CDS AAR: Playing the Beanball

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Another great Charie Don't Surf  battle report from Penfold, this one using scenario #06: Playing the Beanball from the Surf's Up scenario pack.

Here the Communist forces learn an important lesson about playing as insurgents rather than playing as regulars...

Click on the Surf's Up cover, below, to see all:

 

6DW: UAR/Egyptian Towed Anti-Tank Guns 2

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My second platoon of anti-tank guns for my UAR/Egyptian force for the Six Day War consists of a couple of gigantic ex-Soviet 100mm BS-3 weapons.

These are truly huge: jutting out from their bases like...well, I'll leave you to choose an appropriate metaphor given their extreme capacity for, er, penetration!

Nice models, but I did find it very difficult to get the gun barrels straight after they arrived in the pack looking like Audrey Horne had done a cherry-stalk number on them!

The crews are again a mixture of Battlefront and Peter Pig.

TFL Painting Challenge: Sunday Afternoon Update

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A fairly quiet week in the painting challenge, but still enough to justify a cheeky Sunday afternoon update.

In no particular order, we have:

  • Carole taking a break from her sci-fi with some 19th Century figures for Sharp Practice 2
  • Andrew McCarthy with lots of WW2 kit, also in 15mm
  • Matt Slade is also WW2, but 28mm: some very fine Artizan Germans
  • Mr Naylor goes 20mm, with three Soviet AFVs
  • It's back to WW2, somewhere near Caen, for Mr Yuengling
  • And finally the great Gatzemeyer sends in some Anglo-Danish

Today's pics? Mr Naylor's Soviets and the Double G's Anglo-Danish warband:

6DW: UAR Towed Anti-Tank Guns 1

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Now that the infantry and armour are all sorted, it was time to add the other support weapons to my UAR/Egyptian force for the Six Day War. Top of the list had to be anti-tank guns.

Looking at my orders of battle (available here) I could see that the vast majority of Egyptian AT guns were ex-Soviet 57mm Zis-2 pieces (around 300 of them), followed by ex-British 6-pounders (about 100 of them), followed by a smattering of ex-Soviet 100mm BS-3 guns (maybe 70 of them). Off to the Battlefront website to do some buying.

Interesting...the only pack of anti-tank guns that Battlefront has for the Six Day War is a mixed pack of two 82mm recoil-less rifles (which you get as part of the company HQ anyway), one Zis-2, and two BS-3s. Yes, it's technically a three gun platoon, but why use the least common anti-tank gun as the mainstay? Another Battlefront mystery!

So I decided, by buying the two-pack of Zis-3/Zis-2 WW2 Soviet guns,  to get two platoons of towed anti-tank guns: one of three Zis-2s, one of two BS-3s. Here is the first off the production line: the Zis-2s.

The crews are a mix of the crews included in the pack with the addition of spares from the helmet-heads within the Peter Pig Modern Africa range (a very useful range indeed for filling in the gaps in any Soviet-equipment-using force).

I decided to give my guns five crew members each, rather than the usual four, as I have a feeling that I might need every man I can get to turn back the eventual Israeli tide!

New Female WW2 Soviet Troops from Bad Squiddo Games

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I have wanted a platoon of 15mm WW2 Female Soviet infantry for ages. I even started a Eureka Miniatures 300 Club push to try and get some made, but although quite a few people joined, we just didn't quite reach the required target.

It's very nice to see, therefore, that Bad Squiddo Games (aka Annie, The Dice Bag Lady) have released a range of Soviet fighting women...it's just that they seem to have made a terrible mistake and done so in the wrong scale!

Available for pre-order now (shipping 25th April) this 28mm range looks really good. There's enough variety to produce a whole platoon i.e. there are figures with rifles, SMGs, LMGs and officers; and the figures are beautifully proportioned and, dare I say it, realistic looking. I'm particularly liking the snipers and tank riders/commanders.

You can see pics of some of the figures below, and here's a link to the Bad Squiddo website. Now will someone please produce these in 15mm. Please.

Sniper Team, Standing

Sniper Team, Standing

Command, Medic, WO

LMG Team

Tankers

Tank Riders

TFL Painting Challenge: Quick Tuesday Update

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Quick Tuesday update for the TFL Painting Challenge, including two first-of-the-year entries.

In no particular order, we have:

  • Dave Humm, the first first-of-the-year, with some nice Confederates and a terrible pun
  • Mr Plowman paints some Robo Monkeys...must be for Q13
  • Carole's entry, lots of aliens, is definitely for Q13, because she says so
  • Andrew Helliwell pops in another regiment of 15mm Confederates
  • Mr Douglas has some more Ancient Brits on offer
  • and finally, Owen, the second of the firsts, has a mix of fantasy figures

We'll go Reb for today's pics:

Dave Humm's Confederate cavalry

Andrew Helliwell's Confederate infantry

CDS AAR: The Great Rice Hunt

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Here's a battle report for Charlie Don't Surf from 2011, trawled from what looks like a bit of a defunct blog: the Tao of Lard.

It's a couple of reports from 2011 covering The Great Rice Hunt: the first scenario from the Surf's Up scenario book. Click on the pic below to see all:

Incidentally, I would just like to add that it's worth noting that blogs are hard work to maintain. Even if 'real life' doesn't get in the way, it's hard to keep posting day after day or even week after week or month after month.

That's one of the reasons for this site: it's become an archive of writings about the TooFatLardies' company-level rules from all over the place, and that to such an extent that more and more people are sending me their AARs direct.

I do always try and contact people before copying their material here...but so many blogs have no way of directly contacting the owner anywhere on view, and I don't want to ask via a comment for all to see: just too embarrassing. So I hope in this instance the blog owner doesn't mind me resurrecting his content in this way. My contact details are on the left if needed.  

TFL Painting Challenge: Another Big One!

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I wasn't expecting to do another update before the weekend, but so many entries have come in that, if I don't, I run the risk of being overwhelmed!

So, in no particular order, we have:

  • Doug Fitch with lots of 15mm WW2 goodness
  • A first entry in 2016 from Paul Baldwin: terrain, infantry and cavalry
  • Mr Clarke sends in a huge entry of twelve house and two outhouses in 28mm
  • Thomas Nissvik also makes his first appearance this year, with ten rather nice 28mm Vietminh infantry
  • Mr "Hat" Bowler attempts to claim 600 sq ft of painted and primed basement floor...but has to settle for the 105 28mm Romans and a ballista that actually count towards his total
  • Carole attempts to complete her Corporate Ashigaru force with another platoon and their support weapons
  • Neil Hooge is another 'first time in 2016' entry: he sends in some (great sounding) 15mm British Victorian infantry mounted on terror birds and ostriches...but the piccy is so dark you can't see the detail :(
  • And finally Jon Yuengling pops in four 15mm WW2 vehicles for his early war Germans.

Today's pics are from Mr Fitch, some of his WW2 Germans; Mr Baldwin, his Napoleonic French infantry; and from Thomas, his Vietminh:

Mr Fitch's WW2 German armour: great camo scheme! 

Mr Baldwin's cracking French infantry

Thomas' Vietminh

6DW Egyptians: HMG Platoon

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My research tells me that in the Six Day War, the UAR (Egyptians) had access to ex-Soviet Maxim machine guns to support their infantry. Now Battlefront don't provide an HMG platoon as part of their UAR 6DW range, so I needed to improvise.

A quick rummage in the bits box turned up one WW2 Soviet gunner and gun, and a shout out to the Lardies with an offer of swapsies led to Jason Ralls kindly supplying the other two needed.

In the meantime, I also bought two Battlefront UAR anti-tank sets, each of which comes with three anti-tank guns and two recoil-less rifles. As I already have some RCLs in my Company HQ, their crews in the AT sets have now been assigned to the HMGs, along with some from Peter Pig bought to bulk things out.

Here they are, and you can see the rest of the Company, and supports, by clicking here.

TFL Painting Challenge: Huge Tuesday Update

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An absolutely enormous update today!

In no particular order, we have:

  • Mr Hodge is continuing to morph into a "baser" rather than a wargamer, with a massive amount of sabot bases
  • Carole sends in two entries: all 15mm sci-fi figures from GZG. We've got three platoons of infantry, support drones, command...the lot
  • Mr Douglas pops in a couple of 15mm units: some Sudan types and some more ancient Brits
  • Ralph Plowman also goes 15mm GZG, painted so inspirationally that I've had to go out and buy a platoon's worth myself. He should be on commission!
  • Andrew Helliwell stays with his Soviets: a platoon's worth and some lend-lease carriers
  • Sapper sends in three entries comprising a large total of 28mm figures: Samurai and Seven Years War
  • Steve Burt submits some rather lovely Parthians. It must have been baking hot in all that armour.
  • Our glorious leader, Mr Clarke, sends in three entries this week, all from the AWI, and adding up to a most impressive total
  • and finally I'm loving Mr Davenport's entry: Napoleonic Brits in numbers, and also some AWI infantry

So many entries to choose from for today's photos...but here's a selection. You can see the whole lot in the individual's galleries.

Jon's Napoleonic Brits

Mr Plowman's Xar

Carole's Power Armour Troopers

Sapper's Irish in French Service

Scorecard will be updated tonight..honest, it will!

Q13 Army Lists: Sisterhood, Brog and VOTT added

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Whilst I've been adding the tabletop stats to the Q13 army lists, I've found the time to add a couple of new ones to the list: both based on ranges of figures that I'd love to start collecting...once, of course, the lead mountain is down to manageable proportions!

The Sisterhood

Onslaught Miniatures produce some of the best sci-fi lines out there. The trouble is that the vast majority of their output is in 6mm: very frustrating for the 15mm gamer when you can see all these beautifully developed ranges and not be able to use them!

They have produced a couple of packs of 15's, however: one for the Sisterhood (sort of space nuns with guns) and one for the Tzacol (more primitive lizardy types).

So, in homage to their single pack of 15's, I've created a list for the Sisterhood for Q13 based on their much more extensive 6mm range. Perhaps this will get the rest of the range up-sized as well!

Here's a couple of pics to show you how good these figures are: one pic of the Athena squad in 15mm, and one of the 6mm command group, showing other types of Sisterhood trooper.

The Brog and VOTT (and VIPERS)

Another manufacturer who carries several ranges that I might eventually just have to buy is Rebel Minis.

Unfortunately, they fall into the category of manufacturer who produce great basic infantry squads, but no more i.e. great for platoon-level games, but not a complete enough range to create a company-plus-supports force.

Two examples of this are the Brog and the VOTT: both available as a three-squad platoon plus command, but with no support weapons or vehicles.

The two races also look quite similar, and seem to use the same weapons...so I've decided to brigade them together into one list.

As they don't have any designated support weapons or vehicles, and Rebel Minis produce a lovely range of support walkers they call VIPERS, I've also decided that, much like Critical Mass' Protolenes, the support for the Brog or VOTT will come from the VIPERS, of which there are five types, so plenty of flexibility as regards weapon loads and therefore role.

Here's a few pics showing the ranges: the Brog infantry platoon, the VOTT command, and a the VIPER with Mk3 weapon package.

Both lists, and all the others, are available from the Q13 Army Lists page. More to come!