A great game of IABSM at the Gert Lush Lard 2021 event at Bristol Independent Gaming yesterday.
Phil Turner and Jenny Owens put on their quite magnificent 1940 Defence of Stonne game.
Click on the picture below to see all:
On Your Marks…
The new venue for SELWG
I had a rare Sunday free, so thought I’d pop along to the first post-lockdown SELWG show.
The last time I’d been to SELWG, it had been at Crystal Palace and, to be honest, all I remember is the smell of chlorine from the pool and a nightmare journey there and back.
The refreshed show is actually in north London (presumably there are plans to re-name it NELWG) at the Lee Valley Track & Field stadium. The show was set up literally in the middle of the running track: somewhat ironic considering the inverse relationship between enjoying wargames and taking part in athletics!
The place is easy to find and, for me, now easy to get to. The site has a large, free car park right outside: such a refreshing change from the huge fees at Excel (Salute) or the nightmare that is Rivermead (Warfare). The only negative is that it didn’t have any charging points: very annoying in this modern age.
The show itself was very good, although it did feel a bit small: but this may be down to the fact that I’m used to the very big shows. That said, there were plenty of demo games (including a good 50 yards of Lard!) and a fair selection of traders. Interestingly, although there were plenty of 28mm figure manufacturers there, I couldn’t see any 15mm manufacturers, so ended up only buying some brushes and some basing materials. A cheap day!
It would have been a more expensive day as, unusually for me, I found something on the Bring & Buy that I wanted to, er, buy…but it was £100 and I never carry cash any more (I had a single £10 note on me!) and there was no cash point on site, the nearest being a 500 yard trip in either direction. Note to organisers: equip the B&B with a credit card machine or make sure there’s a cashpoint. So no nicely-painted 15mm WW1 German army for me :(
On the plus side, however, I did play in an excellent game of Infamy! in the morning. I played the Carthaginians up against some Republican Romans. It was a cracking game. The Roman skirmishers causing me all sorts of problems whilst I manoeuvred into a position from which my elephant could go in backed by my Libyan spearmen as my Spanish types hit the enemy from the flank. In the end, the sheer flexibility and staying power of the Romans meant that they could recover from the nellie’s charge quickly enough to ride the assault of my spearmen, and the Spanish just didn’t quite have the combat power to save the day. A cracking game, though, and thanks to Big Rich and my opponent, Chris, for making it so good.
So, all in all, a good day. Charging points and a cash machine for next time please, and get the food truck on site earlier than 1 o’clock: I like to have elevenses!
Here’s a final pic of a rather nice Mexican Revolution game:
One of the few good things to come out of lockdown has been how people have found ways of gaming remotely.
The Virtual Lard Games Days are an excellent example of this. Using the Lardy Discord server to co-ordinate, vast numbers of games run simultaneously all around the world, with a virtual pub also available for those all-important post-game discussions. The Virtual Lards are, in effect, online conventions.
Virtual Lard V took place last weekend, and I was lucky enough to get a place on two games: one in the morning and one in the afternoon (this isn’t guaranteed: the sessions are often over-subscribed).
The morning’s session was a terrific game of Sharp Practice Napoleonics with Col Murray running a session that involved the French (commanded by the two Bobs: Lucky Bob C and myself) attempting to stop some Austrians (commanded by Andrew and Grizzlymc) making away with some items that had best remain nameless.
I won’t detail the step-by-step action, but suffice to say that my masterful mismanagement of the French Grenadiers kept a large proportion of the Austrians so busy shooting them to bits that the rest of our force (Bob’s Line and my Skirmishers) were able to drive the rest of the enemy off the table, so reducing their Force Morale to zero and giving us the game.
It was very exciting. At one stage it looked like being a certain Austrian victory as their Dragoons headed off-table with “the items”…but their movement rolls were poor, giving Bob and I (well, mainly Bob) time to hammer the Hungarians with musket fire again and again until they broke and fled. The last turn could have gone either way, but the draw of the cards, for once, favoured the French, and victory was ours.
Here are some pictures:
As an afterthought, one of the amusing things about Virtual Lard is the way that it brings people from different time zones together. Grizzlymc was actually in Sydney, Australia, and sipping whisky at what, for us, was early morning!
My afternoon game was I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum!, with Jim Catchpole running a scenario set in France in 1944. Dan Albrecht and I were commanding a company of British infantry moving forward to clear a village that may or may not have been in German hands. A pleasant chap called Michael was playing the Germans: he hadn’t played IABSM before.
All went well for the British until we hit a major chokepoint: a bridge that proved to be the single crossing point over a fast-flowing river right outside the village in question.
We began by doing everything right: probing over the bridge with out recon carriers, laying down smoke to cover a German MMG, but then the cards turned against us and the German artillery came hammering down.
An abortive attempt to break out of our “beachhead” by the carriers failed dismally (my fault entirely, Dan!) and then we just couldn’t get out of the artillery kill zone. If we moved forward, the waiting Germans shot us; if we stayed where we were we got hit by shells from above.
We lasted a couple of turns then ordered a retreat!
It was a difficult scenario, but we could have done a whole lot better. Which was a pity, as our leapfrogging advance to the bridge was a speedy thing of beauty! What we should then have done was to take the time to spot properly, lay down smoke properly etc but the arrival of the German artillery mucked up our plans.
Well played Michael, well umpired Jim, and I think Dan and I both agreed that our solution was to pull back and call in the artillery. Or, to put it another way: I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit...it's the only way to be sure!
Here a few shots of the game right up to the point where the German artillery arrived:
All in all, another great Virtual Lard. My thanks to the organisers and game-runners, and can’t wait until the next one.
Yesterday I took part in my third virtual game in ten days, this time as part of Virtual Lard IV: the equivalent of a regular Lardy Day, but with all the games being played remotely.
Today’s game was a re-fight of Ball’s Bluff. It’s the beginning of the war and a super-keen Union artilleryman has advanced his guns forward over the James river into Reb territory. The Rebs have cottoned on to the fact that the gunners are out on their own and have sent a force to capture the guns; Union high command have seen this coming and dispatched troops to bring the guns safely home. The stage is set for an epic clash!
Click on the picture below to see what happened:
One of the things that has been going on during lockdown is a series of virtual Lardy Days where people who are not lucky enough to be able to push lead with a member of their “bubble” can game remotely.
Mike Whitaker ran a game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum at the recent Virtual Lard 2. Here’s a quick AAR of the action taken from his excellent blog Trouble At T’Mill. Click on the picture below to see all:
One of the great things about the world of Lard is the growing profusion of Lardy Days, where Lard-minded gamers can get together and indulge in their favourite pastime.
One of the early events on the 2020 Lard calendar was the Big Winter Wonder-Lard day held by Bristol Independent Gamers at the end of February. About twelve games, all fully participation, were run in each of the morning and afternoon sessions, covering just about the whole spectrum of Lard: What A Tanker; Chain of Command; Bag the Hun; Sharp Practice and, of course, I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum.
That game was run by Phil and Jenny, and featured action from the Arras Counter-Attack in May 1940. Click on the picture below to see an excellent pictorial report of the day’s events (lifted from the IABSM Facebook Group):
It was the Pie, Mash & Lard Lardy Day at the South London Warlords yesterday: a day which included a IABSM game put on by Ian Spence involving a US mixed force of tanks, Recce and infantry pushing German defenders out of a village and driving off table. A bloody affair which ended up with most German units eliminated, except the crucial platoon that held the village itself.
Click on the pic below to see Desmondo Darkin’s full report plus pictures:
Clotted Lard is the Devon Wargames Group’s annual Lard Day. A full report of the 2019 event can be found on the DWG blog, but here’s an extract describing the game of IABSM that took place as part of the festivities.
Click on the picture below to see all:
My second game at this year’s Operation Market Larden (the Evesham Lardy day) was a rather exciting game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum. The scenario, written and umpired by Mike Whitaker, involved a clash between British and German reconnaissance forces somewhere in Italy in around 1943.
Click on the picture below to see all:
The first game that I played at this year’s Operation Market Larden was a game of Chain of Command set in Malaya 1941 put on in 28mm by Mark Backhouse.
The British, played by Matt Slade and I, were represented by a platoon of Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. We were defending: our mission was to prevent any Japanese troops exiting the table on our side: Mark, in the picture above, is standing behind the British baseline. A sub-plot also involved us getting a senior officer to the knocked out ambulance to rescue certain vital supplies.
As mentioned, we had a full platoon of Scottish infantry at our disposal: three sections, a light mortar team and a Boys anti-tank rifle team led by lots of officers. In support, we chose a Lanchester armoured car (mainly because this theatre is about the only place you can use one) and a roadblock, which we used to prevent the Japanese bringing any tanks on from the side road on our right flank.
The Japs, played by Jeff Davis and Ian Gilbraith, had the opposite idea. Their aim was to capture two thirds of the table (horizontally) allowing them to exit troops off the British baseline. They also had a secondary mission: explore the two huts in search of rice supplies.
The Japanese also had a full platoon to field, but their sections were enormous: fourteen strong IIRC. In addition to their three regular rifle sections, they also had a grenade launcher squad with three Mk89 teams. In support, they had a Chi Ha tank: something we were not looking forward to facing.
The Patrol Phase happened quickly, with the Japanese ending up with their Jump Off Points largely on their left side of the table. We had two of our JOPs on that side of the table too, but as we’d had to protect out entire front instead of being able to schwerepunkt along one road, we had another behind the hut on our left hand side of the table.
The dice really fell for the Japanese in the early stages of the game. I’m not quite sure of the mechanic, but something about them rolling lots of 6’s on their Command Dice twice in a row meant that they shot up the battlefield until there was a section in the jungle to our right, the grenade launchers behind the hut just in front of our positions, and another section right in front of us in front of the hut.
The Japanese opened fire, promising huge amounts of devastation on our lead section. Fortunately (me rolling lots and lots of very low dice) the potential for large numbers of deaths was never realised. In fact, our only casualty was a junior officer knocked down…who promptly got back up again. This did, however, cost us two Force Morale points: the officer was obviously deeply unpopular!
Now the dice swung our way, and we had the chance to pour fire into the Japanese squad out in the open: which we did, knocking their strength down by half. At the same time, our Lanchester appeared, and promptly shot up the Japanese squad to the right.
It was all going so well…then this happened:
The Chi Ha took a shot at the Lanchester, hit it, and almost knocked it right back off the table. One more of them and we’d have no Lanchester left, and a dwindling number of Force Morale points.
Our light mortar popped some smoke down on the road between the Chi Ha and our armoured car, which gave us a little time to breathe…but what to do? There were still lots of Japs on the table, albeit half of them were pretty bashed up, but we needed to do something quickly and decisively if we weren’t going to spend the next four years building railways!
There was nothing for it: we would have to go forward and take the fight to the Japanese!
Bursting from the undergrowth, one of our sections rushed across the road to the right shouting strange Scottish epithets as they closed with the enemy. There were more Japanese there than we expected (the figures were hiding in the scenery!) and we lost the first round of close combat. This boded ill, but then Mark reminded us that as we were Scottish, we could ignore a loss by a mere one man, and carry on fighting until we were properly wiped out!
Back in went the Argylls, and in another two rounds of fighting (the Japs weren’t giving up the ghost easily either) we killed every enemy solider except one senior leader, who fled the field not to be seen again until 1966, when he finally emerged from the jungle not knowing the war had ended in ‘45!
The loss of so many of their men was too much for the already battered Japanese to survive. With a Force Morale of zero, they melted away back the way they’d come. Another successful Argyll ambush: time to fall back and do it all again tomorrow!
A cracking game of CoC, and one after which I am actually starting to remember the rules. I don’t think I’m switching from gaming companies in 15mm (IABSM, CDS, Q13) but I shall definitely play CoC again when I can.
Thanks to mark, Matt, Jeff and Ian for making it such a great game. Here are a few more piccies:
Another fantastic Lardy Games Day: this time up in Evesham at Market Larden 7.
There were about forty Lardies present, playing a selection of beautifully terrained and figured games that are easily the equal of any demonstration game seen anywhere else in the world.
I had a very good OML7: got to the hotel in time to have a full breakfast, an excellent game of Chain of Command set in Malaya, then lunch, then an equally excellent game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum set in Italy, then a few drinks before the usual curry, and then more drinks. Polish that off with another full breakfast this morning, a good trip home, and the perfect day’s gaming has occurred!
I’ll do separate reports on the two games I played in myself, but here are photos of most of the games on show (I think I missed the Bag the Hun game off my picture taking for some reason):
Colossal thanks to Ade Deacon for organising everything as efficiently as ever.
Very fitting that on today, the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, our news post is a quick report from James Tree on Mike Whitaker’s marvellous Bloody Omaha game from the recent Posh lard event.
Click on the picture below to see all:
This year is the 75th anniversary of the successful assault on Pegasus Bridge by glider infantry of the 2nd Battalion, the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, British 6th Airborne Division, commanded by Major John Howard. The successful taking of the bridges played an important role in limiting the effectiveness of a German counter-attack in the days and weeks following the Normandy invasion.
The Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum (SOFO) is putting on an exhibition to celebrate the anniversary, and it looks as if a few of us might be able to run a demo game of IABSM one weekend at the museum to help bring the event to life for the general public.
All the running for this is being done by friend Dave, so all I had to do recently was to take part in a playtest of the game to be run. Click on the picture below to see all…
This Saturday just gone saw the inaugural Clotted Lard games day at the Devon Wargames Group. At what will hopefully be an annual event, large numbers of fellow Lardies gathered for a fun-packed day of gaming.
You can read the after action report of the games day itself by clicking here.
One of the games on show was a superb 10mm game of Charlie Don't Surf! put on by DaveJ. Click on the picture below to see a quick AAR from Carojon, accompanied by more photos of what looks like a most impressive game:
Here's a slightly fuller battle report from the game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! that I played in the morning at Operation Market Larden yesterday.
Click on the picture below to see all:
Fellow Lardy Mark Luther* has asked me to mention the forthcoming Lardy Day GA taking place 10am to 7pm on 11th November 2017 at the Giga-Bites cafe in Marietta, GA.
There will be three games of Chain of Command: a Winter Storm Russian battle with a train, a Normandy game, and Mark's own Burma '45 game. There will also be two Sharp Practice Pirate games and Mark's French and Indian Wars game. Also, Jim Schmidt (author of the rules) will be doing a Coastal Patrol game.
Contact Mark on mhluther76@gmail.com for details: the day is free, so definitely worth a visit.
*author of many of the spectacular 6mm IABSM battle reports that can be found elsewhere on this site
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.
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:
This report is from the game played on October 15th 2016 at the first ever TFL Llardiff Games Day that took place at Firestorm Games in Cardiff.
The idea of this games day was that gamers not necessarily familiar with TFL products could come and have a go at a variety of different games, getting a taste of Lard and then hopefully coming back for more.
I was tasked with showcasing I Ain't Been Shot, Mum!, and told that I should prepare for a series of different players dipping in and out throughout the day, with my efforts focused on setting up and umpiring one game in the morning and one game in the afternoon.
Hmmm, I thought, multiple players dipping in and out: my favourite - not! No matter: Lard calls and I answer...so I decided to bring to Cardiff one of the larger (if not the largest) games from my Bashnya or Bust! scenario pack: scenario #4C, Holm.
This is a late war game where a battalion of Soviet infantry (and remember IABSM is a company-sized game!) supported by just a few tanks tries to overrun a German force defending a small village on the Kaunas front.
Click on the picture to see all the action.
I'm now back from the TFL showcase at Firestorm Games in Llardiff: and an excellent day's gaming it was too.
First, a quick word about Firestorm itself. This is a huge gaming centre in the Penarth area of Cardiff. It consists of three areas.
The first is a very well stocked shop that is absolutely ideal for stocking up on all those bits and pieces that are a pain to order online: tape measures, brushes, paints, spray cans etc. It also has a good selection of miniatures, board games and lots of card games and the like. Well worth a visit for this alone.
This gives you some idea of the size of the Battlefields area
Second is a small cafe, a medium sized bar and a large lounge-type area where important things like eating and drinking and chatting can take place. I had a very nice club sandwich from the cafe that totally made up for the fact that they were out of coffee!
Third, and perhaps most importantly, is the Battlefields area: a huge space that has to have at least 40 wargames tables in it. Apparently, on a non-function day, you can just book a table, pay a small amount (it's run like a social club, so you can pay for a day's membership - which IIRC is something like £3.50 - or do it quarterly for - again IIRC - about £17). They have loads of terrain that you can borrow to use for free, and the tables are nice and big and solid and very, very functional.
In all, I heartily recommend Firestorm as a venue and, as such, it was ideal for our Llardiff TFL showcase.
We had various games on offer. I ran I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! in the morning (a huge battalion-sized game of which more in a later post) and there were all day games of Sharp Practice 2 and Chain of Command as well.
Mr Clarke's game of Sharp Practice 2
The main game of CoC was particularly impressive: an amazing battlefield that I wish I had a good photo of...but the one I took came out all blurred.
The day's gaming was followed by an evening's drinking with the obligatory curry (fictional in Richard's case) which was also great fun.
I shall be making a note in my diary to attend next year.
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