The Miller's Tale - Episode 12

Episode 12 - in which Mike has a chat with the Mighty Dux himself, Richard Clarke of Too Fat Lardies, over a range of topics including Chain of Command 2, Patreon, Pint-sized Campaigns and even, very briefly, Dux Britanniarum.

And hi to the folks I missed at OML this past weekend!

Useful links:

• The TFL Patreon.
• Book for Posh Lard 2025 here

Watch this space for another interview Real Soon Now!

Battle Report - 28 Oct 2019 - Chain Of Command

View from the German's end.

Dougie from the TFL mob has been working in Peterborough for the last couple of weeks, so generously offered to run a historical game of Chain of Command scenario last night.

Essentially, I got the Germans (with assistance from Carl) defending a village with a platoon, a Flakpanzer and a Pak38 against Gary and Colin with a well-supported US platoon (3 Shermans, apart from anything else). I was slightly distracted by trying to talk my wife through fixing her mother's Mac and iPad (from a distance of 70 miles) so I sadly failed to take notes on the historical details of the scenario, but...

Interesting patrol phase - I got a very well advanced jump off point on the left hand table edge behind a hedge, and a rather withdrawn right flank, which ... didn't work as well as I'd hoped. Gary sent his Shermans down the road, and a scout party and a section across the field (top left) towards the hedge while plastering it in covering fire. With hindsight, given the insane rate at which I was amassing Chain of Command dice, I should have just pulled it back (the picture above shows it after I did so, just behind the further house in the middle). Instead I got clever with an extra phase: the plan was to pop up, nail the scout team and leg it across the road. The covering fire and overwatch rather put paid to that :D You can see what's left of the broken section cowering in back of the house bottom left.

That done, I used one of my CoC dice to move the jump off point, and the other to... well, check the photo on the right. Having moved the jump off point we could (at Carl's suggestion) just managed to use the other Chain of Command dice to pop a Panzerfaust across the road and get a side shot on a Sherman.

Boom.

Heh.

Sadly, that was the high spot of the evening. I popped up the Pak38 for a shot at the second Sherman, doing it one shock and engine damage. With further hindsight (and advice from Dougie) I should have then pulled it back, rather than left it to get shot at by the Sherman in the hopes of a second shot. While I did get one ('so what do I need to hit?' '10' *rolls" 'No problem!') I only did another point of shock and gunsight damage, which... well. Lets just say the Pak38 crew and junior leader joined the huddled and pinned masses behind the house. And got liberally plastered with a 30cal or two.

Force morale down to 2. Were this a campaign, I'd have called it a day, so since it was well gone 10pm, we did :D

Many thanks to Gary, Carl and Colin, and especially to Dougie for umpiring and providing forces. I am, it would appear, a bit rusty at CoC :D

Chris Stoesen has a Chain of Command/IABSM scenario bundle for sale

The excellent and talented Chris Stoesen is doing a bundle deal on his WW2 Eastern Front scenarios. Allow me to quote:

I put together a combo pack of all my East Front Chain of Command supplements. It totals out to over sixty scenarios. I priced it at $20. 

I hope this will generate some interest. More info on it can be found here.

I had health issues in the beginning of the year and need to raise some money to clear out some bills. Please forgive my begging.

The bundle is only available here.

Thanks for your patience with me.

I commend this to you, not only because it's in a deserving cause, but because the man writes damn good stuff and more scenarios are always good. Even if you don't game Eastern Front, they are good inspiration for your own designs.

May I also therefore recommend the following, should you not have copies:

• To Covet Glory - 96 pages of Kiss Me Hardy goodness in real life hard copy
• A whole bunch of scenarios for Sharp Practice and other rules in his Payhip store. I'm particularly fond of The French Coast, as, well, I have these beach boards....

Posh Lard 2019

Done for another year.

The freshly re-grassed Omaha boards.
I am a bit pleased.

Excellent day's gaming: folks appeared to have fun getting shot at on Omaha Beach, and the other two games looked brilliant. Richard Crawley brought his Menton '40 game, which I have played and loved, and the Gravesend folks delivered a brilliant Sainte Mere Église table for a Big Chain of Command game.

Note to self from the latter, remember that houses have gardens. The table looked brilliant.

The Butcher of Omaha dishing it out.

Sadly I was too busy to grab more than a couple of pics, not helped by having to fix The Cricketer's World Cup score feed (thanks Carl for taking over Bloody Omaha for half an hour!)

Huge thanks to everyone who came (including a morning visit from Big Rich in a very natty striped jacket). See you next year!

Now? Knackered. Going to unload the car, ponder my next podcast (I know what I'm talking about, I'd just like to save it till I'm coherent) and maybe scan a few maps in.

Posh Lard Update

Doing some admin and getting my ducks in a row:

If you’re after a game at Posh Lard on Sunday 2nd June, these are your current choices:

• Bloody Omaha – 15mm IABSM3 as seen at Salute. Room for 2-4 players
• Ste Mère Église – 28mm Big CoC. Room for 2-4 players
• Brécourt Manor – 28mm CoC. Room for 1-2 players
• “You’d Have To Be A Lunatic” Menton 1940 – 20mm Big CoC. Room for 2-5 players

Sadly AndyH is busy, so we can’t squeeze in a Dux Brit game.

Rich Clarke from TFL will be attending: As yet he’s unsure if he’s bringing a game. We’ll probably run most of the games (except Bloody Omaha) twice (subject to confirmation), and if you want to duck into or out of the latter halfway, that’ll be fine too.

Plenty of room for more folks if anyone is interested: you can sign up for the princely sum of £5 at http://www.peterborough-wargames-club.org.uk/tc-events/posh-lard-2019/

(As an aside, if any is up for bringing another game. I think we might just about have enough Chain of Command! :D)

#Hobbystreak, and Posh Lard

Not doing bad - I'm at day 123 since the start of the year :D

They seem to divide into 5 categories...

1. Writing (Dux Compendium, other projects, blogging generally)
2. Terrain
3. Painting
4. Battle reports
5. Hobby admin and bureaucracy 

Today's definitely been 5 - I've been updating the Hereward and Peterborough websites with various stuff. Which does allow me to announce:.... drumroll....

Posh Lard is GO for Sunday June 2nd (yes, I know this clashes with the last day of UK Games Expo...), 9am-6pm (although games will probably start around 10am). We may well decamp to the Brewery Tap for some of their excellent Thai food afterwards.

The games available will be under the theme “Invasion” and are likely to be:

• Bloody Omaha (IABSM) – Peterborough (this is your chance if you missed it at Salute)
• St. Mére Église (CoC) – Gravesend
• Brecourt Manor (CoC) – Peterborough

plus possibly another CoC and a Dux Brit game subject to confirmation.

Anyone interested in bringing anything else, please drop us a note as well at lard@peterborough-wargames-club.org.uk (please be aware, though, that until we have a confirmed idea of numbers, there will be a limit on the number of games we can immediately accept).

Admission is £5 (since this isn’t a tournament and we don’t have to cover prizes!), and you can sign up here. There's an upper limit of around 20.

It's in Peterborough town centre, at our club - on site free parking, handy Wetherspoons/McD's/Subway/Waitrose for lunch. handy very nice Thai restaiurant/real ale pub about 5 mins walk away for post-game meal, two hotels within walking distance for those who've come a long way, 5 mins walk from the station and bus station, 10 mins from the A1.

Another CoC QRS Update

Blame Allan Doran on Facebook for this update, as he pointed out a fix from the Errata, which led me to realise I hadn't actually scanned it for things to fix :D

Pages 2 and 6 will need reprinting for this change.

CoC QRS update

Rich, bless him, assures me there are no updates from the theatre handbook(s) that apply universally to the master rules, so I don't have to add stuff to the QRS. Note that I will not be creating theatre-specific QRS's. Buy the books :D
In fact, buy the books anyway: the QRS is only a play aid, and it is not a substitute for having the book handy. Besides, TFL deserve your money!

One change in this update, thanks to me actually using the QRS for the first time in a while at Crisis Point! Page 2 has a small clarification re defensive MGs in Close Combat, so if you're printing and laminating you'll only need to print the first two pages double-sided.

Battle Report - 30 Mar 2019 - Big Chain of Command "Garavan"

Catching up now I actually have any internet connection worthy of the name :D

Day 1 at Crisis Point (in Dungworth Green Village Hall near Sheffield), saw me roped in (well, eagerly volunteering) to play a Big CoC scenario set during Mussolini's brief invasion of France in 1940, specifically the town of Garavan. The scenario rejoices in the glorious title "You'd Have To Be A Lunatic". Why?

In a recent interview on the Beasts of War Youtube channel, Richard (Too Fat Lardies) Clark said, “You would probably have to be a lunatic to want to refight that particular part of the war”. 

I'm quite surprised how much watching the various Beasts of War CoC videos has improved my understanding of the game. I didn't disgrace myself, certainly. The left flank was a solid win for my French, as the troops they were facing were predominantly Green, and Arthur did attempt to close-assault my defensive position (despite being advised not to after I'd done the rough dice maths)... 36 dice for me (which I suspect was actually under, and should have been 45! need to check with the FAQ how extra dice for how far the attacker moved and troop quality difference work with multiple units) vs 15 for them lead to a pretty inevitable result.

The right flank was markedly more painful, as Leo's forces were one of those blasted Blackshirt platoons, with four blooming machine gun teams! Despite being in hard cover, it's pretty hard to survive someone throwing 24 dice at you every time he activates. Actually, 18 dice plus covering fire is actually worse as it hampered my ability to wear him down. With hindsight, I shouldn't have thrown another good section into that building as that too got clobbered. Even with help from Jim's tanks, we lost that flank, so an honourable draw.

Good fun anyway, and thanks to Richard for running it! More details and photos of the scenario prep are available on his excellent blog.

Picture album below - check out the gorgeous buildings!

From the French left rear

The Grand Hotel. Prime site for a Hotchkiss HMG.

Defence on the French right. (Well, de wall, actually)

A very interesting hobby crossover...

Once again, I get to comment on where hobbies collide.

If you happen to game in 20mm (i.e. 1:76/4mm to the foot/00) and the appropriate period, this just turned up on my railway modelling FB feed....

No more details on the Oxford Rail site, but it would appear from comparing photos to be this beastie, the Ordnance BL 18 inch Mk I howitzer on truck, railway (Boche, destruction for the use of :D) along with a Railways Operating Division Dean Goods.

Not entirely sure I can justify one, but I'm sure someone out there who plays CoC in 20mm could come up with a scenario... I'd also note that I don't believe the price, since a Dean Goods from them on its own is way more than that!

Too Fat Lardies demo offer

OK, so, as I now a) have both forces for Dux Brit without having to borrow Andy's (which makes me nervous!) and b) am recovering to the point where I can drive distances on an evening again, here's the deal.

If your club is within a sensible distance of Peterborough (90 min drive - including London) and you'd like a demo of Dux Britanniarum or Sharpe Practice 2

Lardy List Directory update

I've just trawled the forums, Facebook and Y! group for updates to the Unofficial Lardy List Directory, as well as half a dozen list submissions (which I'm still working through, and am sufficiently tired I may finish tomorrow - Andy Duffel, you're prolific, mate!!)

If your list isn't there and you think it should be, do fill out the submission form on the list!

New version of the CoC QRS

Thanks to Akseli Anttila, for spotting a very minor error in the Bad Things Happen table.

V2.2 is now up in the usual places.

The Unofficial Lardy List Directory

....formerly known as Sekrit Projekt L.

I have been collating a repository of all the currently published lists for CoC and SP2 that I can find, which is now up at http://wordpress.altrion.org/lardy-lists/

I am aware that Rich has just said

With the publication of the second edition of Sharp Practice, one of the things we are very keen to do is to work with other Lardy gamers to get as wide a range of Army Lists available for all sorts of different conflicts which the rules can be used for.  This must be a co-operative process with gamers taking the lead in telling us what Lists they want to see and getting involved in producing these.  We are very happy indeed to work with you on producing lists, all we need is for you to work with us to get them produced.  We can then make sure that they are available for other gamers all around the world to use and enjoy.

and obviously I'm not intending to tread on his toes with this. The aim has always been to produce a link farm grouped by system and campaign period/era that allowed folks to track down if/whether a listed exists yet, if it's official, who's working on it etc etc.

To that end, the Directory is structured as one Wordpress post per individual list (even if a document contains multiple lists). As well as giving the ability to comment on individual lists, there's also a form to allow you to submit new lists (even if they're only draft/WIP).

Note this list isn't quite complete, as I've run out of time before club tonight, so the CoC España list are still to be added. 

New version of the Chain of Command QRS

A small change, but Neil and Dave were grumbling about it when we were recording the next podcast last night. so....

V2.1 of the Chain of Command QRS is now up - go to its page to download a new version. There's only one change, namely an addition to the close combat section on page 2 for the "one side has four times as many dice as the other" special rule.

For those asking about a Dux Britanniarum QRS, I won't currently be producing one, as AronBC has made a more than adequate one which can be dowloaded from the TFL Yahoo! group. (You'll need to join the group but if you're playing TFL rules you should anyway)

Kickstarter Watch - 28mm L'Armee du Levant

There's more than a few Kickstarters around at the moment - this one is another 'obscure theatre of WW2 in 28mm' one, not, you understand that this is a bad thing.

So - what do we have here? To quote the blurb:

The goal is to create a range of 28mm Colonial French figures for the 2nd World War which are suitable for use in a wide variety of settings. The basic goal is to get 10 metal figures with a set of differing detached heads into production, allowing them to be made as regular colonial troops with either an Adrian or sun helmet, as French Foreign Legion in Kepis or as Senegalese Tirrallieurs in chéchia.

Laudable aim, if the concept floats your boat - I know there are quite a few people out there who enjoy WW2 theatres that aren't the obvious. £60 will get you a platoon of rather nice looking sculpts with your choice of separately moulded head. It's currently targeting £4500, and stands at just under a grand with 22 days to go (May 1): Kicktraq reckons it's going to fall a hair short, so I figure some more publicity won't hurt.

Battle Report - 6 Apr 2015 - Chain of Command

An interesting evening introducing Ryan (huge WW2 Japanese fan) to Chain of Command, and a very fun game which demonstrated how CoC does encourage a more tactical, even cerebral approach to the game. Gary was his opponent, and had a veteran British force that was tasked with defending the Probe scenario, i.e. preventing the Japanese exiting via that table edge. The Japanese had the (nearly official) 1941 list, with a type 92 combat car in support, while the Brits laid a minefield.

The Japs have a 2" extra move in the Patrol phase, which made things interesting - basically they slightly flanked the British on both flanks, leaving them a touch constrained compared to the wider Japanese choices. Ryan's initial dice were excellent - I think he got three phases on the trot, deploying a section on the right flank (with the rule that allowed him an extra 6" out from the jump off point) and a whole mortar section in the centre. The next phases were a game of cat and mouse: Ryan brought on another section in the centre, and Gary brought on all three of his. Lots of cut and thrust, the type 92 almost getting shot by a Boyes AT Rifle on overwatch, but basically Ryan was waiting for a chance for two phases at once again, which never materialised, to deploy his one remaining section and hit Gary's shifting weak spot.

I still reckon the British over-committed - I'd have left one section in reserve to see where the Japanese chose to make their main attack: instead one section shifted from one side of the board to the other.

Either way - fascinating game. And we may have a convert (and I commend Ryan's blog to you if you haven't found it yet) :D

Jump off points, Japanese on the right.

The first Japanese section makes an advance 

Mortars lined up along the hedge line

The British holding up the Japanese right.

New CoCulator

For those working on their own Chain of Command lists, Rich has posted a new version of the CoC meta list on the forums - http://toofatlardies.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1058&start=110#p19720

Flying back to the UK today - looking forward to decent tea again.

Heads up - new TFL pint size campaign.

http://toofatlardies.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=25&products_id=158

And I quote:

"Thirty pages long, "Old Hickory" contains an overview of US operations in Normandy and beyond from Operation Cobra to the German counter attack at Mortain, Operation Luttich.  It goes on to present a mini-campaign covering the defence of L'Abbaye Blanche, a key position to the North of Mortain where the US 30th Division stood firm against 2nd SS Das Reich, and Der Fuhrer regiment in particular."

Posted from gate 20 at Heathrow T3. I'll pick my copy up when I get to Seattle. 

Pacific Theatre Chain of Command lists

For those of you hankering after an army list to use those 3d printed Type 92 tankettes (or for that matter any other 28mm Japanese forces or US Marines), draft versions of Japanese lists 1941-2, and 1943-5  and the USMC for 1941-42 (which covers the period up to Guadalcanal) are available in the files section of the Yahoo! Group (you'll need a login if you don't have one, as these are currently just draft lists).

I shan't be playing these any time soon, unless I can find someone with the appropriate forces :D