Do you know the way to Rīga please?

A few hours playing with leftover bits has given me a piece of location-suitable scatter terrain for the Livonia 1812 campaign.

Here we see a peasant woman standing next to a distantsionnyy stolb or distance post. This would give the distance (in postal miles) to various cities.

Here's a preserved one:

I made mine from some MDF "sprue" left over from a building kit. The top was carved to a shallow pyramid shape and the name boards and ground-level socket were made from thin card. The base is another piece of MDF with the edges chamfered down and coated with filler. 

My stripy pattern isn't quite the same as the preserved one but I think it works. A little static grass around the pole completes the picture.

Here we see some French-allied Prussians marching past while Colonel Têtard-de-Crapaud, the French master spy, reads off the distances.

An alternative situation, allowed for in my Livonian Scenario Generator, is that withdrawing Russian troops have chopped down the post and hidden it in the forest to avoid giving information to the invaders.

This version of the post was a lot easier to build! I simply made angled cuts into a similar piece of MDF to simulate axe blows before snapping it off. The same card socket and ground work complete the piece, much to the Prussians' frustration.

A bit of shopping

Having got Steel Lard out of the way, the Baroness and I popped up to North Yorkshire for a couple of days. 

After perusing the bookshops and charity shops of York I came away with a little Napoleonic reading matter.

I'm gradually building up a nice little collection of Napoleonic memoirs; all good sources of narrative snippets.

I also found a Charlie Wesencraft wargaming book in an antiquarian bookshop on Micklegate but neither you nor I are allowed to see it at this stage because it's my Christmas present! Hopefully I'll have forgotten about it by then and it'll be a lovely surprise.

Steel Lard 2025

Saturday was a long, tiring, but ultimately rewarding day as dozens of like-minded gamers converged on Patriot Games in Sheffield for the latest Steel Lard gaming day.

Seven different Too Fat Ladies games were presented and all of them proved popular with players. In fact every game received votes in the "Best Game" category of our awards (of which more later).

The most popular game in terms of pre-event expressed preferences was Ken Welsh's Lincoln’s Life or a Tiger’s Death! This was an American Civil War Sharp Practice affair depicting a period of hard fighting during the First Battle of Bull Run.

The Louisiana Tigers' battle line

The Louisiana Tiger Zouaves (a bunch of reprobates from the wharves and docks along the lower Mississippi) played a major role in the action.

A grey-clad New York regiment advances
across a wheat-field

Ken's terrain made great use of varying ground textures.

The Stone House - now an historic
monument on the Bull Run battlefield 

A unit of US regulars crosses a wheat-field

By coincidence my own game at Steel Lard was also based on First Bull Run (or First Manassass as the Confederates knew it). Regular readers of this blog will have seen the development of Running From Bull Run over recent months.

This time I set the game up on a four feet by twelve feet table. The reason was two-fold. Firstly I wanted the option of running a large, multi-player battle across the short dimension of the table in the event that any of our game runners was forced to withdraw at the last minute.

Mainly, though, I thought it would be fun to have the retreat run from the battlefield to the Cub Run bridge in the morning and then go on from the bridge towards Centreville in the afternoon.  

The morning set up with Union wagons
lining the road to Cub Run bridge

The other half of the table, in each case, was filled with spare troops and vehicles, some of which would appear in the active sector according to card play during the game.

Running From Bull Run uses a card-driven system to represent the forces of Fate as they make life more and more difficult for players who represent Union officers trying to establish some kind of coherent rearguard from a fleeing rabble.

Because of complicated scheduling and one of our attendees crying off due to illness, I had only one player, Chris Clark, during the morning session.

And you know what? It worked brilliantly. Chris ran all of the Union leaders and I drew and played Event Cards. 

Maddened by thirst on the hottest day of the year, Range's newly 
rallied man dash to the Cub Run to fill their canteens

When suddenly the bridge comes under
Confederate artillery fire

Some US Congressmen (and a journalist) have come
out to observe the battle

In the afternoon session, by contrast, I had two Union players (Terrry Pilling and Stewart Goldthorpe) and two (Ned Willett and James Crawley) representing the Forces of Fate. A different experience but no less enjoyable. 

In this game my own Louisiana Tiger models saw action in a victory for the Forces of Fate.

Elsewhere we had a repeat offering of Ian Garbutt and John Elwen's It's a Shit-Show, a very pretty late WW2 game using the What A Tanker rules. Since this game was offered at last years' event it has seen some development work. Jagdtigers made a menacing appearance!

The results for the Americans were perhaps predictable...

Dex McHenry put on a lovely-looking game of Chain of Command 2 based on the Japanese amphibious landings at Mauban in the Philippines in December 1941. 

I understand the fighting was hard in both games. I believe the Japanese were thrown back into the sea in at least one of the actions.

Rather like 6mm games, the terrain really dominates a 15mm Chain of Command presentation. Dex's was very impressive.

Incredibly popular at many Lardy Days are the Kiss Me Hardy 2 games presented by Charley Walker.  This time we had The Battle of Pantry Bay.

I'm not a huge fan of naval games personally but Charley's offerings are always over-subscribed with players engrossed in the detail of stern-rakes and weather-gauges.

Printed game mats have transformed the look
of modern miniatures games

Ian Hemingway gave is his What a Cowboy-based post-apocalypse game What a Scaver. 

I'd seen this recently at Ebor Lard. Very impressive terrain! The son and heir was one of several attendees keen to give it a try.

Last and far-from-least of our games was Mike Wilkins's The Eagle Has Larded. This was a Chain of Command 2 game based on the BBC TV series Allo Allo.  

The terrain was terrific and I understand the game-play was fantastic. Madame Edith playing her piano on the back of a truck may well have constituted a mobile war crime! 

This game was voted as winner of the Wee Derek Award for "Best Game". Congratulations Mike; well deserved!

I should mention in passing that the Wee Derek "Spirit of Lard" Award went to yours truly. I'm deeply touched although I suspect voting chief Dex may have lobbied on my behalf given my stated intention to pass on the reins to him. Kind of like one of those late-career Oscars where the Academy suddenly realise, "Hey, we've missed out so-and-so". Thanks guys!

Afterwards we repaired to El Paso; a Mexican restaurant not far from the venue. It was loud but the food was tasty; thanks to the Barnsley gang for finding this for us.

Finally beers were taken and tales were spun at the Rutland Arms near the station and another day of very satisfying Lard gaming was complete. My heartfelt thanks go out to all who attended and especially to Dex for agreeing to carry the torch forward.

Homemade TacWWII markers

The TacWWII rules originally came with an A4 sheet of tiny (7mm x 4mm) counters for you to cut out and use with the game. They were printed on bright green thin card and although there were more than you'd ever need of each type, they were fiddly to use and surprisingly visually intrusive in game photos.

I'd always thought these counters could be replaced with something more visually attractive. My return to the rules came at a time when I had a 3D printer. Creating counters was a first chance to learn some basic 3D design skills with Tinkercad. The result was a comprehensive set of markers for the game.

Mode Counters

In TacWWII each company is in a "Mode" that reflects the tactical stance of the company and its component platoons. For example, we can imagine that a platoon within a company in Bold Attack Mode probably has two of its sections advancing while the third is giving covering fire or watching for enemy  reactions.

My Mode counters are in different shapes to help with recognition from a distance. The March Mode marker is column shaped with a puff of cotton wool to represent dust kicked up by the fast-moving units.

The Prepared Defence markers are prism-shaped and painted in brick red. I like to think of them being used by units hunkered down behind the rubble of part-demolished buildings.

Tinkercad doesn't support to use of textures so my markers were painted with Modpodge and sprinkled with sand before being painted and dry-brushed. A little flock helps them blend in with the terrain.

This late war German Pankzerkompanie is advancing in Bold Attack Mode.

My own additions to the rules include some additional functions for recce units. This Soviet tank HQ gets plus one on its Tac rolls this turn as a result of information provided by an armoured car patrol. The singly-based figure reminds us of this.

Marking Casualties

In general with a 6mm scale game where a single unit represents a platoon spread over hundreds of square metres, there's no need to keep knocked-out units on the table. However, in TacWWII it's useful to have a reminder, at the end of the turn, which units' loss triggers a morale check. In addition, units can be Neutralised - they don't fight but can test at the end of the turn to recover. I show these with markers made from paint-dyed cotton wool on small card bases.

The same Panzer IV company is now in Deliberate Attack Mode. They have had one platoon KO'd (marked with fire and smoke) and one Neutralised (marked with kicked-up dust). They will test at -6 (for two-thirds casualties) at the end of the turn at which point the destroyed platoon and its marker will be removed.

Morale Status Markers

This British tank squadron from 11th Armoured Division has lost one of its three Comet troops and had another Neutralised. The resulting morale test has seen them receive a "Halt" result.

Later in the battle (the destroyed troops having been removed) they suffer a "Retire" result. Note that one troop is still Neutralised. In my interpretation of the rules they do withdraw despite the usual prohibition on Neutralised units moving.

Locating the Enemy

Spotting in TacWWII is subject to a Tac roll. Better-trained troops have a better chance of spotting enemy units at distance. Experience shows that it's really helpful to track which units have passed their spotting Tac roll. The "Loc" marker shows that this Panzer IV company is fully alert. Being in Defence Mode they've also been successful in adopting hull-down positions along the ridge line.

Artillery Fire

I've printed out and laminated some markers in the correct size for one, two or three batteries firing. The explosion marker was made years ago from some kind of modelling clay and hamster bedding!

Digging In

Speaking of defensive positions, I've recently (inspired by Andy Taylor) created some markers for dug-in infantry. 

I printed some parapet shapes (30mm wide to match the frontage of my infantry platoons) and stuck them to thin card (cut from old business cards) before adding sand for texture and painting. This way I don't need dug-in duplicates of each unit type.

During the Approach March

We'll sometimes want to move companies with a single marker before battle is joined. This can speed up the early stages of the game but can also add some useful fog of war. These 3D printed "company blinds" are marked on the rear with a letter that can be keyed to the player's Order of Battle sheet. Here we a see an undetected company approaching some peat cuttings.

Finally, it can also be useful to know which tank platoons are carrying infantry on their rear decks. My "tank rider" markers use the same thin card I used in the "dug-in" markers, suitable figures and the gauge of card I use for unit bases to make a channel into which the tank unit base can sit.

When battle is joined the tank rider markers will be replaced by conventional infantry bases.

Wargaming Haute Couture

Mick the Postman came by this morning and delivered my new, personalised Steel Lard polo shirt from Matt at Saddle-Goose Designs.

Thanks Matt. Sorry we won't be seeing you at Steel Lard this year. Maybe next time.

Running from Bull Run Again!

This afternoon I had a very productive run-through of my Running from Bull Run scenario prior to next weekend's Steel Lard.

The objective was to test the changes I made to the Union Leaders, to the options the Fate players have for spending Flag cards, and to revisit the calibration of Victory Points. I also wanted to see how the game looks with my recently painted terrain bits and using the "Rocky Grass" Geek Villain mat.

I was pleased with the visual effect on a 6'x4' table.

This was the first outing for my piles of stores and discarded equipment and for half of the twenty ACW-period telegraph poles I created this last week.

At least part of the turnpike road to Centreville was asphalted (new technology at the time). My version includes an asphalt section made from a couple of lengths of MDF that turned up among the packaging of some household goods. I may add a bit of sponged or stippled paler grey to give an appropriate texture.

I'd already painted a Union officer as a surgeon (a green sash is an indication of his status) and a hospital steward with his medical knapsack (actually not issued until 1862; I guess this was an experimental one being field tested) but today saw the first appearance of the 1st Corps stretcher bearers.

The game begins with Groups of varying sizes strung out along the road. They are from more than one regiment and they begin with two points of Shock per figure. At the start of the game the Union Leaders need to rally them into some kind of order.

Since the last play-test I've added a Surrey (without a fringe on top) to carry the party of members of Congress who followed the army to observe the inevitable Union victory and who now find themselves caught up in the retreat.

The 1st Corps ambulance is another recent addition to the collection. Contemporary reports have ambulances being used by unwounded men who simply didn't want to walk back to Washington!

The feared Black Horse Cavalry again made an appearance.

And Confederate artillery brought the Cub Run bridge under long-range fire.

Confederate infantry were late arriving. This time they took the form of some Louisiana Tiger Zouaves.

It's hard to say who won on this occasion as I was playing the game to calibrate the victory points to be awarded. I think I'm happy with this. Balance is part of the equation but more relevant is how the victory points incentivise players to behave in a way that captures the historical feel of the retreat from Bull Run.

I'm really looking forward to giving the game its first serious outing at Steel Lard.