Excitement abounds in Lard Island Broadcasting House as the lights are lit, the cameras rolling and the make up artists working overtime as Lard TV launched with its first game play-through unveiled last week.  Ever since the birth of Lard Island News we have used videos and articles to support the ever growing range of rules we produce but now we can really build on that with our own TV station packed with Lardy goodness.
Lard Island News was there to cover the event and we were able to secure an exclusive interview with Rich and Nick before their red-carpet premier on Wednesday. We asked Nick about the very first programme.
“Lard TV gave us a great opportunity to open with a bang with a smashing Sharp Practice game set in the American War of Independence.  It was a scenario from the Swamp Fox supplement which gave a really entertaining game.  The most important thing about the game play-throughs is that it allows people to understand some of the rules by watching them being played.  Many people learn best by watching someone else do things and that precisely why we wanted to do such a play through, from start to finish.”
That is certainly true.  We really enjoyed the commentary overlay where you guys got things wrong or where clarification helped with a bit of additional explanation.
“That was really important to us.  The commentary seems to really have added to everyone’s enjoyment.  I thought it was interesting and at times quite funny”.
It certainly was.  But was this an example of what Lard TV will be bringing to us in the future.  We asked Richard.
“Yes.  But not just game play-throughs.  One of the things that people enjoy on Lard Island News is the build projects.  We want to have plenty of them on Lard TV as this really allows us to step up the quality of what we are doing.  We get a lot of people asking us how we get certain effects.  This gives us the chance to show with videos them rather than just tell them.  It’s not replacing Lard Island News, but enhancing it further.  Actually the next programme will be a build project.”
Some of the press releases before the launch hinted at battlefield tours.  Can you tell us more about that Nick?
“I can.  Wargaming Superstar and presenter of the Oddcast has gone away to work out some battlefield tour challenges which should see us under pressure to research a battle and put on a wargame to represent that action.  But we won’t just be looking in books, we will be heading off in the car and going to the battlefields to conduct our research.  I have no idea where we will end up, but Sid is keen to put us to the test as both historians and game designers and get us to show how we do our research and how we design scenarios.”
That sounds incredible.  Any idea where you’ll be off to, Rich?
“Not a clue.  Sid is playing his cards very close to his chest on this.  My guess is that Europe will feature largely and hopefully some British Isles stuff.  I’d love to do some Dark Age battlefields fo example.  I think it’s likely that these will be big “Special Event” road trips as they will be major projects, but each will probably run over several shows and they should make for great viewing.  Sort of Grand Tour/Top Gear meets wargaming.  Without the car crashes hopefully.”
You can watch the very first Lard TV broadcast here:  Lard TV AWI Game
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