Wor Lard goes Fourth

Last Sunday I set my alarm for 4 am to enable me to get out in good time to drive down to the Vane Tempest Hall for the Fourth incarnation of Wor Lard run by Durham Wargames Group.  As with other such Lardy days the idea is to run two sessions in the day covering a variety of Too Fat Lardies rules.  It featured the man himself who ran sessions of the new What a Tanker rules which proved very popular.


My first game was a spectacular Sharp Practice affair on a large board with 40mm figures depicting an Ottoman attack on a Ukrainian Cossack village.  Myself and Conrad, the provider of the figures,  ran the Ottomans and Jim (another Falkirk club member)the Cossacks.  Another Jim, the organiser of the event, acted as umpire.


My only slight criticism of the game was that it was never going to be a half day affair and after 3 hours although fire had been exchanged and casualties caused they had been very little movement on either sides force morale (each side had three commands each with their own force morale table).


The solution to the problem was for the game to continue into the afternoon.  Myself and Falkirk Jim left for our second games.  Jim had a date with Kiss me Hardy run by the third Falkirk club attendee John.  I played Chain of Command as the German defender of an airfield under attack from the LRDG.


It was probably the shortest game of CoC that I have played as I fear the scenario was a bit unbalanced in favour of the Hun.  Although the British had a lot of firepower in two jeeps and a Chevrolet truck, alongside 3 sections on foot and support the vehicles proved vulnerable to the weight of fire the Germans could deliver and once blown up generated enough Bad Things to quickly  erode their force morale.  I didn't even get to deploy my armoured car.  Perhaps a bit unrealistic but even though the watchword of the Lardies rules is 'Play the Period not the Rules' I am too much of a wargamer not to maximise any legitimate advantage that comes my way.  In one superficial sense this is where the game is a realistic simulation of war in that in both it is key that when the momentum of the battle swings your way you need to do your utmost to keep it that way as it can so  easily turn against you.

The first Jeep goes up

With the CoC game finishing early it gave me the opportunity to rejoin the Sharp Practice game.  My Ottomans had reached the village and were able to force their way in.  Conrad did a great job engaging the rest of the Cossacks keeping a lot of units away from the settlement and when time came to pack up it was declared an Ottoman victory.

The Ottomans advance on the Village

A fantastic event, thanks to Jim for organising, the Durham lads for hosting and my opponents for making it all a very enjoyable experience.

Games 29

 Rules played 17 New 7
Places played 5 New 0 

Vapnartak 2018

The annual Falkirk club bus left 5 am sharp for the 5 hour trip to York


For once we arrived before the doors opened but after a short wait we were in


I made a beeline for the Harrogate club's Italian Wars Sharp Practice game which had a bit of pre show publicity that had grabbed my attention.  Sharp Practice is a favourite at the club but in 28mm Napoleonics which for some reason don't really ppeal.


So I was straight into a game leading the forces of Venice against the dastardly French.  Sometimes the luck goes with me and sometimes against.  This was one of those games where I could do no wrong.  My right flank powered forward against the Swiss mercenaries and, with the help of a fortuitous double move and lots of excellent dice rolls, swept the Venetians to victory in no time at all.

I then met up with Tim and had a quick look around the other games.  My eye was then taken by the Warploque Miniatures stand.  They have the ArcWorlde fantasy range of figures and rules.   North star miniatures had a sale just before Christmas where I had picked up the rules and a couple of warbands.  One of these was Elves and they can use an undead unicorn as an upgrade.  It is a really nice model and I decided to get it.


There was then a temporary evacuation for a security alert.  When I went back in and wandered around again I realised that there was an ArcWorlde participation game that I was able to join in.  My warband consisted of a Dark Warlord, 4 hobgoblins and 3 unusual creatures.  these had the ability to blow themselves up but then be very quickly reincarnated by the Warlord.  my opposition was another Warlord and a number of undead types.  This game was much closer but after many self inflicted explosions I scraped a victory.

I then had a wander through the fleamarket but there was not much on offer and I thought that much of it was overpriced.  Another look around for a game was unsuccessful so I headed off to the bar with Tim and Kenny for a pint and a burger.  One pint turned into 3 and we were also joined by Doug and then Peter.  At about 2:30 I realised that the bus was leaving at 3 so dashed round for a couple of minor purchases and then it was back to the bus getting home about 8ish.


My thoughts on the show?
Trade - first class but not what I go for
Games - the 2 I played were excellent but there definitely seemed to be fewer of them than previous years
Fleamarket - too little space allocated and very little of interest on display
Venue - pretty good although the catering could be better (but that is true of almost every show)
What makes it a great event for me is travelling down with a load of mates


So another great day out


Games 8
Rules played 8 New 6
Places played 3 New 0