AAR: A Game of IABSM

/

Hello All!

Well I'm back from San Francisco and feeling somewhat jet-lagged. Even flying business class, eleven hours there, three days of conference (including entertaining, which also included a great concert from the Killers and Foo Fighters: the former being particularly good) and then ten hours back is a lot to take. 

The obligatory shot of the Golden Gate bridge

And one of the Bay Bridge at night

[RUGBY SPOILER ALERT]

I managed, however, to stay awake long enough today to watch Japan beat South Africa at rugby: an unbelievable result that came from an incredible performance from the Japanese team. To give you an idea of their guts, with one minute to go they were three points behind and were awarded a penalty on the Springboks' five yard line: three times they made the decision to go for the try rather than the safer kick-to-draw option. 

Which nicely sets us up for today's IABSM battle report: a pick-up game from Charles Eckart which comes with no pictures but some great story-telling. Click here to see the AAR.

CDS: Vietnamese Villagers

/

A short time ago, I posted pictures of the sampans that I'd painted from the Battlefront NVA Local Resistance boxed set.

I bought the box really to get the sampans, but they came with twelve Vietnamese villager figures that I thought I might as well paint up as well.

These are actually really nice figures: they have a certain animation that not only makes them a pleasure to paint but that look good on the tabletop too. One teeny-weeny word of caution: they are quite delicately built, these Vietnamese types, so the figures can be bent at the ankle very easily. It's not a problem, I hasten to add, but they are slightly less robust than a standard Battlefront mannikin, and I'd hate anyone to break one accidentally.

Here they are:

I really like the chaps in the paddy field (on the left, up to their ankles); the cahps holding the bundles of vegetation up front, centre; and the two women carrying babies/small children.

A nice set that will certainly help 'dress' the battlefield...or represent VC in disguise of course.

Q13: Gitungi Get Re-Inforced

/

Micropanzer's Gitungi are one of my favourite alien races for Q13. 

They have a very distinctive look to them; they include a good range of models; and some of those models are very definitely alien and/or demonstrative of an alien technology.

One thing they lack, however, are decent vehicles, so I have been forced to improvise from other ranges. My Gitungi already have Khurasan's superheavy tanks and a grav AA vehicle from GZG at their disposal; these are now joined by some suitably Gitungi-looking SP artillery and AA guns from Daemonscape.

Daemonscape, if you remember, are the company that produced that big spaceship I painted up last month. I was checking the url for that blog post when I noticed they had released some 15mm armoured vehicles. A quick visit to the relevant page on their site, and I knew I had to have the ones with the dustbins as guns, and the ones with the unfeasible array of AA guns, immediately.

Once ordered, the question became which of my sci-fi armies would they suit. The answer: the Gitungi.  

The models are nicely cast, and I like the way the same base chassis is used for different gun configurations: very panzer! One slight problem is that the AA guns are so ridiculously  big that they do make the turret tip forward slightly unless the vehicle is driving uphill. Ah well: a small price to pay!

Here they are:

"Get ready to fire the dustbins of death!"

The turret-tipping madness of the AA array

TFL Painting Challenge: Post-Colours Update

/

A good selection of entries this week. Almost makes up for what was quite a weird Colours. Can't decide if it was good or bad.

The good was that there was plenty of room, a nice selection of traders, and a few demo games to observe.

The bad was mainly the extraordinary lack of atmosphere...and the fact that I could find nothing I wanted to buy. Oh, and the bar had problems with their taps, so it was literally half an hour to get a drink. 

Anyway, today's entries are:

  • Matt Slade with a cornucopia of 28mm goodness. Lovely work as always, and love the Flash Gordon figures.
  • Jason Ralls with a mostly 15mm submission, including that factory from Sarissa I keep promising myself I must get
  • Mr Naylor finishes his Russian infantry
  • Paul Baldwin is another cornucopia type: zombies, skeletons, animals, dungeon dressing etc
  • Mr Plowman has built a huge 15mm sci-fi fort
  • Mr Luther has made some more scenery
  • and Topi pops in a mix of 15mm and 20mm WW2 stuff

Pictures, pictures, pictures...it's got to be Matt's Hawkmen, Jason's factory, and Ralph's fort:

Off to Colours

/

Sorry about the lack of recent posts (nothing since Monday) but I have been very busy with work and, quite frankly, have done nothing in the evenings except slump in front of the goggle-box!

Well that's not quite true. Given that this new version of the Vis Lardica website is now about a year old (assume the fanfares, wild claims of page views etc) I have been making a bit more of an effort to finish re-uploading the Vis Bellica and Vis Magica content from the old site. All the VB battle reports are now uploaded (see that section of the VB area) and I know what more I have to do.

Meanwhile, I'm off to Colours, back after its enforced absence last year. I'll be updating the Painting Challenge this weekend, so get your entries in, and have a host of content to put up when I can summon the energy to do so!

Meanwhile, here's a pick from the Society of Ancients Battle Day, 2004, where the VB team re-fought Gaugamela.

Greek Mercenary Hoplites from my collection advance towards the waiting Persian hordes.

TFL: The Chain of Command Challenge

/

I don't often post about the TFL WW2 platoon-level game Chain of Command as this site is really reserved for TFL's company-level games.

I do, however. enjoy a nice game of CoC every now and again, so am happy to help Rich promote the "Chain of Command Challenge": a 20%-off offer on the rules, whatever the format.

Here's what Rich said on Lard Island News:

The Chain of Command Challenge

It’s not often we’ll be so direct as to ask “Do you prefer CoC, or the alternative?” but a very comprehensive review of Chain of Command and one of the alternative rule sets out there aimed at platoon level actions has certainly got people talking.  You can read Trailape’s comments on his blog here: http://trailape.blogspot.com.au/2015/09/so-youre-platoon-commander-comparing.html

Now, we’re not making any claim for Chain of Command to be the biggest, best or anything else, but we do know that we all have a huge range of rule sets to choose between and often it takes a bit of a poke with a sharp stick to get us to jump in and try something new.  So, we thought that now would be a great time for us to launch the Chain of Command Challenge to encourage those gamers who’d been thinking about giving Chain of Command a try but who hadn’t quite got round to it yet.  For the remainder of September we are slashing 20% off the price of the rules in hard copy, PDF or tablet-friendly format making Chain of Command fantastic value and this the ideal time to make that jump and give them a whirl.

Of course, as Hans is telling us, we mustn’t forget that Chain of Command benefits from all sorts of nice free to download support products like the notes of bigger battles which can be found here: Big Chain of Command

But there’s much, much more than that.  We are rolling out free Army lists which will eventually cover the whole of WWII as well as producing a range of scenario and campaign supplements to make your gaming even more fun.  Why not check out Lard Island News and search for  Chain of Command Free Downloads to see the whole range of what is already available, or even try one of our Pint-Sized Campaigns, a whole campaign for the price of a pint of beer!

To take part in the Chain of Command Challenge you can find the rules at this great introductory price on our web site here:  Chain of Command Products. And just to make things a bit more fun, we’d love to see your reports on your blogs, Facebook or Twitter feeds (hashtag #spreadthelard ), on the TooFatLardies Forum or Yahoo Group, or simply post your comments in a reply to this post.  Why not take the Chain of Command Challenge today?

TFL Painting Challenge: Today's Update

/

Lots of entries again today: this is becoming a very busy event!

In no particular order we have:

  • Doug Melville and some very lovely Milanese banners for download
  • Andrew Helliwell with his usual crowd of 15mm figures
  • Leif pops in a handful of Mars Attacks! figures
  • Owen enters some more naval crew and guns
  • Mr "Hat" Bowler returns after a short absence with some more WOTR figures, the first of many Caesarian chaps, and a triplet of ships
  • Mark Luther provides some of the missing pics in his gallery
  • Keith Davies sends in some 6mm WW2 figures
  • Mr Plowman has two entries, both 15mm sci-fi, both fantastic
  • and finally Kev has a couple of very gorgeous bombards for us to admire

Today's pictures are from Kev and Ralph, with Doug's banner's thrown in for good measure!

SciFi civilians from Ralph Plowman

SciFi civilians from Ralph Plowman

One of Kev's rather lovely bombards. You can see a side elevation in his gallery.

One of Kev's rather lovely bombards. You can see a side elevation in his gallery.

Doug's Milanese banners, available to download from his blog (see his gallery for details)

Doug's Milanese banners, available to download from his blog (see his gallery for details)

Oh and here's another, as an extra bonus: some of Mark Luther's Japanese in action:

20949520552_2584554db3_o.1.jpg

Q13: Chuhuac Army List Updated

/

Here's a recent post about the Ikwen figures from Loud Ninja Games:

Some of you may already have seen my Chuhuac: 15mm velociraptor-like aliens from Loud Ninja Games. They are a great set of figures, full of life and animation, that are a real pleasure to paint up and play. I usually use them as mercenaries: a rapidly-moving, light infantry force designed to hit hard and fast and then disappear again.

So when Loud Ninja Games announced their second release, the Ikwen, I was at the front of the queue to buy a set. These are salamander-like aliens, also in 15mm, whom Eli has conceived as a sort of low-tech planetary militia. 

I loved the figures, but didn't really like the idea of fielding them as envisioned...so I've come up with an alternative use for them: they are paid by the Chuhuac as their logistics tail. The little dinos are the teeth, the Ikwen the tail...and just as the various cooks and bottle-washers in other armies have sometimes had to pick up their rifles and fight (Hurtgen Forest, Battle of the Bulge etc) so the Ikwen occasionally go into battle as well.

I've now had time to update the Chuhuac Army List to include the Ikwen engineers and taken the opportunity to make a couple of other tweaks as well. You can access it from this page here.

Potential IABSM Market Garden Game in Sweden

/

Long time Lardy Thomas Nissvik (you can see his gallery in the 2015 Painting Challenge, and several AARs in the appropriate sections) has posted this piece of news on the TFL Forum:

My buddy Daniel asked me to post this. I will be participating as an Umpire, but Daniel is running the event.

"I plan to hold a big game event next year. The event will be a four day event, probably a Thursday to Sunday thing. It will be based on the 101. Airborne sector during Market Garden and the fighting around Hell's Highway. Rules will be IABSM (I Ain't Been Shot Mum) with a good amount of some local "house rules". Knowing the rules is not necessary as all tables will have umpires. It will be for friends so it is not some commercial event or open to the public.

A pic from the Lardy D-Day Games Day showing British Paras in action around Ranville

My thought is to do this some time in August (when most people have vacation) in the a place which is only ten minutes by car from Arlanda airport and about forty minutes from Stockholm central by train. The idea is to rent a community house. It has a pentry so it will be possible to make food. I am still inquiring with the people responsible and will visit the house in September. I will ask all participants for a modest entry fee to cover the rental expense for the house (which will be fairly low).

It will be played over several large tables with the Son bridge in the south and Uden in the north. Each player will command a force or battle group either consisting of elements of the 101. Airborne, XXX Corps or the German forces. Each force might be equalling a reinforced company or so. I also have plans of having people being commanders of the whole Airborne force, XXX Corps and so on, responsible for coordination, allocating resources, reserves and supplies and communication as well as some higher level support units (especially when it comes to the XXX Corps).

The idea is not to cover the whole Market Garden operation so the Nijmegen, Arnhem, Eelst/Driel sector will not be covered. Some tables will be connected to each other making it possible to send troops directly over to the next while others while require some "extra move points" or "deductions".

I plan to use my friends Koen, Jocke, Laffe and Thomas as umpires. Myself also being one but more on a coordination level. Perhaps they will also have some force responsibility depending on how many will join. All of us will obviously do our best to bring forth the necessary terrain and so on.

I would like to ask you if you would be interested in joining this. Perhaps you also know some people who would be interested in joining as player participants or as umpires, full or part time?"

So, anyone interested?

Cheers/Thomas

Those of you who haven't been to a Lardy games day before should visit the AAR section of this website and see the reports from previous events. They are at the bottom of the right-hand column of AARs.

It would be great if this happened, so if you do fancy a trip to Sweden next year for a big game of IABSM, let Thomas know by replying to his post on the forum here or by e-mailing him at thomas.nissvik@gmail.com.

Sampans from Battlefront

/

For Christmas last year I bought the "Local Resistance" set from Battlefront's Brown River range.

This is a set comprising six sampans (three motorised, three not) and twelve suspicious looking Vietnamese peasant-types.

The sampans looked really good out of the box, and have painted up very nicely indeed. For those interested, the boats were undercoated in black, then dry-brushed with a dark brown and then a light, drab brown. The awnings were dry-brushed in a drab yellow colour, and then very lightly dry-brushed in sand yellow. I then painted the 'drivers' in nice, bright colours (I checked via Google that Vietnamese people wear these colours!) as a contrast.

I'll do the villagers next, but they look good with their undercoats on, so high hopes for them as well.

Here's a close-up of one of the sampans, and then a group shot of all six:

TFL Painting Challenge: Another Big Update

/

Apologies for the lack of posts this week: been very busy with real-world work.

As an example, I had a big battle this morning (Scenario #3B from Vyazma or Bust!) and was too tired to set it up last night: had just put the final figure down on the deployment table when the doorbell rang and the first of my four guests-players arrived. Great game:  AAR follows within a day or two.

In the meantime, here's another update for the Painting Challenge. Today we have entries from:

  • Andrew Helliwell with lots of 15mm foot
  • Matt Slade with more DC Comics figures and some nice ACW Confederates
  • Steve Burt with some more Napoleonics
  • Dave Humm submits his first entry for the year: a mixed bag of ancients, WW2, moderns and ACW figures in two different scales
  • Mr Naylor pops in another Soviet WW2 platoon
  • Andy Duffell is big into his 28mm WW2 vehicles at the moment. Here's another five.
  • Andrew McCarthy also sends in a bit of a mass entry: ancients figures and some scratchbuilt buildings
  • Mr Bairos is another lurker who emerges from the deep: lots of 28mm Napoleonics but no pics
  • And Mr Douglas sends another four-score or so of US troops to the front

Today's picture is from Mr Helliwell: some nice ACW figures from Peter Pig:

TFL Painting Challenge: Colossal Update!

/

Well that's taken me a bit longer than I expected!

Loads of entries today: people must be taking advantage of their summer holidays! Making me feel like I should paint something today, but I'll have to fit that in around chores and preparing for tonight's game.

In no particular order, we have:

  • Treadhead with some rather nice 6mm Mechs
  • Mr Luther with some entrenchments
  • Matt Slade with three sets of entries: Arthurians, Crusaders, and some chaps from the LOTRs
  • Mr Hodge with plenty of 6mm figures. He's preparing to play the Blenneville or Bust! campaign. Very sensible.
  • Steve Burt with some horse artillery
  • Mervyn pops in loads of 28mm US types for Chain of Command
  • Ralph Plowman showcases the latest Armies Army 15mm sci-fi release. Very nice they are too.
  • Owen sends in his usual cornucopia of figures: Nappy's, pirates and loot!
  • Mr Naylor has finished his first 15mm WW2 Soviet platoon. Must be preparing for Vyazma or Bashnya or Bust!
  • Keith Davies sends in some 6mm WW2 tanks and tank destroyers
  • Egg increases the size of his fleet
  • And Leif adds three Germans to his collection

In honour of the effort demonstrated by the above, four pictures today. Those of you who know what I like will know what's coming!

First up: Lief's three Germans

First up: Lief's three Germans

A Life On the Ocean's Wave: Egg's latest additions

A Life On the Ocean's Wave: Egg's latest additions

Latest releases from Armies Army beautifully painted by Ralph Plowman

Latest releases from Armies Army beautifully painted by Ralph Plowman

Some of Matt Slade's Arthurians

Some of Matt Slade's Arthurians

Vis Imperica Army Galleries: the Imperial Chinese

/

Another army that I really like: the Imperial Chinese with a few Boxers added in for good measure. This is another army made up of figures from a painting service and, again, I can't remember which service it was or even who the figure manufacturer is...I think it's Irregular, and I think that it was their in-house painting service, but I'm not sure.

 The great thing about the Imperial Chinese is how unrelentingly rubbish they are! A loss can be greeted with a shrug of the shoulders and no shame, a victory can be celebrated as an incredibly impressive achievement, especially as they are usually fighting much smaller but much better armies from France or Britain. I think the trick is not actually to engage the enemy at all ("the art of fighting without fighting") at least until you can get close enough to overwhelm them through sheer numbers. Oh, and don't tell the Boxers that their lucky amulets don't work very well!

Click on the picture below to see the whole collection:

Boxers

Boxers

TFL Painting Challenge: Loads of Entries Were Waiting For Me!

/

I see that everyone has been very busy painting whilst I've been away.

In no particular order we have:

  • Mr Ralls still alive and kicking, and painting like crazy: 28mm WW2 Germans and 1/48 modern Brits for Fighting Season
  • Stephen Miller adds some lovely horse in 28mm and 54mm: not bad for a man with only one arm working!
  • Mark Luther pops in some 20mm ATGs and sends in some pics for previous entries
  • Mervyn with some ancient horse and WW2 foot
  • Andrew "the other" Miller with an imagi-nation piece
  • Richard Naylor reminds himself how to paint 15mm figures
  • Mr Hodge adds loads of 6mm tanks
  • Thomas sends in some Viet Minh
  • Mr Davies enters some...well the photos aren't very good, so I've guessed at what some of them are!
  • And finally Mr Helliwell sends in loads of lovely 15mm figures from a variety of figures.

Today's pictures are from Mr Miller, of the Stephen variety; Mr Ralls; and Mr Helliwell. Keep them coming!

Stephen Miller's 54mm French Carabiniers

Stephen Miller's 54mm French Carabiniers

Jason Ralls' "Fighting Season" Brits in 1/48th scale

Jason Ralls' "Fighting Season" Brits in 1/48th scale

Mr Helliwell's Pike and Shot

Mr Helliwell's Pike and Shot

Back From Holiday!

/

The perceptive amongst you may have noticed a distinct lack of posts recently. That's because I've been on holiday for a week or so.

A lovely holiday, in fact, down in Cornwall, staying in a little cottage just on the beach in Polzeath. Only one small problem: no wi-fi, no 'phone signal: pretty much cut off from anything wargaming related!

So what was I doing to fill this major gap in my life?

Well, to prove that you can teach an old dog new tricks:

An update to the painting challenge follows shortly...well, after I've summoned up the energy to do so!