Steel Lard 2024 - part two the aftermath

Steel Lard 2024 ended with the Wee Derek Awards. These were presented in memory of our friend Derek Hodge, who passed away this year and who was a stalwart of the Lard community.  Thanks are due to Patriot Games who kindly matched our contribution enabling us to offer two £40 prizes in Derek's memory.

The Wee Derek Award for Game Design was voted for by the players. Second place was a damned close-run thing with Phil Crebbin's Cthulhu-themed What a Cowboy game coming in just ahead of... well... modesty forbids. The winner by a head, though, was John Savage's very pretty Up Country. 

This was the most popular choice of games in advance of the day. Lovely terrain, a skilled game-runner and a new version of the Lardies' most popular rules conspiring to make a hugely popular offering.

We them moved on to the Wee Derek Spirit of Lard Award. This was chosen by acclamation of the game-runners. It was inevitable that it would be difficult to identify a single player who had exemplified the spirit of the day as the game-runners only get to see a portion of what goes on. However, one name came up twice.

Dex reported that Simon had provided some really insightful feedback after the morning session. He incorporated Simon's suggestions and the afternoon game was much better as a result.

Then Ken was enthusiastic about the unexpected death of Robert Rogers in the second run of the La Chute game. Apparently Simon played a heroic role in this.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I announced that Simon Walker had won the award. 

There were one or two funny looks at this and it soon became apparent that the two anecdotes referred to different Simons! Fortunately the prize was in the form of two £20 vouchers so it was decided that Simon Walker and Simon Beale would leave with one voucher each! 2024 will henceforth be known in Lardy circles as The Year of the Two Simons.

After tidying away the impedimenta, I managed to get home for half an hour and drop off the car. Wife and daughter were attending a Bellowhead gig in the city so Jamie and I were able to get a lift back into town to attend the after-Lard drinks.

Triple Point Brewery proved a successful venue; close to Patriot Games with excellent beer and reasonable food. We stayed for a couple of hours before decamping to the nearby Rutland Arms for a few more. Here we ended up snuggled onto a table in the beer garden with some students. Ken got chatting with them and it turned out that they had both hometown and football club in common.

The end of the Bellowhead gig mean that our ride was waiting so Jamie and I slunk away. I believe further craic was had and I know there was a game of Midgard Heroic Battles at Patriot Games on the Sunday.

The final outstanding issue (except that I need to pay Patriot Games) was to decide on my approach to next year's Steel Lard. 

I've now organised for three years and that's more than any of my predecessors. I've found that in organising the event and putting on a new game each year, I'm tending to get in less actual wargaming over the course of the year. In addition, running the second, emergency game meant that I wasn't able to give either set of players the experience I'd have preferred.

In 2025 I want to concentrate on using the toys I already own and getting in more varied games. I'll therefore be looking for someone else to take on the burden of organising Steel Lard. 

What I will offer to do for whoever takes over, apart form providing advice, is to run a game at Steel Lard.  It would be designed from the start to be scalable in the event of a last minute cancellation. It'd probably be another Sharp Practice game and probably use the large collection of models I created for the Woebetide Islands.

So in conclusion, if you're a Sheffield-area Lardy you may get canvassed as a future organiser. And wherever you're based, I strongly recommend that you get to a Lardy Day and maybe stick around for the AfterLard.