Posh Lard 2019

On Sunday, still a little hoarse from cheering on Liverpool's Champions League Final victory the night before, I got up early to drive down to Peterborough for the first ever Posh Lard.

What is a Posh Lard?  I'm so glad you asked.  It was a day of Too Fat Lardies games organised by Peterborough Wargames Club.  At organiser Mike Whittaker's request, I was taking my Menton 1940 game as the theme was "Invasion".

The journey down took me just shy of two hours without a rest stop and was very straightforward.

I arrived to find three tables, two of them already set up with lovely terrain - the Peterborough club's 15mm Omaha Beach game looked great as did the Gravesend club's Ste Mere Eglise in 28mm.

I managed to run the game twice, both times with two players.  In the first game, Carl played the French while Kevin led an Italian fusilieri platoon.

Carl chose to take a tripod-mounted machine-gun and a medical orderly for his support choices.

Carl admires Richard P's hotel

I'd forgotten to pack the box of Mediterranean houses so the French defensive position was dominated by Richard Phillips's marvellous hotel.  This led Kevin to choose a mortar section and observer as his first support choice.  He reckoned the French would be bound to use the hotel as the keystone of their defence and if he waited to call in a mortar barrage he could pin down a significant portion of their force therein.  Kevin bought the engineer flamethrower team with rest of his support points.

Carl and Kevin at play whilst Richard 'Stripy Blazer' Clarke
admires the Ste Mere Eglise table

The woods on the southern flank proved attractive to the Italian attackers.

The first game saw Carl deploy his MMG and one section in the hotel and Kevin call down a mortar barrage that pinned them in place.  Carl eventually built up a chain of command dice to end the Turn and so stop the barrage but by the time he'd done so Kevin had one too and so was able to keep the mortars firing.

Carl the deployed a second section and his platoon sergeant on one of the terraced hills on the north side of the table. Unfortunately this just put them into the cross-fire from the four machine-guns in the two Italian sections.

By lunchtime Carl was down to one point of Force Morale so we called it a day and went to M&S for sandwiches.

Game two featured Ian (French) and John (Italians).  I decided to pitch in and play the Blackshirt militia in the three player version of the scenario.  Given the disparity in forces, Ian had a completed CoC die at the start of the game.

This time I remembered to add the war memorial I'd made specially for this table and I added a bit more terrain to give the defending French some more deployment options.

Somewhat remarkably, both players chose the same support options as their respective predecessors had done.  Once more an Italian section deployed in the woods.  Once more the mortar observer deployed in the villa with the swimming pool.  Once more the French MMG and a section deployed in the hotel and once more the mortars targeted them.

This time, however, things were very different.  The Italian infantry deploying from the jump-off-point at the swimming pool villa took heavy casualties from the MMG and were soon bogged down.  The French kept upon withering fire on the Italian fucilieri, and my Blackshirts never had the command dice to do anything useful in taking the pressure off.  

The mortar was far less effective. With the arrival of the first spotting round, Ian pulled his troops back to the rear of the hotel, thus avoiding being trapped under the mortar barrage when it arrived.  The Italian mortars only cover a 12" square area.

In the end (about 4 o'clock) John's force morale was down to one and we called it a day.

I really enjoyed both games and I have to say both were played in a splendid spirit.

I'd highly recommend anyone who enjoys Too Fat Lardies games to give Posh Lard a try if Mike organises another one.  I'll certainly attend if family commitments allow.  I'm also looking at the Ebor Lard (near York) in September.  I'd like a chance to put on a Mexican Adventure Sharp Practice game at an event.

Pavis in the Spring

You'll have noticed (or more likely not noticed) that May's Saturday Afternoon Wargame hasn't been reported here.  All in all it was a bit of a disaster.

I announced the subject early and I'd no sooner suggested Shot Steel and Stone that I had nine or ten volunteers and had to start turning late-comers away.  I planned the biggest game I could manage to fit everyone in.  I know the rules are suitable for big games because Ayton.  I was also pretty sure I had a handle on them having played a previous solo game.

Then things started to go awry.  A couple of players had to call off and a couple more clearly forgot, perhaps because I'd called the game so early, and didn't turn up on the day.  Then the rules turned out to not say what I thought they said and we go total confused over how the sequence of play was meant to work.  I took a prompt decision to abandon play pending another review of the rules and more test games.

The early abandonment of the planned game meant that I could grab something off the shelf and arrange a very hasty game for the four players we did have.  That something was Song of Blades and Heroes - a game that's easy to pick up and that I can run blindfolded.

The scenario, such as it was, was a four-way fight in the Big Rubble.  Richard P played a small force of Lunar peltasts led by a female Hero, Harry had a handful of Broo, young gamer Sam had a group of Sun Dome militia led, somewhat incongruously by a Vingan warrior-woman, and I pitched in with a small force of Scorpionmen.

None of the forces were properly pointed up and I've no idea whether they were "properly balanced" but we had fun nevertheless.  the photos aren't great because I was too busy running the rules but here they are...

I'm using my To The Strongest disorder markers to mark units that lose a combat on an even roll.  I've decided I don't like lying figures down.

What did come from the experience was a reminder of how much fun SOBH is and a determination to get my Pavis project back under way.

In the past week I've revisited the collection of old fantasy figures to see what might make for interesting Pavis characters.

The three women on the left are figures Stella painted.  That must have been twenty five years ago or more.  I've touched up the paintwork to fix decades of minor damage and based them in my usual skirmish-game style.  A little static grass will eventually appear.

The two guys on the right are ones I've painted recently.  Both a smallish 25mm figures and probably about 30 years old. They will both do nicely as members of the Cult of Pavis or similar.

I've also done a couple of Morokanth.

I have Morokanth for both SOBH and Hordes of the Things and I pride myself on not having two identical figures in either force.  This is a challenge because there ain't that many Morokanth models out there!

The one on the left is a simple conversion of a model from Tabletop Miniatures.  I've added a shield from a Foundry Plains Indian figure and converted his spear into a mace.  This is the fourth or fifth different model I've produced from this same basic casting.

the other figure is from Mad Knight Miniatures.  He's a much better representation of Morokanth as depicted in Glorantha artwork but clearly not compatible with my existing models.  At £5 a shot there was no way I was going to replace the whole force with Mad Knight castings!

I decided that I could justify the difference in appearance by painting him as a Morokanth spirit. I think this works visually.

I'm rating the Morokanth as Quality 3+, Combat 4, Savage.  Morokanth are strong and likely to rip your guts out with their sharp, powerful claws which I think justifies the greater chance of a Gruesome Kill as a result of the Savage special rule.

The Spirit will probably be Quality 3+, Combat 1, Free Disengage, Tough.  Not particularly lethal in combat but it'll be hard to get rid of!

Pavis Buildings

Inspired by a recent, Glorantha-set game of Song of Blades and Heroes, I've been enthused to complete the Pavis building seen under construction in the previous post.

Casting about for inspiration on what to add to the base, I came across a box of textured blue foam I got from the Firedragon Games Kickstarter.  As it was my first use of the material, I decided to build a simple structure.  I think of it as some sort of strongroom, perhaps belonging to a merchant or to one of the cults.

Like the previous building on the left, the roof is made from wooden coffee stirrers.  I'm convinced Pavis must rely on a significant timber import trade.  This will mostly be, I guess, down the River of Cradles from Shadows Dance.

I'm reasonably pleased with these buildings but I've noticed that I need to paint the visible part of the roof-beam inside the house.

Song of Glorantha

Hmm, it appears that the last time I used my individually-based Glorantha miniatures with Song of Blades and Heroes was July 2014!  I should probably do something about that.

I've had a Pavis building part-way to completion for well over half that time.  I keep going back to it and adding a few elements but the time has come to give it a damn good finishing!

One of the fascinating things about New Pavis (or Pavis-outside-the-Walls if you prefer) is that most of the buildings were put together about whatever was lying around at the time.  What was lying around was the remains of a destroyed God Learner city.  As such the building materials of New Pavis are steeped in old and mysterious magics.  That stone at the back of your fireplace may harbour a spirit.

Now this is not unusual in Glorantha.  An Orlanthi family in Sartar might be used to having a household spirit tied to their stead-house but a family of Orlanthi refugees in Pavis may find that the entity in their house is of a more unconventional kind!

My developing Pavis building is basically a foam core box on a base made from an old table-mat but I've integrated some additional elements.

The stonework at one end is from a piece of Ainsty Miniatures' modular dungeon system.  It's sold as an entranceway that's been deliberately blocked with a rubble wall.  I had to cut a hole in the table-mat to accommodate the Ainsty piece's deep base.

I'm in the process of bridging it to the surrounding (foamcore) mud-brick wall with Green Stuff-sculpted stones.

I've provided the house with a fairly normal wooden door but the lintel features carved stone wolves' heads that came from the oft-mentioned bag of assorted white metal bits from Gauntlet.

The roof is made of coffee stirrers on bamboo-skewer beams and I've added some paving from varying thicknesses of card.

I originally planned to put a door in the end of the building and give is an awning made to resemble woven rush matting but I think instead I'll add another building on the open end of the base.  A narrow alley between them will let members of the local street gang escape the Lunar Watch.

Yet more for Mexico

The latest completed models for my Maximilian Adventure project are these French engineers:

They were a Christmas present from Jamie. The men are by Foundry (from the Crimean War range actually) while the waggon is by Warbases.  The men's uniforms are a little too by-the-book for the usual Mexican style.  We must assume these guys are straight off the boat from France.

I love the Warbases engineers' waggon.  Like all of their kits it goes together beautifully and is nice an robust.  The load is a single piece of cast resin.  The whole thing is sufficiently generic that I think I'll use it for any future Sharp Practice or Muskets and Tomahawks army.

The first Woebetideus

It looks like there's a good chance I'll go ahead with revisiting the Woebetide Islands as the setting for an early eighteenth century skirmish campaign.  The owners of Wargames Illustrated seem to be keen that I do this as they've been mounting sprues of Woebetideus natives on the front cover of the magazine.

I say Woebetideus natives; WI (and manufacturers Warlord Games) regard them as Zulus or Natal Native Contingent but we know better of course.

I've got three of the four finished so far along with a dead Woebetideus left over from a pack I used in putting together a Gloranthan Hordes of the Things army many years ago.

I don't particularly want these guys to look like transplanted Zulus so I'm going for the Natal Native Contingent look wherever possible.  For preference I'm using the NNC heads and the smaller shields.

Wargaming mate Chris has donated a second sprue so in a week or two I hope to have eight Woebetideus tribesmen.  That's enough for a first unit for either Sharp Practice or Muskets and Tomahawks.

Time for Terrain part 2

I knew it!  As soon as I committed publicly to spending time building 6mm terrain, I'd get enthused by another project in 28mm or 20mm.  However, I have managed to get some 6mm stuff done.

First up is my Roman camp.

The resin tents are by Leven Miniatures.  I've left most of it as bare earth on the grounds that there would have been a lot of soldiers walking around.  Maybe I've overdone it?  A bit more grass?

Skipping forward a millennium and a half or more we have this...

I had a rather nice Spitfire model that I acquired many years ago but that got a wing broken off in a tragic being-dropped-in-front-of-an-opening-door accident.

Sorry the pics are a bit dark but at least it disguises my poor paint job.

A few decades later on, a bit of repainting on a space 4x4 from my Cold War Swedes gives us this little civilian vehicle...

And finally for now we have the castle that appeared in my previous post on this subject.

As I said previously, I reckon this will sit happily in the corner of any 6mm game from the Middle Ages onwards (without the car of course).

OK, so I've got some 6mm stuff done.  I promise to comeback with some more.  Eventually.