My New Secret Weapon for Competitions

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Those of you who were in the To The Strongest competition at Warfare this year will have heard me loudly decrying the number of Aces I was pulling: not for melee or shooting but for activation.

Time and time again my master strategies were defeated as my troops just refused to move at all as a result of an Ace (or usually Aces!) appearing as the first card drawn in a command’s turn.

I thought about changing my packs of cards (especially the red pack: you b*st*rds are due on the bonfire soon, I tell you!) but have realised that such a petty attempt to change my luck probably won’t work: I mean, probability is probability and play a lot of games and the monkey’s typing up Shakespeare are bound to appear sooner or later. I needed a more radical approach…

Yes, I have joined the shuffling machine club!

First encountered at the World Championships earlier this year, I have been enviously observing my fellow players who own them effortlessly producing perfectly shuffled decks without the need to do more than load up the wings and press the button. Now I, too, can avoid any of the bad luck that characterised my Warfare performance…and all for only about £10. Bargain!

This will also neatly prevent a certain friend of mine from banana-ring my decks of cards with his (admittedly nicely executed) riffle shuffles. He will doubtless be interested to hear that, according to Wikipedia: The Gilbert–Shannon–Reeds model provides a mathematical model of the random outcomes of riffling that has been shown experimentally to be a good fit to human shuffling and that forms the basis for a recommendation that card decks be riffled seven times in order to randomize them thoroughly. Later, mathematicians Lloyd M. Trefethen and Lloyd N. Trefethen authored a paper using a tweaked version of the Gilbert–Shannon–Reeds model showing that the minimum number of riffles for total randomization could also be six, if the method of defining randomness is changed.

I’m not sure when my new shuffling machine will have it’s debut, but be warned that I am already clearing shelf space for all the trophies that I an now going to win as, according to me at any rate, all that has been holding me back is my appalling luck and nothing to do with the fact that I am facing very skilled opponents who have actually taken the trouble to learn the rules!

For those interested:

ZONJIE Automatic Card Shuffler Machine 2 Deck, Electronic Casino Poker Card Shuffling, Battery Operated -One/Two Deck Card Shuffle Sorter, Cards Playing Tool Accessories


IABSM Basing: Problem Solved!

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Those of you who have gamed with me or seen my AAR will know that most of my infantry figures are based individually: a typical eight-man squad being made up of six figures on 5p pieces and the LSW team of two figures on a 2p piece.

This means that I can remove casualties without the dread "rings of death" ruining the look of the tabletop, and also position them along uneven terrain features as well.

Those are the positives.

The main negative, however, is that it takes an awful lot of time to move individual figures around the tabletop.

I have got around that in the past by using rectangular movement trays as shown in the picture below:

Functional...but not pretty!

These are fine: very functional...but they are not at all pretty.

Now, however, I have the solution, thanks to Warbases.

I contacted them a couple of weeks ago asking if they would do some custom bases for me: movement trays that would take my unique squad basing regimen both for 8-man squads and for 10-man squads. Needless to say, they came up trumps.

Here, for the first time, are my patent Avery-bases for IABSM:

Well, this is one of them after I've painted it a simple green and then flocked its upper surface. 

You can immediately see that in addition to the holes for the figures, there's even a hole for a mini-dice which, in IABSM, I'll use to note Shock. Other systems could use mini-dice of different colours to differentiate units.

Here's how they look full of figures:

The new bases allow me to move figures around the tabletop quickly and easily, to remove casualties, and to make sure I don't get Shock dice lost or mixed up as well.

Well done, Warbases. I am one very happy customer!

TFL Summer Special 2015

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The TooFatLardies have just announced the release of this year's Summer Special.

This issue contains the following articles:

  • Blitz to Boulogne - A complete mini-campaign for Chain of Command
  • Action at the Crooked Billet - AWI scenario for Sharp Practice
  • Glowaczow - AN IABSM scenario from 1944 with Soviets versus Germans
  • Hadgranate! - Tracing the development of hand grenade tactics in the Great War
  • At our Convenience - A mini-campaign for Mud & Blood (or Great War Chain of Command) centred on the battle of Loos in 1915
  • Fight for Sesna -  A Spanish Civil War tank action for CoC Espana!
  • Straight out of Central Casting - Adding characters to your Bag the Hun games
  • Taking the Biscuit - A complete guide to using Sharp Practice for Garibaldi's 1860 campaign in Sicily.  Rule suggestions and five scenarios
  • Quadrant 13, A Point System - Robert Avery provides a point system for his popular Sci-Fi rules
  • The Roundwood Report - Sidney talks Lardy Games days with three veteran organisers
  • Fork-Tailed Lardies - Using the P-38 in Bag the Hun
  • Le Hameau - A 200th anniversary Le Feu Sacre scenario
  • Hunting Charlie with Captain Jack - A Charlie Don't Surf Scenario for Vietnam
  • Arise to Lard - Applying 1940 air tactics with Bag the Hun.
  • Scotland Forever - Try to capture the Eagle with the Scots Greys at Waterloo.  A complete game to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the great battle.

You'll note the article from your's truly about a points system for Q13.

The TFL Summer Special 2015 is available for only £6 by clicking here.