Lard Island News

“WOT!  NO COLOUR” I hear you cry.  It’s a funny old world at present.  It seems to me that the quality of a set of rules is now based on how colourful it is, how high the “production values” are, rather than what the rules actually do.  Indeed I am constantly amazed these days by the number of rule reviews that rave about a new set that then say at the end “I can’t wait to try these”.  Rather like Jeremy Clarkson reviewing the latest Aston Martin without driving it. 

It is very noticeable that many of the glossy publications that were being lauded a year ago are now no longer heard of; no game reports in magazines or on-line, no vibrant discussion forums, just silence, despite the perceived “high production values” that were all the mode a short time ago.  It is noticeable, but it ain’t shocking.  It is representative of the current emphasis in the hobby press on style above substance, and a year on it is proof that the wargaming public are not fooled. 

Yes, we all splash out occasionally on something that looks fantastic and promises the earth, especially when XYZ magazine foams at the mouth about it, but when it turns out to be complete tosh we do not slavishly keep gaming it; we discard it an go on to something better.  In truth what appeared to have “high production values”, that glittering, shiny object that caught the eye of the magazine editor who then reviewed “the sizzle and not the sausage”, was in fact fools gold.   

It is my belief that when producing a set of rules “Production values” should be about how well the rules are themselves produced, not the paper they are printed on.  How much time is spent on research, how much time is spent playtesting, how clearly they are set out.  This is what truly makes a quality product.  

Do I want a return to the days of the grubby A5 pamphlet?  No, of course I don’t, and if I am honest our rules are produced on high quality glossy paper, and some even have glossy covers, however I do say that the product, i.e. the rules themselves and the resultant game, should be more important than what they look like when you first flick through them.  

I am sure that there are some truly excellent rules out there that comply with the principles that I have mentioned above; yes they are brilliantly researched, yes, they have been play-tested to death, they give a great game and yes, the DO have lovely colour pictures in them.  If I am again honest I did take a look at producing our latest set of rules, Le Feu Sacre in full colour.  Napoleonics is a fantastically colourful period and we could get some great shots to tart things up no-end.  But no matter how I attempted to square the circle, the rules were just the same, and ultimately the choice for the gamer would then be to pay £12 for the rules or to pay twice as much or more for the same product plus a few jazzy snaps.  Rather like paying twice as much for your car because the salesman threw in the album of his holiday photos with his missus in a bikini.

So, you’re right, there are no colourful photos in our rules, but what there are is rules that conform to our ideas of “high production values” that do not cost an arm and a leg to buy.  So come on you magazine editors out there, why not actually play the rules before reviewing them, and then comment on the game they produce rather than on just how shiny they are.  Is that too much to ask?

There is always a tremendous sense of satisfaction seeing the printer’s proofs for a new set of rules; it usually spells the end of a long period of hard work for me as editor getting everything print ready, as well as producing all the graphics and artwork.  This time, however, it was really something special. 

Le Feu Sacré going to it third edition marks another milestone on the path to getting back in print titles that were only available in PDF format.  Rather than just reprint the old edition Darren, the rules author, was keen to expand the rules to cover a much broader period, right the way through from the Revolution to the Hundred Days, incorporating the work that he has been doing with the earlier period in particular over the last four or five years. 

It is a great testament to just how good a job Darren has done with Le Feu Sacré.  In a market where new Napoleonic rules seem to be in vogue at present we are very pleased to be able to present a set of rules that has stood the test of time and that has evolved into what we think is one of our best and most popular rule sets. 

Le Feu Sacré is now available to order for just £12 for a hard copy, £7 for a PDF and £15 for both hard and PDF versions.  Official release date is this Friday, the 27^th of November.

With news that Le Feu Sacre III is about to head for the printers, we challenged the Lard Island New’s most experienced hack, Sam Shade, to track down Darren, the rules’ illusive author, in order to get a preview of what we could look forward to and his thoughts on the hobby generally. 

It was in after midnight when I found the small Speakeasy on the East side of St.Evenage.  On first glance the joint seemed to be in darkness, the only light coming from the Ford Cortina that was still burning after a normal Wednesday evening in the Hell-hole that the Doc called home.  I knocked twice and money exchanged hands before I was led into the small bar that was nearly empty.  At the counter a lonely figure gazed at the now empty bottle that stood along side a nearly drained glass.  I knew it was my man; the shabby sabretache that hung at his side and the worn Pelise had both confirmed it without need for words.   It seemed that my timing was perfect, if there was ever an opportunity to get the man talking, this was it.  “Barman, another bottle of the same”. 

The whisky was rough, even for an old hack like me, but Darren was ready to sing like a canary by the time his glass was full.  So, I gave it to him with both barrels.  Why, I asked, was Le Feu Sacre heading for a third edition, surely the last version was popular enough?

“You’re right, certainly Le Feu Sacre has been making a bit of a name for itself over the past four years since we published the second edition.  We reached the point where the hard copies were all sold out and whilst it made sense to reprint them as they were, we felt that it was an opportunity to take things further, especially with the developments that had happened over the last few years.”

“Due to my desire to game the campaigns of Suvarov we had produced some additional rules to cover the earlier part of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.  The first edition of LFS was very much about the latter part of the period, and now we had the opportunity to expand the rules to cover the entire period, from 1792 to 1815.  We floated this on the Yahoo Group and the answer was a resounding ‘Yes!’, so that’s what we’ve done.” 

The joint was empty now, but for me and the Doc, but the barman seemed happy to keep pouring the shots, so I pressed on.  So, what’s changed?

“Well, most of the changes have come in to accommodate the revolutionary period. To do this, we have used ideas that will be familiar to players of our ACW rules, They Couldn’t hit an Elephant. Units can have characteristics, such as being Stoic, having Élan, or being Brittle.  This affects their behaviour and allow the players much more flexibility (if they choose to use it) in fielding forces that really reflect historical units.  There are also more options as to how skirmishing is dealt with, I’ve paid attention to grand tactical formations and drill, along with options for commanders directing battalions.”

“Several areas are simplified, for example fighting in built up areas, and there are subtle tweaks to some of the factors just to streamline proceedings, but anyone who has played LFS before will find it an almost seamless change to go from the old version of the rules to the new one.”

“I’ve also taken the opportunity to change my writing style, from the pretty terse and functional wording of the originals, into a more descriptive and narrative format, I hope that will make it easier to use, especially as we have also changed the format to and I’ve tightened up on definitions and examples to make the rules clearer.  All in all the rules are significantly expanded due to covering a much wider time-span and are generally just better presented”.  

I nodded, it was clear that this guy was ready to spill the beans.  So, has anything remained the same, or is it all new?  

“Well after all I have just said has changed, I probably need to say that a lot hasn’t changed! The basic mechanisms and goals- fast flowing, emphasis on command and control and the impact of friction are all there.  The historical feel, something that people have always commented on is still very much to the fore, we have just attempted to add to that rather than change it.  Evolution rather than revolution probably best describes what we have achieved here.”

 Okay, so what size battles would you say that the rules worked best for? 

“Good question.  The “sweet spot” is to play an average size (French in 1812 excepted) Corps of 16 to 30 battalions with supporting cavalry & artillery, which will give you a game where you can achieve a decisive result in about three hours, so a normal club evening game.  That said, we have pushed it up to over fifty battalions per side on our refights  where we use a 1:100 figure scale instead of 1:50. This will be fine for a whole day’s gaming, we’ve done Austerlitz, Eylau, and Wagram at Lard Island Games Days or around the shows and they have been fantastic fun to play.” 

“Saying that the rules can expand to take on larger battles, one of the Yahoo group regulars, Bob Hewson in Hungary produced some amendments to play smaller games of just twelve battalions a side or less.  Amazingly enough entitled ”mini-LFS”. So the system is pretty robust to being mucked around with.”

I’d been to SELWG and I’d seen the game there – 15mm figures to the fore, so I had to ask, what scale figures did he recommend?

 “Well, to my mind anything from 15mm down to 6mm is ideal, indeed some of the 6mm games that I have seen recently around the shows are very impressive.  My collection is 15mm, Rich reckons I should sell it and go smaller, but I have too much time and effort, not to mention blood sweat and tears, invested in my 15mm stuff to change now.” 

 “28mm is possible, but I would have to say you’d need a big table and you’d need to make some changes to measurements.  There are some great Brigade and Divisional level rule sets out there that I think are better suited to the larger figures, or why not really do it properly and go with Sharp Practice?!”

So, did the Doc think that Napoleonic gaming was having a renaissance?

“I’m not entirely convinced that it’s ever been away!  Actually what I think has changed is that there are a lot of people who would like to play Napoleonics, but have been put off by either rules or a small number of gamers who get very worked up about “their” period.  Have a read on the various wargames fora, Napoleonic gamers can be a pretty abrasive bunch sometimes!  I think that many of these potential punters have been tempted back by a plethora of fantastic new figures and products like Sharpe Practice that have given them an entrée to the period and now they are looking to expand into the larger battles of the period” 

“It’s still the “one true period” in my book; no horse & musket period is as balanced with regards the three arms, actually even Rich agrees with that, and just because you don’t see loads of Napoleonic demo games doesn’t mean that we’re not playing it at our clubs & homes.”

 I could see the bartender was waiting now.  Only an inch was left in the bottle and soon the early morning sun would be rising over the tower blocks of St.Evenage.  It was now or never.  How, I asked as I poured him the last of the whisky, do your rules differ from all the others that are out there?

“Historically accurate, more enjoyable, faster, cheaper, the make the player more handsome and you have better sex.”  

Wow, these were big claims!  Then he laughed.    

“No, seriously, I’ll answer by explaining why Le Feu Sacre was written. I wanted a game which gave me the challenges that a Napoleonic commander had. That meant combined arms attack and defence added to a representation of real life friction in the command and control mechanism. So for me the game has to be above Division level and needs to be Corps level to allow for historical inclusion of favourite troop types, heavy artillery and cavalry, beyond the odd light regiment. To fit on a normal size table, that ruled out 1:20 figure scales and several popular rule sets.  That said, I wanted it to stay at the battalion level so you kept some “feel” for the period.  Once I had decided that this lead me to the conclusion that we were looking at twenty to thirty battalions per side.”  

“Then I knew that I wanted to play and finish these games in a normal club evening, so two to three hours. And of course, because I am as much an historian as I am a wargamer, the results had to be historically credible. This drove the combat mechanisms and “result oriented” focus to the rules. In particular, the simplified treatment of skirmishers, and the merging of musketry into combat calculations. This one, above all, marks LFS out as different. As a Corps commander, I’m concerned about whether my unit attacks and defeats the opponents, not if they choose to stop at fifty yards away to fire, or whether they use fire by rank, platoon or whatever. I think that in the most part I’ve succeeded. So if you want to play that type of wargame, where you are really faced with the same levels of problems and decision making of your historical counterpart then I think you’ll like Le Feu Sacre.”

So when will the rules be available?

“The final artwork is being done now, and the proof reading is under way.  The plan is to have the rules with the printer within the next ten days and then on the shelves in November”.

As I left the bar and walked among the tired, grimy streets I knew that Darren was right, I would enjoy Le Feu Sacre, and so would many other gamers who were looking to bring a bit of history to their tabletops.

Expect nothing but Tarleton’s Quarter from Jan Spoor of Maryland, with this cracker 0f a scenario for Sharp Practice in the AWI.  

Here Jan provides not just the scenario but also additional rules for this conflict, adding the flavour and character that Sharp Practice is all about. 

Click on the following link to enjoy Tarleton’s Quarter  

My only disappointment was the lack of church to lock Mel Gibson in!

Great news for those who have been awaiting the re-release of le Feu Sacre, our Napoleonic wargames rules for Division and Corps sized actions.  We are very close to getting these to the printer, just some final formatting and proof-reading to be done.    

As a taster Darren, the rules author, will be running a refight of Wagram at SELWG this coming weekend which will see Lardies from across the country gather at Crystal Palace to give the rules a final test-drive. 

For those at home and overseas who can’t make SELWG we can but tempt you with a look at the rules new cover. 

What’s the ETA?  Well, November is a certainty, so keep your eyes peeled here or on our web site for news of its arrival.

As Australia can no longer compete on the cricket pitch, it is good to see that Her Maj’s upside-down subjects are turning their minds to weightier and more stimulating matters; writing scenarios for Sharp Practice.  

Ben Fiene of New South Wales sent us ”A Scuffle in the Rain” which is quite different to some of the more flambouyant advantures that we have seen the rules used for.  Here Ben has taken the historical route, and also introduced a figures to man ratio of around 1:12, with each Group representing a Company on the table. 

Interestingly, when writing Sharp Practice this was our starting point.  Before adding on all the chrome and derring-do, we sought to produce a set of rules that worked from the point of historical plausibility, so it is good to see that Ben is using them in this way.  Hopefully his efforts will inspire others to do the same.  One hundred figure battalions anyone? 

To enjoy Ben’s scenario just click on: A Scuffle in the Rain

Well, we’re back from our holidays now, so work continues on presenting the scenarios from the recent Sharp Practice scenario competition for download.  Here we have a rather fun submission from the pen of Faron Bell of West Texas.  Some of you may be familiar with Lieutenant Shockley from either Faron’s blog or from the Convention games he has run.   You can check out what he’s up to here:    http://basilhare.wordpress.com/

Having left the delightful Margarita in safe hands, Shockley and his men have set off on another mission for Major Logan at the Castell de St. Pequeña, however all is not as it seems.  Will Shockly survive this encounter with the dashing Lieutenant Goodenot?  Will Margarita really be safe?  And whose is the mysterious grave in the walled cemetery?  Discover all this and possibly more when you click to download Shockley’s Rockets.

There are times when we get a product arrive that really grabs our imagination, and This Land Divided by Chris Stoesen has done just that.  When Chris first sent us the text for this supplement he was thinking about us including it in serial format in our Summer and Christmas Specials, but we could immediately see that this was much more than a few articles! 

In This Land Divided Chris, a native of the State of Georgia, traces the Revolutionary War action in Wilkes County during the months of February and March 1779 culminating with the battle of Kettle Creek.  The story that unfolds is one of small forces, loyalist, rebel and Indian, fighting over a relatively small area, but the end result being disproportionately significant in the effect it had on the British “Southern Strategy”.

Chris has provided a really comprehensive guide to gaming these War of Independence actions using Sharp Practice, with a comprehensive history of the campaign, an overview of the men and the units that took part, a guide to representing those forces on the tabletop and a section on rule amendments to add period flavour and colour.  On top of which there are a dozen scenarios ready to be played, with full colour maps, player briefings for both sides and umpire’s notes to assist in running the game. 

My only criticism of this great supplement is that fact that I now have a new pile of figures struggling for hegemony on my painting table.  I have gone with the fantastic Perry Miniatures in 28mm.  I pondered whethere to keep costs down by going with 15mm – there are some superb figures available in the smaller scale – but what persuaded me to reach for my credit card and take the plunge with the larger figures was that some of the scenarios only call for around twenty figures a side.  The plan is to then work up to large scenarios gradually absed on figures purchased and painted.  Anyway, here’s a snap of what I have done so far.

I was pretty chuffed with the fences that I knocked up.  I have seen lots of tutorials on how to make snake rail fences, but in the end I went for what I considered a more flexible option.

The only part of these fences that is fixed are the upright retaining posts that hold the rails in place.  These are roughly an inch high with two posts stuck to a tuppeny bit, the 2p piece is pretty much exactly an inch across.  I stuck these on with my trusty hot glue gun and then textured the bases with Basetex and some clumps of grass.  Once that was dry a quick brush over and application of flock saw them complete.  Here’s a close-up snap of the base. 

The lengths of rail are made from exactly the same wood as the upright posts, 1/8th inch wooden dowell.  I cut the lengths to about 6″ each and stained them using heavilly watered down Vallejo Chocolate Brown paint and a dash of brown ink.  The rails are stored loose so  that I can now position the fence post retainers to conform to the terrain and just slot in the rails.  All in all a very flexible, and I think good-looking, solution to those fencing issues that you get when gaming in the USA.  I can see these getting much use between my AWI set-up and the ACW Sharp Practice games that we have planned for later this year. 

So, a big thanks to Chris for his work on This Land Divided which will be going on sale later today.  The obvious flexibility of the Sharp Practice system will, I am sure, mean that this is the first in a long line of supplements that will see the rules used outside their original Napoleonic setting.

Congratulations to Chris Stoesen for his winning scenario, “Escape From Jenkins Neck” that has won first prize in the Sharp Practice Scenario Competition run by Roly Hermans at the Sharp Practice Camp web community.

We have had some great entries, all of which we’ll be making available as free downloads over the coming weeks.  Selecting a winner was both a pleasure and remarkably hard work; in the end we went to a judging panel for the final decision. 

 The overall standard was tremendously high and the variety of subjects was a joy to behold.  In fact we were so impressed that everyone who entered the competition will be getting a £5 voucher by way of a thank-you. 

Chris wins a £20 voucher to spend in our on-line store along with the two Sharpe and Harper inspired figures that feature on the cover of the rules. 

Fancy a read of the winning scenario?  Click on the following link and enjoy! Escape from Jenkins Neck

Location…An Allied HQ, South of England
Date….1943
We enter as a planning meeting reaches its conclusion…

“Right, so it’s agreed.  The Commandos cross the channel and take out the Jerry radar station, grab whatever documents are to hand and get out fast in their inflatable back to the waiting MTBs.  Excellent.  All we need to do now is decide who leads the raid.  Any suggestions?”

“Well sir, what about Johnson”

“What, Jackie Johnson, won the MC at Dunkirk and the DSC at Tobruk?”

“Um, no sir”

“Oh, Bertie Johnson, operated behind Jap lines for 12 months after Singapore fell, got out via Australia.  Yes, damned fine chap Bertie.”

“Well, not him either actually sir.  I was thinking about Johnson, the Corporal you saw on your way in today”. 

“What the chap making the tea!”

“Yes sir.  He really knows how to make tea…

“TEA! He makes TEA!”

“Yessir, and he can play the spoons…”

The scene fades as we return to reality. 

Naturally such a discussion would be absurd in reality, and yet in a wargaming sense I wonder if it is as unusual as it ought to be.   Are we expecting too much from some of our lead heroes?

In my last article here “Whose Turn is it Anyway” I looked at friction on the battlefield and how it is modelled within our rule sets.  What I want to do now is look at how we can fulfil Clausewitz’s definition of a great commander, one able to overcome that friction and get things achieved; controlling events and leading our forces to victory despite that friction rather than weakly being pushed along by events.         

One of the comments that we get from new players about the command and control mechanism within our rules is that there is too much chaos and not enough control.  As a result, they say, co-ordinating their forces is very difficult.  It is perhaps unsurprising to see that the majority of such comments come from people using the rules, or at least a set of TooFatLardies rules, for the first time, and frankly I am not surprised.  Some of the systems that we use to model warfare are quite unique, and like everything new there is a learning curve to go through.  What I want to do here is explain in very simple terms how it is possible to co-ordinate your forces on the table-top to hopefully make that learning curve as flat as possible. 

Leading By Example
Without doubt the easiest way to present this is by showing an example.  In the following map you can see that there is a British platoon advancing towards a German held farmhouse.  Using rudimentary tactics they are going to form a base of fire with one section, put down smoke with the platoon 2” mortar and manoeuvre with their two other sections to attack the German position in the flank.  Indeed you can see their plan on the image below; it represents standard but effective British battle training.

Now, let us imagine this.  The platoon HQ, made up of the Lieutenant, Sergeant and the 2” mortar sit tight at the back of the unit and send forward their Corporals with their sections.  Typically a Corporal will have one initiative point to use in a turn, so he will be limited to controlling his own section.  In the centre the 2” mortar and the section providing covering fire will do so regularly without any problems.  That may well be on the Lieutenant or Sergeant’s card, they will certainly be close enough and have enough command initiative to activate both groups, or possibly on the Tea Break card when they can all fire if they have not been activate during the turn. 

Where problems may arise is in co-ordinating the actions of the two sections moving round the flank.  Let’s call their Corporals Tom and Harry.  In any turn the card activation system may see one, both or neither of their cards dealt.  Whether they can keep together in the advance is entirely a matter of chance, keeping their movement co-ordinated will be tough and made worse if they start taking any casualties and the Corporals then need to use their initiative to rally shaken troops, thereby retarding their movement further. 

This is, to say the least unfortunate; at worst it is a recipe for disaster.  The entire plan is for these two sections to use their weight in manpower to launch a co-ordinated final assault on the farm in order to overwhelm the German defenders.  It may well be that the two sections, if uncoordinated in their attack, can be defeated in detail by the enemy or simply stopped from advancing by fire from well-sited defenders.  Clearly not what they want to happen and equally clearly this is the lack of coordination that people can sometimes encounter in their games.

So What’s Going Wrong?
Well, in a nutshell the fault here is that the gamer is unfamiliar with a new rule system and has not yet grasped the importance of what assets that he has available.  The following passage by Lieutenant Colonel Wigram, commanding the 5^th Buffs in Italy, gives us an illuminating view of what actually happened on the ground.

“The Platoon Sergeant (who can really be relied on) at once gets his three Brens into action shooting at the enemy MG or MGs. This will invariably silence the enemy guns for the time being. I have made particularly careful observation on this point and have checked it up with a large number of Platoon Commanders. As soon as our MGs open up the Germans (who are always using tracer) stop. I think they do this because they are nervous or in order to observe our fire. They always keep quiet until we have finished our hate, then as soon as there is a lull they open up again. One almost never sees or hears Spandau and Bren firing together at the same time. It is always one followed by the other. Even inaccurate fire from our Brens will quieten the Spandaus until we have finished firing.

As soon as the Brens have quietened the enemy MGs the Platoon Commander gets on his feeet, persuades all the rest of the riflemen to do likewise, and leads them straight into the enemy position under the cover of the Bren Fire.”

What we can see quite clearly from this is that the actions of the platoon were not being left to the Corporals, but were carefully controlled by the two real leaders in the platoon, the Sergeant and the Lieutenant.  Even then there is a hierarchy of responsibility, with the Sergeant taking the more static role with the base of fire, and the officer taking on the hardest job of all; getting his men to make the final assault.

The tactics are slightly different in Wigram’s report to our example; the Bren Groups have been assembled to provide a concentrated base of fire whilst the rifle groups have formed a large manoeuvre element, but the principles remain the same.     

But will it work on the tabletop.  Let’s take our original example and put not just Corporals Tom and Harry with the manoeuvring sections, but also the Lieutenant.  With three Command Initiatives the Lieutenant is more than capable of getting both sections to move together when his card is dealt.  What is more he has spare initiative to remove any Shock that the sections may take whilst advancing on the farmhouse.  Indeed Tom and Harry can do exactly the same.  With the officer taking responsibility for moving their sections they can concentrate all of their efforts into keeping the sections in good order.   The use of more and better quality command assets ensures that not only do the sections arrive together, they do so ready to launch their final assault with the benefit of a high quality leader at their head. 

The contrast could not be more plain to see, in the first we saw chaos at work, in the second that friction was overcome, showing clearly that every leader has his role on the battlefield dictated by his abilities; his initiative in game parlance.  Your Corporals are perfect for rallying troops who have been shocked by enemy fire, they can hold their section together in times of stress, but their responsibility and level of ability pretty much ends there.  If you are looking to achieve a co-ordinated attack with multiple sections or fire teams then you will need to use more capable, and senior, commanders to allow order to triumph over chaos.  Which, after all, is what real life command is about.