The Great Outdoors

There is a cycle to most things; that whole "Circle Of Life, Simba" malarkey for one thing.  The ever-changing selection of goodies in my veg box, reflecting the passing seasons for another.  Not to mention the change in wargaming activities also brought upon by the changing seasons.

Not for this wargamer the dubious delights of being stuck inside on a glorious day like today.  No, today has been about those healthy outdoor activities such as undercoating, cleaning up figures and making models, which can all be undertaken in the sunny outdoors.  Thus, a fine crop has been sown for the painting reaper come Autumn, Winter and less inclement weather (or some such poorly extended farming metaphor).

Note state-of-the-art recycling bin supports for undercoating board.

Armoured reinforcement for the Free World is on its way.

In prosaic terms, the final 25 CDs-worth of jungle have been completed for the foreseeable future; they'll get an outing in our Darkest Africa campaign.  Sticking with Darkest Africa, some Masai got undercoated, as did-for Charlie Don't Surf- some Peter Pig NVA and M113s picked up at Salute 2012.  The whole undercoating mix was finished off with some jerrycans, oil drums and crates picked up a while back (from Skytrex?) which are intended for use as scatter the next time we have a crack at an NVA assault on a US firebase.  Whatever one makes of S. L. A. Marshall, once can't deny his account of Bird has tremendous possibilities...   

Umm...hello again/Wotta Lotta Lard

Hm.  Quite.  Let's cut to the chase.

Life got jolly busy all round, and I naturally invoked the annual "forget/not get around to updating the blog" clause."

However, let's look at what I have been up to gamingwise over the last eighteen or so week:  The 7TV campaign came to a successful conclusion, with the S.P.A.C.E. Man emerging as the victorious TV series, and the whole affair being wrapped up in a six-player game set around an expanded version of club member Overlord's superb volcano-rocketbase lair that you may well have see in action at the 7TV/Crooked Dice stand at Salute 2011 (let's not dwell on the fact that my entire cast- admittedly four figures- were wiped out by the end of turn two).

It was then all hands to the pumps for our (Abingdon Wargames Club) own show, Overlord 2012 (the coordinator of which is naturally club member Overlord).  We enjoyed a well-deserv'd curry after setting up on the Saturday, enjoyed our highest footfall for over a decade on the Sunday itself, which was fantastic, and we managed to raise about £265 for this year's chosen charity.  I put on a participation game of Charlie Don't Surf on behalf of the club and that seemed to get a good reception; or, at least, the author of the rules commented favourably on the kit being used...

Many more games of Charlie were to be had, as we were also due to run it at Salute 2012; the first time we've actually run a participation game at Salute (although no doubt a club member is emailing a correction to me even as I type).  Other than dashing off to pick up some scenery/figures for 7TV from our chums at Crooked Dice and Ainsty (as well as some M113s for Charlie from Peter Pig), I saw nothing of the show, but the rest of the club seemed to have suffered no pain in piling into a minibus and having a gander around.  I can also use this forum to publicly acknowledge the sterling support of my fellow-conspirators Doc Neodynium and Mr. Smallridge in running the game and fielding public interest.  Thanks again, chaps, and not least for the Leninade and wooly Cthulhu.  It was also rather jolly to have an all-too brief few words with various members of the Too Fat Lardies Yahoo group who swung by.

With Salute out of the way, it might be thought my copy of the Charlie Don't Surf rules could get a rest (they're on the verge of collapsing through ungentle over-use).  However Overlord had cunningly booked us a table at Campaign 2012, hosted by the wargaming chaps of Milton Keynes this Saturday past.  Out came Charlie again, and again it seemed to be enjoyed by the wargamers AND non-wargamers who had a crack at it.  Lovely stuff.

In case you believe none of the above, I shall attempt to put a photos up to prove otherwise, if I get a moment.

Now, as my Rabbi- Mr. Burns- oft says, "the best-laid plans of mice and men aft gae googly" or some such.  Nevertheless, what are the gaming intentions for the immediate future?  

Well, various Darkest Africa games are taking place in preparation for a club campaign based around the same.  I've gone for Zanzibaris, on the grounds they're the only non-colonial force I actually can field in strength.  They are looking somewhat Persil in their white robes at present, but a good dose of Magic Wash should sort 'em out.  Counting chickens before they've hatched, there's a subsequent plan to bring A Very British Civil War to Oxfordshire- or North Berkshire, as it would have been back in '38.    This will possibly involve me recycling my Darkest Africa Brits as part of JOSHUA Force...

In both cases, the rules proposed are distinctly Lard-light.  In fact, I found it very difficult to get my head around the rules after my Lard-rich gaming.  However, I'm looking on this as a chance to focus on the painting/building side of things, so hopefully later in the year I can Lardify another element of my gaming.  At the very least, I might have a crack at some river terrain and Brown water units for Charlie, or have do a bit more work on my Bag The Hun Battle of Britain forces, or sort out some mounted assets for They Don't Like It Up 'Em, or...let's be honest, I've about as much focus as a monkey with the keys to three different banananana plantations.

Ah, almost forgot.  I've discovered a British-made chorizo.  Patriotic porky perfection.

Incoming!

Despite the recent deluge of 7TV posts, I have been keeping my hand in the Lard, so to speak in the meantime, metaphorically nibbling away at the leadpile for Vietnam and Charlie Don't Surf.

Firstly, the Peter Pig door gunners for an under-strength aero-rifle platoon are now all painted and ready to be attached to the four waiting Revell 1/100th Hueys.  Just need to check that there's nothing more that needs to be done to the Hueys.  Once they're sorted, the Hogs and Cobras can be attended to.

Likewise, a start has been made on three firebase terrain pieces from Frontline Wargaming.  As is usual with these things, on the day the Frontline parcel arrived, Timecast released some more goodies for Vietnam firebases and similar military installations!  This is not a problem though, as this means a less uniform look can be generated by mixing the various manufacturers' pieces- everyone's a winner!

Lastly, green stuff has been applied to the gaps in some paddy field I've attempted to make, in an effort to increase the likelihood that I'll have a crack at slapping some paint on them over the winter hols.

This level of (relative) organisation really is most perturbing.

Oh, and there was a black pudding and roast parsnip jumble for lunch today.  Good-o.

Nothing is certain with Warfare...

Nothing is certain: So much for cracking on with 7TV this Friday past.  A last-minute shuffle at work meant I had to step into some quiz master shoes.  Tsk-tsk.

Warfare:  The Doc, Bowman and I zipped down to Reading on Saturday to attend Warfare, where we bumped into 7 of our Abingdon Wargames Club compatriots (three competing in the various competitions, one supporting a trader and three also there as punters).  It was pleasant enough, but getting round was a bit tight, rucksacks and shoving wargamers notwithstanding (wargamers shoving us, that is, not the other way around).  The layout didn't help, as it felt like we were squeezing past and walking through various games to try to take a gander at those in the centre.  

6 of us crammed into a Legends of the Old West inspired game and even if the bank was robbed, at least my US Marshals helped to stop Lincoln being assassinated prematurely.  There wasn't any game in particular that grabbed the attention overall, but aspects of some were clocked.  There was the cunning use of LEDs in an Aeronef-style game and what looked like a large-scale game based around Cambrai.  Unfortunately, it seemed to take forever to set up, and still really didn't seem to have got going when we left (a good four hours after we arrived at 10am; we really were trying to nail the idea of a leisurely stroll around the show...).

No complaints on the shopping front.  Picked up some trucks from QRF to motorise my ARVN, various odds and ends from Peter Pig for my Vietnam and WWII BEF, got a variety of palm trees from various suppliers to continue jungle building for Charlie Don't Surf, and finally grabbed some Kaiser Rushforth boxes in which to hide the lead pile.  It's almost all out of sight now, y'know...

Nothing is Sirte-an...

No Bloody Picnic try out on Friday night; entirely my fault as my brain broke over the week and I couldn't assimilate the rules.  Sorry, Dillon!

As such, I ran a game of Peter Pig's Squarebashing (of which there may be a new version in the future) for four of the chaps, set in August 1914, each pair sharing a division apiece; continuing the confessionals, the Hun forces were barely undercoated, let alone base coated.

There appears to be an oasis ahead, sir...

As a result of German pre-game decisions and some significantly worse-than-average German dice rolling, a distinctly under-strength German division was to fend off a full-strength British Division's advance.  The British gained a clear victory, driving through to the enemy baseline.  Whilst this was not necessarily a foregone conclusion, a major factor was the German decision to split their limited force between the flanks of the deployment zone, leaving the centre entirely clear.  This caught most of us by surprise, including myself, and I'm not the sharpest tool in the box.  Even then, the British still ensured that their assaults were well supported, as opposed to the penny-packet attacks of the Germans.  

The German players didn't mind losing too much (after all, it's what eventually happened in 1918).  The British were quite pleased- they were up against a game countdown, and managed to sneak in under both that and real-time constraints.  Given the fact it was an early war game, and at divisional level, it was felt the level of abstraction found in Squarebashing was appropriate- the difference made to assaults by rear and flank support was also noted in particular.  

There was more gaming today as it was Club Sunday.  This time we had an excellent trio of linked Force On Force scenarios set in Libya, based around the search for a recently deceased North African leader's son...our referee having created a very topical day for us!  It's been the first time in a long while where I've had to number crunch modifiers, and the noggin is still hurting, but it was well worth the effort.  I 'got' the idea that different die types represent different levels of training, morale etc, and we also quite liked the Stress mechanism that was used across the three scenarios.  As for the results, our NTC forces managed to whizz along a dried wadi to reach our destination with the loss of one technical (scenario 1),  eliminated an urban enemy HQ en-route (scenario 2) but fell at the last hurdle!  Whilst a fog of war card meant that our target was inadvertantly revealed due to some media types interviewing him, NTC forces were unable to get into the compound or eliminate the attached squads of bodyguards.  To compound this, a friendly special forces team that might have snatched our target was blown out of the sky by an AA missile.  Curses.  As a result, our victory point ratio dropped from 5:1 to 3:1.  Nevertheless, an excellent day's gaming.

Next Friday sees a return to the 7TV campaign , as various shows- Spyforce UK and The Man From S.P.A.C.E., for example- vie for audience ratings, and Saturday should see a visit to the Warfare show in Reading...

Playing by the rules...

Given that Friday is the 93rd anniversary of the end of WWI, the offer of a WWI game for that night's Abingdon Wargames Club meeting seemed appropriate.  It would also be a chance to try out a new ruleset for that period, A Bloody Picnic, using a meeting enagagement basic scenario included with the rules.

However, an understanding of these rules seems to be elusive at the moment.  Hopefully, they will click into place once play commences on Friday night.  If not, Squarebashing by Peter Pig may be employed (whilst a start has been made on forces for Through The Mud & Blood, they are nowhere near ready).  

This does raise the question of how set some of us might be when it comes to trying out new/innovative/'different' rule sets.  Even before playing, I've taken on board various Peter Pig rules like Patrols In The Sudan and Squarebashing, lapped up Too Fat Lardies rules aerial and terrestrial alike and had an inside-view of 7TV's development, so why hasn't A Bloody Picnic clicked?  

Clearly a prescription of regular gaming with these rules is required, to be repeated as necessary.

Paint! Paint like the wind, my friend!

Sunday 30th November: "By normal standards, it'll have been a productive week if 3 sections get completed!" 

Crikey.  An entire company of Peter Pig early WWII British painted, along with support weapons in the form of 2" and 3" mortars, Boyes Rifles and even some ATGs with associated crew.

Painted in a week no less.  That's a miracle for a painter of my habits. 

Clearly the Lard works in mysterious ways, and I Ain't Been Shot Mum is still inspiring painting in these parts...

Of course, they still all now need to be based, and a better camera than the one on an iPhone might be useful.

Slowly but surely...

Amidst prepping for work next week and making like Agent Orange to clear up the garden (fortified against the cold and rain by some rather nice cabbage and bacon), a little bit more work was done on the lead pile today, with continuing inspiration coming from IABSM.  

The Peter Pig Early WWII Brits have now been inked and blacked, ready for the detailing going on.  To be precise, twelve sections, four ATR teams, three 2" mortar teams, two 3" mortar teams and four ATGs (with some crew) are in line for the detailing.  By normal standards, it'll have been a productive week if 3 sections get completed!

Fuelled by a lava-like flow of tea, I even began to black some of the PP Late WWI Germans.  Slowly but surely indeed.

In other news,  Doc Neodynium has passed on some snapshots he took of Friday's Charlie Don't Surf game at our local club, Abingdon Wargames Club.  Sadly, the Combat Engineer mission marked the end of Captain Bowman's tour of duty...all will be revealed once the pictures have been cleared by the censor!

It's Aliiiiiiiive....

..clearly the weekend before Hallowe'en is an auspicious time for digital Necromancy.

Glossing over the extended hiatus in a few words in no particular order (domestic building project, China, technical gubbins and work), it might be asked why the Tao of Lard has revived now?

Here's the answer:

The tenth anniversary edition of I Ain't Been Shot Mum! I first bought IABSM about six years ago, even though there wasn't any WWII kit in the lead pile, and browbeat various club ne'er-do-wells into letting me use their kit to try out IABSM.  The rules were/are thoroughly enjoyable, and (to my limited mind) are positioned perfectly to marry historical simulation with entertaining games (even if there are some who treat those concepts as mutually exclusive; Yesthatphil and toofatlardies amongst others challenge the "It's only a game" mentality in this TMP discussion).

This was my introduction to the world of Lard, and since then Charlie Don't Surf, They Don't Like It Up 'Em, Algy (currently being revised) and Bag The Hun have been bought and- most importantly- played.  To be fair, other Lardy goodness has also been bought but only read.  So far. 

Too Fat Lardies have gone for broke with this release, providing all one could need to play IABSM (assuming you already own the necessary toy soldiers) in a variety of bundles.  Here's what was in the preorder bundle, alongside the softback rulebook and a PDF copy of said rules:

At the back of this poor quality photo you can see three examples of the IABSM card deck available (104 cards, enough to field two infantry companies, five armour platoons, eight Big Men, three off-table support units for the Allies and again for the Axis, as well as all the bonus characteristic cards).  In the foreground are the IABSM tokens also now available.  From left to right:

• Low ammo marker
• Artillery aiming point marker (which came in handy for the Free World in last night's game of Charlie Don't Surf)
• Pinned marker (likewise for these; two on a squad indicate that it is suppressed)
• Reduced Actions marker (you might be able to make out the wee 1 on it)
• Lieutenant Hugh Jarce! (Limited edition figure; not sure if he's still available from TFL.  He'll probably end up in my 7TV games as a "Mad Mitch" sort of chap)
• AFV Reduced Movement/Immobilised markers (the green and red spanners respectively)
• AFV Main Weapon Damaged/Out Of Action markers (the green and red targeting pieces respectively)

I've already begun hawking the rules around to try and persuade others that they really want to give IABSM a try, but without solely relying on their kit.  I'm sure they'll come round to my way of thinking after they play a few games, not just one.  By now, the Lead Pile contains some 15mm Early WWII British from Peter Pig, so I've begun to have a crack at them.

Of course, whether I continue to make progress is another thing, particularly when I've also got these chaps vying for attention at the other end of the desk...

A rather large quantity of Peter Pig's Late WWI Germans (luckily all the British are done).  Even before the arrival of IABSM, I'd been poring over my copy of Through The Mud & The Blood, also from TFL.   I'd been lucky enough to spend some time around Albert and Arras in France recently, helping my folks with their ongoing family history project, and spending a few days retracing my great grandfather's steps during the Battle of the Somme and ultimately his death in 1917 at the Battle of Arras rekindled my interest in WWI, and my thoughts turned to the various TFL WWI rules like Mud & Blood, If The Lord Spares Us, as well as others to be found in various Lard Winter ans Summer Specials.    

However, IABSM arrived and my train of thought was redirected...

It's like I've never been away.

Resolving to be unresolved...

So, with plenty of snow over the last fortnight, attendance at AWC has been lower than might be expected. Nevertheless, the Sunday Dr Who game saw Overlord and New Andrew pit wits over four games each, each with very different but always plausible* results.  The two final AWC meetings of 2010 saw an evening of Pandemic (I was too knackered/full of head cold to sort out something myself, and Mr. Manning kindly proffered an empty seat to his game) and then an evening of Flintloque.  New Andrew had recently expressed an interest in trying out the rules, and the fortuitous temporary return of Rob Alderman meant we could indulge in a game set in the world of Valon, a Yule/Solstice tradition of ours**.

December saw no other wargaming, amidst the festivities.  A flying visit to Kenilworth and Rob (a budding sculptor of Flintloque/Slaughterloo miniatures, incidentally who has his own blog here) saw him break out various boardgames he'd owned for a long time but had yet to play.  One was Bugman's Bar Brawl or some such, and the other was War On Terror.  All good fun (I hesitate to say clean, given the content of both...).  As for New Year's Eve, a posse of workmates came over for a Western-themed murder mystery party, and no-one seemed to suffer any pain as a result (except the murder victim of course, and those foolish enough to over indulge in both grain and grape).

However, most importantly the last two weeks has seen my 15mm US Company for Vietnam games completed! Three platoons plus four MG squads, or 128 figures.  No excuses for me not to roll out Charlie Don't Surf  at AWC, particularly as it may offer a nice alternative for any members not involved in the WH40k campaign being set up (16 AWC members have signed up for this, which is being organised by Wily Nick).

So, a New Year and the knotty issue of resolutions.  I've never been any good with these, so instead here are some aims:

• Get some pictures on here.
• Be in a position to copy this brilliant idea by December 31st, 2011...
• Finish my 15mm WWI late war Brits for Squarebashing by November
• Finish my 1/600th German Battle of Britain aircraft by May

  Have all my Vietnam kit ready for a CDS game at Overlord 2011 (failure is not an option; the committee'll kill me otherwise).
• Paint some 28mm stuff, anything really- didn't touch any of the 28mm lead pile in 2010.
• Pick a period in the Lead pile that will distract me from completing one/some/all of the above...

As for pig-product, I received my share of the ridiculously oversized Christmas ham prepared by my folks, whilst some barbecue glazed mini pork sausages complemented the Murder Mystery's sippin' whiskey.

*Yes, I know we're dealing with Dr Who here. 

**At least, Rob and I consider it a tradition long-standing since 2009.  Let me know when it's appropriate to define something as traditional.

Charlie Don't Surf: Experience versus youth...

So, this week has seen me embark upon painting up a platoon of VC for Charlie Don't Surf, along with a couple of support weapons.  After an unscientific review of source material (in other words some DVDs were watched), I decided go for a more irregular look than the last time Charlie got painted.  Primarily this was to avoid masses of figures who look like they could "throw on some pearls and be ready for evening wear" (he misquoted in typing).  The plan is to finish them by the end of Sunday, with the incentive being that each stick of miniatures completed is a Peter Pig pack that can be bought at Warfare 2010. 

Well, that's the plan.

On the gaming front at Abingdon Wargames Club, Junior members Joe and Luke took on the role of the British at the second battle of el-Teb against the wily veteran Nick, and utter gaming newbie Andrew, for a game of They Don't Like It Up 'Em.  No-one left that night traumatised by the game, which is always a good sign. 

Joe clearly remembered from his previous game that charging cavalry up a rocky slope was a bad idea, and the British actually adopted a setup close to their historical counterparts.  However, their initial caution ("I know the card lets my brigade act, we're happy where we are!") allowed the main Mahdist body of troops to actually move up and join their brothers in arms on the central ridge dominating the battle field.  By this point the British finally had begun to advance, with Luke's cavalry spotting like men possessed.  Unfortunately, this merely prompted the Mahdists to rise as one, screaming "Allah Akhbar!" and hurl themselves at the Brits.  This was the most breathtaking use of that particular card I'd seen (certainly better than using it when the enemy are almost two feet away) with only one Mahdist Rub not involved!

It's perhaps best to draw a modest curtain over what then occurred, particularly given the fact that only two units of British had fixed bayonets.  Suffice to say, Big Men of the calibre of Fred Burnaby were low on the ground once the dust settled....

Work commitments (or should that be socials?  Oh, the curse of being in multiple departments!) mean I won't return to a Friday meeting until the 22nd of October.  However, there is the prospect of a one-day Legends Of The Old West Campaign on the 17th.  Already, the Grace Brothers' posse of lawmen are dusting off their six-shooters...

Betwixt wadi and jungle with rod and gun...

With a now semi-complete utility room, I've been able to transfer the sordid business of miniature painting and terrain creation out of the study.  Subsequently (and with the aid of the customary splurge at Colours), there is now a production line of sorts taking shape, of CD-based jungle terrain* and rows of miniatures awaiting undercoating before the inevitable painting procrastination. 

The magpie flitting from project to project seems typical of many wargamers, and I'm acutely aware of it at present.  On the one hand, the introduction of They Don't Like It Up 'Em with my Peter Pig Sudan collection to other club members has them keen on a second encounter.  Opinion is divided as to whether it'll be a different one or simply the last one but playing as a different side.

On the other hand, I'm also personally keen to crack on with upgrading my Vietnam kit (also predominantly Peter Pig).  Reading rules is no substitute for playing them, but repeated reading of Too Fat Lardies' Charlie Don't Surf (CDS) prompted me to undertake the insane step of rebasing miniatures for the first time, even though it isn't strictly necessary.  With the onset of the recent school holidays, this was undertaken with a vengeance, with both Mr. Neatherway and the Div kindly acting as the player guinea pigs to my refereeing.  With Asian take-out and beer consumed, plus an appropriate soundtrack on the iPod, havoc could commence...

Player work commitments meant the game unfortunately had to be curtailed earlier.  This was annoyingly at the point where US Lieutenants Monterey Jack, Bayley Hazen and "Blue" Vaquero had received a harsh drubbing, but would now be unable to take advantage of the fact that the VC (Lieutenants Banh Cahn and Cao Lau) had shot their bolt.  This was exacerbated by players and referee cocking up things as they played new rules, and the fact the action was squeezed on to a very small playing area.  Nonetheless, both Mr. Neatherway and the Div said they'd be willing to give it another try, now that they had a better idea of how CDS plays.  This is encouraging stuff, from players who are at the game end of the game-simulation spectrum.  

Torn therefore between wadi and jungle, it looks like the wadi wins out this weekend, as I attempt to get some Highlanders and Royal Marines ready to take on the Mahdists for September 24th's planned game at the club...

*No prizes for guessing the inspiration of this.

To begin at the beginning...

"Tao" or Dao in Pinyin:

The path, way, doctrine or principle.

"Lard":

In this instance, primarily (but not exclusively) anything derived from Too Fat Lardies, Peter Pig and (naturally) pigs.