Herts of Lard 2025 - A Great Day Out!!!

 Yesterday I went to Herts of Lard in Rickmansworth, the southern Too Fat Lardies play day. An absolutely brilliant day with 15 (well 14 due to illness) different TFL games running twice each during the day.

Firstly , a huge Thank You to Joe Bilton for organising the event and to the game hosts and other helpers for all their hard work. There were three Midgard running and I managed to get a place in two of them and was on the winning side in both!

My morning game was “The Cleansing of the Eyewash" a Middle Earth game run by Matt Slade. This was a lovely looking table and provided a really hard fought battle, with the orcs narrowly taking the day. Here are a some pictures of the game.

My afternoon game was  Too Eager! a battle between Romans and Ancient Britons run by Paul Cox, assisted by Grahame Wright. Another very hard fought and close bash, with the British literally snatching victory from the jaws of defeat in the last melee of the game! I used to periodically game with Paul and Grahame in Harrow in the dim mists of the past (Paul reckoned it was pushing 25 years ago!). so it was great to see them again and catch up a bit.

And here are pictures of some of the other games on offer. I took most of these at the start of the day, so some have not got their minis on yet. Starting with a 15mm Chain of Command game set in the jungles of Burma.

                                          

A really spectacular Operation Goodwood 28mm game in the ruins of Caen.

An intriguing Call of Cthulhu game using What a Cowboy.

Another 28mm CoC game, this time American paras in Normandy.

And a samurai game in 15th century Japan.

 

A 15mm WW2 1941 Eastern Front game of I Ain't Bin Shot Mum, nice to see those rules still in use.

Kiss Me Hardy Napoleonic ships.

Another Midgard game, this time the defeat of Varus' Roman legions in the Teutoburg Wald in 9AD.

Great fun, I met a fantastic bunch of gamers and play two really good game. I'd call that a result!

1912 Balkans War with Chain of Command

I had Mark around the other day to play Chain of Command with my 1912 Greek and Turkish platoons. It was an attack/defend game, with the Turks defending a road junction.

Mark had the Turkish platoon and I took the Greeks. We both had a second senior officer, a machine gun, field gun and section of irregular militia in support.

Here is the table after the patrol phase (the colour is a little odd on these pictures).

 The view from the Greek side.

And from the Turkish side.

I started badly with the Greeks, my first roll only gave me the option to bring on a senior leader in that phase (which I declined to do). Mark brought on his irregular militia behind the hedge next to the junction and put them on overwatch. My next roll was 3 sixes, ending the first turn! (Which was quick seeing as our last 3 games of CoC never got to a second turn!). I brought the Italian Legion volunteers on my right flank then had first go in the new turn. Turn ending meant that Mark lost his overwatch, so I deployed a section of regulars in the centre, behind a hill with my senior leader and my field gun which started to pound the irregulars.

 The Turkish irregulars take position.

The Greek field gun "Open Fire!" 

 Watched by the senior leader the Greek regulars advance behind the hill.

On the right flank the Italian Legion take the field.

Mark deployed his field gun which started counter battery fire, bought on another section and started moving his irregulars across to counter my infantry advancing towards the wood on his right. My dice let me down for the next hour or so as my attacked slowed to a plod on the left. On the right the Italians were stuck behind the hill as Mark stuck a section of Albanians and a machine gun in front of them, so advancing in the open into that cross fire didn't appeal. I never got the activation dice I needed and my field gun seemed to be firing blanks. My only success was putting my machine gun in support of the Italians, which was doing a good job of knocking off a couple of Albanians and piling on some shock.

The Albanians show up.

Mark, on the other hand, seemed to get exactly the dice he needed. His field gun repeatedly blasted mine, regularly getting 4 or 5 hits on 6 dice! The shock was piling on and the crew dropping like flies. I had to pull my senior leader back to rally them and keep the gun in the fight. He moved the irregulars up to block my advance through the wood and deployed another section in their original position to add some long range rifle fire on my gun. Enough was enough, the gun crew broke, I threw silly dice for their rout and the ran off table taking their junior leader with them. My Force Morale now dropped to 6.

Suddenly the dice gods smiled on me and I started getting reasonable activation rolls. I brought the elite Evzones on to support the regulars and my irregulars militia popped up in the field next to my machine gun to add some more pain to the Albanians.

The Greek irregulars lurking amidst the crops.

Trying to manouvre around the wood and avoid the machine gun, I accidentally triggered a close combat by coming too close to the Turkish irregulars. As it was the start of Mark's turn when we realised (!) we decided to go back and fight the melee. I was glad we did as I inflicted 8 kills on his irregulars for 4 dead in my unit. The irregulars broke and ran away. Mark then threw 3 sixes, ending the second turn and routing them off the table with their junior leader! He redeployed his gun and infantry to face my new threat and we settled down to a long range fire fight for a couple of phases.

 The Greeks line the hedge.

As the Turks re position to face them.

I then got an activation roll which allowed me to activate everything on the table!  My Evzones and infantry poured fire into the units in front of then, scoring a lucky hit and downing one of Mark's Junior leaders taking his Force Morale to 4. On the right the combined fire from my machine gun  and irregulars pinned the Albanians. My Italians took a gamble and charged over the hill (if I got a low movement roll I'd be stuck in the open in front of the machine gun!). I rolled high and got in close enough to trigger a close combat. I scored 7 kills, wiping out the entire section (or at least what was left of it). Section destroyed and junior leader killed, that's two morale rolls knocking Mark's force Morale down, game over.

The Italians charge in to inflict the coup de grace!

It was a great, fun game, with a lot of laughter. It had swung back and forth and could have gone either way, at the mid-way point I certainly felt my Greeks were on a road to nowhere. The turning point had been that accidental melee, where I rolled ridiculously good combat dice! It just goes to show.