Desert Rats!

Finished up another batch of 6mm Miniatures yesterday.  Two packs of GHQ's UK Desert Troops and one pack of Heavy Weapons.  My best work so far (still not near the best out there but good enough for on the table!)  these boys will end up in many a game of Fireball Forward, I Ain't Been Shot Mum!, and Fistful of Tows.

Total in this batch.

6    2 man MTR teams
12  MMG/HMG
23  Squad (3 figure stands without Bren)
9    Heavy squad (the ones with the Bren gun on the base)
9    ATR  (I think those are ATRs...)
41  Individual Riflemen
6    Bren gun
18  Light MTR
11  FO
12  Leader

The whole crew

FOs

Brens and Light Mortars

Leaders

Heavy Squads

Regular Squads

Brens, that red splotch is supposed to be a copper color

Lots of 6mm Miniatures painted.

Painted up and based a LOT of miniatures since January, I finally decided to write them up with this latest batch complete.  The minis are for gaming with Too Fat Lardies IABSM and IABNM rules along with Fistful of Tows and Fireball Forward.

First batch of pictures includes the following.  All are GHQ except the Cold War Russians which are Heroics and Ros.

Japanese
22 LMG
6 HMG
3 FO
2 large gun
4 small gun
3 knee mortar
9 grenade thrower
12 leader
21 riflemen
8 type 95 tank
4 type 97
2 truck

UK Desert
5 Humber scout

Afrika Korps
5 pzjgr1
5 sdkfz222
5 sdkfz231 8 rad

France WW2
5 H39

US WW2
4 trucks
1 sniper
1 BAR
3 bazooka teams
1 loader

1 soviet ATR WWII

Cold War Russian (these are Heroics and Ros)
3 mortar team
3 as missile team
5 sagger team, desert
4 sagger team Europe
6 at missile team
3 mg team
3 agl team
7 leader teams
12 RPG
4 squad stands
5 leaders
5 radio men
3 ft men
3 engineers
12 saw men
43 riflemen

The second Batch are WWII Russians I had done back in January but never took pictures of.

29 squad stands
21 heavy squad stands
17 lmg
31 mmg/hmg
45 riflemen
24 mortar team
12 ft team
15 FO  (GHQ has way too many of these in a pack)
25 leader  (these too)

I Ain't Been Nuked Mum Playtest at SJCW club meeting

Played another playtest round of IABNM at the club on Saturday.  There was only one other game this month, a game of Angriffe that ran after the IABNM game was finished, I had to miss out on that one so only one picture of that being setup.

For the IABNM game it was the same scenario as I played last time but the result was VERY different.

The board being setup, should look familiar.  This time I placed the woods close to the Soviet entry edge and left a larger open area.  The US forces would setup anywhere to the left of the cards you see on the table.  (roughly).

The playing card is a blind, further back (in the blurry picture, sorry!) is the Soviet pre-game smoke barrage.  On the right hand side the Soviets are charging right out in the open!  (they did not see the results of the last game!)

Hard to see from here but the Soviet blinds are spotted (as Phil looks on...) and the M1A1s make short work of a bunch of them (the M1A1s are in the town just beyond the bend in the river).  Further back a batch of M2 Bradleys opened fire with Missiles  and took out some more T80s as well, things are going very badly for the Soviets.

The rest of the Soviet force is spotted and fire erupts across the board in both directions.

End of the game (which only lasted for 3 rounds of cards).  Anti-Tank combat is VERY deadly.  All of the M1A1s were destroyed in two turns by 10 or so T80s while the M1A1s managed to kill 10 or so T80s in return.  A couple of M2 Bradleys were also destroyed.  For their loss the US managed to destroy two ZSU-23-4 vehicles, the Forward Soviet forward observer vehicle, and nine or so BMPs.  At this point I called the game for the US.

Scenes of devastation.  Three dead BMPs and shocked surivors, further up are the two ZSU-23-4s, another BMP and behind the woods three BMPS running for cover.  Further up from that is another platoon of BMPs, one of which was destroyed.

US losses are not so bad.  Up front an M2 Bradley is destroyed and another one (in the open) no longer has functioning armament and is shocked.  Back in the woods another M2 is down.  The last bit of woods has a group of M901 tow vehicles.  Arty was going to be brought down on them but the spotter was destroyed before it could be brought in.

The Soviets charged down the road in the open which allowed them to be spotted by the US dummy blinds (all of them spotted in one turn pretty much).  After that the real US units had a turkey shoot.  Armored combat in this game is very deadly and quick (no buckets of dice) so getting spotted and fired on is usually decisive.  For my next game I will have to try a mostly infantry affair in tighter terrain - using inches for measurement rather than CM as was done for these past two games (for seeing how missile combat worked out - it is deadly but tank guns are deadlier).

I Ain't Been Nuked Mum!

Played a playtest of IABNM again yesterday.  Soviets attacking a US position circa 1989.  I am planning to run a similar scenario (with modifications based on this run through) at the SJCW group meeting on May 9th.

Soviet Forces are attacking to seize 2 of 3 bridges across some river.  Lots of tanks and a group of BMP infantry vs 2 platoons of Americans in M2 Bradleys, an M901 AT Company, and a platoon of M1A1s.  It was a slaughter...

Prepare for Battle!  The table setup 4' by 8' and we will be using CM for measurements.  The US will setup on the far side and have to stop the Soviet steamroller.

A little closer in with the blinds in place (I use playing cards as blinds.  This is the center of the US defense.

A pre-game arty attack puts a hurting on the US right flank!  (I could not find the word stonk and used a regular barrage rather than the IABNM stonk rules - found the correct rules today and will be using them in the game on the 9th).  Black squares are "built up" areas of hard cover, buildings are simply for show.  The 4 M2s have suffered a loss of action (orange) and most are shocked (white).  

A T80 Company (I used a single card per T80 company, need to make more cards) destroyed two M2 Bradleys after passing by the woods.  M2s try to fire back on their card - OOOPS, no firing Wire Guided missiles over water!  (first change for the game on the 9th noted.).  One of the remaing M2s dashes for the bridge to shoot across it with the ITOW (can not shoot and move so has to hope he lives)

Soviets move up in the center, US Blinds card did not come up for 4 straight decks allowing the Soviets to move up without being spotted.

The US Blinds finally appear and the M1A1 platoon opens fire!  They destroy 3 T80s on the right flank including one on the bridge - see the picture 2 down from here.

T80s in the center (another Company) activate and destroy two of the M1A1s.  The last two manage to fire a bit longer.  The T80s also managed to destroy two of the M2s from the HQ platoon (City on the left).  At this point we called the game.

The remains of the US right flank.  The Infantry were pummeled by the T80s firing HE and only one Bradley was left alive.  Changes for the next game are to move the river further back and have the US allowed to setup on either side, to put the off board AT missile card in the deck right away (was waiting for the HQ to unmask and call it in), and allow the soviets to start in a woods line rather than come in from off table - this will allow the action to start a little sooner and allow the Soviet arty into the game along with the US missile strikes from off-board Apaches.  

The IABNM rules will be published by Too Fat Lardies and are currently in Playtest.  I can't say for sure when they will be done but they are very far along now.

Cold Wars 2015

Went to Cold Wars in Lancaster PA on Saturday and took some pics and a couple lousy videos.

My quick review - it seemed like lite attendance (been saying that for years, probably fine but the weather might have held a couple people back).  About 25% of the tables in the main room seemed empty most of the day and I missed a couple of my favorite dealers this time out.  I did buy a wargame, some products from Paper Terrain (love them!), some decals from I95, and some flock and river sections from Wally's Basement.

For the most part I was not really impressed with the games with the exception of the SciFi table setup in front of the Distelfink.  Sadly a SciFi game was the most impressive at a historical con.  Maybe I'm just jaded or cranky from all the snow lately, hard to say.  On the other hand the Host seemed fine, clean bathrooms and it seemed in rather good shape in the ballroom areas.

On the plus side (for me) was the Eureka was right off the steps in the vendor hall and they had Lardy products on prominent display.

Without further ado here are my limited number of pics and videos...

Sorry that was sideways, I can not get the thing to rotate!

My son participated in a Fireball Forward game.  The UK eventually won after a couple of Banzai charges went badly.

OK, this one looked very nice!

And this one.

Going to borrow this terrain idea.

From the game above.

Borrowing this terrain idea as well.

Lardy products at the Eureka booth.

Two types of fabric glued together it looks like.  Rug pieces perhaps.

Nice Game

the SciFi table