Added a couple of archive battle reports from Amokfigur: these date back to 2006 and are taken from a website that declares itself in hiatus. Well, I hope all is good with Amok and he's still playing IABSM...and I do love the way that King Tiger is painted.
Heldenhausen
Somewhere in Russia
Achievements today from Mr Ralls (more aircraft); Alexandros, whose lovely DAK half-tracks and Soviet BT-5s take him past the 500 mark; Mr Plowman (some nice sci-fi figures); Owen and his Wild West buildings (now a town bigger than Scarborough); and Treadhead with his big poles.
Significantly, Owen's entries make him the first person to go past the 2,000 point mark. Most impressive, and let's see if you can do 5,000 before the new year!
Today's pictures are another double. The first is of Alexandros' half-tracks, the second is Mr Plowman's GZG grav bikes and APC:
PS If any of you do notice that my maths is out on the Scorecard, or that I've forgotten to add an entry, do shout out. I tend to update this late at night when my usual attention to detail might be wavering slightly!
Also, thanks for all the kind words from those of you who have said that the challenge is increasing your output significantly. Don't worry: I'm not burnt out yet, and have every intention of carrying this through to the end of the year!
Quite a few post-second quarter entries today. We have achievements from Pat G, the Ambler Gambler, Mr Ralls and Mr Slade.
There are two pictures today, as I couldn't choose between Mr Ralls' WW2 Heinkels and Mr Slade's sci-fi Warthogs:
Bumper entries today as people rush to get in their entries before the end of the second quarter!
So today we have achievements from:
And Kev and Craig: you were indeed imprisoned in my spam box, but should now be recognised as legit for future entries.
Here are Egg's beautiful boats:
Craig Ambler finishes his Vyazma or Bust! campaign with Scenario 3B: The Outskirts of Vyazma. I can't wait to see what he makes of Bashnya!
PatG has finally broken his duck: scoring twenty points for five 28mm Victorian Sci-Fi figures. Nice to see you finally on board, Pat!
In other news, Manuel adds some more Franks, Jason Ralls cruises past the 1,500 point mark with forty 15mm foot and twenty 28mm foot, and Thomas paints some troops for Dust.
Craig Ambler continues his Vyazma or Bust! campaign with Scenario 2A: the Bridge at Urk.
Scrivs and friend took their amazing Keren game to the Partizan in the Park show. Some excellent new additions, including this great Sikh stretcher team:
I've had problems painting late war German tanks ever since I first started on them. How do you get that camouflage looking right without using an airbrush?
Of course, the simple answer would have been to get an airbrush...but I haven't, but have finally worked out how to do it. The answer? A sponge!
The Battlefront 15mm Konigstigers below were painted with a base coat of dull yellow, then stripes of sponge applied green and brown paint. Pop a brown wash over the top and there you are. And where did I get the sponge from? Well Battlefront put loads in all their boxes as part of the packing!
Right...let's get everyone up to date.
Achievements today from Craig Ambler; Joakim Strom; Benito Vera; Dave Bailey; Kev and Vidal. And today's picture is another from Kev...there's just something about his style that just suits the SYW:
I have been so busy with Bashnya or Bust! that I missed the next wave of Zombiesmith's 15mm Quar releases.
This introduces some very welcome additions to the range, including the much-needed basic company support weapons for both the Crusader and Coftyran forces. It also includes Coftyran officers, new tractors and a great looking Weedl scout kite. Finally, there is a new nationality of Quar released, the Kryster: desert raiders equipped with fast-moving three-wheelers and their own tractor. I have immediately ordered about a metric ton of these, and can't wait to get them on the painting table.
New figures means a revised army list, so the Quar list now contains all the new releases plus details of the Fidwog forces as well. My thanks to Josh of Zombiesmith for the free pdf.
Only time to put a couple of people's achievements up tonight. More tomorrow, but up now are Owen's and Mr Ralls'
And here's a quick pic of Mr Ralls' 28mm hospital for Rourke's Drift. NHS cuts: fousands of 'em!
I like to try and keep the list of WW2 15mm figure manufacturers as up to date as possible, so it's annoying to have missed MMModels.co.uk off it for so long.
They produce a nice selection of "tail" models (staff cars, vans, buses, tank transporters, landing craft etc) to order. I haven't got any myself at the moment, so can't really comment on the quality, but they certainly look good from the photos. I am about to put together an order which should keep them busy for a little while, and will report back once I have them in my hands.
Here's the promised second AAR from the OML2 game of Bloody Omaha...
I have two AARs involving Mike Whitaker's fantastic Bloody Omaha game. Here's the first: the warm-up game played a week or so before Operation Market Larden 2.
Great report, great photos!
I was lucky enough to be able to make Operation Market Larden 2 this weekend: a day of Lardy wargaming organised by the Wyvern Wargamers.
This was an excellent day's gaming at which I played Chain of Command for the first time in the morning (my apologies to my opponents for the slightly flukey at-the-last-moment victory!) and Mike Whitaker's brilliant rendition of the Bloody Omaha scenario from the Where The Hell Have You Been, Boys? D-Day scenario pack in the afternoon.
There will be a proper AAR posted shortly but, for the moment, here is a sample shot of the afternoon game.
Craig Ambler has decided to celebrate the launch of the Bashnya or Bust! scenario pack by running throught he Vyazma or Bust! campaign again.
Here is the AAR from his first game: Izdeshkovo.
Two bits of painting finished today: the Soviet flamethrower teams and German Wirbelwind needed for the Bashnya or Bust! scenario pack.
Today's achievements are from Kev; Manuel; Dick Bax; Mr Plowman; and Matt Slade.
Here are Mr Plowman's Grendel bashers...although I can't see Antonio Banderas anywhere!
Well the big news this week is the launch of Bashnya or Bust!, my latest scenario book for IABSM. Here's the full info, but if you liked Blenneville or Bust! and Vyazma or Bust!, you'll love Bashnya!
You can buy Bashnya or Bust! either from the TooFatLardies website, or from the Buy Stuff page on this website. Doesn't bother me which one you use!
Bashnya or Bust! is a collection of fictional scenarios for IABSM set on the late war Eastern Front as part of the Kaunas Offensive. Soviet forces are attempting to drive through German defences in the Chera valley in order to break through into Germany itself, the Germans are trying to stop them.
The pack contains thirty-one individual scenarios set up in a five-step pyramid campaign i.e. scenario 1 leads to either scenario 2A or 2B; the result of this second game leads to one of scenarios 3A, 3B, 3C or 3D; and so on until scenarios 5A to 5P.
Although written as a fictional campaign booklet, no two scenarios are the same: each is unique and is also designed to be played as an individual game. Each of the three briefings for each scenario (Umpire, Soviet player, German player) contains enough background to give the game the same sort of context as with the background to an historical scenario.
Bashnya or Bust! is deliberately designed to give players who don't have enough time to write their own scenarios a huge number of games that they can play with little or no preparation at all. All you have to do is print out the three briefings, set up the table according to the map, make up the deck from the list of required cards, break out the figures and dice, and start the first turn. You don't even need to print the pack out in full: just the pages you need for the scenario you're going to play.
The campaign is structured so that you'll get maximum use of the standard forces presented in Vpered Na Berlin, with well-designed and balanced scenarios for IABSM, or indeed any company level rule set you happen to game with. Anyone who has a company-sized force of Germans and Soviets for late war, eastern front should already have enough figures to play any or all of the games.
Bashnya or Bust! follows on from the popular Vyazma or Bust! and Blenneville or Bust! campaign/scenario packs, also available from the TooFatLardies.
Bashnya or Bust! contains an introduction, details of the campaign structure and forces involved, sixteen different maps (some games are played across the same terrain, albeit in a different direction), thirty-one different scenarios, and a collection of templates allowing you to print off Blind markers as appropriate. Please note, you don't need to print this out like a book (although you can if you wish): Bashnya or Bust! is designed to allow you to just print the scenarios as you use them.
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). There’s also a lot of content devoted to To The Strongest (Ancients/Medievals) and For King & Parliament (17th Century).
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.
