“Right chaps, listen up. At 0700 we’ll be crossing the Hun lines on an Offensive Patrol. It’s time Jerry got shaken up a bit and we’re going to hop across and give him a prod.”

Captain Parker Knoll was keen that 266 Squadron kept the initiative that had gained in the past weeks. The squadron was performing well, losses had been light and they had boxed the ears of the Boche facing them on Douai on several occasions.

As the Captain stepped out onto the airfield he had a brief word with Lieutenant Vytis.

“I say Ginger, try to keep your eye out for the new kid. He’s just a Sprog but he’s flow well so far and it would be a shame if he didn’t get a chance to find his feet.”

“Fear not sir, I’ll keep my eye on the lad.” Ginger smiled. He’d only been with the squadron for six weeks but already he was being seen as an older hand. Demand for pilots was high and the life expectancy was short, but if a chap got past his first month he could hope to have learnt enough to avoid the worst of fates. Or so he hoped.

The three DH2s crossed the lines at just over 6000 feet through a hail of Archie sent up to greet them. It wasn’t long before they could see three Fokkers climbing up to greet them.

Parker Knoll waggled his wings and dropped down to face the threat, making the best of his height advantage.

Leutnant Helmutt Rasche leading the German patrol turned on to face the threat head on. He was a veteran of some months at the front and his two comrades were experienced pilots.

It was Parker Knoll who move first. Sweeping round in a chandelle manoeuvre he then side-slipped nimbly to the left to tuck in on the tail of one of the Fokkers. The manoeuvre was too much for the Sprog and he broke formation and remained at his high elevation, frantically searching the skies for his squadron leader.

Parker Knoll fired the five seconds of 0.303 ammunition in his first magazine, forcing the Hun to swin violently out of his sights. He touched the control rod and flung himself to the left onto the tail of Leutnant Rasche himself.

With a fresh drum he pumped another 47 rounds into the Boche’s craft but without luck,

Rasche was no Sprog and hauling on the control rod he brought the Fokker round in a loop to behind Parker Knoll.

Meanwhile Ginger had brought his kite round and let loose a long shot at his Hun, damaging the ‘plane and the right hand elevator.

The rattle of bullets on his engine was more than enough for Parker Knoll and an Immelmann brought him clear of his foe.

Performing an immediate Split S the RFC Ace dropped in behind Rasche and peppered him with his two magazines in quick succession. The Hun patrol leader had a damaged wing and was now unable to climb. He turned gently for home, narrowly avoiding more damage as Parker Knoll fired off his last magazine with no effect.

Ginger had lost his Hun and was frantically attempting to work his way round for a good shot, but to no avail.

Rasche failed in his attempt to dive down away from his pursuer and the gallant Captain Parker Knoll continued on the German’s tail firing off his final magazine. The German’s plane plane was on the edge of falling apart structurally and Leutnant Rasche turned for home.

Out of the fight until now, the Sprog dropped down top catch the third Hun with a burst of deflection fire with little effect.

Now a swift Wing Over from Ginger brought him round behind the Hun and a burst saw its pilot dive down out of control, careering towards the deck.

From nowhere the Sprog came round to latch on to the tail of his Hun. A full magazine saw the German pilot shot dead at his controls and gradually the plane spiralled down to crash in a field.

“Good show”. Ginger had seen the Sprog come round and pick off the Hun. His first kill. There was hope for the lad, the squadron would get to know his name and he’s have drinks bought for him in the mess. This was the youngster’s moment of real acceptance in 266 Squadron. The furture looked good.

Inspired by his first kill the Sprog looked round. He could see that Ginger was circling as his Hun spiralled down towards the earth, only pulling out of its dive at a few hundred feet above the earth. The Sprog pushed forward on his control rod.

Ginger cried out a warning, but it was to no avail. The Sprog was unable to control his dive and part of his top ‘plane began to come away. His steep dive turned rapidly into an uncontrolled spiralling dive, hitting the ground at full throttle.

With his Captain headed for home and the Sprog dead Ginger attempted to cut off the last Hun’s path of retreat but his heart was not in it.

The German swept low beneath him and Ginger turned for home.

Damn that bloody Sprog. What should have been a good patrol was now an unpleasant reminder that war in the air was fraught with danger. Over-confidence could be every bit as dangerous as he Germans.

Another playtest of “Algernon Pulls it Off Again”, and more good fun. Parker Knoll nearly took out Rasche but the old kampfer’s luck held out. A late own-goal turned a clear British victory, with one Fokker downed and another running for home in bits, into a narrow victory which actually felt more like a draw. The Sprog, previously quite an impressive flyer, was let lose and got his kill, but then threw his life away in an over-enthusiastic dive which simply ran out of sky.

The DH2 is a fun and manoeuvrable craft to fly with, the Germans are really in desperate need of reinforcements and these are coming in the shape of some early Albatri mark DI and DII from Shapeways. Mind you, I also ordered some Camels and Brisfits so maybe 266 squadron won’t have to wait too long for their pushers to go into retirement.

Tomorrow we’ll be going large, or larger anyway, with the Boche on an Art Obs mission and Captain Parker Knoll sending out Algy, Ginger and the rest of A Flight to spoil their party. Toodle pip!

It was just after dawn when Captain Parker Knoll saw the Hun crossing the lines at 4000 feet. A pair of Eindeckers led by the infamous Helmutt Rasche. The Captain looked to his right at The Sprog. He was in two minds about the lad who had recently transferred from to 266 Squadron but he’d given him the pep talk in the mess. “Stick by me, don’t try anything fancy, I want you on my wing the whole time. I want to see how you can fly, not die! And remember, any nonsense and you’ll be transferred back to Major Savile at 247 Squadron, and you won’t like that!”

Well, now was the time to see. He signalled down to the left where he could see the Boche already climbing to close the few thousand feet gap. “Tally Ho!”.

Pushing forward the control rod he swooped down, using his altitude to increase his speed as he dived round towards the rear of the German duo.

Parker-Knoll dropped round neatly. Now was the time to see how the Sprog flew. He side slipped neatly onto the tail of the German wingman. Remarkably the Sprog stayed with him. This was encouraging.

Helmutt Rasche was a veteran pilot and realised that the RFC chaps were looking to take put his wingman before turning on him. Von Klinker had been with the Staffel for nearly a month now and could look after himself. Rasche peeled away to line up his own attack.

Von Klenker threw his controls forward and shot down several thousand feet in a few moments. He was determined to use speed to get away from the British Ace, but shaking off a man of Parker Knoll’s ability was no easy task. The German swore as a few rounds from the Lewis gun tore the fabric of his wing. “Sheisse!”

Rasche could see he had left it too late. Down below him he could see von Klenker weaving and turning in an attempt to shake off the Briton, in doing so making it difficult for Rasche to get a bead on his foe. At just 2000 feet the German was running out of sky.

Parker-Knoll let loose again. He was firing his fourth drum of ammunition and thus far he had been less than fortunate. Again the beastly Boche threw his craft to one side in an attempt to avoid the fire, but in an instant it was clear that he had lost control of his craft. The white Fokker hurtled towards the deck.

As von Klenker’s plane hit the earth Captain Parker-Knoll signalled upwards with his thumb and the Sprog responded. Remarkably he had stuck like glue to the flight leader throughout the whole dogfight, but now a simple and clearly unexpected side-slip in order to avoid the fast approaching Rasche broke the formation. The Sprog was on his own now.

Frantically Parker-Knoll signalled to head for home, but Rasche was on the hunt. Hungry like a wolf with a spring lamb in his sights.

“Bloody Sprog”. Parker Knoll sighed. The boy had done well, as far as he could tell the lad hadn’t fired a shot but had just done as he’d been told. He had no choice. “Bloody Sprog” he repeated as he moved the control rod to the left and the DH2 swung easily round, its left wing down.

It was a difficult shot, and it was the Captain’s last magazine but he aimed carefully and took the Boche high like a pheasant. Helmut Rasche’s engine stuttered as a fuel line was cut and his craft shuddered noticeably as his speed dropped. “Verdammt Englander”. He shook his fist as the pair of DH2’s swooped low back across British lines. He turned and headed for home. It had been a bad day and it wasn’t time for breakfast yet.

Captain Canoe Parker-Knoll scanned the skies over Loos for any sign of the Boche. From the seat of his DH2 the views at 5000 feet were spectacular and the nimble craft with its free mounted Lewis gun was proving a match for the Fokker Eindeckers which had dominated the skies the previous year.

The Captain was out early, having received a replacement craft the day before following a prang near Vermelles last week. It was possibly not overly wise to go up alone, but Parker-Knoll was an experienced pilot and the risk behind the lines was, he had considered, minimal.

The roar of the Oberursel UI Rotary engine filled the ears of Hauptman Götten Himmelman as he put the nose of his Fokker down and accelerated towards the solitary Englander four thousand feet below. He checked his single Spandau again and prepared to make his attack. Below Canoe Parker-Knoll had seen the German and frantically began his climb to meet his foe.

The two planes circled each other for some moments, each trying to find the advantage, then Parker-Knoll brought his wing round and over, falling in being the the German and let off a whole magazine of the Lewis gun with a rear deflection shot, but to no avail. This Hun was clearly a slippery character!

Himmelmann was indeed alive to the threat posed by the Englishman and brought his Eindecker round to fly head on towards his foe, firing a brief volley as he flashed by, causing Parker-Knoll to involuntarily slip to the left.

The RFC Captain was in trouble briefly, changing magazines on the Lewis in the midst of a dog-fight was problematic and he had fumbled at first, almost dropping the drum overboard. Again he took the initiative, performing an Immelmann to come up behind the German but despite his close proximity the second magazine of Lewis ammunition has little effect.

Himmelmann brought his stick round rapidly to the right and in a hard turn he lost his pursuing enemy. Bringing his control rod back and then round to the left before righting the craft he brought himself round behind the RFC plane which was flying level for a moment as the Briton changed his Lewis magazine for a second time. Unable to lock onto his foe’s tail Himmelmann was still able to fire off a five second burst causing minor damage. Parker-Knoll attempted a hard turn to the left, intent on throwing the Hun off his tail, but the German was too good a pilot and the turn was less well performed than it should have been. The result was the Himmelmann was now tight on the Englishman’s tail and pouring eight seconds of Spandau ammunition into the DH2.

It should have been the coup de gras, and against a less experienced pilot it must surely have been so, but somehow Parker-Knoll kept his craft dancing in the air, avoiding the worst of the damage.

Now the Englishman thrust his control bar forward violently, diving down to 3000 feet. On his tail the German attempted to follow, but his craft went into a spin and headed for the ground.

Canoe Parker-Knoll climbed up to 5000 feet as he watched the Boche plummet down, but Himmelmann recovered and brought his craft round to face his foe.

Again the two airmen circled each other tentatively. Both were aware that they were facing accomplished opponents and both had used up a significant proportion of their ammunition, yet still they continued with their duel above the trenches.

It was Parker-Knoll who acted first, performing a wing-over and coming round to try to get on the German’s tail, but Himmelmann used his straight-line speed to streak away from the manoeuvring Briton. Again the planes circled each other.

Himmelmann brought his plan round for a rear deflection shot but his lack of ammunition saw him hold his fire looking for a better angle. Parker-Knoll turns to face his foe and uses up his third magazine with a forward deflection shot which has little effect other than torn canvass. He loads his fourth magazine out of the five he took to the air with, each allowing him around three seconds of fire.

The fight separates and then the pilots seek to come together again to finally end this grisly Danse Macabre.

Canoe wings over and uses the manoeuvrability of the DH2 to sideslip onto the tail of the German.

Another full magazine is fired, this time rounds cutting the fuel line to the engine. The German responds with a hard turn but his reduced speed due to the lack of fuel reaching his engine means that the Englishman sticks to his tail.

His final magazine loaded, Canoe Parker-Knoll fires thirty rounds into the stricken Hun.

With flames leaping from the engine, the aviation fuel explodes causing catastrophic structural failure. Hauptman Götten Himmelman is thrown clear of his craft by the explosion and contemplates the magnificent view of Loos as he travels at 32 feet per second per second. It had been good while it lasted.

This was our first playtest of the new version of Algernon Pulls it Off and we took it very easy with a single plane duel between two Veterans in 1916. The planes were relatively similar in terms of speed, the DH2 was more manoeuvrable and slightly more robust than the Eindecker, but the German plane had the advantage of a belt fed spandau as opposed to the tedious magazine fed Lewis guns (still 30 round mags for this scenario) which needs constantly reloading and can only fire off very short bursts.

It was a very tense game, with the two pilots very evenly matched. The eight second burst from the German about half way through should have really hurt the DH2 but some remarkable dice rolling saved the day (5 saves out of six dice as against six hits out of 13 attackers dice), and after that the aggresive RFC Captain used his manoeuvrability to keep the German on the ropes. The final kill was as a result of getting a good damage roll with the fourth magazine, the aviation fuel spraying over the planes structure turned it into a flying bonfire just waiting to be lit, and the final drum from the Lewis gun provided the spark.

Today we’re going to go with a larger game and see how that goes. Jolly fun stuff!

For those interested we used Wings of Glory planes straight out of the box.

Jingle Bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.
Oh what fun it is to read the Lardies Christmas Special!

And now you can. A truly Festive helping of Lard has just arrrived down the Lard Island chimney and is now available viia our web store. The eleves have been businer than usual this year and this 127 page beauty is stuffed with goodness and has all the trimmings one would expect from this seasonal feast!

So, enough festive frivolity, what’s in the sack fat man?

Page 4 Introduction
A Festive welcome from Lard Island and the usual salutations from our very own Dynamic Duo.

Page 5 Sea Wolves
Chris Stoesen brings Dux Britanniarum to the Age of Vikings with rule ideas and scenarios. If he wasn’t fathered by the black ram in the full of the moon my name is not Ragnar!

Page 26 The Bulls of Bravo
Incoming! Tabletop Vietnam Veteran Ross Bowrage takes us back for another tour of duty with B Company, 1st Battalion, 5th US Marines come under fire from Charlie.

Page 30 “The Bounce”
This 1940 scenario for Bag the Hun allows you to try this classic manoeuvre.

Page 31 Gunther Mensch’s Panzer Tactics
Fresh from the East, Panzer Ace Gunther Mensch gives us an overview of German armoured tactics for WWII gaming. Follow his Top Tips for tabletop triumph and answers the eternal question – “Just how far apart should my model tanks really be?”

Page 42 Panzer Angriff
You’ve learnt the lessons from Gunther, now see how you perform in this mini-campaign for IABSM. Can you stop the Soviet steamroller?

Page 50 Invasion Earth
Fresh from the Quadrant 13 launch Robert Avery looks at building forces for the biggest Sci-Fi battle of all time. The fight for planet Earth! Think you’ve got no Sci-Fi armies? You may just be surprised.

Page 57 The Yanks Are Coming
Following on from the Summer Special our man in Colorado, Charles Eckart, looks at character generation for US Big Men in Through the Mud & the Blood.

Page 61 More Sturm Abteilung Vor!
Sidney Roundwood takes a hard looks at Stosstruppen tactics in the Great War and find that things are not always what they seem. How does the legend square with reality? Find out in this incisive report.

Page 71 Stosstrupptaktik!
Sidney provides a pre-game scenario enhancer for Through the Mud & the Blood using the lessons learnt in the above piece.

Page 75 Olkhavatka!
A Kursk scenario for IABSM where the corn is not quite as high as an elephant’s eye. From the pen of Robert Avery.

Page 82 Breakfast at von Tiffany’s
A dawn raid in Russia, 19423, for Bag the Hun and the Red Air Force seek to catch the Fascist invader on the hop.

Page 83 Road to Ruins
A terrain building piece from the maestro Sidney Roundwood as he looks at ruined fortifications for WWI. This in-depth photo article shows the maestro at work.

Page 93 Swedish Dux
Voulez Vous? We check out the swinging Stockholm Dux scene with two of the blogosphere’s greatest Vikings – Michael and Jonas.

Page 97 WWII Kriegsspiel
Fat Nick uses the Meckel Map for a WWI Kriegsspiel set in February 1945 with some interesting results.

Page 106 The Roundwood Report
Sir Sidney Roundwood asks the questions as we look to the future now, it’s only just begun. It’s Christmas!

Page 113 Lard Approved
We take a look at the new Lard Approved project and see what it means for you. Or not.

Page 115 Lovely Weather for Dux
We look at weather and its affect on your Dux campaign and games.

Page 120 You Dirty Rat
Our very own Gangnam Style Gangster, Fat Nick, takes a festive look at the roaring twenties and assembling his gangster forces in Part One of “You Dirty Rat”. Do you come out and take it, or shall he give it to you through the door?

Page 127 TweetFace
Not one of Nick’s Gangster Molls, but a guide to staying in touch with TooFatLardies in the age of social media thingies…

Great news for all Q13ers out there. We now have the Game Deck available to download for free. We have provided all the cards you should ever need and then some bllanks so you can add your own ideas to the game.

Print out the cards, cut them lengthwise and then fold over for a perfect fit back and front. We reccomend either laminating the cards for longevity (I am still using my original set of IABSM cards ten years after I first made them, so a cheap laminator is a worthwhile investment!) or you can use collectable card game pouches.

Either way, have fun with Quadrant 13!

Here’s the cards: Q13 Deck

Quadrant 13 is Robert Avery’s forthcoming set of Lardy sci-fi rules which have just been published. I caught up with him just before he was abducted by aliens, and asked him what it was all about.

Let’s start at the beginning. Robert, can you give me the gist of the game?

Q13 is a company-sized game covering science fiction warfare aimed primarily at using 6-15mm figures. It uses the same basic mechanics as IABSM and/or CDS, but is as different in flavour from them as they are from each other.

Company-sized? I thought most sci-fi games on the marketplace were aimed at the skirmish gamer?

Yes: you are right, they are. This may be a bit of a paradigm shift for many sci-fi gamers, but the marketplace is pretty packed full of sci-fi skirmish games, and I wanted something that covered sci-fi warfare on a larger scale. Q13 is not a game designed to be played with a couple of squads on each side: much like IABSM, it won’t really work unless you have a minimum of a couple of platoons on each side, and really comes into its own with at least one of the sides fielding a full supported company.

So it’s aimed at a gap in the marketplace, but is there a market for it?

I think there is. Over the last couple of years there has been a real explosion in 15mm sci-fi models, and to me 15mm is not a skirmish scale: 15mm is a company-sized scale.

Can you give us some examples?

Manufacturers such as Khurasan, Ground Zero Games, Critical Mass Games and many, many more are releasing range after range of beautiful figures, and increasingly providing more than just the basic grunts.

What do you mean?

Well, the traditional sci-fi range was squad-based. You got one command figure, a handful of rifle-carriers, and someone with a light support weapon. That was it. Ideal for skirmish gaming, maybe, but not for larger actions.

Nowadays, a range isn’t a range unless it includes different infantry types (e.g. basic, recon, heavy) and a whole range of vehicles whether they be wheeled, tracked, hover or walkers. Q13 allows you to take advantage of this change, and field a decent-sized force.

Okay, but you’ve just mentioned three different manufacturers, each with multiple ranges. How does Q13 cope with the huge variety of troop types and weapons just from those manufacturers. And aliens! How does Q13 cope with aliens?

The rules are really divided into two sections. The second section covers gameplay, and players of IABSM and CDS will recognise the basic mechanics.
The first section, however, covers building your army. You see, Q13 doesn’t come with any fluff: the rules themselves are completely generic. What the first section does is provide a framework into which players must fit the armies they wish to field. This framework will translate the vast variety of concepts possible in an effectively infinite science fiction universe into a common idiom, allowing the game’s systems to operate.

For example, larger support weapons are defined not in terms of calibre, or Earth-specific terms such as HE or AP, but in terms of man-ratings and load.
Man-ratings define a weapon’s size: the bigger the man-rating, the more powerful the weapon.

Fire effect is simply Boom, Bolt or Both i.e. whether the support weapon fires something that goes, er, “boom”; or something goes “slam”: striking like a bullet whether actually solid or a bolt of energy. Add in the generic term “flame” for anything that spews acid, plasma or the like, and Bob’s your alien uncle. Everything is generic, and there are plenty of examples, put in 20th century terms, to help.

So I can field anything I like?

Anything you can correctly represent with a figure…but, basically, yes.

So I can field a force of super-amazing space marines capable of devastating any opponent?

In the same way you could field a force of King Tigers in IABSM, or Old Guard in Napoleonics, or Macedonians and Romans in Vis Bellica.
But with those examples, I have historical reality to stop me doing so?

Plenty of power-gamers ignore history when it suits them: they just don’t tend to follow the Lard. Q13 will work in exactly the same way.
Also, because the rules are generic, all that will happen is that your opponents will start fielding equally super-amazing troops: an arms race that will cancel out any advantage you might think you have.

Interesting. So what you are saying is that you effectively put together your own army lists?

Exactly: with the fun being that you have to actually put together proper “on-paper” OBs to justify the inclusion of any particular troop types, and are encouraged to do so in a proper, balanced way. I’m also going to publish my army lists, covering many of the current ranges on offer, so players can use them if they choose.

And aliens?

Dealt with by the mechanics above and the Q13 equivalent of nationality cards.

Right, moving on, you mentioned earlier that Q13 had a very different flavour to IABSM or CDS. Can you expand on that a bit please?

Yes, of course. The first thing to note is that Q13 is a pretty lethal game. By that I mean that if you can see an enemy unit, you can generally kill it. Yes, having powered armour and shields will protect you for a bit, but that just generally means you hang around for a little longer before being killed!

Q13 is hard sci-fi. You have to forget the idea of a handful of super-armoured men romping their way up the battlefield spewing death to alien hordes whilst remaining untouched themselves. In Q13, the alien hordes have read the rules and army generation options as well!

This concept of increased lethality took the playtesters a little time to get to grips with, especially if they had a background in historical gaming. They tended to stick to tried and tested 20th Century tactics such as a bit of suppressing fire then advancing forward by rushes.

Well that seems very logical to me. Surely that sort of thing would still be done in the future?

Yes, but you have to think technology. First up, electronic warfare. Why risk your precious troops in advancing towards the unknown. Deploy scanners from the baseline, or send forward scouting drones.

Now you know where his troops are, interfere with their communications. The rules allow you to field electronic warfare specialists who can reduce the command pips available to enemy Big Men by jamming their comms.

So when you do advance, you’re facing a known but leaderless enemy?

Yes. Hopefully. Unless they have the same idea!

The last time I played Q13, I had great fun with aircraft.

I remember: and another real point of difference is the third dimension. Airpower in IABSM or CDS can be very significant, especially in CDS, but is still an occasional factor. In Q13, however, there tend to be a multitude of flying units on either side, be they infantry with wings or jetpacks, or some kind of flight-capable vehicle. Therefore, the second thing most people familiar with the game think about when constructing their armies is anti-aircraft protection of some kind.

Seriously: turning up for a game of Q13 without aerial assets and something to knock enemy flyers down with is a recipe for disaster. Your troops need to have one eye looking upwards all the time.

But what if the range of figures your army is based on doesn’t have any aerial or AA units?

Then you have to improvise. I find that some of the new starship ranges, such as those from Spartan Games, provide excellent 15mm fighters and bombers. In fact, the two flying units you were using last time were actually made up of models from their Firestorm Armada game: frigates and heavy cruisers translating to one-man fighters and two-man bombers respectively.

Putting together your army is all part of the fun. My space frogs started off with infantry and grav bikes from Zombie Smith’s Aphid range; then added armoured infantry from Battlestations; elite scouts from Team Frog; hover tanks from Blue Moon Manufacturing; and the flying stuff from Spartan Games. All woven together into a logical and justifiable OB with no cheese…hence the reason they got stuffed last time they were on the tabletop!

I remember that too: I was playing them! Anyway, to sum up: the key differences in flavour to IABSM and CDS stem from increased lethality of weaponry, technology in all sorts of forms, and aerial assets?

Yes…and the fact that you, yourself, build up your force so it’s just how you want it. Provided you can find the figures that is.

But a bit more on technology. Every army has a Tech Level, defined from zero to four. Zero is about equal to the late twentieth century i.e. about now. Level four is equal to, say Star Trek. Almost every dice roll you make that involves doing something to your opponent is adjusted by the difference in your Tech Level. So if my Tech 4 troopers fire at your Tech 0 National Guard in an aliens-invade-Earth game, then I’m effectively adding four to my roll every time.

For a 3D6 squad, that’s taking the average roll from 11.5 to 15.5: nasty! Oh, and reducing your effectiveness from an average of 11.5 to 7.5. Add in my powered armour and shields (meaning that you still die on a 5 or 6, but I only die on a 6 and get a saving roll and possibly have ‘lives’ as well) and things are looking bad for you Earthling scum!

But I thought you said it wasn’t about a few super-armoured men killing loads of, er, aliens?

Good point! But that is a particularly extreme scenario. What I should have said that the game isn’t usually about a few powered armour troopers slaughtering everything they can see…but it can be if you want it to be. Also, it’s worth pointing out that of my eight sci-fi armies, none are Tech 4, and only three have Tech 3 elements in them. And a couple of turns of HMG fire would soon whittle down my armoured infantry if I just marched straight up the battlefield. I said they would die more slowly, not that they wouldn’t die at all!

Right then, before we finish is there anything else you’d like to say about Q13?

To sum up, I’d say that Q13 is an attempt to translate the core Lardy principle of playing the period not the rules to a period that is defined really by your own imagination. The rules provide a hard ‘realistic’ framework for you to construct your own ‘historical’ background for your games, and contain the same sort of generic scenario-generation tools that Platoon Forward and the IABSM v3 rulebook do to allow you to easily play pick-up games with an opponent using a different ‘historical reality’.

I actually can’t wait to see how other people construct their armies and backgrounds, or how they use different figures to interpret the multitude of lists I’ll be posting. Q13 is the future: a future I can’t wait to experience!

As a real job, you’re in advertising, aren’t you?

No comment!

Well, Robert, thank you very much for sharing your thoughts on Q13 with us. I can see from the flashing lights and the weird gravitational effects that your ride has arrived. Until next time…What? No…not the probes again?

At this point, our interview was sadly cut short. Q13 will be published in pdf format only in the Summer of 2012. Live Lard and prosper.

Lover of Science Fiction gaming are in for a real treat with the latest arrival from TooFatLardies. Penned by Robert Avery Quadrant 13 are rules for company plus levell actions in a Science Fiction Universe using 6mm to 15mm figures. So, what are they all about?

As lovers of Science Fiction gaming will know, the boom in the last couple of years has been the explosion of superb ranges of 15mm and smaller Sci-Fi figures and vehicles from a whole swathe of new companies with great ideas. What has been missing, for us at least, has been a “generic” set of Science Fiction rules which can allow us to create our own worlds and cultures which we can then populate with these great new ranges.

But what do we mean by generic? Well, over the years we have seen lots of Sci-Fi rule sets which are tied to a specific backdrop created by the publishers. Often this has involved a large slice of background “fluff” which is really only relevant to that particular Universe. What we wanted to create was a set of hard Sci-Fi rules which were totally generic, allowing the gamer to develop his or her own setting using whatever races or technology levels they wanted. And Robert Avery was the man for the job!

Robert has worked with us to produce many scenario supplements in the past and has been a long-time Sci-Fi gamer with a leaning to the hard side of the genre. He wanted to put together a set of rules where the gamer was in charge and where the mechanisms were there to allow them complete freedom in their game design. Quadrant 13 is the result.

Borrowing the game engine used for Charlie Don’t Surf, our Vietnam rules, and I Ain’t Been Shot Mum, our WWII rules, Robert took Quadrant 13 and applied a whole new layer of technological detail and Sci-Fi feel. Now you can field forces of differing technologies with a whole raft of settings. ,Quadrant 13 is a stand-alone game: no other rulebooks or supplements are necessary to play. The rules contain a guide to creating your forces as well as a scenario generator and several army lists.

What is more there are plenty of other lists are available on the author’s own site: http://www.vislardica.com/

Quadrant 13 is available in printable PDF formt or as a navigable PDF designed for use on the iPad or similar tablets for just £9.50. If you’d like both the bundle for both editions is £12.50.