A Day of Lard

Canadian Lardies have been knocking about the idea of a Too Fat Lardies themed games day for a couple of years. Saturday one finally happened thanks to the efforts of Chris Robinson (@TheLegendaryNoiseMachine on Twitter) and Barnaby Ore.

The first Lard, Eh? was held in Hamilton at the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry Veterans Association hall, which is the same venue as the super fun Broadsword gaming days that I can never seem to get to because of scheduling conflicts. 

I was happy to not pack a game and just pay my money and play, which gave me a chance to try Infamy, Infamy! in the morning and then O Group after lunch.

Some of the pictures are mine and some are reposted with permission from Barnaby. In all there were I think 10 games and 20-ish players, since a number of people canceled last minute over the weather (which did get ugly on my drive home). Which was too bad. If I'd known there was room I would have taken Weirdy Beardy along as co-pilot and navigator.

Infamy, Infamy! was quite interesting. A classic British tribesmen versus Romans scenario. Romans need to get the cattle they have collected as tribute off the table. British have taken issue with this. Barbarians getting to attack from ambush and being concerned about Fervor versus the Romans leveraging their drill and armour was quite interesting.

Warriors charge out of ambush to thump the Auxiliaries

Angry youths throwing rocks at the authorities, starting a long lasting British tradition

View of some of the terrain

The fight is going well for the British! Sort of.

Oof!

Legionaries arrive but get charged by the British noble warriors

Things are getting shaky for the British!

But the British light cavalry were able to do an end run and lift the cattle and smash the Auxiliaries guarding them.

Here are some pics of a few of the other games that Barnaby shared on Facebook. Some are from the morning and some from the afternoon.

15mm Russo-Finnish War with I Ain't Been Shot, Mum

28mm War of 1812 Sharp Practice

Chain of Command

20mm ACW using Sharp Practice

What a Tanker

WW1 Air with Algernon Pulls It Off 

After lunch I got to play against the Mad Padre in a scenario set up by Brian using his 6mm collection. This was a historical scenario about the Algonquin Regiment's attack on Soitteville in August 1944. I'm trying to expand the bridgehead over the Seine and take Point 88 so that German FOOs will stop shelling the crossing points. Engineers haven't constructed a bridge or ferries yet, so I have no armoured support. I don't even have the battalion Carrier Platoon.

Brian is explaining something to me

German defenders of Soitteville

Trying to establish along the railway embankment

7 and 9 platoons charge in on the right

Meanwhile B Coy attacks from the left. Notice I've infiltrated a platoon to the rear of the town up in the woods. Totally sneaky move. Wasn't sure what to do with them though....

Finally getting D Coy up

Mike launches a counterattack on my flank which is barely held by the FOO and my attached Vickers MMG platoon

It was a fascinating game. Mike and I both felt like we were battalion commanders. But both noticed it was very easy to get sucked into the details of individual company firefights and throw all of your orders into those efforts and forget about the rest of your battle. I still had two companies to bring up, which once I remembered about them and got them forward I was able to extend my right and make Mike's position untenable.

I'd like to play more O Group. I just need people to play it with. It's a very different game which takes some thought to wrap your head around.

There was a curry dinner afterwards, but I was tired and wanted to be home. It was the best fun I've had for $10 in a long time. Plans are already being made for another one.

The Mad Padre's overview of the day is here.

Technical Upgrades

Mrs. Rabbitman, loving helpmate that she is, insisted upon spending a bunch of money to do some technical upgrades in the Basement o'Rabbits in order for me to play remotely with my chums. A bodged vaccine roll out means we probably won't be gathering until September. I think that despite creeping misanthropy and enjoying this Covid hermitage, not being able to roll dice with my friends is taking a toll.

A second computer will probably be more useful in the long term than impulse buying more figures or terrain. This will also reduce competition for the first desk top, which Mrs. Rabbitman likes to watch her mystery shows on when she retires in the evening. Clever woman.

So computer, Webcam and Discord were purchased and set up on a corner of the second table. 

I argued with the technology for about a week trying to set up two Discord accounts so I could have both phone and Webcam logged in to no avail. I did manage one brief moment of ear piercing microphone feedback to the dismay of the household. So just the Webcam. 

Fortunately in a test game of What A Tanker with the Mad Padre it was demonstrated that the microphone on the Webcam is pretty good and he was able to hear me even as I moved around or typed into the Dicebot I have on my server. 

I'm currently reading a book on the Canadian Corps' final months in Italy, and with the new battalion level rules O Group coming out on Monday, I set up an Italian table for some anticipated play throughs.

Mike and I spent a couple of hours chasing each other around and he really had me on the ropes right up until the last turn. He took me on with a Panzer IIIN, so he gets bragging rights for that I think.

I thought ahead and left the brighter end of my table free for painting. First batch of Prussians are done. Some Russians up next!

Discordant What a Tanker

I got invited to join in an trial remote game with friends in Chatham and Windsor (2 and 3 hours respectively distant from me). What a Tanker was selected as being fairly straight forward as a game for the experiment.

The host used a four camera security set up; two giving over views from each end of the table, one of a white board with our status and a fourth roving camera for point of view shots. We had to view these with the iSmKit media viewer app.

Status board. Big numbers are the action dice you have.

Overview from my end

Our host Frank moving around to move people.

That's me as viewed from Keith's PzIV

I tried to get a screen shot of the 4 in 1 view of all 4 cameras, but it didn't take for some reason. We were having frequent issues with different cameras going down and then coming back. Sometimes it was a different camera for different people.

For interaction and communication we all had to log into the Discord app.

Discord wanted to keep freezing on me and we lost one player for a bit. The black square beside me was Keith who had microphone but no camera.

We were all using one device to view the table (for me my low end ELite Samsung tablet) and a second for communication (my low end Samsung phone propped on top of Mrs. Rabbitman's InstaPot so that people weren't staring up my nose). 

End of game. Everything moved down to one corner.

Went ok despite technical issues. I'm pretty sure I was having some compatibility issues as well with my Android device trying to run an Apple app. Things weren't seemless. I kept getting lag, but with each of us on multiple devices and getting video from 4 cameras we were probably hogging all the bandwidths. 

So successful trial. Brian is looking at how to do something similar with his 6mm stuff.

I'd play again for sure. 

Rudolph's Last Stand

"Christmas crackers I'm c-c-cold!" whined Tinkle the Elf as he packed more snow together into a big ball. His hands were raw and chapped. It would hurt a lot when he got back to sewing doll clothes. If he got back to the warm workshop that is.

"Hurry up slowcoaches!" bellowed Frosty, the giant, enchanted and right now, rather frightening, snowman. 

Freeble the Elf quickly jammed some twig arms and a carrot nose onto the snowman Tinkle had just made. Frosty then waved his twig arms over it and it jerked to life, rolling off to join the ranks of the other snowmen brought to life by Frosty. Frosty moved to the front of the white silent phalanx of snowmen, waved his hat in command and they all silently moved towards the front.

Tinkle was worried. For ages they had lived quietly at Santa's Workshop making toys and singing happy elf songs. When Mrs. Claus started baking extra large Gingerbread men he hadn't worried. Then the orders came out of the office to stop making toys and start on spears and shields. Lots of them. The extra big gingerbread men were now armed and defending Santa's workshop, alongside some rather scary teaddy bears. Now it was all set to end in fire and tears.

A platoon of huge nutcrackers lumbered past, arms and legs clacking militantly.

In the distance Tinkle and Freeble heard the braying of harsh horns and the bellowing of strange beasts. Wolves howled. Then a dragon roared. It's wings beating like a rush of wind, it swept low over the village. It belched flame and the Toy Express exploded in a shower of sparks. Harsh goblin cries of triumph greeted the sudden onset of doom.

"We'll see about that you foul beast of Hell!" cried a bearded figure in red cloak and bishop's mitre. St. Nicholas raised his staff and opened a huge book, uttering words of power. Multicoloured sparks crackled smiting the dragon. The fell beast roared in pain, mortally wounded and fled the field.

"Hooray! Hooray!" shouted Tinkle and Freeble as they danced in the snow. They ran to the kitchen and each grabbing a mug of hot chocolate, they climbed to the roof to watch the unfolding battle.

Everywhere they looked there were dark masses of goblins and big lumbering trolls. To the left of the smashed and smoking train was a force of black knights, goblins riding wolves and dire wolves lead by a black robed wraith with a glowing sword. "oooooh he looks scary" said Tinkle, slurping at his hot chocolate.

"But look!" shouted Freeble. A big angry goose, backed up by Snow White and her Dwarf friends, plus Cinderella and some animals were attacking the wraith. Birds and deer skirmished around the Naughty cavalry, jabbing and dashing away. The goose honked and hissed, snapping its beak at the black wraith. Dumbo the elephant flew low over the evil cavalry, pooping on them. "eeew!" squealed the Elves. "Dumbo, don't be gross!"

Under constant assault, the wolves and black knights were whittled away. The wraith cut the goose's head off, but it was too late to make a breakthrough to the workshop. Frosty had built his battle line of snowmen, who began hurling snowballs at the evil forces.

To their right, Tinkle and Freeble could see that the goblins and trolls had advanced the furthest, right up to the river. A platoon of nutcrackers stopped on the other bank, watching with impassive painted eyes as the black goblins massed opposite. Suddenly KA-BOOM! The nutcrakers exploded taking the goblins with them. Some plucky children, told by Mrs. Claus to stay back and keep out of mischief, ran forward, hurling snowballs at the survivors.

Rudolph bellowed his war cry, leading some reindeer forward across the river. Goblin and troll bellows answered as the evil horde emerged from the forest. Beasts, good and evil, crashed into each other. Scimitars and claws met hooves and swords. Reindeer fought valiantly but were ground down under a wave of hatred. Rudolph leaped from a rock into the horde of Naughtiness. A mighty troll crashed down, it's black blood staining the snow, goblins fled in panic, but a company of hobgoblins swarmed over Rudolph, cutting him down while the rest of his herd fled.

In the center, Santa Claus charged forward with some nutcrackers and abominable snowmen, swinging a sword in one hand and his sack (loaded with coal for today's naughty list) in the other. Goblins and trolls fought hard beside the still burning train. A nutcracker toppled like a mighty tree. A troll bellowed in pain and fled the field. Tinkle and Feeble spotted a black robed figure with a staff trying to cast spells on Santa, but his innate magic warded them off.

A few more goblins and trolls stumbled out of the forest on the far left, but they were disorganized and met by the hosts of Gingerbread warriors. Some gingerbread got eaten, but many more stabbed goblins and trolls first.

Soon Tinkle and Freeble could see black figures running away all over the field. "Hooray! Hooray!" they shouted, dancing on the kitchen roof, waving their cocoa mugs. "Christmas is saved!"

That was the opening game of my gang's annual holiday gaming get together. It was a massive 12 player game of Dragon Rampant. Pete and David spent about 8 months building the Forces of Nice; snowmen out of sculpy, gingerbread men and teddy bears made from buttons and thumb tacks, a few novelty Christmas miniatures and some nutcracker tree ornaments. I brought my Nazgul and the Legions of Angmar to be the Forces of Naughty. Pete says he's going to make some dedicated Naughty troops for next year.

Pete introduced Naughty or Nice cards. Anyone wearing something seasonal got an extra card. Half were lumps of coal, half gave bonuses to moving shooting etc. St. Nicholas played a card giving rerolls on misses when he attacked my dragon, scoring 11 hits and knocking 20 of my 160 points out if the game! I got lumps of coal in my cards.

The day was also the inauguration of Dick's basement of toys and his TWENTY-FOUR foot gaming table. The next round we did a game at each end. Dan put on a game featuring Canadian Peacekeeprs in Somalia trying to keep rival warlord factions from looting the UN Camp. At my end we played Pig Wars; four bands of Vikings all looking to get a piece of the Bishop's treasure. I didn't win, but I didn't lose as badly as some of the other guys.

After dinner most of the crew left, so the six remaining die hards played What A Tanker using some tanks from Dick's 1:32nd scale collection. This is I believe, is exactly what WaT was made for. Something fun after the main games are done. I didn't blow up.

Ceiling mobile 

Dick's 1:32nd scale tanks 

One end. Pont du Hoc top shelf. Minas Tirith next shelf. ACW and The Alamo on the lower two shelves. 

Close up of LOTR toys

The other end of the room

Seating in front of movie screen 

Food was eaten. Dice were rolled. Fun was had. A grand way to see out the old year.