More Commanders for the Sudan

With the focus on the SCW platoon, it had slipped my mind that I'd offered to put on a game at a Operation Market Larden 3 at Wyvern in early June. Not only that, but I've the esteemed Mr Roundwood playing  one of my sessions. A panicked list of what I should get done in the six or so weeks before that set me off: it was time to get cracking.

I started with a couple of 'nice to haves': two more Commanders or 'Big Men' in Sharp Practice terminology. The first being a mounted Egyptian officer.



Fairly standard stuff and a quick paint, I gave him a darker blue uniform that my officers in units. When I get around to him, the Egyptian C-in-C will wear black.

I'm also a bit light on Mahdist emirs, so fished out another from the lead pile. This was probably one of the original packs that I bought a few years ago, no idea why he hadn't then painted yet. 

Not much to say: he's in a colourful patched jibbeh that's sculpted on the Perry emirs.

Next to paint are some more Bazingers, then I've quite a bit of terrain for the rest of May. I would have liked to finish the highlander unit, but I just can't see me having the time.

After the creeping worry hit, I also got started on the necessary cards and Blinds for Sharp Practice. Using an excellent free texture from borealnz on Flickr (thanks for the tip, Mr Roundwood!) and some era-specific images, voila:





They'll be printed and laminated. I've finished the generic cards, it's pretty quick once you have a template made up. Next up is to make the cards for each Big Man.
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AAR: Recent games at Wyvern Wargamers

The summer has brought quite a few visits to Wyvern Wargamers to push the lead around. Way back in July, Stu put on the latest of his 'Adventures of Claude Canard of the French Sloop "Le Vendeen"' our hero adventuring in Egypt against the Ottoman menace. Stu's fuller AAR can be found here, in Lardy tradition, we used Sharp Practice.

Our hero Claude Canard finds himself separated from the main column and pursued across the desert by the blasted Ottomans. Spying a village on the horizon, the French column is urged to reach it before the cavalry bear down on them.



The advance party enter the market - safety at last?

The rest of the column take up positions to repel the Turkish cavalry

The Ottoman cavalry circle warily at the edge of the French range. Upon taking an optimistic volley, the French infantry realise that their powder is damn (in a desert? Really?!)

Seizing their chance, Ottoman riders plough into an alleyway to attack the French sailors....

...while their counterparts attempt to cut off any escape

The battered sailors slip around the corner and form a ragged defensive line for the second assault. Meanwhile, the French infantry search in vain for fresh powder.

The game ended with the Ottoman cavalry repulsed in the market square, through some good fortune on the part of Claude Canard. The Ottomans had a mountain to climb once the French made it to the safety of the town and weren't able to bring their infantry to bear. A minor victory for our heroes!

Cheers to Stu, Dane and Paul for a very enjoyable game, once again Sharp Practice gave good service. I do like the asymmetric forces of Stu's Napoleon in Egypt project.


And a couple of weeks ago, Stu put on another game, this time using his modern Africa project that he's been churning off the workbench. Pitting the dastardly petrocorp mercenaries against the local militias for control of a key road through the 'Zikanga' jungle. We used a Two Hour Wargames ruleset, Stu's writeup is here.

The mercs' advance party creeps through the thick foliage, stumbling across militia sentries. Unfortunately, they were alert and manage push the mercs back.

Meanwhile, bravo team's initial assault is silent and deadly (OD being Obviously Dead)

And before the militiamen can react, they are also put down by precise fire

As the professional heads to check the bodies, the cowering survivor (in his most fashionable yellow hoodie) pops up and blasts away with his dual handguns (wielded side on, no doubt). Despite his training, the pro is shot in the head and instantly killed. 



Hearing the commotion , the militia in a nearby village start their technicals and pile down to defend the bridge.

Fwooosh...kaboom!!! Charlie team makes its first kill

The fighting rages, with the mercs consolidating a hold on the bridge while the militia push Charlie team back to evacuate their wounded to the bridge. This enables the junction to be seized - can e mercs break through?

Err, no. Casualties mount on both sides but neither is able to claim a further advantage. Despite their training, the mercs couldn't open the road - the militia were too numerous and able to organise themselves.

I've mentioned before that THW aren't my favourite ruleset, I find them hard to remember and can't get my head around the high/low dice. But I can see that they give a good modern era simulation and of course, Stu's modern Africa project looks awesome anyway. Cheers again Stu!

Operation Market Larden 2014 (part 1)

Yesterday, Wyvern Wargamers hosted gentlemen from all across the country for the second iteration of "Operation Market Larden", a celebration of all things Too Fat Lardies. Once again, the day offered a range of quite excellent participation games and the pleasurable company of like-minded fellows.

A relatively early start ensured there was enough time for a good long morning and afternoon session and Ade carefully marshalled/herded the 40-or-so of us into the games that they had signed up for. And what a range of games on offer, there was something for everyone (as long as you like Lard).

I was on hand to roll some dice with the camera in tow to catch the action, though sadly I didn't get photos of every game.


Saving Mrs Ryan - Sharp Practice in the Indian Mutiny - 28mm
(Simon Walker)

A quite exceptional board with beautifully painted miniatures and everyone involved seemed to be having fun, be they the British and their loyal subjects, the rebellious mutineers or local Badmash militia. I was quite jealous I didn't get to play this one!

Benouville - Chain of Command WWII - 15mm
(Ade Deacon, of Wyvern Wargamers)

Which you can read much more about on Ade's blog here. Ade put a phenomenal amount of effort in to properly research the engagement and terrain. Having had the good fortune of play-testing it through ,I can attest to it being great fun to play.

Bloody Omaha - I Aint Been Shot Mum WWII 15mm
(Mike Whitaker of Peterborough Wargames Club)

Huge table and daunting prospect for the Allies - but I hear they were succesful across the two sessions

Sharp Practice in the Peninsular - 28mm 
(J. Ibbotson)

Another lovely setup, with exceptionally painted miniatures and impressive Grand Manner buildings.

For my morning session, I had the pleasure of playing Rich Clarke's own Le Port scenario that he'd built for Salute 2014. Two German and two British players, umpired by Rich himself.

Le Port - Chain of Command WWII - 28mm 
(Richard Clarke)

Town's all quiet

German officer nips out for his morning bread

The scenario had my and Robert's Germans desperately trying to hold off the British paratroopers. Things looked pretty awful when the paras, played with elan, were close to overrunning the German jump-off points before our delayed troops had even trurned up! (for which a comedically bad series of Command rolls was blamed)

Paras make a long flanking maneuver around pastel pink cottage

With Rich's hasty *ahem*revision to the scenario, the Germans trickled onto the table just  in time to shore up their line and blunt the swarming paras' advance. We were able to build a numerical advantage on the German left flank to turn the Paras back.

Numerical advantage on the German left flank

On the right flank, commanded by myself, things were less rosy. With one jump-off taken uncontested, a hastily deployed section found itself pinned in beige-cottage-without-enough-windows by the Para fire support team. With the MG42 down, the remnants of the section cowered in the loft. The paras pushed into the ground floor and the game was up. but who am I to disregard a chance for a glorious but futile charge - three handgranaten down the stairs followed by a bloody assault. The result: merely an honourable end for the Germans, with a lone survivor surrendering to the paras that had survived the blasts. 

Less so on the right...

But the paras were held off for long enough - more German reinforcements pushed on to hold the line, with the Paras unable to sustain the fight. Apparently, we had done quite well to hold the line against such aggressively played paras. 

The battle for Le Port raged on into the afternoon session, with new players picking up a continuation of the scenario as the German counter-attack starts for real. Le Port seemed to be taking quite some damage in the heavy fighting, as evidenced by this dramatically blazing cottage:

I missed photos of:
Tin Star Gunfight (G. Bond)
The Bridge (N. Overland)
Kiss Me Hardy (N. Skinner)

And to sweeten the day, it has become tradition for Wyvern to lay on some Lardies-themed cupcakes - so impressively decorated and tasty to boot! 

Rich Clarke appears entirely disinterested in Ade's cupcakes offerings

As the gaming wound down to a close, the attendees found their way into Evesham for a few beers and a curry - a fine way to end a hard day's gaming. Thanks again to Ade and the rest for putting on such a smashing day. Roll on OML3 next year!

Update: Part 2 now up

Sharp Practice AAR: Clash at San Salvador

Last Sunday I had the great pleasure of heading to Wyvern Wargamers to put on a game of Sharpe Practice for Stuart and Bob. My Napoleonics haven't been out for a while (since October 2012, apparently!) so it was great to get them on the table, plan a game and play on the larger tables that they have available.

I pulled together a three-way scenario, with Stuart as a French, Bob using my Brits and me taking a weaker force of Spanish guerrilleros. Set in northwestern Spain 1809, a French force was pursuing the British hard, both forces having exhausted their supplies from the hard marches. The French push on to the town of San Salvador with the aim of seizing it by force and pushing the British back once again. The Brits rise from their bivouacs and resolve to give those damn frogs a bloody nose. Meanwhile, a band of local guerilleros descend to protect the town and dissuade either force from pillaging this fertile area further, hoping to bag a few French along the way.

Stuart had an entirely infantry force and a slight advantage in numbers from the start. Arriving in numbers starting with skirmishers, they promptly start identifying and peppering the British in the town square.














In San Salvador, the 95th Rifles take cover and trade shots. The British deployed in the town and with plenty of cover, remained fairly static.
















With initial rounds inconclusive, with both sides led well enough to remove shock in short order, Stuart makes a flanking move in force with a formed line, leading me with no option but to withdraw with my harassing Spanish. This and him wiping out another unit on the opposite flank out paid to my plans of being a thorn in his side as he engaged the British.




As the French line slowly rumbles into position to threaten San Salvador and bring some real weight to the French fire, British reinforcements arrive at the battle line. Light Dragoons - this could well get messy for one side, depending on the draw of the cards.

Everywhere else is a sideshow, with units trading shots for minimal effect and the guerilleros content with holding their ground. Probably the most important draw of the cards - if French Lt Gagon comes out first, the line gets a second volley to soften the impact of the charge. If the Lights come out first, they get a relatively fresh charge in. 

It's the British. The Light Dragoons crash through the swirling smoke on the unloaded French line. Despite the numbers of infantry, they are hurled back in disarray. Not a slaughter, yet, but the blooded British cavalry continue the pursuit (and merrily off the table...!).

Bit quiet around here chaps... 

We played out a few more turns of skirmishing, but in reality, that crashing cavalry charge secured a British victory.

Closing thoughts

I think a fun game was had by all, thanks to Stuart and Bob for indulging me and apologies for any glaring errors in scenario design or gameplay. In reality, I'd set both forces too hard a task - the French scored by taking the town but were initially faced with too stiff resistance to do so by force. I should also have made it clearer that I was an independent player with my own objectives rather than allied to the British. While I didn't actually do much damage to the French at all, my presence might have dissuaded Stuart from making a more aggressive assault.

The British scored from making French units lose their bottle or flee. But I'd forgotten how few kills are achieved from shooting in a Sharp Practice, especially when in cover, as well as the difficulties breaking formations and well-led units. Only the cavalry succeeded and even than, if they hadn't been so close to the edge of the board the French may well have been able to recover as neither unit was too badly mauled.

Both could supplement their scores by foraging the supplies in the area during lulls in the fighting, marked by the red and blue flags. My Spanish scored by denying the French and British access to these spoils and stopping them foraging, scoring for any left at the end. I'd added this secondary objective to encourage the forces to spread out and discourage an outright 'rush to the centre' that I've previously seen in Sharp Practice games. In the end each force grabbed an even number of supplies, leaving half for me. But the British scraped a victory through that daring cavalry charge forcing the French line to flee the table.


Cavalry are hard to balance in a scenario. A couple of volleys on them and they soon become ineffective. A lucky break and relatively unhindered charge and as seen here, they can hurl back two units. While that is a good trade but, it still leaves them quite badly mauled and not up for much more. This time, they were fortunate the French hadn't advanced far, as they ploughed right off the table and out of harms way. This feels like the right result, but makes finding a balance in force compositions a challenge. But all in all, the scenario could do with being refined a tad.

Gharak and I had dabbled with various mechanics of Sharp Practice, but perhaps our most rewarding tweak was changing the 'wound' tables and this game reminded me why. In future, I'd reinstate that rule and have the wound table at close range by 1-2 Miss, 3-4 Shock, 5-6 Kill. This gives real bonus to leaving cover to close on the enemy and unleash a volley for greater effect, particularly with a Sharp Practice card in hand!

On a positive note, the rules I'd given the guerilleros worked well. They deployed in small, fragile units of 6 men, making them easy to break or destroy. But to reflect their loose formation. knowledge of the land and ragged fire, I allowed them a free bonus move of 1D6 at the start of each activation, at a cost of losing half of their base shooting dice (6 men firing with 3 dice, plus modifiers). This special rule made then more mobile than the other forces, but less able to bring heavy fire to bear.

Sharp Practice - Encounter in the Peninsula

Samulus came over for a game yesterday and I whipped out an old favourite of mine: 28mm Napoleonic Peninsular War using slightly modified Sharp Practice rules. I've built up a fair amount of terrain for rural Spain and could field British against Spanish, though the latter were intended as allies rather than antagonists. So I was making do without any French, and did have to knock up some cards for the activation deck. 

As this was Samulus' first game, and my first of Sharp Practice for over a year, I kept it simple. A meeting engagement with small, balanced infantry forces. Each force had four units led by one Grade 3, one Grade 2 and two Grade one leaders. Of the units, one was  Light infantry, one 'Good' grade infantry and one 'Poor' infantry, though I shuffled around the leaders across each force. The objective was simple - small forces encounter each other in a rural region and to retain the field both aim to take and hold three defensible positions conveniently placed across the centre of the table.

Game start, and the colourful Spanish Blinds face off against the British in the opposite corner. The objectives were the farmhouse, church and walled wheat field. 

A couple of turns passed and I had rotten luck with the activation deck, with my Blinds activation only coming out once in three turns. This limited my movement and kept me in my starting corner while Samulus' Brits bounded across the table. On turn three, the Blinds were all spotted and the gloves came off. My infantry were exposed, with the well led, Good infantry in the centre took three volleys without getting chance to respond, leaving them in a bad way. The second unit safely made it to the wheatfield. 

The British put out a withering fire, forcing back the battered line infantry, by now on the verge of quitting the field. The Spanish in the wheatfield fare much better so I chose to push the poor Militia unit into the field aswell to take advantage if the cover. Things aren't looking good for the Spanish. 

I managed to rally my Centre, while the Lights took shelter in the wooded terrain to their left. 

These exchanges continued, with the most notable and surprising even being a large unit of British infantry charging battered Spanish line, who managed to repel and break them. Superior quality and command and some luck with the dice was telling. 

Meanwhile, the Militia finally make it to a position to put the 95th Rifles under fire. While they weren't that effective on the day, I do find Rifles can be  a pain, with a long range and accurate fire. 

The Spanish centre eventually broke the British to their front and sent their greatcoated light infantry off in search of the third objective. But in their state they faced no real chance of shifting the fresh Highlanders who held the Church. The Line in the wheatfield were in an exchange of attrition, as were the Militia and Rifles. The balance had shifted.

The field at game end, turn 8. Each side holds one objective, the walled field for me, and the Church for the Brits, while the third is neglected by both. Each side has taken a roughly similar level of casualties and neither of us had any great prospects of shifting the other. A draw, it seems! 

Once more, I enjoyed Sharp Practice. It had a nice level of complexity, with some attempt to model the fog of war using blinds and random activations. But it isn't too random, as units whose command card hasn't been drawn are able to take limited actions on the 'Tiffin' (or end turn card - bless the Lardies and their terminology). It does a perfectly good job of making a fun game with twists and turns, which feels right for the era and plays in two to two and a half hours. 

As I packed down, Samulus and I discussed what scale of clash the game is representing: 1:1 or up to each unit representing a company or two. This triggered by the fact each unit is modelled with their Colours, which they obviously wouldn't be in a skirmish like this. I remain content with keeping such things undefined as long as the game is fun, feels right and looks good. And they do look good carrying their Colours, if I do say so myself. 

Hopefully we'll get chance for another game soon, perhaps with some cavalry and artillery to mix things up.