IABSM AAR: September 2 #58: Jablon

Whilst I'm waiting for the go-ahead to publish my latest scenario pack, The September War, Part II, giving you another thirty early war scenarios covering the invasion of Poland in 1939, here is a battle report from one of the play-test games.

It's late September, and a mixed bag of Polish troops are holed up in the village of Jablon. They want to slip away over the border, but there's a fast-moving column of Soviet tanks and infantry heading towards them. They'll have to hold out until nightfall...

Find out if the Poles held off the Red Army hordes by clicking on the picture, below, and don't forget to keep a tenner of your Christmas money back to buy the pack once it's out!

IABSM AAR: Pestszentimre (easy for you to say!)

Here's another great battle report from Mark Luther. This time the action is in Hungary, 1944, near the town of Pestszentimre: giving Mark a chance to roll out his new Hungarian figures.

Click on the picture, below, to see all:

Following up on Monday's post about Part 2 of the September War scenario pack, I'm pleased to say that that is now finished. Huzzah! 

Just waiting for Big Rich to sort a few details out, but it should be available at the end of this week...so keep a few of those Xmas Pounds/Dollars etc back for a last minute present for yourself. Should work out at about a tenner (£10 or about $13) for another thirty Poland 1939 scenarios, just under half of which involve the Soviets.

Exciting!

IABSM AAR: Jack & Cabbage!

Sorry about the lack of posts for the last few days: I've been busy with another of Jack's amazing after action reports. This one weighs in with an extraordinary 239 photographs, each of which I've had to individually download and label!

The report is taken from Jack's blog, BlackHawtHet...and you'll be pleased to hear that he and I are working on a better way to transfer the content from there to VL.

Anyway, this time Jack takes Kampfgruppe Klink on a trip to the cabbage fields of Moiste: using the IABSM scenario that I wrote for the TFL 2005 Summer Special "Moiste Cabbage and a Quick Cognac". 

The background is simple: The Germans have found a ford that gives them access to the French flank, the French dispatch a force under the eponymous Captain Cognac to close the gap. 

Jack seems to have had a cracker of a game (239 pictures!), so click on the photo below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Germans vs British, 1944

Another quick battle report from the pen of Burt Minorrot, taken from his great Spanish-language blog Las Partidas de Burt, or 'Burt's Stuff'.

Here, British troops attempt an advance against a strongly-held German position.

See how they did by clicking on the picture, below:

IABSM AAR: KG Klink, Game 5, France

Here is our first I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! After Action Report from Jack, taken from his blog BlackHawkHet.

And what an AAR it is: fully 169 photographs with a comprehensive accompanying text. It's taken me a few days just to get it all loaded up on here!

Having been in contact with Jack, I'm pleased to say that the inspiration for the game actually came from VL, and from one of the other battle reports posted here. To be specific, it was from James Tree's Pushing On game, taken from the Operation Martlet scenario pack for CoC.

Click on the pic below to see Jack's epic work... 

IABSM AAR: Jandrain

Here's a quick and somewhat fuzzily-photographed IABSM microarmour AAR from Mark Luther, this one covering action in France 1940 as the French counteract with Somua tanks.

Click on the pic below to see all:

Mark based the game on another AAR from this site: this one from Brian Cantwell. You can see Brian's version (in 15mm) by clicking on the pic below (opens in a new link).

And now a quick request.

I am running out of battle reports to post up here on Vis Lardica. 

I am getting the occasional report sent direct to me for posting, and many individuals are kind enough to have allowed me re-posting rights to their blog entries, but it is becoming more and more difficult to keep the flow of reports coming.

So here's the request: if you are playing one of the TFL games covered by Vis Lardica*, and don't have a blog of your own or anything like that, take a few pictures of the action, scrawl down a few notes on what happened, or even just captions to the pictures, and send the lot through to me at admin@vislardica.com. Don't worry about format or tidiness or anything like that: I can turn the raw content into a report for you.

That way you have a record of the games that you have played, a record that you can come back to and browse anytime you feel like it. I certainly enjoy reminding myself occasionally of the great tabletop encounters I've enjoyed in the past, and judging by the traffic stats for the site, so do the rest of you!

So don't delay and get scribbling!

*The site covers TFL's company-sized games - I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! (WW2); Charlie Don't Surf! (Vietnam); and Quadrant 13 (sci-fi) - along with their variants Rock the Casbah (the Arab/Israeli wars of the '70s);  B'Maso (Africa in the 60's) and the various adaptions for Moderns.

Finally, one thing that did catch my eye earlier today...

I was trawling the Internet looking for interesting wargames content to read, and came across a Russian-language site with a battle report on it. A quick Google translate came up with the usual pidgin English, but one sentence particularly caught my eye:

"well, where in the truhistori vargeim without homruli"

It's like reading Chaucer, or listening to Grendel/Grendel's Mother speak in the Ray Winstone Beowulf film, but expresses a sentiment we should all take to heart: is a wargame truly a wargame without home rules!  

IABSM AAR: Operation Martlet Game

In addition to publishing the company-sized WW2 game  I Ain't Been Shot, Mum, the TooFatLardies also publish the very popular platoon-sized WW2 game Chain of Command.

In addition to the rules, TFL also publish a series of "pint-sized campaigns": scenario booklets for CoC that cover very specific actions over the course of 6-8 games priced, as the name suggests, at the price of a pint of beer.

One such booklet covers Operation Martlet:  the combined arms operation launched by the British 49th Division immediately prior to Operation Epsom to seize the Rauray Spur from the defenders from 12 SS Hitlerjugend.

The pint-sized campaigns can be fairly easily translated for use with IABSM, and this is what James Tree has done for his latest AAR, lifted from the TFL Facebook page.

Click on the picture below to see how he got on...

IABSM AAR: Eastern Front 1944

Another AAR from Burt Minorrot's excellent Spanish language wargaming blog Las Partidas de Burt or Burt's Games, Burt's Stuff.

It's action on the Russian Front this time, as the Germans try to break through Soviet lines and get their men off the other end of the table.

Click on the picture below to see all:

As I've said before, I still haven't heard back from Burt that I'm okay to reproduce/translate his work onto this site, so I hope he doesn't mind. Apologies for any errors in translation btw: they are all mine.

IABSM AAR: A Small Game by James Tree

Another AAR lifted from the IABSM Facebook page. It's another of James Tree's exploratory games, this time featuring a small infantry versus infantry game set amongst the Normandy bocage.

Click on the pic to see all:

IABSM AAR: Kolonie by Mark Luther

Talking of Mark Luther and the GA Lardy Day (see last Sunday's post), here's another great after action report from Mark and friends.

This is a 6mm IABSM game played at Giga-bites Café in the Spring of 2017. The starting point for the scenario is the action that took place on the outskirts of Kolonie on the Belgium-Dutch border on the morning of September 14, 1944. 

The Allied bridgehead was held by the 5th Coldstream Guards (11 Armoured Division) with C Squadron of the 15/19 Hussars just down the road. The German units coming down the road straight for the canal consisted of 6 Luftwaffe BewahrungsBatalillon zur besondere Verwendung (a Luftwaffe penal unit) and Sturmgeschutze from 2/559 schwere Heeres Panzerjager Abteilung.

Click on the picture below to see all the action.

IABSM AAR: A Small Town in Belgium

Those of you who follow this blog regularly will know that in addition to posting after action reports from all the company-sized games from the TooFatLardies being played now, I like to trawl the Internet and re-publish reports from games played way back when.

It makes this site the official, unofficial archive for IABSM, CDS and Q13 and their variants, and also often means that content on blogs that are now moribund is preserved (well, at least until I pop my wargaming clogs!) and content on live blogs that is so old that it has just about disappeared from view is given a new lease of life.

Here's an example of the latter: a one-off IABSM battle report dating back to 2010 from the Scattergun Gamer blog which I hope he doesn't mind me reproducing here. Only three pics, but good ones: I especially love the water-tower and marines.

Click on the pic below to see all.

IABSM AAR: Russian Front 1943

Here's another IABSM AAR from Burt Minorrot's excellent Spanish-language blog Los Partidas de Burt...which I've always translated as Burt's Stuff but the wife, who speaks more languages than a half-elven bard, tells me actually translates as Burt's Games.

Anyhow, hopefully my translation of Burt's words is slightly better than usual, as the Memsahib helped with the really difficult bits i.e. those bits that Google Translate mangled beyond all recognition. 

Click on the picture below to see all:

IABSM AAR: All American #10: Neuville au Plain

Another great after action report picked up from the IABSM Facebook page.

This time, Desmondo Darkin leads his Luftlande Grenadiers into action against the 82nd Parachute Infantry Regiment in a scenario taken from the All American scenario pack.

Click on the picture below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Breakthrough in Normandy

In addition to four ready-to-play scenarios, the IABSM v3 rulebook contains a random scenario generator allowing you to quickly and easily build scenarios of your own. 

There are six basic types of encounter detailed in the generator, the fifth one being "Breakthrough": where a strong, fast-moving force attempts to break through an enemy position.

Here's an AAR from Carole Flint using the "Breakthrough" scenario generator, with a game set in Normandy, 1944, and detailed on her excellent blog Hippolyta's Tiny Footsteps.

A force of British tanks and their supports attempts to punch a hole in the German defensive line. Click on the pic below to see all... 

IABSM AAR: Case Black by Joe Patchen

Another of Joe Patchen's excellent battle reports for I Ain't Been Shot, Mum.

Here the action moves to Yugoslavia, 1943, where a band of partisans is looking to make its escape through a village occupied by Germans.

Click on the picture below to see all...

IABSM AAR: Heavy PaK Front by Mark Luther

Another great 6mm IABSM AAR from Mark Luther. This scenario involves the Germans advancing into a hail of fire from Soviet anti-tanks guns...and then there's the JS-IIs to contend with as well. I'll play the Soviets please!

Click on the pic below to see all:

For those who are interested, I will be at Colours tomorrow, Saturday 16th September, probably for most of the morning.

For those wishing to join me, you can find details of the event by clicking here. At only £6 entry, it's got to be worthwhile, either as a shopping trip or a chance to see the demo games. I personally can't stand the venue, but the show is always good.

IABSM AAR: A Canadian VC Re-Visited

You may remember that when I posted James Tree's AAR using the A Canadian VC scenario from the rulebook, I posted links to all the other battle reports using the same set up.

Well, James had a look at some of them, and decided he hadn't quite played the scenario correctly...so there was nothing for it but to play the game again.

Click on the pic below to see how it worked out this time: take two!

IABSM AAR: Bashnya or Bust #2B: Sorok

Fellow Lardy Norseygamer has been working his way through a Bashnya or Bust! campaign.

Here's his latest battle report: the Germans, fresh from their victory Near Osen, now try and take the village and ford of Sorok.

Click on the pic below to see all...

IABSM AAR: The Battle for San Marco

Great battle report from Mike Whitaker from a game he played recently:  British infantry and armour assaulting German positions in Italy.

Mike's blog Trouble At T'Mill is also recommended reading.

Click on the picture below to see all.

IABSM AAR: For the Honour of France...Again

Rather than immediately clear away the rather nice set up for the For the Honour of France game played a couple of weeks ago (click here to read the AAR, opens in a new window), I decided to use the same scenario for a game that I was umpiring between John and Dave that took place last weekend.

A very different game from last time. Click on he pic below to see all: