Clotted Lard is the Devon Wargames Group’s annual Lard Day. A full report of the 2019 event can be found on the DWG blog, but here’s an extract describing the game of IABSM that took place as part of the festivities.
Click on the picture below to see all:
Mark Luther gives his very special treatment to the twelfth scenario from the Cymru Am Byth Welsh Guard scenario pack.
This is an attack for control of the little cluster of farm buildings on top of hill 242 overlooking Chenedolle at Le Haut Perrier on August 11, 1944.
Click on the picture, below, to see all:
Michael Curtis and friends had a quick “learning game” of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum recently, all in preparation for their demo game at Salute next year.
Some lovely models and terrain already on show. Click on the pic below to see all:
A great AAR from Tim Whitworth and the Like a Stone Wall group! This encounter is taken from the Cymru am Byth (Welsh Guards) scenario pack, and features a game based on their heroic but ultimately doomed defence of Boulogne.
See how the Guards stand up to the German Panzers by clicking on the picture, below:
Desmondo Darkin and friends recently played an eastern front clash in 20mm using their dice-driven variant of IABSM.
Click on the pic below to see what happened, and to admire the superb winter terrain…
And as a reminder:
To mark the 80th year after the accepted start of WW2 with the invasion of Poland on 1st September 1939, the TooFatLardies and I are pleased to offer a great discount on the two September War scenario packs for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum! with a whopping 25% off when you buy them as a bundle.
Written by Robert Avery and Alexander Kawczynski, each September War scenario pack for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum! provides thirty scenarios for the theatre, making sixty available in all.
Divided into eight mini-campaigns, the first pack (The September War Part One) begins with the battles at the border, then covers the fight for the Polish corridor, the Polish Thermopylae at Narew, the Siege of Warsaw, the climactic battles at Bzura and Tomaszow Lubelski, and the actions of the 10th Motorised Cavalry “Black” Brigade and the Independent Operational Group Polesie. There are attacks, counter-attacks, encounter battles, desperate defences…there’s even an armoured train or two.
Divided into six mini-campaigns, the second pack (The September War Part Two) begins with four based on specific German units: Panzerdivision Kempf, the 1st GebirgsjaegerDivision, the 4th Panzer Division, and the 1st Kavallerie Brigade. Then there are two mini-campaigns based on the Soviet invasion of Poland: the Belorussian Front and the Ukrainian Front. Finally there are details of two stand-alone battles: Westerplatte and the Hel Peninsula. As always, there are attacks, counter-attacks, encounter battles, and desperate defences, all containing a whole host of useful scenario mechanics that can be re-used elsewhere.
No need for any preparation: each scenario contains a brief background history, maps, a full game briefing, and a full briefing for each player. Simply print out the pages you need, make up the deck from the list of cards required, unpack your figures and dice, set up the table and away you go!
Dave Lister had a lot of fun running a scenario based on the Battle for Honkaniemi (Feb. 26, 1940) at Broadsword 9 last weekend,. Honkaniemi is known as the only, and therefore largest, tank battle of the Winter War!
As you may know, while the Soviets had thousands of tanks at their command, the Finns had very few indeed. They threw them into a desperate attack late in the war that they hoped would throw back the Soviet forces that were closing on Viipuri (only 15km away at this point in the conflict) and spearhead a larger Finnish offensive operation.
Well, it turned out to be a terrible day for the Finns, from losing more than half of their thirteen operational tanks to mechanical trouble, to friendly artillery falling on the heads of the supporting infantry, to a complete lack of reconnaissance that could have revealed the Soviets were planning their own attack operation at the very same place and the very same time!
While a conventional victory was probably out of the question, Dave and friends decided to judge the results of this scenario against what the plucky and hopeless Finnish tankers achieved historically. And for all that, the Finns did very well during the game! Have a look and see what you think by clicking on the picture below:
Those nice people at 1st Corps recently played their first game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum: and it looks like a colossal set up as well.
Click on the picture below to see a pictorial report:
Carojon and his colleagues at the Devon Wargames Group recently resurrected the Over the Hill scenario for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum! playing the game with, coincidentally, four players named Steve!
Click on the picture below to see how the battle of the Steves worked out…
Here is a quick I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum! AAR taken from Scenario #05 from the IABSM scenario book Where the Hell have you been, Boys? played by members of the Vermont Historical Gamers Group.
Click on the pic below to see all:
The other game of I AIn’t Been Shot, Mum at The Other Partisan was another amphibious assault: Tim Whitworth and the Like a Stone Wall Group’s magnificent Pelelie scenario, set in the Pacific with US Marines assaulting a Japanese-held beach.
This game was, in fact, so good that it won the Best Demonstration Game award for the show. Click on the picture below to see loads of excellent pictures of the game:
Here’s a full write-up of the superb Bloody Omaha game that Mike Whitaker and crew put on at The Other Partisan this weekend just gone. It’s taken from Mike’s excellent blog Trouble At T’Mill: well worth a visit.
Click on the picture below to see all:
John Cooper is preparing to play through “The September War” scenario pack with his beautifully painted 10mm figures.
Here’s a quick warm-up game that he played using the fourth game from the random scenario generator in the IABSM v3 rulebook: “A Hasty Defence”. Click on the pic below to see all:
Tim Whitworth and his colleagues from the Like A Stonewall Wargames Group have been preparing the game they are showcasing at The Other Partisan wargames show in a couple of week’s time.
It’s a scenario for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum based on the US Marine assault on Peleliu Airfield in 1944. Click on the pic below to see all:
Another great battle report resurrected from the archives of the A Wargamer in Cyprus blog.
This time, the scenario is #11 from the Operation Compass scenario pack: the first of the three games focusing on the Australian attack on the Italian-held fortress of Bardia.
Click on the picture below to see all:
I do so like it when I stumble across a source of material for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum or one of the other Lardy company-sized games: it does take the pressure off a little…as anyone who runs a blog knows, keeping it fresh and updated is a serious, long-term commitment!
Anyhow, latest discovery is the excellent A Wargamer in Cyprus blog, which contains a plethora of quality wargaming material. I haven’t been able to get hold of the blog’s owner to ask permission (I’m no Tango!), so I hope he doesn’t mind me reproducing some of its content here as part of efforts to support TFL and IABSM etc.
Here’s an AAR taken from the site featuring the German attack at Agheila that formed the first proper German vs Commonwealth encounter in the Western Desert. Just as an aside, I actually have a half-written scenario pack for Sonnenblaum which features this action…and am now feeling all inspired to dig it out and finish it.
Click on the pic below to see all:
Nice little battle report from Dan Albrecht and his friends at the Vermont Historical Gamers group in South Burlington Vermont.
Scenario is #20 from the Anzio: Wildcat to Whale scenario pack: part of the German counter-attack that was Operation Fischfang, Day Three.
Click on the pic below to see all:
I haven’t yet managed to get to a Deep Fried Lard yet, but good to see plenty of Lardy gaming taking place last weekend.
One of the games played was a CDS scenario taken from the Surf’s Up scenario pack.
Click on the pic below to see Alastair McBean’s AAR:
Time for another day of To The Strongest: with friend Neil bringing over his vast collection of 28mm Wars of the Roses figures for us to play with. These are all professionally painted Perry Miniatures plastics, including some hobelars specially put together for the occasion.
We managed three games in all.
The first, with me playing Yorkshire, was a nail-biting backwards-and-forwards kind of game where either side could have triumphed. As it happened, my mounted Later Knights, accompanied by Richard of York himself, suddenly managed to burst through the enemy battle line and find the way open to looting the Lancastrian camps. A hard fought victory.
The second, with me now playing the noble house of Lancaster, was again looking close. The two main lines had clashed in the centre of the field, and the luck was swaying backwards and forwards, when each sides’ one unit of Later-Knights-plus-Royal-Personage charged into each other. Luck was obviously on my side, as Richard of York (my erstwhile self but now enemy commander!) was wounded and carried from the field. This gave me the edge and gradually the opposition crumbled. A narrow victory.
Onto the third game, with Neil making sure that I would play to win and not gift him a consolation victory…which just goes to show how little you can know about someone you have known for years! Play to win? I was playing to grind him into the mud! Anyhow, this was a very cagey game: very different to the previous clashes. Neil hung back, not really moving (annoyingly keeping his troops out of the range of my single cannon, the only one on the field) and waiting for me to make the play.
I edged forward, thinking that perhaps I could get a bit of advantage on the right hand side: maybe two archer units vs one, kill them, then try and curl around the edge of his now-slightly-decreased line. Neil read my intentions, however, and moved troops forward to counter. A clash began to develop, and one not in my favour. He moved more units in and my right flank was beginning to crumble, when both of us realised that he had now moved forward into cannon range. Bang went the gun and finished off a unit of Men At Arms, giving me the initiative. Neil sent forward his Household Knights and King to plug the gap and force me back onto the defensive…and then either bang went the gun again or in went my Household Knights (I can’t remember which) and off came the head of Richard of York again!
A horrible piece of luck for Neal which once again swung the game in my favour.: making it a three-victory whitewash to me.
A great day’s gaming, however, but an interesting demonstration of how a non-normal distribution game mechanic can swing a game in seconds. Oh, and Neil wants to know if anyone wants to buy two 28mm Wars of the Roses armies, one with the command figure slightly dented! Here are some pics:
Those of you who read my last Q13 AAR will know that I am currently playing “king of the ring” with my new sci-fi factory complex. Last game, the Felids defeated the Hauk, so now it was their turn to defend, with their opponents being the Aphids: frog-like beings from Zombiesmith.
My opponents were Dave and John, who were on a strict time limit which actually nicely suited the type of game we were playing: they would play the Aphid attackers, and would have almost exactly 2½ hours to reduce my position.
Click on the picture below to see how they did:
Another great AAR from Mike Whitaker as he plays his first serious game of Charlie Don’t Surf!
This was scenario #12 from the Surf’s Up scenario pack: Ambush!
Click 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.
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