The TFL Specials are a great source of inspiration and scenarios. Here, Charles Eckart plays through Mike Brian's scenario from the 2005 Summer Special: The Initiation of Dashwood-Brown.
It's Normandy, 1944. Suave ladies-man Captain Royston Dashwood-Brown and his men of 6th Dorsetshire Regiment are about to get their first taste of action on the battlefields of France.
Click on the map, below, to see how they did...
According to the Clear Horizons website, "the Hura Technocracy represents an alien species known as the Hura. While possessing traits of both crabs and mantis insects, the Hura are an advanced species that use their technology to give them every advantage. Not only do they have a strong chitin outer skeleton that can deflect blows almost as well as most basic Human body armor, they utilize a powerful series of miniature, close-contact forcefield generators that provide an extra layer of defense without limiting their strength and speed. Their weaponry, nicknamed “Lightning Rods’, strike out with powerful beams that can fry not only organic material but any unshielded electronics as well".
Not my Hura!
I acquired my Hura through the original Kickstarter, investing enough to get a full company of infantry plus quite a few of the cyber-support weapons too. They then sat in the lead mountain for a couple of years until the built up guilt of ignoring them became too much and they moved to the painting table.
Unable to match the skills of the painter who produced the sample figures, I decided to go aquatic, and have the Hura's basic skin colour as light blue with nicely contrasting dark grey armour. Weapons would be the same green as for the infantry of the Pelagic Dominate on the grounds that they are aquatic too, so whatever they use to build the guns will work for the Hura as well.
Clear Horizons don't produce any specific vehicles for the Hura, so when I saw Brigade Models' new Xarledi tanks for their Yenpalo range, I jumped at the chance to have the Hura using these. Lovely models. The crewman's head, btw, is from CP Models.
The tanks arrived from Brigade in a box full of polystyrene chips. I pulled out the three Xarledis that I thought I'd ordered and put the box to one side. I had just finished the third tank when it was time to put out the rubbish, so I went back to the box...and what did I find? Yes, another tank: I had ordered four but forgotten! There's nothing more annoying than looking at three finished tanks whilst you are frantically finishing the fourth.
Anyhoo, all four are done now, and I've also added a gallery of all my Hura models to the Q13 section of the website. Or you can click on the pic below to go straight there.
We've all been very busy over the last couple of weeks: lots of entries into the painting challenge.
So, in no particular order, we have:
As per usual, clicking on the names above will take you to their gallery (opens in a new window).
Today's pictures are below:
Just when you thought you had them all, up pops another. My thanks to those of you who e-mailed me.
Vanguard Miniatures are mostly a 6mm manufacturer, but have got three 15mm ranges available as well. These are the entomorphs, who are rather nice and need to be purchased asap, some space ork types known as skinnerz (any relation, Nick?) and some human types. They also stock Onslaught Miniatures ranges as well.
Here are some of the entomorphs and, yes, sigh, some space orkz too!
Loving these Entomorphs, will have to get some
I've often complained that figure manufacturers have a habit of releasing incomplete sci-fi armies: a few infantry codes but without any support weapons, vehicles etc.
One manufacturer, however, who can never be accused of that is Ground Zero Games (GZG). If ever there was a good reason to use the word plethora, then looking at the GZG catalogue is it!
Ralph Plowman's Xar
One of their latest releases are the Xar: six legged aliens also known as Critters. True to form, the initial release included basic infantry types with two types of support weapons and separate officer/specialist types. That first release was soon followed by unarmed Xar in a variety of martial arts poses (just brilliant!) that could be used as such or also engineers, gun crews or other such support types, with the plethora of equipment and vehicles available elsewhere in the GZG range.
Now GZG have topped themselves again by launching the first of the vehicle codes for the Xar: flying saucers! Each one comes as a thickish disc about 2.5cms in diameter topped by a Xar and sided by an impressive array of guns. As you'll see from the pictures below, despite my rudimentary painting technique, these are great. Highly recommended.
Must clean off the spider webs before photography!
Another great picture-led AAR from Norseygamer, who is once again playing his way through the Bashnya or Bust! scenario pack.
First game in the campaign is Scenario #01: Near Osen, a largely tank-only tussle for control of a vital bridge.
Click on the pic below to see all:
Having sorted out the list of sci-fi figure manufacturers, I thought I'd better take a look at the WW2 list as well.
Coincidentally, just as I was doing this, a notice about a new one appeared on TMP: Butlers Printed Models. This is a 3D printing outfit who will print your required vehicles to order.
As it's 3D printing, the finish is a bit rougher than resin or plastic, but then tanks (especially Soviet ones!) tend to be pretty rough to the touch.
At the moment, Butler's have all the basic vehicles required at some very competitive prices. All they need to do now is a Polish 7TP and I shall be reaching for my credit card!
Click on the pic below to see all:
My chosen scenario for Operation Market Larden 2017 (the TFL games day held in Evesham each year) was scenario #06 from the Poland 1939 supplement, The September War: Wegierska Gorka.
Taking place between 2nd and 3rd September 1939, the battle for Węgierską Górką, or the “Hungarian Height”, took place near the Polish-Slovak border and was fought between Polish mountain troops and German infantry. The Polish position included a number of anti-tank bunkers overlooking the valley below, and was therefore of significant strategic importance.
Here are the two AARs from the day: one game in the morning, one game in the afternoon. Click on the pic for all. My thanks to Noddy, Ty, Bob and Vlad for making it a great day's gaming.
With some of my favourite 15mm sci-fi figure manufacturers suddenly disappearing from the scene, I thought it about time to properly update the list that's available in the Quadrant 13 section of the website, or by clicking here.
Very interesting: about a quarter of the 50 or so listings needed updating. Is it me, or does that seem like quite a lot?
To help you decide, here's a listing of what's changed:
All the above just goes to reinforce my opinion that, whenever you see miniatures that you like, you should buy them immediately as, if you don't, they can disappear from the scene without warning.
That might be why my lead mountain is so high, and why my children look hungry all the time!
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I'd been to Vanquish, the small wargames show that takes place in May each year in Bourne End, Bucks. I didn't spend much there, but one thing I did buy was the helicopter landing pad from Ironclad Miniatures.
As a new purchase, the pad went straight to the front of the painting queue (!) and despite my current bout of painter's block, was soon ready for the tabletop:
Not a very good picture, but a great piece of terrain
I've chosen to put a cross in the centre of the pad as I want to use it for Q13 as well as for Charlie Don't Surf!, but you can see in the smaller picture (from the Ironclad site) how good it looks if you can do a decent 'H'!
One thing to note, the pad is actually listed in their 20mm terrain section rather than their 15mm section but, to be honest, works really well with a 15mm helicopter.
Loads of submissions this week: good stuff, keep it up!
In no particular order, we have:
As is now usual, clicking on the names in bold above opens that person's gallery in a new window.
Today's pictures are as follows:
Here's Doug's modern Danish battle group: see his gallery for close ups
Da tank from da Vinci: part of Carole's newly painted renaissance army
Gloucester Gladiators from the Hat!
Keep those entries coming!
Although this site tends to cocentrate on the company-sized games from the TooFatLardies (IABSM, CDS, Q13), we do like to promote new releases for their other systems.
Here, then, is the latest pint-sized campaign for Chain of Command: Bloody Bucket. Here's the blurb:
"This Pint Sized Campaign for Chain of Command is the first covering the battle of the Bulge. The action here covers the initial German attack against the US 28th Infantry Division as the 26th Volksgrenadier Division attempt to clear the ground between the Our and Clerf Rivers in preparation for Panzer Lehr’s advance on Bastogne. What followed was three days of epic action which destroyed the German chances of victory.
Six battlefields provide a campaign which sees the Germans attacking and infiltrating to isolate the US defenders, initially with infantry but soon with armoured support while a gallant band of men fight on to the end.
This classic Pint Sized Campaign is designed to be run using the campaign rules in At the Sharp End and with Chain of Command rules. Can you break through and open the route to the Meuse and Antwerp, or will you make an heroic stand and halt Hitler’s lunatic vision of victory in the West?
Thirty-two pages long, this Pint Sized campaign provides the background history to the campaign with situation maps. Uses period maps to show the location of the actions and then provides a complete campaign with forces for both sides, support options for players to select from and full victory conditions for all six battles and the campaign as a whole."
Click here or on the picture of the front cover to buy "Bloody Bucket".
Back in January 2015 I put together a quick game for the lads from Benson featuring a fictional action on the Dunkirk perimeter. Set, obviously, in 1940, some plucky British defenders attempt to hold back the German tide. Click here to see that AAR.
Mark Luther read that battle report, and put on his own version of the game. Click on the picture below to see how it turned out:
Despite my current lack of painting mojo, I have managed to finish the second platoon of Hura: the 15mm four-armed sci-fi infantry originally kickstarter-ed and now available from Clear Horizon Miniatures.
Technically I have one more platoon and the company commanders to go, but I'm unsure about actually painting the third platoon.
That would give me a good, solid, nine-squad company, but I've found that in Q13 I rarely use more than two platoons, so re-tasking these for duty as gun crews and other miscellaneous bods might be more useful than a third infantry platoon.
On top of that, the Hura support weapons now really look to me as if they should form the third squad of an infantry platoon i.e. a platoon would be infantry squad, infantry squad, support squad.
If I do that, I have my three squads per platoon, and all the company command I need, and can concentrate on getting some vehicles and artillery/AA pieces...which I can then crew with my now-spare figures.
Decisions, decisions!
One thing I do need to do is to find the Hura some vehicles, as Clear Horizon don't produce any. My usual solutions would be to pop to GroundZeroGames, who have a cornucopia of such things, but this time I think I'm going to go with Brigade Models' new Yenpalo Heavy Grav Tanks:
What I might also do is get some of the Yenpalo lizard riders and see if I can do a bit of a conversion job: adding half a Hura to each one.
A couple of squads of mounted scouts would add a certain something to the army: it will just be a question of whether I can get the conversion to work without too much superglue, pinning and green stuff!
Sorry for the lack of posts recently: been working and training and going out-ing hard over the last week or so, so have had neither the time nor the energy to update properly.
Anyhoo, leaving that aside, yesterday was the annual Operation Market Larden games day organised by Ade Deacon and the other Wyvern wargamers.
For me, this involved an hour's sorting and packing the car on Friday night, then leaving the house at 6.30 on Saturday to get up to Evesham to get everything set up for the two games of IABSM that I was due to run.
As usual, it was a brilliant and well-run day of gaming followed by a delicious curry and plenty of drinking. My thanks to all the Lardies who attended and made it such a good day (and evening!) and especially to Ade and the other organisers.
I'll write up the two games that I ran later this week, but in the meantime here's some pictures from the day unashamedly "borrowed" from the TFL Facebook page:
Here's another of Mark Kinsey's excellent AAR from his blog Daddy's Little Men.
Like me, Mark uses a mixture of IABSM and CDS, with a bit of Rock the Kasbah thrown in, to play out modern middle east encounters rather than WW2 or Vietnam.
Here's his gigantic Beirut 1982 game from the 2012 Cold Wars convention. Click on the pic to see all:
Here's a cracking AAR from the Norseygamer blog: scenario #5M: Near Bashnya from the Bashnya or Bust! scenario pack.
The Germans have their backs against the wall: well, Bashnya's walls to be exact. Here they attempt to stop the Soviet advance one last time.
Click on the pic below to see all:
Fairly slow week on the Challenge: not the usual cornucopia of entries, just a steady flow.
Mind you, I can't talk: my painting mojo has deserted me for the moment, and I haven't managed to finish anything for a few weeks now...and this despite the fact my lead mountain is the highest it has ever been.
Note to self: after finishing this update, you must finish that platoon of Hura sitting on the painting table: you must!
So, today's update:
As always, clicking on the names, above, will open their Gallery in a new window.
Today's pictures are below:
samurai and friends from Mr Haines
I like these: the Spirit Host from Mr Hodge
Always tough to paint: French HYW Knights from Andrew Helliwell
Mr Davenport's modern Brits
As people seemed to like yesterday's modern AAR, taken from Mark Kinsey's excellent blog Daddy's Little Men, here's another in the same vein.
This time, we go further back in time to Historicon 2010, where Mark and friends are running a game based on the battle of Chetequera: part of Operation Reindeer, which began on 4 May 1978, and was South Africa's second major military operation in Angola, carried out under the Apartheid regime. This phase of the South African operation consisted of an assault by 2 South African Infantry Battalion on two South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) base complexes, Chetequera and Dombondola, near to the then-South West Africa/Angola border.
Click on the pic below to see all:
Here's an historical AAR I've been wanting to post for some time: Mark Kinsey and Jon Yuengling's Cassinga game for Fall In 2013.
The Battle of Cassinga took place on 4th May 1978 during the South African Border War. The battle involved South African forces raiding a suspected SWAPO base at Cassinga, Angola and, covered in the game below, the intervention of a Cuban armoured force operating out of the nearby Techamutete village.
The game was played using a combination of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! and B'Maso!, the latter being the Wars in Africa 1950-99 supplement for IABSM.
Click on the picture below to see how this great game played out:
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.
