IABSM German Company

My IABSM Wehrmacht Grenadier Coy 1944/45 is now complete, short changed the third platoon.

2 x Little Big Men (One the coy Commander)
HQ Platoon (2 x MG42's, Tank Hunter Team, Sniper, Panzerschreck Team)
2 x Platoons of 8 men.

Figures are 15mm Command Decision, Battlefront and Peter Pig.

Disposable Heroes

Afrika Korps

Australian Infantry

Wednesday night I received a telephone call from a distressed friend, codenamed Guido. He really needed to have a miniature game to quell his wargaming addiction shakes. So I suggested Disposable Heroes. I loaded my utility with terrain and figures, told the wife I was going out, and I responded priority 2.

Guido had his desert board set up on arrival. A quick throw down of the terrain and we were off. Guido is a WW2 German fanboy, so I immediately told him he was playing the Australians to put him off balance. The game centres around three house. Two house were worth one victory point each. One house was worth two victory points. Whoever has the most victory points wins.

Without going into too much detail the Afrika Korps came on from the left, Australians from the right. A good old fashioned brawl broke out, punch for punch. Both sides took a 1 Victory Point house. Guido got into the 2 Victory Point house but was driven out by well placed fire from my HMG and LMG's. I had no spare men to get into the vacated house. Both sides were worn down to the point where we could do no more and after 2hrs30mins the game ended with a victory point each. DRAW. Both sides lost 17 killed.

IABSM British Company

Being a typical wargamer suffering magpieitis I saw a new shinny object in IABSM and my plans from a month ago were thrown into disarray. I have assembled a late war British Rifle Company in 15mm as per the Gotterdammerung IASBM army list. I short changed the Coy one platoon.

3 x Little Big Men, one of which is the Coy Commander.
HQ Rifle Section of 8 men, 1 x sniper.
2 x Rifle Platoons each consisting of 3 x 8 man sections, a PIAT Team, and a 2" Mortar Team.

I find the 8 man sections a bit odd because they should be 10 men. But who is to argue. Less painting. I also painted up some single figures on square bases to use as loose change when the rifle sections take causalities. German Coy coming soon. Then armour!

There are a mixture of 15mm figures here. Command Decision, Peter Pig, Old School Battlefront pre FOW, and new Battlefront. All these figures came out of deep wardrobe storage, except for the sniper which I had to buy. Picture is a bit short on detail but I wanted that long shot to show my full IABSM Brit coy.

Disposable Heroes Desert Skirmish

The Australian End. I place Bren Gun teams on the left and right flanks to cover the advancing Diggers making towards the buildings. A Vickers MMG in the sandbags duels it out with a MG34. The Vickers wins the dual with some lucky dice throwing.

The Australian Command Team and a Rifle Team race towards cover. Speed is the key leaving the firing to the LMG's and the Vickers.

The Africa Korp are in trouble from the word go. Godders charges all his men towards the building leaving no-one providing cover fire. Good tactics if you play FOW but a disaster in Disposable Heroes.

The Germans.

The Australians.

The Battlefield.

My good friend Godders came over today to re-fight a skirmish in the Western Desert on the outskirts of Tobruk using the Disposable Heroes rules from Iron Ivan Games and 25/28mm figures from Battle Honors. The orders are simple. The Germans are to recon no-mans land near three abandoned Arab houses looking for a good spot to place an artillery observer. The Australians own no-mans land and any German incursion into their zone of control will be meet with aggression.

Godders chose the Africa Korp, I got the Diggers. My plan was simple. Place a Bren gun on each flank, Vickers MMG in the centre, and advance my teams up the guts using the arab houses as cover. I soon took control after my Vickers knocked out the Africa Korps MMG. I now dominated the centre of the board with Machine Gun fire forcing Godders to use the left and right flanks. Unfortunately for the Africa Korps both flanks were covered by my Bren guns. Godders did not spot the danger until it was too late.

Germans started falling like flies and Godders teams were being constantly pinned down and not able to react to my movement.

The Australians Anti-Tank Rifle Team used their Boyes like a sniper rifle. It was hitting everything it shot at. The dice gods were in a good mood.

Godders eventually got some of his troops into the buildings but there were not many left at this stage. The Australians did some house keeping with the bayonet and caused the Germans grievous harm. The Germans fled and the Australians kept their dominance of no-mans land. Australians lost 10 killed, Germans 29 killed.

In summary a great game. Disposable Heroes is the premier skirmish rule set for WWII. To put it in simple terms, "These rules don't suck."

Japanese Fleet Support

Four Japanese World War Two ships complete. Fleet Tanker Okinawa Maru, Seaplane Carrier Kamikawa Maru, and two Type 2A Standard Merchants Eijyo Maru and Hoei Maru. Ships are Navwar 1/3000 scale.

I Ain't Been Shot Mum

I have been a bit quite lately but thats about to change. I have four weeks leave so I going to hit the miniatures. Goal is to finish another unit of 24 Arthurians, make a start on some 15mm New Kingdom Egyptians, and to paint another 10 WWI Diggers. Listening to the Meeples and Miniatures podcast the other week has brought my attention to I Ain't Been Shot Mum from Too Fat Lardies. The author Richard Clarke talked the rules up and sold them to me. A simple visit to the Too Fat Lardies website and $14.00 and a minute later I owned my first ever PDF rule book. Even if the rules turn out to suck thats not a bad price to find out. Another holiday objective is to hit the streets and run 5km a day, do some swimming and weights. I will report back the fattest loser results in 4 weeks.