezda kits: cheap but perfectly serviceable...especially as I don't expect to use them very often.
And that's the point of buying cheaper Zvezda or PSC tanks rather than the more expensive metal or metal and resin vehicles from other manufacturers: if you're not going to use them very often, then cheap but serviceable is the way forward.
Don't get me wrong: these will paint up very nicely. Here, for example, is one Battlefront and three Zvezda Katyushkas in the same picture:
I would go as far to say, with my limited building skills, the rocket rack on Battlefront model looks worse than the Zvezda versions...and I've only ever fielded all four once, as an objective for a German attack. Imagine if I'd bought four metal versions for a single game: ouch!
The Zvezda range is expanding as well. Take a look at the box again. Nestling on the right are two Ferdinands. Together they cost about a fiver: cheaper than a single Battlefront model. Yes, I need them just in case I ever have to field them, but how often will I do so? Cost efficiency is the way forward!
Right: back to painting. All my Polish cavalry still do before I can start on the tanks!
Great write-up of a game at the August meeting of the Devon Wargames Group taken from the Blenneville or Bust! scenario pack.
The action took place Near Avaux: as an embattled German force attempts to hold out against a strong attack by British armour.
You can read all about on the Devon Wargames Group page (click here), or on this site by clicking on the picture, below.
So here they are: the dismounted Polish cavalry of the previous post rescued from their terrible frosting at the hands of a can of GW Purity Seal with a liberal application of olive oil, and then re-sprayed with Army Painter seal:
Now they don't look perfect, being still a little granulated with tiny particles of Purity Seal, but they look a whole lot better than they did before!
What I am also hoping is that they will improve even more with time and a bit of handling i.e. that the granules are worn smooth or continue to be absorbed in some way. They are not a disgrace now, though, and that's the main point.
Battlefront figures, BTW. Quite nice, although the faces were not particularly well defined and were difficult to paint into anything remotely resembling humans. That could be down to coming from an old mold, but is still disappointing. I've gone Forged in Battle for the mounted cavalry, so we'll have to see if they are any better.
Here's another couple of shots. Oh, and they look a bit weird on my custom bases as they don't have any LSW teams, and the bases are designed to take eight singles and a two-man LSW team, not ten singles. Should make playing with them interesting, as that's down one dice on all firing!
PS the painting challenge scorecard is now updated as well
Great battle report from Joe Patchen describing a recent game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum that featured a German assault on British Paras covering the access route into Oosterbeek during the "Bridge Too Far" Arnhem incident.
Click on the pic, below, to see all...
As I said in my previous post, I have plenty of early war German kit: I just needed to re-photograph some of it to fit in with the specific Germans in Poland infantry company list.
That's now happened, (click here to go to the gallery) and I know exactly what I need to buy in order to be able to field anything I might need to.
As expected, the only real gaps are in the number of tanks and armoured cars I need...but as that's not critical, as IABSM is more about infantry than tanks and it's going to be a rare occasion indeed that I need to field an entire tank company, I can just fill these gaps with cost-effective vehicles from Zvezda as and when I feel like it.
I reckon if I bought six SdKfz 221s; five Panzer 35(t); five Panzer 38(t); and six Panzer IIs then I would have all the early war German tanks I could ever realistically need...and at Zvezda prices, I could probably get the whole lot for the same amount as one Battlefront late war tank killer box set! All hail Zvezda!
In fact, the only real gap is the two-squad infantry scouting unit which, obviously, I could represent on foot, but would like to do as cavalry: the first German cavalry I would then have. A trip to Peter Pig for them, I think, as I quite like PP's cavalry figures.
So, infantry company gallery now done: next up will be the Schutzen and the Gebirgsjaeger galleries. After I've been shopping, of course...
Now that I have finished the IABSMv3 1939 September War lists for the Germans and Poles, it's time to see what I have got in my collection...and therefore what I haven't got as well!
Easiest way to do that is to build galleries for each potential force: then I can clearly see where the gaps are, and how big my next shopping spree needs to be.
Well, the first of the Poles are still on the painting table (just need to finish the bases), so it's the Germans that will start things off.
Don't forget that you can download the IABSMv3 Polish and German lists from the Poland 1939 page under the IABSM tab at the top of the page. Feedback always appreciated.
I have now finished the IABSM v3 compatible German lists for the 1939 September War to go alongside the Polish lists that I posted a month or so ago.
These lists allow you to field a variety of German forces based on everything from a standard infantry company to a light trucked tank company. As with the Polish lists, they are largely taken from Anatoli's excellent work, converted to IABSM v3 alongside additional info from my own research.
Click on the pic to download the list, or visit the Poland 1939 section of this website (under the I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! tab at the top).
Any feedback gratefully received: either comment or send me an e-mail at the usual address.
Regular visitors to the Vis Lardica site will know that one of my favourite builds this year was the Warbases' Pegasus Bridge model. This enormous piece of scenery took me some time to put together and paint, including a short hiatus whilst Warbases, showing their usual high levels of customer service, replaced a part that I had superglued into the wrong position and then destroyed as I tried to re-position! Now that the thing was built, it was time to get it onto the tabletop and into action.
I did think about replaying the actual Pegasus Bridge action itself but, at a loose end one day, I put together a rather nice set-up on the wargames table featuring the bridge as part of a small town. As I didn't want to take it all apart again and re-build to the correct landscape, I decided to just write a quick scenario featuring the bridge where it was.
Click on the pic below to read all...
Pictures from a game of IABSM in 6mm based on an unspecified scenario from Chris Stoesen's In the Name of Roma! scenario pack, covering the actions of the Italian 80th Roma Regiment in the Soviet Union between August and December 1941.
No captions unfortunately: just the photos.
Click on the pic below to see all:
A very colourful game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! in 6mm from Mark Luther.
The scenario involves one of my favourite situations: a clash of late war reconnaissance units. Forget the big cats and the swarms of Shermans: let's let the armoured cars and half-tracks out to play!
Click on the pic to see all:
I have slightly updated the IABSM v3 lists for the 1939 Polish Army, available by clicking the picture or from the Poland 1939 page under the IABSM heading.
Whilst working on the German lists for the same period, I realised that the IABSM v3 convention is to give medium mortars a crew of five rather than the v1 or v2 crew of three.
Small thing, especially as they will be off-table in most games, but now corrected.
German lists are coming along nicely: should be done by the end of the month. Wish my Polish cavalry painting was doing as well!
Had a great game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! on Saturday: a Sealion scenario that was played in a hall only a few hundred yards from where the battle was actually set.
Read all about it by clicking on the pic, below:
A couple more lists for the Germans for the 1939 Poland campaign.
Here we have one list based around an armoured car squadron, and anotherbased around a company of motorcycle troops.
Click here to go through to the Poland 1939 page, or click on the pic to see the pdf for the armoured car squadron.
Another excellent Western Desert battle report from Dr. the Viking, this time featuring a British assault on an Italian-held fort.
The Dr's blog can be found here, or you can see the report on this site by clicking on the pic below.
Another great battle report from Mark Luther: as usual playing his I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! in 6mm.
Mark's last AAR was from Poland 1939, this one if from Germany 1945: looks like he has the whole war covered!
Click on the pic, below, to see all:
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:
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