A New Lardy Day

I spent Saturday at a second gaming event/sauna in seven days. West Mid-Lards is a new Lardy Day organised by John Cooper (aka Maraviglia on BlueSky) in Bedworth, Warwickshire.

The venue was a town-centre games shop called Venator Tabletop Gaming. They seem to specialise in Games Workshop and collectible card gaming so, as a historical gamer, there was nothing for me to buy except for the several cans of Diet Coke needed to keep hydrated. If there'd been some modelling materials on sale I'd definitely have picked some up if only to support the shop.

With doors opening to game-runners at 10 and to the public at 11, I had time to get Running For Bull Run set up and chat with mates Ken Welsh and Mike Wilkins before getting down to serious play. Sorry, I didn't get any pics of the other games.

I was delighted to learn that the first game's players would include Chris Clarke and his son James, both regulars at Steel Lard. Chris had already played as the Union side in Sheffield so I decided he should try represent the forces of Fate this time. A quick poll of the other players saw James joining his Dad while Chris Collett and Pete Hartman represented the Union officers.

This was a very tight game. The Union officers did a good job of organising a defensive line that quickly saw off the Black Horse Cavalry. 

The Fate players managed to flood the battlefield end of the turnpike with small units of routing Union men who were then charged by the aggressive Louisiana Tiger Rifles. Although the Tigers lost some men, their opponents were wiped out on two occasions. Union casualties were mounting up and with them the Fate players' Victory Points. 

Unfortunately for the Tigers though, Mr Clarke sr developed a sudden inability to roll high. At a key moment their movement distance was just three inches. This left them smack in front of the forming Union line of battle.

Dice rolling seemed to be no problem for their opponents and the draw of the cards was also on their side. Two unanswered volleys saw the Tigers wiped out with their Leader (Sgt Warren Peace) also joining the casualty pile.

With the Fate Card deck exhausted, the game ended in a narrow win to the Union by 27 points to 25.

I took a stroll to the nearby Greggs for lunch - a corned beef bake and a doughnut. Bedworth reminded me somewhat of Worksop; not an obvious tourist destination. However, Nicholas Chamberlaine's Almshouses are quite picturesque.

The second game started with far less experienced players; Pete had played before and Ben had played the related Infamy Infamy but for Luke this was a first. Pete had to leave early so I allocated him and Luke to the Union side and concentrated on making sure Luke had enough of a handle on the rules to go solo when Pete left.

This was an interesting game; Ben, as Fate, seemed reluctant to deploy routing Union soldiers onto the table and this reduced the effect of the Black Horse Cavalry - there just weren't that many wavering units for them to terrify.

The Union commanders on the other hand seemed to like the idea of getting formed Union forces over the bridge and off to safety. This was something no previously players had considered and their logic was probably reasonable. Eventually I persuaded Luke to stick around and have a go at shooting some Confederates and he did have some success.

The vagaries of the Fate Deck meant that the spectating members of Congress were only noticed to be in the area late in the game. For a moment or two it looked like the Confederates might capture them but in the end a timely movement roll of 11 on two dice saw Luke withdraw them safely behind his developing rearguard.

In the end, though, the Union officers were unable to get close enough to the battlefield-end of the table to rally the Late-arriving routers. The second game was won by Ben's Forces of Fate by 25 points to 17.

Pete, Ben and Luke

The response to the game, both as a visual spectacle and as a gaming experience was overwhelmingly positive and I was delighted that the players seemed to have a good time.

Several people asked me how many times I'd run Running From Bull Run. These, it turns out, were its seventh and eighth public outings (on top of three development/test games). 

We're now getting to the point where the game's been to most of the events I attend. Only Ebor Lard remains and I've already agreed to run Infamy Infamy there. The figures and terrain will continue to see action but I think this particular game may be taken out of the repertoire for a while.

West Mid-Lards was an informal affair and lacked some of the features we've come to expect of Lardy Days (fixed time-table, prearranged allocations of players, after-event drinks and curry) but it was none-the-worse for that. A strong start for an event that could well become a fixture in the gaming calendar.