The Vornid 

from Khurasan Miniatures

The first of the Vornid infantry:

Protolene Khanate 

from Critical Mass Games

The first of the new Communications/Electronic Warfare variants to the Ayame battlesuits. 

Oh, and I've just noticed that I've forgotten to paint the vision slits!

The Vornid 

from Khurasan Miniatures

The first of the Vornid: ambulatory plants from Khurasan Miniatures. 

I haven't had a chance to photograph the infantry yet, but the Figure Review section shows how they paint up.

In the meantime, here are a couple of Vornid support weapons. Being pirates (and as the range, in common with too many 15mm sci-fi ranges, currently only includes infantry) they have acquired their support weapons from non-Vornid sources. The guns come from Ground Zero Games, and the toadstool crew are from Khurasan's Mystri Island range.

Protolene Khanate 

from Critical Mass Games

With Critical Mass Games producing a whole load of new Protolene Khanate Ayame walkers, I've re-vamped the Khan's gallery page and started adding more units.

First up are the Ayame Mortar Assault walkers: a departure from the rest of the Ayame range as they aren't assigned to any of the three "branches" of the Khan army: the Hunters, Scouts or Predators. 

These are, however, great figures, and provide a much needed indirect fire support capacity for the Khan. As they are "branch-less", I decided to paint them up in grey, but couldn't resist making their claw hand the same colour as my predator models...perhaps as if they had been fitted from spare parts left over after a particularly bloody battle!

D-Day:  Point 54

A beautiful looking game from Martin, describing C Company, 1st Dorsets' attempt to take Point 54 on D-Day.

The TFL Games Day 2011: TOBRUK

I've added the report from the Scandinavian contingent:

The TFL Games Day 2011: TOBRUK

The TFL Games Day 2011 took place on Sunday 12th June, with the action being a re-fight of the Commonwealth break-in to Tobruk in January 1941.  Seven games were fought during the day. In the morning, the Commonwealth troops broke through the Italian perimeter. A lunchtime interlude saw the Matildas of 7TRT attempting to suppress the main Italian gun line. Finally, the Commonwealth troops fanned out, with three games charting their progress inside the perimeter.

Full reports of the day's play, plus tons of photos!

SciFi Rules Full Playtest No. 1

I'm expanding the quick IABSM sci-fi expansion I did in one of the Specials, Get Your Frickin' Tentacle Out Of My Face, into a full blown, stand-alone set of rules. It's going to be significantly different to IABSM, CDS and GYFTOOMF, although the basic mechanics (and concepts for the latter) will remain the same (-ish!).

Here's a quick AAR from our first playtest of the full rules.

The expanded system worked very well, with a few inconsistencies dealt with minor amendments. What is obvious is that facing a force with aircraft with none of your own or any AA cover is a recipe for disaster, which makes perfect sense when you think about it. Imagine the drones as Apache helicopters...

The much-expanded troop/weapon/movement definitions and core rules worked really well, although much more playtesting is required to check game balance. What was good was the way that Tech Level played an important part in things (increasing chances to spot, targeting, damage etc) without slowing the game down at all. Also fun was the use of a Drone Operator: with the real damage being done to the Felids when the overall commander of the human force used his entire turn to activate said DO, who was hiding behind a hill on the other side of the battlefield, who then used his activation to "send in the drones". Playing the Felids I definitely found the threat of air attack ended up defining my tactics!

Krazny Bor

A battle report from the Eastern Front.

Khurasan Miniatures' Vornids

WW2 Italians

Izdeshkovo

An excellent and picture-heavy AAR from the Vyazma or Bust scenario pack.

Khurasan Miniatures' Ursids

WW2 French

As those of you who have seen my collection know, most of my WW2 figures are Battlefront. I like their slightly cartoon-y style, and find they take the paint very easily. As I also very much enjoy playing the early war period of WW2, I was therefore chuffed to bits when Battlefront re-visited the period: I looked forward to filling all the gaps in my German, French and BEF armies, and to adding Poles.

My first purchase were some French 47mm anti-tank guns...and this is where the horror starts. Quelle disappointment! Although the guns are lovely (and build easily) the crews are horrible, simply horrible! I was so moved I even posted on TMP about hopw bad they were, and was relieved to find that many other people feel the same way. Most advised me to keep the guns and crew them with Old Glory or Peter Pig.

Well, I was going to do that, then couldn't be bothered to go through all the hassle of ordering etc when I wanted to paint them now! So I kept the BF block-monster crews and did the best I could. Here they are:

Just compare them to the Italians, below, especially the faces: to me, the most important past of a 15mm figure.

WW2 Italians

So I put the bank holiday weekend to good use by finishing another platoon of Italian Fusilieri for the forthcoming TFL Western Desert Games Day. I have now painted literally scores of Battlefront Italians now, and am always pleased how they turn out. 

For those interested, although I have used a variety of dark and light yellows on my Italians, this platoon is painted using GW Tausept Ochre washed with GW Devlan Mud and then highlighted with GW Desert Yellow. All equipment is also base coated, washed and highlighted; as is flesh. Means you paint each soldier twice, but I like the effect.

WW2 Italians

I've been looking for some Lancia armoured trucks for some time and have finally decided to plump for the QRF WW1 models that are available. 

This model fairly accurately reflects an early Lancia armoured truck, but I really wanted the later 1ZM version which featured a wire cutter stretched from bonnet to top of cab and dispensed (for weight's sake) with the armoured rear wheel covering. Twelve of these were sent to Libya in the early 1930's, so could conceivably still have been going in 1940/41.

As for the paint scheme...well, it's not very accurate. Most Italian equipment was still painted dark green in 1940/41 rather than the desert yellow shown below. Amusingly, the white wall front tyre and nifty turret decoration are probably correct: the black and white photo I have seen from Benghazi shows a dark (presumably) green truck with white wall tyres and a turret that is definitely made up of two colours in the pattern shown below separated by a white line. It's not too much of a stretch to think that they might have been green and red to make the Italian flag!

WW2 Soviets

I have finally finished my Soviet Zis-3 76mm Field Gun Battery, figures by Battlefront.

Hannut

Jandrain

Two excellent and well-illustrated After Action Reports from the pen of Brian Cantwell, both concerning actions in France in the summer of 1940: at Hannut, the French 3rd DLM (light mechanised division) take on the German 4th Panzer Division; and at Jandrain, the Somuas of 3rd DLM counter-attack the panzers of 3rd Panzer Division.

The Battle of Girba

Another version of the Battle of Girba from the Operation Compass scenario pack. This time John Sullins plays the game...

The Garn

Garn Flesh Eaters and the Felid Prideguard join the ranks of the Garn Confederation forces.

The Battle of Girba

Zippee's second battle report from the Operation Compass scenario pack. This time, British armour encounters an Italian column patrolling along the Wire.

The Road To Fort Capuzzo

An AAR from Zippee, who recently played the first scenario from the Operation Compass Scenario pack.

A successful and enjoyable game, except for the fact that the Zipmeister's camera tripod fell apart just after he'd laid out the terrain. Accompanying illustrations are therefore of the desert in all its lonely glory. Enjoy!

Obscure Miniatures

Zvezda

I've added a couple of new entries to the list of WW2 15mm manufacturers.

First up are Obscure Miniatures with the somewhat controversial release of a range of 15mm Hitler Jugend figures. Here is the bumph from their website along with a couple of pictures:

"Well, here is the beginning of our "Battle for Berlin" range. To start with we have the Hitler Youth. The command is 15mm to the eyes and the infantry is 15mm to the top of the head. These are scaled to be children soldiers. If you ever really wanted to do Berlin and the end of the war with the correct figures here they are. Some of the helmets and gear has been over scaled to give that cast off, hand me down feel. We hope these fit in with some of your battles."

Next up is an entry for Zvezda, a Russian company that have been threatening to release 1/100th scale plastic tanks for some time. Their website is in Russian, but translates into English, but you will probably need to find a distributor from whom to order rather than being able to do so directly.

As far as I can see from the website catalogue, they have four models available now:  an early T-34 (natch!); a T-26; a Panzer II and a Panzer III. Here's a small piccy pf the T-34 (not sure what that flag is doing at the back) which is apparently a five part kit. The picture links to the appropriate Zvezda page so you can see a bigger version, along with pictures of the front and back of the box showing more detail.

The Quar from ZombieSmith

The last pictures from my first company of Quar: the Company HQ and Weapons Squad.  

The Quar from ZombieSmith

The next gallery pictures of the Quar: great 15mm aliens from Zombie Smith.  

WW2 Italians

Double Trouble on the Eastern Front

The second and third IABSM games of the New Year: a quick pick up game involving a Soviet assault on a Fallschirmjager-held village somewhere on the Eastern Front.

Terrific action, including some stunning exploits from Soviet tank-killers and a German anti-tank gun crew led by Leutnant Freddi Feuerzangenbowle! Click on the left or the picture below to see more.

Well that's the contents of the Vis Magica website transferred to this one: so no more www.vismagica.com!

Rest assured, however, everything that was there is now here, and I'll continue to add more to it as and when the fancy strikes me.

Meanwhile, here are some dwarves:

The Quar from ZombieSmith

The first gallery pictures of the Quar: great 15mm aliens from Zombie Smith.  

Here's a couple more pictures:

Gaming Models' AB40 & Morris CS9

Here is a proper review of the AB40 and Morris CS9 models, with a comparison to Battlefront's AB41 model included as well.

BEF

Italians

Some new and somewhat rare additions to my collection. For the BEF, there is a patrol of Morris CS armoured cars; and for the Italians there are two AB40 armoured car patrols: one for the desert and one for Sicily.

All the models come from Gaming Models, a company that I have eschewed for a long time, put off by early reviews and the pictures on their website. A full review will follow, but suffice to say I am very happy with the AB40s and pretty happy with the Morris CSs.

Close Encounters

Hondeghem

Whilst sorting through all the files on my computer, I came across some photos of some of the first games of IABSM that I set up and ran myself.

Those of you who notice that some of the hedges in both these games are made out of green ring binder spines will be relived to know that I now have huge numbers of "proper" hedges!

I have started to transfer the Vis Magica content from the Vis Magica website to this one. Done so far are the Amendments; Army Statistics; Battle Reports; Downloads and Optional Rules. Still to come are the biggies: the Army Lists and the Armies Gallery.

Action Within Tobruk

The first game of the New Year: a scenario taken from the Operation Compass scenario booklet covering the early war in the Western Desert.

Today, deep within the heart of the Italian stronghold of Tobruk , the assaulting Australians find themselves on the end of a rather nasty looking Italian counter-attack. Click on the link or the picture to see what happened!

Well the site re-vamp is coming along nicely. 

All the 19th Century wargaming information from the Vis Imperica site has now been transferred to this one, so the Vis Imperica site will shortly be shutting down. 

Next up is to transfer all the Fantasy wargaming information from the Vis Magica website to this one, so the Vis Magica website can be shut down as well. Not so much a question of money, but a question of ease of navigation...although the savings made by only running two websites (Ancients on Vis Bellica; everything else on Vis Lardica) will be swiftly ploughed back into more figure purchases!

In addition to the above, plans for the Vis Lardica website in the immediate future include adding a gallery for all my 19th century wargaming figures, and more tidying up and rationalisation of pages.

Finally, let me just say that I hope you have a very happy, wargaming New Year, and keep checking back to see the latest news and updates here at Vis Lardica.