More ECW Figures

I’m still slowly working my way through what I need to field a decent sized English Civil War army.

Today’s unit is the first of the pike-heavy foot battalia i.e. where there are equal numbers of pikemen and musketeers in the unit rather than the more usual 2:1 ratio in favour of musketeers.

These are Peter Pig figures in 15mm painted, as usual, with GW Contrast Paints.

I wasn’t sure how to represent the difference between standard and pike-heavy units: I wanted something that could be seen easily on the tabletop without the need for additional markers.

I had thought of narrowing the unit by putting the extra pikemen in a third rank in the centre but, in the end, settled just for keeping the same shape of unit. Looking at a standard and pike-heavy unit next to each other, I’m quite happy with the way they compare: the difference is subtle but obvious.

IABSM AAR: The Arras Counter-Attack

One of the great things about the world of Lard is the growing profusion of Lardy Days, where Lard-minded gamers can get together and indulge in their favourite pastime.

One of the early events on the 2020 Lard calendar was the Big Winter Wonder-Lard day held by Bristol Independent Gamers at the end of February. About twelve games, all fully participation, were run in each of the morning and afternoon sessions, covering just about the whole spectrum of Lard: What A Tanker; Chain of Command; Bag the Hun; Sharp Practice and, of course, I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum.

That game was run by Phil and Jenny, and featured action from the Arras Counter-Attack in May 1940. Click on the picture below to see an excellent pictorial report of the day’s events (lifted from the IABSM Facebook Group):

Good Time at Overlord

I last went to Overlord, Abingdon Wargames Club's annual show, some years ago, and all I remember was how small the show was, with few trade stands, and quite frankly not much to do.

I remember it well, incidentally, because that was where I bought my Peter Pig solid resin French buildings for use in my May 1940 WW2 gaming…not that I would ever buy solid resin buildings again: they look great but where do you put the troops that are in them? This must have also been before the great mdf scenery explosion, as that’s what I would buy now!

Anyhow, a throw-away comment by a fellow-gamer reminded me that it was on yesterday and, as it happens, I was able to negotiate a trip, and very glad I was too.

Aside from meeting up with said fellow-gamer and friends, the show is now in Abingdon & Whitney College, which has ample carparking, nice toilets (unisex!), a reasonable snack bar, and much more room for trade stands and games.

One of the games that caught my eye is pictured above: a 28mm “China invades Australia” game using Empress Figures. Very nice indeed.

There were also about thirty trade stands there, so I was able to get what I went for (flowers to dress the element bases of my ECW armies) and have a browse to see if there was anything new to see.

Well, there was: Syborg 3D Printing, a new (to me!) company producing 3D printed model vehicles in 15mm, specialising in somewhat obscure types from WW2 to the present day.

What caught my eye was their WW2 fuel tankers: a GMC CCKW 353 Truck for the Americans, a Canadian Military Pattern - Tanker for the British, and (my favourite) a Zis 5 truck - Tanker for the Soviets.

They were all bought very quickly, and have leapfrogged to the front of the painting queue! I shall be keeping my eye open for more from them too.

So a good trip to Abingdon, and a date for my diary for next year too.

New Month, More Entries

Another set of magnificent entries into this year’s Painting Challenge.

Here’s today’s album:

Q13: Strato Minis Studio

Here’s another 15mm sci-fi figure manufacturer: Strato Minis Studio.

They produce a nice range of battle-suited infantry with armour and walker supports. I particularly like the new 15mm “Stormbreaker Jump Infantry”, although I do note that the bases and supporting wire aren’t included.

Strato are a Polish company, who produce their figures in resin. All prices are in dollars. Here’s a picture of their Tengu Medium Tank:

IABSM AAR: Lard Re-Visited

I was browsing the Internet the other day when I came across George Anderson’s excellent blog Musings on Wargaming and Life. Some really good content on the site, including a battle report from his first time playing IABSM.

George has played other TFL games but, as I said, this was his first time playing IABSM. Hopefully he’ll give it another go, but this does go to show that here on VL you’ll find every IABSM battle report, even the ones that aren’t totally positive.

Click on the pic below to see all:

Quick Painting Challenge Update

Some lovely entries to the Challenge this week.

Here’s a pictorial summary:

Don’t forget that there are plenty more to see in the individual galleries!

IABSM AAR: Blenneville or Bust! #3C: Pierrecourt

Tim Whitworth and chums continue to play the Blenneville or Bust! campaign. We seem to have missed out on an AAR for the second scenario, but here’s the report for their third game: Pierrecourt.

The Germans are defending, the Americans attacking. Who will prevail? Click on the picture, below, to see all.

IABSM AAR: Blenneville or Bust! #01: West of Pierrecourt

Tim Whitworth and friends have started playing through the Blenneville or Bust! scenario pack: a pyramid campaign set in Normandy in 1944.

In the first encounter, #01 West of Pierrecourt, American reconnaissance troops probe forward looking for a bridge over the river that will take the weight of their armour, but the Germans lie in wait…

Click on the picture, below, to see what happened.

A Bit of Painting & Building

Here’s everyone busy playing IABSM left right and centre, and all I can find the time for is to paint and build a little bit of terrain!

As regular visitors will know, I’m currently putting together English Civil War forces to use with For King & Parliament. I’ve already finished enough standard troops to play one side of the sample scenario in the rulebook, the Battle of Montgomery, but hadn’t had the chance to complete any command figures. Until now, that is, so here is the first command stand: Colonel-level, so two figures.

These are 15mm Essex figures. I’m using Peter Pig for the troops, Essex for the command stands, and mostly GW Contrast paints to, er, paint them with.

Nice figures, although I couldn’t quite work out what the thing the Colonel himself was wearing on his chest. I’ve painted it as a sort of yellow/gold braid effect on top of a red waistcoat, but now I note that the painted version on the Essex site has it as a sort of chainmail vest. No matter: at three foot away, what’s the difference!

I also needed some buildings to represent a village in the second scenario I want to play, so found these rather spectacular “Timber-Framed Houses” from 4ground Publishing.

These come in the usual flat-pack format, but are relatively easy to build: I did all four in a single evening. They are also very tolerant of idiots: you can’t see it, but I completely mucked up one build and, as I idiotically use Superglue when putting things like this together, trying to fix any mistakes can be…testing, shall we say. Despite my cackhandedness, I think you have to agree how good they look, and that’s straight from the packet: I’m sure that better modellers than I can customize them to look even better.

Anyway, that’s four lovely houses done and dusted. Price for all four was £47 plus postage: which I think is a fair price considering I now have all the buildings I need for a 2-4 square FK&P town.

Here’s a close-up of one of the timber-framed cottages:

IABSM AAR: Bashnya or Bust! #01: Near Osen

Here’s an After Action Report from a game from this weekend that I was due to play in but eventually could not make because of scheduling issues!

Friends Bevan, Mark and Dave have started to play through the Bashnya or Bust! scenario pack for I Ain’t Been Shot Mum, and here’s the battle report from the first game: #01: Near Osen.

Click on the picture below to see all:

One More for the Challenge

Tanks for the entry, David!

A big welcome back to David Scott, who sends in his first TFL Painting Challenge entry of the year. This is David’s fourth year, and he opens the batting with some rather nice 15mm Soviet armour.

This week, we also have more from Carole, Mr Luther, Joe McGinn, Chris Kay and, of course, Travis.

Scorecard is updated and more pics appear below. Can you match them to the painter? Have a go and then check out their gallery to find out if you are right.

IABSM: How to Play Videos

Recently there have been quite a few requests across the TFL Forum and IABSM Facebook Group for “how to play” videos for I Ain’t Been Shot Mum.

Now that sort of thing is currently way beyond my capacity to provide either in terms of time or ability, but fellow Lardy Alex Sotheran, from the Storm of Steel blog, has risen to the challenge and posted the first of three such videos on YouTube, this initial offering covering an introduction to the rules, what you need to play, along with the activation cards and how Blinds work.

This is a cracking presentation and has been needed for some time, so well done Alex! Can’t way to see the follow ups.

Click below to see the first video:

IABNM AAR: Action at OML3

Must…resist…

I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to resist all the new Team Yankee Cold War kit from Battlefront. As I’m already in the middle of building up armies for a new period (English Civil War for those of you not paying attention. Yes, I mean you, Clarke, at the back!) I just can’t handle anything else at the moment.

All this Cold War goodness, however, got me thinking about what rules to use. Regular browsers will know that I play Arab/Israeli games with an adapted form of Charlie Don’t Surf!, but the early 70’s is just about as far as they will go without more work.

More thinki, and I remembered I Ain’t Been Nuked Mum! : a proper Cold Wars adaptation of IABSM that I remembered seeing at the third Operation Market Garden games day in Evesham.

A little bit of Googling and I found the Maxim to Milan blog, featuring some excellent IABNM battle reports. Sadly, the blog hasn’t been updated since 2015 but (and I hope Nick doesn’t mind) here’s one of them recreated here on VL. Those of you who’d prefer to see the original on MtM can click here to do so.

Click on the picture below to see all: