IABSM at OML10

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My afternoon game at Operation Market Larden X was Phil & Jenny’s excellent Throw Them Back scenario for I Ain’t Been Shot Mum.

This involved a German counterattack on one of the Normandy beaches just after D-Day, with my instructions being, as one of the German players, to get a significant force “onto the sand”.

This turned out to be a cracking encounter with exciting action right from the start.

Click on the picture, below, to see all:

And thanks, as ever, to Adrian and team for organising such a great event overall.

Operation Market Larden X

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It seems extraordinary, but the Operation Market Larden Lardy Day in Evesham has reached its 10th manifestation i.e. leaving aside COVID lockdowns, it’s now ten years old…and I’ve been to every one.

This year’s event was the usual cornucopia of excellently run Lardy games, all played in the very best of Lardy spirits. Unfortunately real life commitments kept me from both the Friday night pre’s and the Saturday night meal, but I very much enjoyed the day itself.

Before I talk about the games I participated in, here’s a quick table-by-table look at what was on offer. All the pics are taken from first thing in the morning, so are devoid of any action, but just look at the set-ups!

In the morning, I played in Sid’s excellent Blood on Fallen Snow scenario for When the Last Sword is Drawn or Banzai Bonkers for short!

I partnered with Gareth, and our task was to secure several treasures at a shrine nominally under protection.

In short, although we succeeded in our mission and slaughtered the enemy, we technically lost the game as our opposition gained more on or honour than we did: something my partner in crime was largely responsible for as every duel he was in consisted of his Dirty Tricks technique verses the honourable conduct of the enemy!

I was so caught up in the action that I neglected to take more than a couple of shots of the game. Here they are:

Superbly created and umpired by Sid, I cannot recommend When the Last Sword is Drawn enough!

I’ll cover my afternoon game in the next post…

The Lardzone at Britcon

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Another good reason for going to Britcon was to see the Lardzone in action: a whole hall devoted to games from the TwoFatLardies.

It was no disappointment. Below you will find a gallery of the tables set up for the day, demonstrating the incredible displays on show.

In fact, the only table I didn’t get a picture of was the late war Burma game of Chain of Command run by Rich himself: it was still being set up when I had the chance to visit. So I have borrowed one from the Battle Bunker HQ’s post about Britcon, along with the shot of the enormous Chain of Command table, also a Pacific game, and the Sharp Practice ACW clash.

SP AAR: OML9: Xhosa Raid!

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My second game at Operation Market Larden 9 was a game of Sharp Practice set in South Africa in 1846.

To quote the briefing, “Xhosa raiding parties have brough terror to European settlers along the border with Cape Colony, destroying farmsteads, murdering their inhabitants and driving off livestock. The Governor has ordered both Regular and locally-raised auxiliary units up into the Waterkloof mountains to escort the civilians back to safety”.

I would play the commander of the auxiliary units tasked with rescuing the civilians.

The column I was helping to protect. My auxiliaries will enter the table from far to the right of what you can see here. The xhosa will come from where the camera is and off to the right as well.

This turned out to be a Ripping Yarn of a game, with waves of Xhosa initially trying to overwhelm the column and my troops with fire then, realising that we were winning the firefight, attempting to charge in and fight us at close quarters.

Most of the work, I admit, was done by my colleague controlling the Regulars, who established a firing line towards the rear of the column and a group of Riflemen in a ruined farmhouse and, quite frankly, shot the Xhosa to death.

For my part, apart from an initial hiccup with Corporal Nutter’s section of militia, who used my first move to retreat behind cover and then did not activate for the whole of the rest of the game, I managed to get some very useful Frontier Light Horse types into a position where they were protecting the road and could use their double-barrelled carbines to good effect, and then started rolling up the Xhosa’s left flank with the rest of my troops.

A charge from the Xhosa just about wiped out another of my units (horsemen who were, at that point, fighting dismounted) but that left the charging Xhosa vulnerable to a couple of volleys and a counter-charge that sent them scurrying from the table.

In the end, we defeated the Xhosa without taking too many casualties ourselves. Here’s a gallery of the action:

My thanks to everyone who was running/playing the game (it was great to use such beautifully painted figures on a cracking layout) and, of course, to Ade Deacon for organising the event as a whole. Can’t wait for OML10!

IABSM AAR: OML9: The Race to Brussels

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One of the games I played in at this year’s Operation Market Larden was a superbly presented I Ain’t Been Shot Mum scenario put on by Phil and Jenny.

Iaon and I would lead tanks from the Welsh Guards supported by motorised infantry from the Grenadier Guards in a race across Belgium to be the first units into Brussels. Historically, the only opposition encountered was in the town of Halle, and that’s what the day’s affairs would recreate. Our mission was to get a “significant force” off either of the bridges at the other end of the table.

Unfortunately, things did not go entirely to plan mainly, I hasten to add, due to a spectacular cock-up in tactics on my part!

Click on the picture below to see how easy it is to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!

Operation Market Larden #9

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A couple of weekends ago, I made my annual pilgrimage to Evesham to take part in the Operation Market Larden (or as I sometimes write, “Lardon”!) Lardy Day

This proved to be a fantastic day’s gaming, with about a dozen tables on display, all of which could easily have taken a “Best of” award at any major wargames show.

Here’s a quick gallery, mostly taken from just before the day began: after that, I was too busy playing to take more and, without everyone standing around playing, you can actually see the tables!

My thanks to Ade Deacon for organising again: I was only sorry I couldn’t stay for drinks and curry but family matters called me away.

I’ll write up the two games I played in as separate posts, so keep your eyes peeled for them. I know Mike can’t wait for the IABSM one!

IABSM AAR: Race to Brussels

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At Operation Market Larden 9 last Saturday, my morning game was a superb Race for Brussels game put on by Phil and Jenny.

The Dynamic Duo had playtested the game a few days before, and Steve Blease has written a lovely After Action Report that you can read by clicking on the picture below:

But how did you do at the game, I hear you ask?

Rest assured, I’ll be writing a full report concerning my execrable performance when I have time to do so but, put it this way, it was definitely an “interview without coffee” for my company commander when he limped back to base!

CDS AAR: Valley of Tears at Winter Wonderlard 2023

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Yesterday saw the annual Winter Wonderlard Lardie Day in Bristol.

I couldn’t be there myself (real world interfering with gaming again!) but here’s the first of the AAR using TFL company-sized rules from the day, with Steve Blease and his “Valley of Tears” Golan Heights scenario using Charlie Don’t Surf .

There were two sessions: see pictures from both, and others taken on the day, by clicking on the picture, below:

CDS AAR: A Writtle Bit of Lard

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Also on show at the Lardy Games Day A Writtle Bit of Lard was a great looking game of Charlie Don’t Surf put on by Nick Bellamy.

Here are some pics, also from Ian Roberts, but this time from the CDS Facebook Group:

And as Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance, here are some shots of the playtest that Nick ran a few weeks before:

IABSM AAR: A Writtle Bit of Lard

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I couldn’t make this year’s Lardy event in Writtle, A Writtle Bit of Lard, but, looking at the photographs up on various Facebook groups, I wish I had.

Legendary game runners Phil and Jenny put on a superb looking I Ain’t Been Shot Mum: here are a few photos from the day posted by Ian Roberts on the IABSM Facebook Group.

IABSM AAR: Capturing Rauray

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Earlier this year, at the Lardy Games Day Operation Market Lardon, I played in a very enjoyable game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum run by Phil and Jenny.

The game involved elements of 2. SS Panzer-Division Das Reich and 9. SS Panzer-Division Hohenstaufen attempting to recapture the town of Rauray in Normandy from the 1st Battalion Tyneside Scottish. Noddy and I played the British against some very skilful German opposition.

The game had actually been playtested several times, and here’s an AAR from one of those playtests from the excellent Bleaseworld blog.

Click on the picture, below, to see all:

IABSM AAR: Breaking the Panzers

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My afternoon game at Operation Market Lardon 2022 was a game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum run by the legendary Phil and Jenny.

I must confess that I got so into the game that I forgot to note the background properly, but from memory Scottish infantry supported by tanks from the Lancers, commanded by Noddy and I, would be defending a village in Normandy somewhere against an attack by a combined force of infantry and armour from the Waffen SS commanded by Andy and friend John.

A superb game of IABSM played on wonderful terrain. Click on the picture below to see all:

SP AAR: The Hundred Days

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Here’s the first of my two battle reports from the TFL Games Day, Operation Market Lardon: a game of Sharp Practice set not only in the Hundred Days campaign but actually at Waterloo itself. As you’ll see below, Joe McGinn put on a great-looking game

John and I played the French, commanding a force ordered to stop an ammunition cart getting to the British Guards in Hougement. The Allies were played by Ally and Phil

The French were quite lucky in that our Voltigeur skirmishers got onto the table quite quickly and managed to almost immediately drive the British guards away from the cart. One set of skirmishers was then able to take possession of the cart and get ready to move it towards our baseline.

The Allies then brought on a large force of German infantry in column that headed straight for the cart and managed to recapture it, forcing our skirmishers to withdraw, but they withdrew just far enough to put the Germans under fire again, with concentrated.fire from the two Voltigeur units then driving the column back.

This meant that the French had time to bring on both their main infantry force (conscripts) and a decent sized support unit (line infantry). The former headed towards the cart and were able to finish the German column off, the latter formed a blocking force that quickly got into a fire fight with some Nassau infantry coming up from the direction of Hougemont itself.

The blocking force and Nassau were fairly evenly matched until one unit of French Voltigeurs was able to break away from harassing the German infantry (who had been broken by the arrival and volley fire of the French conscripts) and lend its fire to the battle. The Nassau infantry started taking heavy casualties and were forced to withdraw.

As the battle ended, the French had the ammo cart in their possession and well on the way to their baseline; the German column and British guards were on the run; and the Nassau skirmishers were starting to backpedal fast.

It was a glorious victory for the French: we did not lose a single point of Force Morale and had reduced the Allied force to just one Force Morale point. We had also lost just two Voltigeurs whereas dead Allied infantry lay strewn over the field.

Here’s the game in photos:

Operation Market Lardon 2022

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I’m just back from another very enjoyable day’s gaming at this year’s Operation Market Lardon TFL Games Day in Evesham.

Really nice to see everyone again after the lockdown break, and my heartfelt thanks to Ade Deacon for organising it as brilliantly as ever. I couldn’t stay for the evening curry this year but I am sure a good time was had by all!

As is usual, I played in a game in the morning and a game in the afternoon: Sharp Practice and I Ain’t Been Shot Mum respectively. I’ll write both games up over the next couple of days but, before I do that, here’s a pic of all the games on show from just before the day kicked off:

IABSM at Winter Wonder Lard

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Last weekend saw another excellent Winter Wonder Lard at Bristol Independent Gamers. On show were games of Chain of Command, Sharp Practice, Strength & Honour, What a Cowboy and, of course, I Ain’t Been Shot Mum.

The IABSM game was based on the tank battle on the Calais - Dunkirk Road, near St.Omer on 22nd May 1940.

On That day a patrol sent out from the Calais defences reported German tanks on the road between Calais and Dunkirk and fighting towards St.Omer. Staff Officers at Calais disputed this, stating that there were no substantial German forces within 30 miles of St. Omer and this could only be a stray reconnaissance patrol.

A British Force was ordered towards St.Omer to drive off these random German troops, but came into contact with lead elements of 1st Panzer Division, who were attacking French troops on the edge of the town.

Click on the picture below to see all:

SELWG 2021

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IMG-20211017-WA0000.jpeg

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:

AAR: Virtual Lard V

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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).

Sharpe Practice in the AM

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!

IABSM in PM

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:

Afterword

All in all, another great Virtual Lard. My thanks to the organisers and game-runners, and can’t wait until the next one.

SP AAR: Ball's Bluff at Virtual Lard IV

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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: