Joe Patchen and his friends play out the third sample scenario given in the IABSM v3 rulebook: Action at Galmanche.
It's Normandy, 1944. Click on the pic below to see if the Brits can force their way through the German defence.
Last time I asked one of my regular gaming group what he fancied playing next time we got together, he said that he'd very much like to do an amphibious assault in the Pacific. That, at the time, was a bit of a "no can do, amigo", so we ended up getting as close to it as I could with the Gela game that you can read about here.
The request, however, stuck with me. I had Americans, I had Japanese...all I needed was an island and some of the specialist landing equipment that the Marines used.
As is so often the case, that great supermarket that is Salute provided all. I picked up a beachfront gaming mat and, at incredibly cheap prices, the Gator's Amtracks boxset and a box of another three American landing craft. With the promised game looming (next week) it was time to build and paint up the Amtracks.
When I first opened the box set, I was, to put it blankly, deeply impressed. The box contains seven hulls, and fourteen top decks, allowing you to build either the LVT A(1) version with the Stuart turret (37mm gun) or the LVT A(4) version with the HWC M8 turret (75mm gun)...with the two top decks being interchangeable meaning that you could field one to seven of each vehicle in any particular game. Now that, I thought, is a well thought out, good value offering: jolly well done Battlefront.
I still think that, but unfortunately have to give Battlefront full marks for the intention but a much, much lower score for the execution :(
Now I'm not a brilliant modeler, but I can build most 15mm kits, and can even drill and pin large walkers together so that they stand up unassisted. I have built a thousand tanks, quite a few buildings, a handful of aircraft, loads of sci-fi stuff...you name it...and I've built kits based on resin, metal, plastic, wood...you get the picture.
Could I get the top decks of these Amtracks to fit into the hulls? Could I bollocks, if you'll excuse the expression.
They just don't bloody fit.
As I don't have some kind of rotary grinder thing (how careless of me!) I had to file and carve, and carve and file, and eventually just goddamn-well hammer the decks into place, with resultant cracked hulls, damaged tracks etc.
They just don't bloody fit, I say again!
I ended up abandoning my happy thoughts of having fourteen decks interchangeable on seven hulls, and knock together a platoon of three A(1)s, a platoon of three A(4)s and a command A(1). No interchanging: all firmly hammered/glued/green-stuffed into place.
Okay, so they look good, and I still have seven cracking vehicles, but I haven't got what I was offered, and I'm miffed. Anyway, buy at your own peril, and here's my finished tanks:
Oh, and the box doesn't come with any decals either: I had to find them all from spares...but I'm just being narky now!
I'm painting hard at the moment, trying to get everything ready for next Saturday's game of IABSM. That's the trouble with deciding to try a new theatre, setting up the table, then realising that work, training etc means you have precisely this weekend to paint the ten vehicles you need for the scenario you want to game!
So, to give me (and my back!) a break from the painting table, I've found the time to upload another great B'Maso battle report from the archive of the excellent Anton's Wargame Blog.
Again it was set in Rhodesia in the 1970s, and was a battle to rescue the legendary rebel leader, Garfield Shavanje, from the hands of the Rhodesian Police. He had been wounded and captured in an earlier battle after a heroic resistance along with a few other rebels. Rumor was that they were being held in the local Police Station.
Click on the pic to see all...
Here's a quick photographic battle report from Burt Minorrot's excellent, Spanish-language "Burt's Stuff" blog.
As the title suggests, there's a ruined factory to be fought over. Click on the pic below to see all.
Taking a break from the second part of The September War scenario pack, I find myself getting very interested in expanding my wargaming interests further into the modern era. We're talking later than the conflicts of the 1960's (French Indochina, Vietnam and the Six Day War) and right into the 1970's and beyond.
That's partly due to Team Yankee and all those pictures of shiny new 1980's toys that just belong in my collection (and see also some of the recent entries into the painting challenge) but mainly down to discovering a couple of excellent compilations of modern AARs using IABSM, CDS, and the supplements B'Maso and Rock the Casbah.
Some of these have already started to appear on this site (e.g. Mark Kinsey's excellent Angolan games) and now here's the first from Anton Ryzbak's excellent blog Anton's Wargaming Blog.
This first AAR dates back to 2011 and, using B'Maso, covers a Rhodesian Police Patrol. Click on the pic to see all:
Having re-done the Chuhuac gallery (15mm sci-fi velociraptors with guns from Loud Ninja Games) I realised that I hadn't painted the Company HQ's reconnaissance tool, the heavy combat cyberform: a pterodactyl-like bird with a link to a ground-based specialist.
After sitting wondering where on earth it was, as I had definitely bought one, just not painted it at the same time as all the others, I strapped on a heavy backpack and headed for the lead mountain to seek the little bugger out. An hour later and a complete re-organisation of the sci-fi section of the mountain, and I had it in my hands.
The wings went on surprisingly well, despite not having any slots or tabs or anything. As I've said before, it's a feature of the Loud Ninja Games casts that they have a natural build-quality to them. The Chuhuac, for example, come on separated feet but, incredibly and with a little light bending, balance.
The wire is florists' wire (get it at the garden centre) and the base a plastic coin from a kids shopping set: makes it easy to drill a hole for the wire.
So that's the Chuhuac now complete...at least until the next release!
I've been ill all day: man flu which, as we all know, is 99.999999% fatal in all cases.
Still, being ill has given me a chance to finish off another unit for my Chuhuac force: the second, desert camouflage, gravbike squad:
I can't emphasise how nice these little models are. The bike-n-body comes in one piece, but the separate head means that you can pose them a little: just adds an extra something.
Painting was easy: undercoat in desert yellow, was with Agrax Earthshade, then two colours of red on the heads and necks, and a light yellow for the armour.
For those who are interested, they are mounted on 2p pieces with a hama bead connecting the bike to the coin. Works a treat!
I've also taken the opportunity to update the Chuhuac gallery: click here to visit.
Good steady stream of entries coming in at the moment. Today, in no particular order, we have:
As always, clicking on the name of the painter will take you to their gallery, which will open in a new window.
Today's pictures are below:
Another great I Ain't Been Shot, Mum battle report from Mark Luther: more 6mm action on the eastern front.
Click on the pic below to see all...
For those of you who haven't spotted it yet, there's now a Facebook group devoted to I Ain't Been Shot, Mum.
The group already has 200 members, so promises to be a good place to swap info, ask rules questions etc.
As an example of the sort of content that's on there, Paul Beccas has posted a short video report of his first game of IABSM, which you can also watch below...
It's also quite a good site on which to place mini-AAR, such as Sigur Skwarl's four pictures from his first game of IABSM, using the first scenario from the rulebook:
Why are these infantry wearing cavalry helmets?
The observant among you may have noticed that in my recent early war battle reports, the Polish infantry have been represented on the tabletop by dismounted Polish cavalry. The Adrienne helmets and black boots would obviously have given it away!
Well that's because I hadn't got round to painting any Polish infantry yet. The thought of painting so many figures in just about the same uniform as the Soviets was very disheartening: three platoons of thirty six men each is a lot of troops. However, I finally girded my loins and dived in, buying a couple of platoons from Battlefront.
These arrived after a very long wait (as they are not desert or Team Yankee, they are out of stock!), but my excitement at the moment of un-boxing was soon dispelled by the sight of so many badly cast blobs. I know the Poles aren't flavour of the moment, but please keep the molds as current as possible!
So I put them to one side and bought another couple of platoons from Forged in Battle. Much cleaner casts, and I like the mix of manufacturers in the same platoon that's achieved by taking what I can from the Battlefront pack and sowing them into the FiB platoons.
Here then is the first platoon, with the previously painted Big Man and light support weapons. As the squads are so big, I've chosen to mount them Flames of War stylee on the "biscuits of death": makes such big squads easier to use.
Now a quick break with some desert Chuhuac, and then on to platoon two!
I don't usually buy painted figures from eBay: I kind of think that I should paint all that I need myself.
However, last week I was browsing, more seeing what was out there, and came across an auction for a couple of Hornisse/Nashorn mid- to late-war, German tank-destroyers.
I bid what seemed like a reasonable price for them (under £7 a vehicle) and won, with the two models arriving within a week.
A quick re-basing, and here they are:
I really must get an airbrush sometime soon!
Be careful what you wish for!
So yesterday I log all the Challenge entries and write my blog post, slightly lamenting the fact that things were so quiet.
It's all set up and ready to go when in comes the news about the publication of the Summer Special (see yesterday's post). So I bump the Painting Challenge to today in order to get the news of the Special up there in a timely fashion.
Then, of course, I open my inbox this morning to find it packed with Challenge entries, all of which I have to process quickly this morning!
So, not so slow on the Challenge...and here are the latest entries:
As is usual, clicking on the name of the gallery owner, above, will take you straight to their gallery (opens in a new page),
Today's pics are below:
A close up of some of Carole's barbarians
Ikko Ikki from Andy Duffell
Hotchkiss tanks in 10mm from Derek Hodge
Keep them coming!
This year's TFL Summer Special is now published and available for purchase. Here's Big Rich on what's in it:
"Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Because the Summer Special has arrived!
"So, allegedly, said W.H. Auden when we released the contents list of one of our earlier Specials and this one is just as packed with Lardy fun as any we have seen before with great scenarios, rule ideas and variants and plenty for Lardies old and new to enjoy.
"Let’s take a look at the contents:
"At 123 pages in total this is packed with some great ideas as well as the usual mix of scenarios and other Lard-based fun. When we first produced the Specials in 2004 we tried to make them the best value in wargaming. Thirteen years on we are still doing the same, holding the price at just £6 for the sixth year running."
You can buy the Special by clicking here or on the picture of the front cover, above.
Great little battle report from Mike Whitaker, who is trying out his concept of IABSM Lite.
You can read about it on his blog Trouble at T'Mill by clicking on its name, or here on Vis Lardica by clicking on the picture, below.
My Chuhuac (15mm sci-fi velociraptors with guns from Loud Ninja Games) force consists of three platoons: one camouflaged for the jungle, one for the desert, and one (special ops) for the city.
Each platoon consists of a couple of large squads of infantry in APCs, a squad of grav bikes, and a squad of battlesuits. Or that was the plan, until half way through the usual massive initial paint, I got distracted by other things.
Anyway, had a bit of time to spare this weekend, so filled in one of the gaps: the battlesuit squad for the second (desert) platoon.
Flicking through Amazon Prime last night looking for something to watch, I came across the film Battle for Moscow aka Panfilov's 28. Worth a look, I thought, so clicked to spend my £4.99 and settled down to see what was what.
Well it's a cracking bit of military movie making. Here's the summary:
USSR, Late November, 1941. Based on the account by reporter Vasiliy Koroteev that appeared in the Red Army's newspaper, Krasnaya Zvezda, shortly after the battle, this is the story of Panifilov's Twenty-Eight, a group of twenty-eight soldiers of the Red Army's 316th Rifle Division, under the command of General Ivan Panfilov, that stopped the advance on Moscow of a column of fifty-four Nazi tanks of the 11th Panzer Division for several days. Though armed only with standard issue Mosin-Nagant infantry rifles and DP and PM-M1910 machine guns, all useless against tanks, and with wholly inadequate RPG-40 anti-tank grenades and PTRD-41 anti-tank rifles, they fought tirelessly and defiantly, with uncommon bravery and unwavering dedication, to protect Moscow and their Motherland.
The film begins with some infantry in a small village, gathered around some tables in the snow being taught how to disable German tanks. There's lots of chat about duty and the Motherland, a bit of banter as we start to identify the different soldiers, and a general sense of teeth being gritted as they prepare for battle.
There's some interesting uniforms on display, as this is a Kasakh regiment (loving the huge and bright purple collar flashes!) and, as they start to dig in, a sense that they have a tough time ahead of them. There's some more banter about Thermopylae and the Seven Samurai, and then we're straight into the trenches to await the Nazi attack.
Not a still from the film, but a group shot of the main actors
The Germans get a pre-game stonk, and then come forward with tanks and infantry...but this first assault is beaten back fairly easily as the Soviets are under hidden Blinds and inflict double Shock when firing from ambush.
There's then a bit of a pause for more chat, and then we're on to the climactic battle as the Germans first pound the Russian trenches with off-table artillery, and then come forward again with an overwhelming number of tanks and infantry committed to the assault. I won't tell you what happens, but think Rourke's Drift!
It's stirring stuff, and the German tanks (Panzer IIIs and IVCs) look amazing , especially the shots from inside the tanks. The Russians have 45mm anti-tank guns, anti-tank rifles, and anti-tank grenades...and, presumably, balls of steel!
The cinematography is excellent, the sound very good (no mumbling actors here) and, as above, the special effects are cracking too.
For those worried about the gore factor, it's not shot in the modern grossly graphic style (the first episode of the new season of Preacher was ten times worse!) but more akin to movies such as The Longest Day or Battle of the Bulge.
In all, it's a really good, old-fashioned war movie.
Highly recommended.
Here come the Germans!
One of the recent new 15mm releases from Zvezda was the Jagdtiger: joining the Sturmtiger and Elefant on the list of available German wunderwaffe.
Now I don't know why Zvezda would concentrate on such rare vehicles as opposed to, say, expanding their early war range or starting on the Polish, Italians or Japanese, but I'm glad they did, as it means that I can add them to my collection guilt-free at about £3 a time rather than having to pay an exorbitant amount for the Battlefront equivalent.
As you can see from the photo, they paint up beautifully and are certainly not short on detail.
The Jagdtiger were a little bit more difficult to put together than some of the other Zvezda models that I have made, and I actually had to use a bit of green stuff to fill some gaps, but still the two combined took me only a couple of hours to complete from start to finish.
Highly recommended, as are all Zvezda's models.
Incidentally, if anyone is wondering, in IABSM the Jagtiger has armour 16 and gun strike 20: ridiculous!
PS If Mr Zvezda is reading this, can we have some Polish 7TP tanks now please.
Here's another battle report from the archives of Burt Minorrot's excellent Spanish-language blog Las Partidas de Burt, which I usually translate as Burt's Stuff.
In this game, the Soviets try and kick the Germans out of a town on the eastern front, with the action shot in black and white. Click on the pic, below, to see all.
A great looking I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! after action report from James Mantos' excellent Rabbits in my Basement blog.
Click on the link to James' blog, above, or on the pic, below, to see all:
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)
Welcome to Vis Lardica, a not-for-profit website mostly dedicated to the company-sized wargaming rules produced by the TooFatLardies, but encompassing my other gaming interests as well.
If you need to contact me, you can do so at:
vislardica@gmail.com
If you have enjoyed visiting this site, please add a link to it on your own wargaming blog: www.vislardica.com.
