Christmas Games part one

I always try to get in a couple of games over the Christmas-New Year period. By the nature of things these have to be (a) multi-player, (b) capable of adjustment for last-minute drop-outs or arrivals, and (c) easy to pick up. 

On Wednesday 27th I arranged for two games; What A Cyberman (using an adaptation of the What A Cowboy rules) and Action on the Rippach (a semi-historical Thirty Years War fight using The Pikeman's Lament). Both games played quickly enough that we were able to play them through and then swap around so that everyone (except Jamie and I) got to play both games.

What A Cyberman is, of course, a Doctor Who themed game. In it 1920s Torchwood soldiers fight Cybermen in a tunnel complex while the Doctor goes about a mission of his own. First time around I refereed the game for Stuart, Matt, and John. It looked like the Cybermen were going to successfully kidnap the Doctor when, at the very last moment, one of the players managed to roll three sixes with their Action Dice and the Doctor escaped! As the first Pikeman's Lament game had just finished, we decided to call it a draw.

A Cybermat menaces the Doctor

New cave entrance bottom left

The new cave entrance (brown in the picture above) was added to give an alternative route into the heart of the tunnel system. It meant that it was harder for the Cybermen to bottle Torchwood up in the corridor leading from the rope bridge.

In the afternoon I played the role of Torchwood commander against Andy.  My ability to resist was hampered by Andy's skilful deployment of his Cybermats and my inability to roll decent numbers on a die. Despite the new route through the cave, Andy managed to restrict my movement significantly. His Cybermen successfully kidnapped the Doctor.

The scenario has the Doctor moving to a new location the moment anyone throws three or more sixes to activate. The first time I playtested the scenario this happened four times, which rather gave me a false impression of how the scenario typically plays out. I think next time I'll try it with the option to spend two Bonanza tokens to move the Doctor. This should see the Doctor move more frequently and allow for a bit more tactical decision-making by the players.

At the other end of the kitchen table we had a couple of games of The Pikeman's Lament based very loosely upon the fighting across the Rippach stream on the eve of the battle of Lützen.

In the morning session Andy's Swedes sought to cross the stream in the face of Jamie's Catholic trotters and Croat horse. This was the first time Andy had played the Swedes without the Wild Charge special rule and I believe he was much happier with at least a modicum of control over what his forces would try to do!

I always like to have a new terrain piece in any game I run and this was no exception. The river board (top, above and below) features a nice resin watermill by Baccus 6mm.

Jamie's Catholics were hampered in the first game when, shortly after the photograph below was taken, a random event meant that a quarter of their force was called away for other duties by the General.

In the afternoon we added a third board and additional forces to allow Jamie, Stuart, John and Matt to play a four-handed game.

For a set-up that was conceived as a portable option to allow play "down-the-pub", the Thirty Years War toys have proven very useful, albeit they are yet to see action in their intended environment.

More to follow later when I write up Friday's game.

New Year Plans

I hope you had a good Christmas. If you didn't because you or your spouse (Hi Odette!) was poorly, I hope you have a better New Year.

For me, this year was dominated, hobby-wise, by the preparations to run Harpers Ferry at Steel Lard and Posh Lard. 

Having spent so much time building the terrain and researching the history, it feels like I got in less gaming than usual this year.  Looking back at the records, though, I find that I played in or ran 19 gaming sessions using six different sets of rules (The Pikeman's Lament, What A Cowboy, HOTT, TacWWII, Chain of Command, and Rogue Stars). And I'll be running Song of Blades and Heroes tomorrow so make that seven. That's actually right up there with the last few years.

Anyway, now I've been thinking about wargaming plans for 2024. I'm sure my priorities will change as the year goes on but it won't do any harm to put down some markers now.

I would like to run some more games at Lardy Days next year but I'd like a project that doesn't dominate as much as Harpers Ferry did this time around. As I've said previously, I'm tempted to go back to the Maximilian Adventure and run a participation game based on the siege of Puebla. I already have a lot of suitable figures and a combination of existing adobe buildings with some from the Woebetides I reckon I'm close to being able to field a 6'x4' urban board.

The Wali of Smut's palace may find a new role
as the penitentiary in Puebla

Speaking of the Woebetides, I put a lot of work put into the setting in preparation for Crisis Point back in September 2021. The event didn't really work as well as I would have liked because I took on too much of a burden as the sole umpire. Disappointed, I put the toys away and largely went on to other things afterwards. 

As a result I don't feel like I've properly got value-for-effort out of the Woebetides toys. I'd like to put that right and maybe run a small (possibly solo?) campaign inspired by one of my Christmas presents...

My previous approach to campaigns has been quite freeform. I've tended to avoid detailing too much in advance and instead allowed events to develop organically. The Woebetides might be a good place to try out Henry's more prescriptive approach and specify the populations and military forces of the islands in frankly excessive detail!  

Finally on the Sharp Practice front, Richard Phillips and I have been threatening to explore Marshal Macdonald's advance to Riga during the summer and autumn of 1812. Family matters have kept getting in the way this year but I'm hopeful we can get something going in 2024.

Away from the horse and musket era, I am keen to play some more TacWWII this year. At the moment the plan is to hold a Crisis Point event in Dungworth this spring. If it goes ahead I intend that one of the games on offer be my Prague Summer 1948 - The Race to Stary Boleslav.

I say "if it goes ahead" as initial response to the idea of another Crisis Point was a little muted. Early in the New Year I plan to raise the proposal once more and find out whether there's sufficient enthusiasm to justify going ahead. If there isn't I may switch to just running my own game at some point during the year, probably at the village hall instead. Either way I'll need to get in some practice games to make sure I have the rules down and to test some of the house rules I've included in my version 1.5.

That aside there's a good chance I'll get Chain of Command to the table at some point; old mate Stuart and new acquaintance Matt have asked to have a session to help them learn the rules. I'd also like to have some more games of Rogue Stars and Shot, Steel and Stone before too long.

Doubtless other things will come up during the year and who knows, maybe some or all of the above will still be on the To Do List in December 2024?

Adobe Dobe Doo

The new cluster of adobe buildings for Pavis is now complete. 

In the end I didn't go over the top with the fantasy elements; just the little statue (probably containing the family's guardian spirit) over one of the doorways.

After photographing the piece I realised I'd neglected to add any roof hatches. I'll probably put some on later along with a little burnt-grass flock.

One of my thoughts about next year is to run some more Maximilian Adventure Sharp Practice. Focussing on the 1863 siege of Puebla would make use of existing models - both 28mm soldiers and suitable buildings.

The completed building below was a quick project earlier this year to fit a suitable storage box that came my way. Now I'm working on a destroyed version.

The 1863 Siege of Puebla has long interested me. During the Crimean War the French had taken Sevastopol as soon as they captured the Malakoff fortress. They assumed the convent of San Javier was likewise the key to Puebla. They were wrong and the subsequent fight for the city itself threatened to become a nineteenth century Stalingrad.

I wonder if I can create a game for the coming year's Lardy Days that sees the French attacking from block to block while the Mexicans scurry from rooftop to fortified rooftop via improvised bridges?

Some degree of mashing up Sharp Practice and Chain of Command may be called for, as will a lot of play-testing.

On the workbench

I was putting in a Victrix order while they had their Black Friday sale running and was just short of the total needed to to get free shipping so I added in a pack of Gallic cavalry. I figure I may one day use them to play Infamy Infamy.

Feeling the urge to paint something just for the hell of it I made a start. Adding in a couple of existing Warlord Gauls I'm not far off a six-man unit with Leader.

There are only three horse sculpts - it doesn't look line the halves are interchangeable to give more variety in poses. I'm therefore working on using Green Stuff to vary the harness decoration. I'll share comparison pics when they're done.

Meanwhile I continue to persevere with the 3D printer despite problems with build plate adhesion. Successfully printed was this medieval tower. Yet another addition to the Eastern European 6mm urban terrain.

An earlier version of the print failed part way through so I'm working on a ruined version using quick-drying Polyfilla, grit, and slices of wooden coffee stirrer.

I've used a 6cm base, which I'll paint to resemble a paved square. 6cm happens to be twice my standard road width.

Finally, one of my planned Christmas games is another Song of Blades and Heroes skirmish set in Pavis. I wanted to reflect the fact that Pavis isn't depicted as all right angles so I've knocked up this cluster of buildings.

Very much made up as I went along, this one. The long balcony has been in my terrain bits box for years and the length of that side of the building was determined by the desire to use it. 

I even broke my usual rule of designing the building to fit an existing storage box but fortunately a new pair of walking boots provided exactly the size box I needed.

I generally make adobe buildings generic enough to pass for Pavis or Mexico but this time I'm thinking of going all-out fantasy with a statue in a niche above one of the doors and maybe painted runes on one of the walls.

Well that's it for now. I'll share finished pics when done.

Posh Lard 2023 Report

Far too early on Saturday morning I set out to drive down the A1 to Peterborough for the latest Posh Lard. Peterborough being roughly southeast of Sheffield and this being November I was driving with the morning sun in my eyes virtually the whole way. Still that was better than the lunatics in SUVs on the same road going back in the dark!

The George Alcock centre at Fletton is a nice venue. For those of you who've attended Ebor Lard, it's very similar to Green Hammerton Village Hall. It wins on having on-site caterers but loses in that we weren't able to take in the closing stages of a village cricket match at the end the gaming session!

Wanting to get back to Sheffield before it was too late, I didn't stick around for the traditional post-event curry but it was pleasant to chat with like-minded gamers throughout the day.

I again ran my Harpers Ferry game and the players (Pippa, Carl, Lewis, Peter, Kevin and Chris) were great. 

Surprisingly the first game progressed so quickly, with the insurrectionist players taking about an hour to get the hostages from the paymaster's office to the engine house, we had time to go on and play Act Two.

The Federal forces managed to get into the engine house led by Marines Luke Quinn and Matthew Ruppert, with Lt Israel Green close behind. Eventually Green found himself face to face with John Brown and attacked with his sword. 

Historically Green had brought his light-weight dress sword in the haste of leaving Washington. His initially thrust at Brown's torso was ineffective as the sword bent after  hitting Brown's belt buckle. Green then beat Brown unconscious with the hilt of the sword. In our miniature version the same thing happened - I'd decided in advance that Green would be treated as if trying to capture his opponent in terms of the Brawlin' rules. This worked really well.

After the first Harpers Ferry run-through, I had a chance to take some quick pictures of the other games.

New Tribes Beyond Us was a Strength and Honour battle put on by a couple of members of the Peterborough club. 

Nice tiny (2mm) units.

On the next table was a Sharp Practice Peninsular War game called Ducrot's Day Out. 

I liked the models for this game...

Another good looking game was this, using the What A Cowboy engine to run a pirate skirmish action.

I liked the cliffs and the ship, which was obviously based on Gary Chalk's templates in Wargames Illustrated years ago.

Finally we had the Peterborough club's Chef du Pont game covering the hinterland of Utah Beach in June 1944. This game was previously seen at the Joy of Six in the Spring.

Posh Lard is a nice event that should really be better attended. I think there were fifteen players but it could have easily have accommodated another half dozen even with just the games we had and I reckon there was room for at least another game, probably two. If you can come to a future Posh Lard, I'd recommend it.

City Planning

I want some substantial 1/300th scale built-up areas to represent Stary Boleslav and its surrounding towns for this coming year's Prague Summer extravaganza. By using my 3D printer, rebasing some existing suitable buildings, and adding some homemade ruins, I'm on the way to a reasonable Central European cityscape.

My city units are a mixture of sizes as dictated by the footprint of the available building models.  However, two sizes predominate; I tend to have bases for which at least one dimension is either 9cm or 10cm. The advantage of this is that an entire block of buildings modules can sit between two parallel roads. The first row of modules below, although they vary in width, are all 10cm deep.

The second row, including the small city park below, are on 9cm deep (and often 9cm wide) bases. The mix of depths avoids the whole city looking too obviously grid-based.

In the picture below you can see some pieces added to bring three differently-sized bases up to a common 10cm depth. The strip of pavement in front of the half-timbered house, the strip of bare earth with trees in front of the flats, and the shrubbery in front of the red-roofed building all serve this purpose.

The next plan is to add some triangular modules to allow for some roads going off at angles other than 90 degrees.

Steel Lard 2023 report

This Saturday saw fans of the Too Fat Lardies rules at Patriot Games in Sheffield for the annual Steel Lard gathering. Across the day we had 46 people each playing two games across nine beautifully turned out tables.

Matt Slade brought along The Spy Who Larded Me, a Sharp Practice game set during the American Civil War. I know Jamie greatly enjoyed it and one of the players reported that he now, at last, understood how Sharp Practice scenarios are supposed to be designed.

Also Sharp Practice and also ACW was Ken Welsh's Morning Glory on the Combahee. I'd have loved to see more of this game as integrating infantry action with ACW gunboats is something I'd like to explore with my Mississippi Marine Brigade chaps. Sadly I was too busy to get much of a look at events as they progressed.

While we're in mid-19th century America, it probably makes sense to mention that Steel Lard saw the first public outing of my own Harpers Ferry game. As we've seen here during its development, this covered the events of John Brown's 1859 insurrection at the Virginia town's Federal Armoury.

With only three hours per session, I was unable to fit in the original plan of running the Martinsburg Militia's attack and the later U.S. Marines assault on the engine house. We stuck with the former and it went successfully on both run-throughs.

Another game using the What A Cowboy rules engine was Simon Walker's Death in the Donga. This took the Wild West-themed rules to Zululand and to the events that, historically, saw the death of the Prince Imperial, the son of the deposed Emperor Napoleon III, whilst serving with the British Army.

Jamie played in this game and managed to ensure the Prince Imperial's escape but had his other character slaughtered about halfway through the action.

Chain of Command was, as always, popular with game-runners and players alike. Alex Sotheran ran Oh Sugar, his WW1 adaptation covering the attack on the ruined sugar factory at Courcelette by Canadian troops. In 15mm scale th ground scale and figure scale match perfectly and really give the impression of the relative emptiness of the battlefield.

John Savage also adapted Chain of Command, this time taking it to the Vietnam war with his scenario Walk this Hue. John is a skilled designer and presenter of scenarios and his players were noisily engaged throughout.

A welcome return to Steel Lard this year was Graeme Atkinson's A Rock and a Hard Place, a Chain of Command representation of the Fallschirmjäger attack on Tavronitis Bridge during WW2's Crete campaign.

This game was seen at Steel Lard a few years ago and it was good to see it one last time before it makes its way to Crete where it will be displayed in a museum close to the battlefield.

An always welcome visitor to Lardy Days is Charley Walker. The charming Borders farmer can always be relied upon to bring a game that has the players enthusiastically engaged throughout. This time it was Mayhem in the Med, a Napoleonic naval battle using a streamlined adaptation of the Kiss Me Hardy rules.

Finally we had Ken (Yorkshire Gamer) Reilly with Rome Or Death. Ken needed reassuring that this was allowable as a Lardy game, the Pickett's Charge rules being published by sister company Reisswitz Press. I figured that if people can run Lard-inspired systems of their own, an official Lard-adjacent game must be OK.

The scenario is set during the Risorgimento - the nineteenth century wars culminating in the unification of Italy. It's always good to have Ken at Steel Lard as his penchant for big games contrasts nicely with the skirmishes we usually see from others.

I'm sorry I haven't been able to present more photos here. I was so busy running Harpers Ferry or dealing with administrative matters that I had no time to do a proper photoshoot. 

For some lovely coverage of the Combahee game visit Ken's blog here.

Also Alex has a video of the tables on Youtube.