Another great battle report from Mark Luther: this time, action on the Eastern Front from 1941.
The game is played in 6mm, and Mark uses some rather natty Shapeways 3D Printing vehicles that, presumably, you can't get anywhere else. Well worth a look.
Click on the pic below to see all:
Another great AAR from the archives of the "Burt's Stuff" blog, a Spanish-language blog that you can visit by clicking here.
This time, it's a random game set on the eastern front, with the Germans trying to take a small town from its Soviet defenders.
Click on the pic below to see all:
I picked a box of these up some time ago in one of the many Battlefront sales, but hadn't got round to painting them. A delay, however, in an order of Poles gave them the window needed to get onto the painting table and, once there, they were quickly finished.
It's a platoon of three IS-3M ex-Soviet main battle tanks now in UAR service for the Six Day War.
Something else for the Israeli's to blow to, er, Kingdom Come!
Well the ninth update even if it isn't exactly week nine.
Another good-sized batch of entries so, in no particular order, we have:
Today's pictures are:
Here's Chris Stoesen's terrain for the eastern front
One of Brian's lovely 1/1200 ships: hand-rigged!
Chris Kay's vikings in 28mm
Carole's Space Marines in 15mm
I was flicking through Netflix the other night, trying to find something that I hadn't seen already, and came across the film April 9th: a Danish movie about the German invasion of Denmark on April 9th 1940.
Here's a slightly edited version of the IMDB plot summary:
"In the early morning of April 9th 1940, the Danish army is put on full alert: the Germans have crossed the border and Denmark is now at war against Europe's strongest army. In Southern Jutland, Danish bicycle- and motorcycle troops are ordered to hold back the invaders until reinforcements can be mobilized. We follow Second Lieutenant Sand (played by Pilou Asbæk) and his bicycle company as they become the first Danish soldiers to meet the enemy in combat."
The film is rather good actually. It doesn't rush to get to the action, it doesn't judge the folly of sending men on bicycles (yes, really) to confront what others would call the blitzkrieg, and it doesn't contain Pearl Harbour-like unrealistic and fictional acts of heroism. It just portrays what happens to a platoon of bicycle troops who have to go to war, mad-looking helmets and all.
That said, the action sequences are superbly done. You can really feel the tension as the platoon waits in ambush for the German recon elements to arrive. You really get a sense that, actually, what they are doing is bloody dangerous.
The noise of the enemy bullets zipping past; the sight of LMG bullets plinking off the paintwork of an SdKfz 222 armoured car; what happens when you split your men up to cover both ends of a narrow street (a lot of running backwards and forwards to try and keep abreast of what's happening): it's all done really very well...and don't get me started on their changing-a-bicycle-tyre training drills.
Maybe not a film that's going to pack out movie theatres (not that it's on anymore: it's a 2015 film) and set the world on fire, but well worth watching, especially if you're into early war gaming
Nice to see someone playing a scenario from Vyazma or Bust!
Here, fellow Lardy Vaggelis plays #2A: The Bridge at Urk in 6mm. Will the Germans manage to find a way through to outflank Sychevka? Will the Soviet commander survive the disgrace of his last battle? It all happens around the bustling metropolis that is Urk. Click on the pic below to see the story unfold...
You can visit Vaggelis' excellent looking blog Wargames and History by clicking here.
Charles Eckart has sent through a nice little Charlie Don't Surf! after action report.
Here we see the US carrying out a Search & Destroy mission: a company of 173 Brigade infantry reinforced by three ACAV tracks and three M48A3 tanks searches for the newly arrived NVA 95B regiment that is trying to establish a base in South Viet Nam near the Cambodian border.
It is an unusual game, in that the PAVN forces are strong enough to put up a semi-conventional fight combined with guerrilla tactics.
Click on the pic below to see all:
Quick bit of painting done whilst I wait for my next batch of Poles to arrive: two more nine-man squads of Xar, the 15mm Critters from GZG.
Just one more squad to go (the Critters in hand-to-hand, martial arts poses!) and then I think I have enough Xar infantry for the moment. Just got to think what armour to get them now...
Many of you will have seen some of Egg's beautiful models in the pictures from the TFL Painting Challenge. Here's a chance to actually see them in action, with a quick AAR covering Scenario #01 from the Cymru Am Byth Welsh Guards scenario pack: the Defence of Arras.
Click on the pic below to see all:
A truly enormous update to the painting challenge this week. I'm just glad I've had a chance to upload it all before the start of the rugby!
Right, here goes:
So many pictures to choose from...here are today's selection:
A brace of 10mm 88's from Mr Hodge
Egg's Harrier
Reb Commanders from Kev
More Nappies from Cabey Cabey
Mr Plowman's walker
Chris Stoesen, author of the Campaign for Greece, Call this a Ruddy Picnic (East Africa), and In the Name of Roma scenario packs for IABSM, has just published a new supplement for Chain of Command.
For those interested, here are the details:
"The Campaign for Kharkov contains two pint sized campaigns. One covers the advance of the German 57th Infantry Division and the other the German 101st Light Division. The attack came in October of 1941. This city would be the site of three major battles for the city. The interesting aspect of the October 1941 battle is in the nature of the troops involved. The Soviets had superiority in armor. The Germans advanced with only a single STUG battalion in support of the 57th ID. The Soviets fielded the T34 as well as several improvised armored vehicles such as the KhTZ-16. While not a success on the battlefield, it demonstrated the Soviet inventiveness under the extreme pressure of the blitzkrieg.
"There are twelve total scenarios in the campaign. Full force lists are available for both German Divisions and the Soviet troops present. Maps are based on aerial reconnaissance photographs taken by German troops in September 1941.
"The scenarios are availible from my blog at $6.00 US. PayPal the money to cstoesen@corecard.com and I will email you the PDF. Or you can order them from Wargames Vault for an instant download for $7.00 US.
Note that a Kindle and a hard copy will be available on Amazon within the next couple of days. Stay tuned."
Egg has unearthed a couple of IABSM battle reports for us all to enjoy.
The first is set in Syria in 1941, and sees British troops attempting to hold a town against Vichy French attackers.
There are full briefings and OBs for each side, allowing you to play the game as well. Click on the pic below to see all:
Another quick Lebanon 1982 AAR from Jon Yuengling.
This time a column of Israeli armour, supported by infantry, look for both the PLO and a way out of town. Click on the pic to see all.
Another great AAR from the pen (table?) of Joe Patchen. This time the action takes place in the desert: in Tunisia, in fact, as the Americans wait for the might of the Afrika Korps to hit their line.
Can the US infantry get away before the panzers strike? Find out by clicking on the pic below:
Following on from my "Don't Forget the Officers" post, below, here are three mounted commanders for my WW2 Polish cavalry:
These are not actually Polish officers at all, but the remainder of the German mounted command pack from Peter Pig with a head swap into rogatywkas.
You can't see it very well from this angle, but the headgear they are wearing aren't peaked caps but rogatywkas: from the other side, they have a lovely mortarboard like flat surface that makes them quite distinctive.
The head swaps are, of course, because Peter Pig doesn't do a Polish range (but maybe they should, eh?) and I didn't want to buy an entire company of cavalry from either Battlefront or FiB just to get a few commanders.
Head swapping, btw, is really easy. All you need is a pair of clippers and a pin drill...oh, and some new heads from Peter Pig. Just snip the old head off, drill a hole where you want the neck to be, glue in the new head. It really is that simple.
Here's the two figures together:
A very slightly slower week this week, but still masses of entries.
In no particular order, we have:
A quick set of today's pictures, as I have AARs to post:
Cabey Cabey's 'minor characters'
Mark Luther's Burma terrain, claimed in the last update but only just now photographed
I do like Dropzone Commander kit, just wish it was 15mm
Some of Carole's Germans
I'm loving adding all the modern AARs using IABSM and/or CDS: some really nice photography of some really nice models.
Here's a quick AAR from Jon Yuengling's excellent blog, Basement Games, dating back to November 2010. The IDF are trying to rescue a downed pilot from in amongst the Syrian militia. Click on the pic to see all...
Fellow Lardy Count Belisarius played in a Falklands War game at the Whitley Bay 3D Gamers club at about this time last year.
This battle report appeared on his excellent blog Another Slight Diversion, which you can visit by clicking on its name in the sentence above. Hopefully he won't mind me reproducing it here.
Click on the pic to see all:
Regular visitors will remember that I recently painted up a couple of squads of Peter Pig WW2 German cavalry that I'm using as early war mounted scouts:
Although you can see the squad commanders (two of them, furthest row) you'll note the absence of Big Man to lead the platoon forward. Well that's because as I was ordering them I was thinking that I had plenty of German Big Men, so wouldn't need any more. Problem is, of course, that although I have Big Men, I don't have any mounted Big Men!
This is where Peter Pig really come into their own. You can buy four "German Mounted Officers" in a pack rather than with, say, Battlefront, having to buy a whole blister or make some sort of never-arriving special order.
So here's the Big Man to lead the mounted scouts forward. Face looks vaguely familiar...
Just a quick post today to showcase the latest nine-being squad to come off the Xar production line:
Note that this lot include the first of the squad commanders: painted up with the gloves-of-rank, but without the red edge to the base indicating a Big Man.
Only eighteen more Xar to go to give me two full three-squad platoons!
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)
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