Sanchil & Brig's Peak

Paul Scrivens-Smith reports on the game that he and his fellow Lardies will be taking around various shows next year. From the East African theatre, it's the attack on Sanchil and Brig's Peak by 1/3rd Punjabis on 10th February, 1941.

Excellent pictures again!

The Soviets Gallery

Japanese Gallery

More Christmas painting: this time figures from Battlefront's range covering the pre-war battles between Japan and the Soviet Union. 

First up we have the SU-12 battery: Gaz trucks with a 75mm field artillery piece mounted on the back. These are nice models that are much easier to build than others that I have done, particularly in the way that the wheels went on and the gun went together. The Su-12 was used during the Great Patriotic War as well, so great for Barbarossa scenarios too. Recommended.

Second, we have the Type 94 Tankette for the Japanese. Typical Battlefront tank model but, again, seemed to fit together more easily than usual. I also like the command figure. The Type 94 wasn't used in the invasion of Malaya and Burma, my usual theatre, but will be useful elsewhere I'm sure. Again, recommended.

A Riverine Scenario

Benito provides us with another CDS battle report, this time featuring a riverine action based on the additional rules outlined in the TFL 2011 Summer Special. Some excellent photographs of some equally excellent terrain and figures. 

Early War German Gallery

The first of my Christmas painting: the German field kitchen from QRF, with a couple of customers from Peter Pig's 'German Infantry Eating Lunch'.

The kitchen itself is really nice: a good cast with plenty of character. The two chef models are horrible, though, no definition to the faces. The Peter Pig figures are exactly what you'd expect: well cast infantry in imaginative poses with the usual open mouths...more appropriate than normal here. 

Useless for wargaming, but absolutely necessary for the serious wargamer, I also like the way the vignette makes it look as if the chef is being taken to task for the quality of his food! 

Gitungi Gallery

Next up is some AA support for my Gitungi.

Anyone who has ever played Q13 knows that a bit of AA is absolutely vital, but so few ranges include appropriate figures. Here, Micropanzer's Gitungi are enhanced with a GZG hover vehicle mounting some sort of AA missile launcher.

Incidentally, Jason at Micropanzer is working on his next set of Gitungi releases, so hopefully a  fuller range will be available soon...

Panzerkompanie

Here's the gallery for my late war German Panzerkompanie updated to fit in with Battle for Liberation and Vpered na Berlin.

A bit of a mish-mash of colour schemes and figure manufacturers...but somehow that seems quite appropriate!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

And I hope Santa brought you what you wanted!

Protolene Khanate Gallery

I'm trying not to start any more sci-fi armies for the moment, concentrating on completing the many that I have already.

This is actually harder than it sounds, as some of them don't actually come from complete ranges and have to be filled in as and when I come across something appropriate. For example, Khurasan's ambulatory plants, the Vornid, are lovely, but the 'range' only consists of a few infantry poses. I've already added Hydra's Slishians as command figures, and am now waiting for a package from Ravenstar with some 'Horrids' to add bio-vehicles.

Anyway, first up in the gap-filling are some command figures for Critical Mass's Protolene Khanates:

After Action Reports

Near Chemont

Sorry about the lack of new content since the 7th: real life intervened! Now I'm back, however, the regular updates start again with a cracking AAR from a scenario from the Blenneville or Bust! scenario pack.

It's scenario 3A: Near Chemont, and the lead elements of an American armoured division are tasked with securing a vital crossroads...

And whilst we're on the subject of Blenneville or Bust!, here are a couple of comments that have recently appeared on the TFL Yahoo Group:

"I am about to start Blenneville (which I think is probably one of the finest wargaming scenario books I have ever come across in three decades of wargaming). "

Justintonna 17/12/13

"It was only when playing Robert's Blenneville campaign after many years that it hit home how good IABSM is."

Craig Ambler 09/12/13

Most kind, Gentlemen!

US Rifle Company 1943-45

The release of the Battle for Liberation supplement for I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! necessitated some re-organisation of my troops. Nothing major: just a tweak here and a tweak there. I've already sorted the Germans out, here is the first of the revised US galleries: the standard rifle company. The picture below is the Company HQ.

Quadrant 13

USA WWW2

My Invasion Earth games are based on various alien races invading the Earth towards the end of WW2. Opposing the various aliens are my US troops, augmented by Clockwork Goblin's excellent range of Weird World War 2 figures.

Here are the Goblin's latest releases for the US force: Hyena light jump walkers for the soon-to-be-released Firefly jump troops, and some rocket-launcher types for the powered armour infantry company HQ. Highly recommended.

Nova Respublik pdf

A new army list for Q13 based on  Khurasan Miniatures range of futuristic Soviets: the Nova Respublik.

This is a very nice collection of figures with plenty of options. There are some good, solid infantry backed up by proper support weapons and a brilliant high command set. Four variants of the same basic medium tank chassis, two APCs, one general transport, and the absolutely super Doe gunship. Add in walkers and robot guns, and you have everything you need to build a rounded company and supports.

Here's the gunship:

Harook Gallery

Harook Army List (pdf)

I have now finished my platoon of Hauk airmobile troops. These are superb figures by Khurasan that go really well with my existing Harook. 

One can see the Harook as descendents of the prehistoric Titanis or giant terror bird, with the Hauk as descendents of raptors such as hawks and eagles, both species living together in reasonable harmony, one on the plains of their home planet, one up in the mountains.

To celebrate the arrival of the Hauk, I've also updated the Harook army list to include them as an airmobile option, using the equally superb Aerie dropships mentioned below on 8th November.

Hauk:

After Action Reports

Carroceto Again

Craig Ambler returns to Carroceto to play scenario #15 of the Anzio: Wildcat to Whale scenario pack.

A huge game of IABSM involving masses of figures as the Germans attack the Allied troops desperately holding the town. 

You can see Craig's report from the earlier Carroceto scenario (#02) below.

Buy Five Planets

Five Planets Released!

I'm pleased to announce the release of my latest scenario pack: Five Planets.

Five Planets is a campaign and scenario pack for Quadrant 13 (Q13), the company-sized, sci-fi wargame rules from the TooFatLardies.

The pack contains twelve scenarios set within the Pankova solar system, with two adversaries fighting over its priceless resources. The action begins on Peach, the outermost planet, a most desolate, moon-like place but the gateway to the system, then moves through the asteroid belt to Cheteria, the ice planet. After Cheteria comes Three, the garden world that feeds the system, followed by D’Var, the desert planet whose sands conceal vast seas of valuable oil. Finally the campaign climaxes on fiery Adeen, closest to the sun, but the source of limitless power.

The campaign is designed to be played through twice: with each player first taking the part of the race invading the Pankova system, the Attackers, and then taking the part of the incumbents, the Defenders. Be warned, sometimes the Defenders are attacking, and sometimes the Attackers are defending: as first one side then the other gains an advantage.

Although written for Q13, Five Planets can be easily adapted for any sci-fi rules system. Each scenario contains a full game briefing, a map, and then a briefing for each player, including a description of the forces available. All players need to do is print off the appropriate pages for the scenario that they want to play, set up the battlefield, break out the figures, and away they go. As the army lists given are generic, players can use them to play any sci-fi army that they choose: whether based on a particular range of figures, background from another ruleset, background from a film or book, or even a background that they have made up themselves.

So set your weapons to exterminate and prepare to do battle: there’s glory to be won on the Five Planets!

NB  Although you can buy Five Planets on the Vis Lardica site here, Q13 itself is only available from the TooFatLardies here.

After Action Reports

Green Smoke Marks The Target

Topi continues his East Africa campaign with another clash between British and Italian colonial forces.

Looks like some nasty blue-on-blue action!

After Action Reports

Carroceto

Lardy Craig Ambler takes a trip to Italy to play Carroceto, the second scenario in the Anzio: Wildcat to Whale scenario pack.

A game characterised by lethal dice rolling:  the British suffering fifty Kills and only three points of Shock. My only question is where I can get dice like that!

Garn Gallery

Harook Gallery

Back to science fiction now, with some additions to my collection.

First up is a Topcat command vehicle for the Felids. This is an excellent GZG model that is solid metal: it weighs an absolute ton! Not sure how I managed to achieve the cracked look to the paint: that was unintentional, but does look good!

Next it is the start of my Hauk troops: avians from Khuarasan who will support Mad Robot's Harook as their airmobile arm. 

First to be finished are the Aerie grav transports. I'm particularly pleased with the cockpit canopies: carefully copied, albeit in a different colour, from the examples on Khurasan's website.

These are arriving just in time to be used in the final playtesting of my Five Planets scenario pack for Q13, which is due for publication before the start of December. Although designed for 15mm Q13, it can be used with any sci-fi rules, so start saving your pennies now!

After Action Reports

Near Avaux II

Unusually, both my usual wargaming opponents were available in the same week. Last night, Dave and I fought to an epic draw (see below), tonight was Neil's turn. As I didn't have time to set up anything new, we'd fight the same battle as before. Not only that, but I would play the Germans again, and decided to set up in almost exactly the same way as before, looking forward to seeing how the two games would differ.

Well, it was indeed a very different game. Click on the link to the left to find out more...

After Action Reports

Near Avaux

Terrific game of IABSM last night. Dave and I fought Scenario #4B from the Blenneville or Bust! scenario pack: Near Avaux. A hugely entertaining clash with the fortunes of war swaying backwards and forwards each turn, and with a truly epic climax!

After Action Reports

Soviets vs Japanese

I Ain't Been Shot, Mum!

Soviet Army Gallery

More early war tanks from Battlefront: this time Soviet T-28s. Bad picture, but these are nice little models.

After Action Reports

Rawhide Replayed

Benito returns to the jungles of Vietnam with an AAR from one of the scenarios from the Surf's Up! scenario pack for Charlie Don't Surf. It's time for Rawhide Replayed...

Soviet Army Gallery

With Battlefront flirting with the Sino-Soviet confrontations in Manchuria just before the "official" start of WW2, they have released a whole new set of early war Soviet kit. Here are the BT-7A tanks i.e. the BT-7 tank with a howitzer rather than a normal tank gun.

Quadrant 13

One of the problems with 15mm sci-fi is that manufacturers seem to think that everyone wants to play 28mm skirmish games using 15mm figures. This means they release a "range" of figures that isn't so much a range as a taster, with manufacturers thinking a range is complete with a few infantry types and maybe a support weapon or two. This is especially true for alien races.

No, no, no, no, no!

What you need is leg infantry; command figures at platoon and company level; support weapons like machine gun and mortar equivalents; artillery and anti-tank weapons; technical specialists and drones; recon troops; APCs to motorise your force; maybe assault troops and engineers; then scout cars or light tanks, medium tanks and heavy tanks; flyers; and maybe a drop ship. A full range!

Ranting aside, the Gitungi from Micropanzer are a prime example. Beautiful leg infantry and, now that the drones have been sold off elsewhere, that's it. 

Well my Gitungi are lucky: they have managed to get hold of some of Khurasan's Federal Army tanks. The XM-6 SuperHeavy Grav tanks to be exact. Here they are:

Click on the Gitungi symbol on the left to go to the full Gitungi army gallery.

After Action Reports

Operation Biting #01

Operation Biting #02

Here's an AAR that's been on my to-do list for some time. John has designed and is playing an IABSM scenario around the Operation Biting raid at Bruneval, where the Paras went in to capture some German radar technology.

A great AAR currently in two parts. You can see the details of the historical raid at the beginning of part two.

After Action Reports

West of Pierrecourt

As promised, here is Topi's AAR from playing the first scenario of the Blenneville or Bust! scenario book campaign: West of Pierrecourt. 

To quote his introduction: "Kicked off our Blenneville campaign this weekend. A German panzergrenadier recon unit tries to stop the American machine in the bocage country. 'Greenhorn, this is nothing compared to Kursk' was the German motto, as more and more American troops arrived. Quite a few spoilers to the scenario, so be warned."

After Action Reports

First Blood

The last of Topi's four East Africa 1940 battle reports: the Italians advance again.

Next time, the action moves to Normandy, as our Finnish friend plays the first scenario of the Blenneville or Bust! scenario book campaign.

After Action Reports

The Battle of Ras Gaan

The next battle report slurped from Topi's blog covers an Italian attempt to bash through a British blocking point. It all looks a bit crowded to me!

After Action Reports

A Missionary Man

The next battle report slurped from Topi's blog contains a bit more information about the background to his East Africa 1940 campaign. That's in addition to an amusing tale of a ragtag bunch of militia taking on the might of the Italian army. Proves you don't need tons of troops and Tigers on the table to have fun with IABSM!

Quadrant 13

Army Lists

I have updated two of the Q13 army lists to go along with either new figures in the range or new additions to my collection.

Gitungi

Firstly the Gitungi. Odd one here, as Micropanzer seems to have decided that the Gitungi will no longer enjoy the Recovery, Assault and Destroyer Drones as support weapons: these are now part of Dark Star Games' Spec-Sec range! And there was I thinking the transfer window was over! 

Gitungi Assault Drones: now you see them...now you don't!

Anyhow, I've deleted the Destroyer Drones from the list (I didn't like them anyway!) but have kept the other two (the figures are already painted!) and added some superheavy tanks from Khurasan. These are currently weighing down one end of my painting table (they are enormous!) but will be joining the Gitungi forces soon. 

I'm also hoping Micropanzer will soon release the next wave of Gitungi infantry. Some different poses and some Specialists. Must remember to buy them as soon as they are out...before they too disappear somewhere else! Click on the Gitungi logo, left, to see the revised list.

USA WWW2

Clockwork Goblin have released the next in their excellent range of US Weird World War II figures: the Hyena Light Jump Walkers based on the Coyote Light Walker with added flamethrower and jump pack; and the heavy infantry heavy weapons (looks like a bazooka to me).

Coyote Light Walkers

Now all we need is the Jump Infantry to go with the Hyenas...and I'm sure there were supposed to be some medium Jump Walkers as well...Mudskippers IIRC. Anyway, when I met the Goblin at Colours recently, he said the Jump Infantry were on the way soon. He didn't mention the Mudskippers though! Click on the vanilla US officer, left, to see the revised list.

I knew I wasn't imagining things!

After Action Reports

East Africa Waltzing Matilda

I've found a new source of After Action Reports! A gentleman named Topi, from Finland, has an excellent blog with five IABSM AARs. It will take me a few days to catch up, but catch up I will!

Here's the first: his first game of IABSM. It's East Africa, British versus Italians, and Topi's English is a lot better than my Finnish!

Soviet Tank Company

Now that I've re-catalogued all my late war Soviets, I can clearly see where the gaps in my collection are. One such gap was transport for the Scouts. Looking at the lists, I saw that lend-lease White scout cars were an option, and as I happened to have three of them lyign around in the lead mountain...

British Air Landing Company

As promised below, here's the cleaned up Battle for Liberation gallery for the British Air Landing Company. Landed by glider or transport aircraft, these are better equipped than the parachutists, with anti-tanks guns, pack artillery, and even tanks.

Quadrant 13

A change from I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! as the next set of the Gitungi support weapons roll off the production line. These are Assault Drones, armed with a powerful gatling-like weapon under their 'chins'. Nice looking models from Micropanzer.

Click on the Gitungi symbol on the left to go to the Gitungi army gallery.