IABSM AAR: North of Caen

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Although I have occasionally played computer wargames or wargames moderated by a computer, I have primarily always been a wargames who games on the tabletop with figures, dice and a rulebook.

There's something immensely satisfying about pushing lead around a tabletop loaded with brilliant terrain, and nothing beats the feeling of dice in the hand ready to roll just what you need!

Tabletop gaming, however, does require an awful lot of room.

I, for example, have only recently reclaimed my wargaming room from its sabbatical as a 'kids playroom', and so am very familiar with the effort involved in having to clear the living room, set everything up, and then put it all away before the house can resume normal function.

The Wargaming Addict has apparently solved that problem with the use of the Battleground Gaming Engine. You can visit his site by clicking here, or more simply read the AAR describing his first foray into non-figure gaming using IABSM from December 2013 by clicking on the picture, below.

Interesting stuff...with two more AARs to follow over the next week or so.

IABSM AAR: The Ponte Grande Bridge

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Martin981463 posted some great photographs of a recent IABSM game onto the TFL Yahoo group, but Yahoo being Yahoo, the pictures came out in all the wrong order and without the captions.

Here are the pictures again, carefully organised into a gallery, and with captions included.

Click here or on the picture, below, to see the storyboard unfold: enjoy!

CDS AAR: The Horror, The Horror!

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Something we haven't had for quite a while: a Charlie Don't Surf! after action report.

This one comes from the excellent A Wargaming Gallimaufry blog (click on the name to go there) where you'll also find AARs for Chain of Command  and other, non-Lardy games.

The scenario pitches a Free World aid station coming under attack from NVA while an under-strength company is on their way to relieve it.  The aid station has the advantage of a Platoon of special forces but were likely to face a heavy assault before the relief force could get there. Click on the picture, below, to see the full report.

IABSM AAR: Skirmanevo

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Another amazing AAR gallery from Mark Luther. This one dates from 2008, and features the battle of Skirmanevo on the eastern front in November 1941.

There are over 85 photos in the gallery (I know, I've just spent three days captioning them all!) and although 6mm might not be my thing, you've got to say they look fantastic.

Click on the photo, below, to see them all.

Skirmanevo Before The Storm

Skirmanevo Before The Storm

IABSM AAR: Refresher Game/02

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A quick IABSM AAR from Mike Whitaker from his excellent blog "Trouble at T'Mill" as an understrength company of Germans tries to hold out against an amis attack.

Mike's blog also contains a great article on passwords and the need for online security: well worth reading...and I'm just off to change all mine!

Click on the picture below for the AAR, or on the link above for Mike blog as a whole.


Q13 AAR: Marauders Squashed!

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My first game of the year was an epic 15mm sci-fi clash between my newly painted Gitungi army, using figures mostly from Micropanzer’s Gitungi range, and an ‘evil vegetable’ army comprising figures from a number of different manufacturers but principally Khurasan’s Vornid plant-men and Ravenstar’s Horrids.

Click here or on the picture to see how the action unfolded...

IABSM AAR: Arnhem Game

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Not really a full battle report, but more displaying the pictures of a recent IABSM game that tiger1arnhem posted in the Photos section of the TFL Yahoo Group.

Apparently he had written a full AAR, but lost it all due to technology issues. I feel his pain, and can only repeat the mantra "CTRL+S, CTRL+S"!

Click on the picture to see more:

Those of you who do wish to submit full AARs, whatever size or quality, for IABSM, CDS or Q13, can do so by e-mailing me at the same address as for the painting challenge: adminATvislardicaDOTcom.

IABSM AAR: Pasting The Padre

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Exciting news! I have taken advantage of the Christmas break to catch up on the re-loading of content onto the new website, and am pleased to say that all the previous IABSM after action reports are now done. That's a huge library of battle reports to browse at your leisure, many with complete scenario information allowing you to re-play the action for yourself.

To celebrate, here's a new AAR, Pasting the Padre, which gathers together the reports written by James Mantos and the Mad Padre about the same game of IABSM played in November this year.

Click here or the picture to read the report; or use the top navigation bar to go to the IABSM After Action Reports section of the website to see literally hundreds more! 

Website Update: Malaya Day Nostalgia

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The Christmas holidays mean I have more time to finish re-loading all the content onto the new VL website. 

I'm still working my way through the IABSM AARs, and great fun it is too. I have done all the scenario pack AARs, and the one-off game AARs, and am now working my way through the TFL Games Day AARs.

I have just finished uploading all the reports from the 2006 Malaya Games Day: a colossal battle involving over a battalion of infantry on either side at 1:1 scale, with the Japanese trying to force their way through the Lardak position, held by British Indian troops.

Click here to go to the IABSM AAR page. The Malaya Games Day reports are in the right hand column, down near the bottom.

Here are a few photos to whet your whistles...

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The Eagle Has Landed...I Think!

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I went over to Lard HQ last night for the final game of the year, billed as a Chain of Command re-fight of the climactic battle from the film The Eagle Has Landed.

For those of you who have missed out on this cinematic masterpiece, Michael Caine leads a bunch of Fallschirmjaegers on a mission to assassinate Winston Churchill as he visits a small village in rural England. All is going well for the Fall-ies, who are disguised  as Polish Paratroopers, until one of their number saves a local girl from going under the wheel of a water mill but is killed in the process, with his paratrooper uniform being ripped to reveal his German uniform underneath. Now discovered, Caine's men fight a battle to hold the village against an assault by nearby-based American troops whilst Caine himself (Steiner IIRC) goes off to kill Churchill.

The game, therefore, featured me leading three squads of US infantry supported by a Staghound armoured car into the village to firstly find out what was going on; secondly to identify any disguised Germans; and, thirdly, if any were found, to kill them!

The Germans, meanwhile, who were already occupying the village, had some convoluted mission requirements that seemed to involve tracking down a local woman who was actually one of their spies in order to be told where the secret tunnel was that led to the mansion house where Winnie was staying. I say convoluted because everything for the Germans seemed to get more and more confusing as the game went on: surely nothing to do with the immense amount of champagne that Mr Clarke, who was allegedly running the game, consumed as the evening went on.

After my last Lard HQ Chain of Command debacle (which no-one seemed to have forgotten unfortunately) I was determined to redeem myself. Rather than following the course of action from the film (where the Yanks charge into the village and get shot to bits before retreating for a more cautious second approach), we arrived at the edge of the village and cautiously moved forward towards the first house in order to try and find out what was going on.

There (well in the outside privy to be exact) we met a section of British infantry who confirmed that the Germans did indeed have men in the village, disguised as Polish paratroopers. That was all they could tell us...hardly surprising as they turned out to be more Germans on a mission to stop the main German mission for political infighting reasons.

Confused? Not as much as we were when Rich revealed that he'd brought the wrong box of figures with him so we would have to be portrayed using German figures. So we have Germans using British Paratrooper figures pretending to be Polish; more Germans using British infantry figures pretending to be British, and being played by a Scotsman; and Americans using German figures pretending to be...oh, no, sorry: actually being Americans!

Anyway, having sussed out what was going on, the Americans went forward cautiously: one squad hanging back as a base of support, one moving towards the church, and one moving up to the Whippet Inn (also somewhat confusingly portrayed by a German beer hall).

The squad advancing towards the church took fire from the steeple and lost a man, but our return fire was incredibly accurate and wiped out the German Bren team that were doing the shooting. The squad then started cautiously moving into the church itself. Meanwhile the Staghound moved into a position near the first house from where it could cover the village main street with its .50 cal.

The other two squads then leapfrogged forward until one was in the inn providing a base of support whilst the other was pressed against the back wall of the first house in the village, covering both the main street and the gardens to the rear.

Stalemate then ensued until the Germans realised that firstly all we had to do was keep them occupied until the end of the game and secondly that they needed to get back into the church to find the woman to find the secret passage to find the Churchill...you get the picture.

As false-Polish paras hit the high street, heading for the church, we opened up with everything we had: the Staghound's .50 cal, chewing up scenery as the two squads covering the high street actually did the damage. The first German squad was effectively rendered hors d combat (no, no French on the table...at least I don't think so...but at this stage, a bottle and half in, who knew) but another moved up and threw grenades into the church in an attempt to clear it.

This was not as effective as it should have been (one dead American), and the Germans soon suffered as a hail of grenades and small arms fire came right back at them. That squad was soon pinned and then wiped out as well.

The game then drew to a close. We occupied the church and commanded the main route through the town; the Germans needed to control both in order to fulfil their mission, but were now down two full squads against our losses of four men (three killed by a demented local high on home brew).

All in all, a great game of Chain of Command, if somewhat chaotic. I was quite rightly accused of taking the game far too seriously (it was the Lardy Christmas game, after all) and have no excuse except to say that after last time I had no choice lest my reputation be damaged beyond repair!

My thanks to Rich, Nick, Panda, Trevor, Dougray McScot, Al, Noddy, Mark, Harpers, Panda, Elton etc for a most entertaining evening, with mince pies and booze thrown in for good measure. Just make sure you save me an After Eight when the packet is eventually opened!