Show Report: Too Fat Lardies Games Day

On Friday, 13th of October we got together at the holy halls of the premier gaming club in Vienna to celebrate the very first Too Fat Lardies Games Day!

Too Fat Lardies is a company producing wargaming rules (no minis, just rules) and a bunch of us are just big old fanboys. This is why Cpt.Shandy (have a look at his blog!) came up with the idea of getting together on one day and run several demo tables featuring our favourite TFL rules sets. Some of the core ideas in TFL wargames rules is trying to replicate the challenges a commander of the period would run into, with a special focus on battlefield friction.

For me choosing what to demo was an incredibly tough call between the brilliant Chain of Command and the equally brilliant Dux Britanniarum. We decided to go with the latter, because we got 28mm collections for it and those always go over better at demo games.

Here's a rules introduction and review written by yours truly if you're interested in how the game works: http://skirmishwargaming.com/dux-britanniarum-rules-introduction-review/

I usually don't put gaming-related posts up on this site (as it's supposed to be mainly about my painting), so all my rules reviews are to be found on skirmishwargaming and some forums instead. However, I'm kinda proud of the Lardies Games day, so I put up this little report.

Dux Britanniarum is set in the times of the Saxon invasion of Britain (bascially right after the Romans had packed up and gotten out of there). One player's job is to defend the British isle against the raids of the Saxon player and to eventually become an Arthur-like figure and fend off the invaders.

The whole game's based on its really clever and easy campaign system.

True to our track record with demo games, it went incredibly weird. It was the second game in our campaign and it went in a way that led to  no combat what so ever.

The Saxons were to raid a village, the British defenders showed up in time and formed a nice shield wall, essentially cutting the village in two halves. The half the Saxons were free to roam in proved to be utterly devoid of any valuables, so after a bit of a staredown and hastily looking for loot I withdrew my men off the table, not wanting to risk excessive casualties.

 Cpt. Shandy ran a demo table of Sharp Practice 2, featuring one of his favourite periods, the American Civil war, in the shape of a rather unusual scenario in which railway guns of the Unionists the and Confederates meet and duel, with supporting forces attempting to attack.

A great table, and the scatchbuilt guns made for great centrepieces. Here's my review of Sharp Practice 2: http://skirmishwargaming.com/sharp-practice-rules-introduction-review/

A third table featured a game of Kiss Me, Hardy! (Admiral Nelson's famous last words). The game pitted two Napoleonic Frigates against each other in a scenario based on Horatio Hornblower's advantures.

Later in the night we started another demo game, this time showcasing Chain of Command, platoon-level WW2, in 15mm. You can find my review here: http://skirmishwargaming.com/chain-of-command-rules-review/

The scenario revolved around a platoon-sized force of Partisans attempting to blow up a railway station and the German garrison force who try to stop them from doing so. A very interesting game which the Partisans in the end had to retire from due to time mostly.

Before that the Partisans did bad, bad things to German force morale, and almost forced them to retreat after having wiped out one squad and the German senior leader due to accurate MMG fire. One of the Partisan NCOs was wounded thrice, but nonetheless he kept pushing on until his superior sent him off back into the woods.

It was a long day, but also thoroughly enjoyable and it drew in several onlookers, participants and hanger-outers. Good games, drinks and banter. Thanks to everybody who popped by, WoW/Keepers club for providing the venue, everybody who presented games and especially thanks to Cpt.Shandy for organizing the whole thing!