Three Leeks on our shirts...

Yaki dar boyos, Dai the Drag-on here.  Prince of Pontins-Prestatyn, Welsh isn't it, in a sequined frock gambeson!  

Had some visitors round our way we have.  Scots and the Frenchies it was.  Come for a lovely punch up see.

24 points of Lion Rampant.  The list was one unit of Mounted Sergeants (that's me see) three foot yeomen with javelins and two archers.

The battlefield was near my Uncle Emrys place at Llanfairpwllgwyngyll.  Staunch member of the LBGT resistance to the English Emrys, isn't it boyo?

Uncle Emrys place at Llanfairpwllgwyngyll

The army of the Drag-on gets on table.

Look you, its the Scotchmen isnt it!  

Oh and the Frenchies too.  Whatever Emrys has in those cow sheds they wants it boyo...

The Drag-on in trouble.  Those French are dressed in solid iron boyo.  Prince Dai dies...

The Scotch creeping around the hedgerows

The thing to do in Wales is to crawl through the woods apparently

And on those Frenchies come

Now the Welsh have heard of the Golden Spurs at Courtrai, and have adopted their tactics against these French...  Box yourself into a defensive position...

And they're off, its Guy in white leading from Guy in brown, and they take the jump...

But half of the French wander off to have a go at the Scotchmen...

And its the Scots who have a go at the Welsh position.  Not that successful...

So its bows, followed by javelins.  The Welsh have a good tactical position

French Guy leaps into the position, claiming that he is now the Wolf in the sheep fold.  These are Welshmen boyo!  Sheep is one thing they know all about!  The Frenchman is killed...

The Scotchmen have a mad moment and charge over the bridge.  Its it just me or ...

Its a scrap as the Scots throw back their hated enemy, the French crossbowmen

Meanwhile the Gui the Wolf is unceremoniously thrown out of the Welsh sheep fold, before being stabbed up the buttocks by a javelin.

The Scotch commander is over bold and rolls snake eyes...  

But the Scots charge has ripped the heart out of the French advance

Game over.  The Welsh cling on, as do the Scots but there is no denying the Victory of the French.

The memorial to Dai the Drag-on Prince of Pontins-Prestatyn, cross dresser and gay pride of the valleys, can be found near Emrys house, Llanfairpwllgwyngyll.

The Fat Tanker, War Comics Issue 1

The Fat Tanker, War Comic Issue 1#

What ho chaps!
2nd Lt Bumfluff Farthingdale, 2RTR here...  I`ve been a rear echelon type for the first few months of this war.  Off making up the garrison of Cyprus if you please.  Very nice it was too, but the  war has caught up with me and I`m posted up the Blue!

I arrived in time for Tobruk.  The regiment was sporting a few different types of tanks, but they all seemed to have one thing in common for a fellow of my girth... a narrow hatchway! 

Now I`ve taken a bit of ribbing for the few extra pounds a chap carries, but it seems to me that I`ve found a way forward.  The gunner has been trained to haul on my legs until I squeeze through into the turret.  The key to modern warfare is to conduct it all from a nice comfy seat in a tank turret, none of that marching around inflicted on the Infantry. 

Here then is the tale of my first battle up the Blue, a battle which I survived more or less intact
  

The Battle for Tobruk...

A view of Tobruk

Ceasare Pavarotti charges towards the Triumphal Arch

The Axis plan, to split around the town and attack on the flanks

The Allied plan looked something similar

The Italians pick on a straggler.

A lot of sneaking about and around the buildings

Some fast tanks running around in this game

Ceasare still dueling around that archway

The Allies just have more numbers and swamp the left flank

A kill for the Allies

Round and round.  For a novice Pavarotti holds his own... Well he had read the rules, which is a bonus

Phase two of the battle begins. 

 

Bumfluff squeezes into his turret

Bumfluff advances, the engine straining to carry the weight

The Allied plan, to get among the outer edge of the buildings before being swamped.

Finally Bumfluff gets that tank into cover.  Is the engine burning oil do we think?

The Allies make it into town, but the Axis have some fast moving tanks.

More of that ring around going on...

The Vultures begin to circle

But the main duel of the game is a ding dong gun to gun fight at a range of one inch!

Slowly the duel separates as they blow each other backwards

And in the town centre more of that circling...  pretty much until game over...

The standings - Allied

The standings - Axis

What a Dashboard

Now the smoke of our VBCW has cleared, we have been enjoying playing the latest offering from the TooFatLardies; namely 'What a Tanker'.

This is meant to be, and I quote,  'A Challenging and Fun Game of WWII Tank Combat'. I'm happy to report that this is definitely the case and we have been having tremendous fun with the rules so far. Up until now we have been playing games set in Normandy, using my 1/50th scale Corgi diecasts but we are soon due to begin  a campaign set in the Western Desert. The latter will be in 20 mm scale and there has been something of a frenzy to purchase more tanks than we will ever need. In addition several players have purchased commercially produced MDF dashboards for the game. These are entirely unnecessary but what gamer can resist a nice gadget?

The game requires little bookkeeping beyond recording whether your tank is aimed,loaded, buttoned up etc. TFL produce some nice acrylic tokens that can be used in conjunction with the dashboards that can be downloaded from the TFL site. 

Downloaded Dashboard with TFL produced tokens 

Now the commercial versions are very nice but they are simply MDF versions of the above. They do have the advantage that they prevent you knocking or otherwise displacing your counters, and I must confess that I almost bought one myself, but on reflection I wanted something with a bit more character. No doubt I was subconsciously influenced by Young Mr Farthingdale's  submarine control panels from his Christmas Dardanelles game.......... Oh OK so I nicked the idea!
Looking at the original design I decided several aspects of the dashboard were unnecessary; as we would only be fielding one tank each the tank name is superfluous. Also my observation, over several games, was that the command dice area was never used; gamers being happy to leave the dice on the table. So really the required information boils down to that recorded by the 4 tokens plus any damage received.
My first thought was to have a small commander's hatch that could be opened and closed to denote buttoned / unbuttoned status. This did make it through to the final design but was now part of the complete top deck of a tank, including turret.

The foot print of the whole contraption is the same as the commercial MDF versions, although this one has a bit more height!
The 4 tokens denoting buttoned, acquired, aimed and loaded are now replaced by small hatches, on the front of the tank, that can be opened or closed as required.The turret and rear deck record critical damage; each rung of the damage ladder corresponding to a removable panel. Temporary loss of command dice is recorded by placing the dice in the stowage bins.

The dashboard in action

The above dashboard shows that the tank has acquired a target, is aimed and loaded but is unbuttoned (hatch open). It also has 2 levels of turret damage and 3 levels of hull damage, in addition to the temporary loss of 3 command dice. (Not that this is for illustration purposes only - it is not actually possible to take that much damage in the game.) On the plus side this tank has made one kill; denoted by the kill ring (metal washer) around the aerial.
So now that I have my dashboard and a couple of starter tanks I'm rearing to go with our campaign. So to finish off here is a snap of my level one tanks: Lt. Winston Strangely-Brown in his A13 and his arch nemesis Erwin Rimmer in his Panzer II.

The Battle of Durham 1938

Although, in some senses, this was the grand finale of the first season of our VBCW campaign, it does in fact stand apart as separate game in itself. The game was actually designed as a participation game in the club's annual celebration of all things TFL related - 'WorLard'.
As a consequence, the forces used were slightly modified from those used in the campaign so far. In essence all troops were rated Green and we removed as many automatic weapons and other items of a more 'military' nature as we could. Rifles, pistols and shotguns are the order of the day here.

The Market Place

Paradise Gardens

Paradise Lane

The table layout represents our best guess at how the city centre looked in 1938. The marketplace itself is little changed but the adjacent area of Paradise Lane and Paradise Gardens no longer exists, having been replaced by the Bishopgate shopping centre plus the A690 road junction and slip road.





In our fictitious alternative history, the local area is dominated by Communist inspired mining communities but the city itself is the scene of a power struggle between rival Albertine and Fascist factions. The University has raised a force in support of Prince Albert (the future King George VI) and is supported by local landowner Lord Farthingdale.








The Mosely government backed forces are represented by a force based upon HM Prison Durham supported by local BUF supporters. The Mayor, Teflon Blair, has so far succeeded in playing these factions off against each other.
The overall aim of the Fascist force is to carry out a rally in Durham marketplace; local shop owner Eddie Tattsyrup believes that he can persuade some of his fellow shopkeepers to join the Fascist cause. Eddie espouses traditional values of IGUGO and 6 inch moves for all, believing that this will sway the locals.
However, it is rumoured that the renowned anarchist ‘Big Rich the Rabble Rouser’ is hiding in the area of the Paradise gardens. Big Rich could be used by the Albertines to disrupt the rally with his talk of Free kriegsspiel and friction.
The fascists have also received intelligence that Mayor Teflon Blair is behind a secret leafleting campaign to undermine the Mosely government. They have been informed that the latest batch of leaflets is held in a strong box on the top floor of Proctors the Printers. They intend to seize these as proof of the Mayor’s duplicity. They also plan to use the rally as cover for a plot to snatch the Mayor himself.

The Rally Begins

 For their part, the Albertines also plan to seize the mayor and use Big Rich to disrupt the rally. Furthermore, in their efforts to eradicate the blight of fascism from the city they plan to firebomb the BUF office currently situated above Hepworth’s Menswear in the marketplace.
Although the University troops currently control access to Elvet Bridge and the route to the prison, the HMP Auxiliaries are still able to infiltrate the city via Baths Bridge. The Albertines also plan to close down access to this route by seizing the HMP Deployment Point in Paradise Gardens.

Major May in Tilly

The BUF opened the proceedings with Eddie Tattsyrup attracting half a dozen shopkeepers to the rally. Using this as diversion, Major May and a section of BUF made a dash for the Town Hall in a ‘Tilly’, narrowly missing Ma Whitmore as they sped by. Once there, they stormed into the Town Hall where they were lucky enough to find the Mayor in his chambers.

The Dons Disrupt the Rally

Whilst the fascist efforts were focussed on the Town Hall, a part of Dons in full academic dress had muscled in on the rally and were threatening Eddie and the Shopkeepers.

The Sacriston Hunt Joins in

In this the Dons were supported by the Estate Militia, led by Lady Penelope in her Pink Rolls Royce armoured car. At the wheel, Parker the chauffeur sped towards the Town Hall closely followed by the Sacriston Hunt, fully mounted and brandishing shotguns. Much to the surprise and consternation of ‘Unlucky Alf’ the toilet attendant.

Big Rich Apprehended

Whilst tension mounted in the market place, the Cathedral Bedesmen had been meticulously searching the town backsides. Here their patience paid off as they discovered Big Rich in his lair, despite the HMP Auxiliaries also combing the area with dog teams.

Lady Penelope Opens up

Meanwhile, the BUF had been quietly infiltrating the market place. One section had slipped into the Angel Inn where they spent the rest of the day drinking whilst another became inexplicably lost in the lingerie department of Doggarts. When a third section entered the marketplace, this was too much for Lady Penelope who opened up with the armoured car’s machine gun. Although no one was killed, this precipitated a general outbreak of hostilities. The huntsman tied their horses to the railings of the Gent’s lavatories and charged towards the Town Hall, where they discovered that the BUF had barricaded themselves in. However, the driver was dragged from the Tilly and taken prisoner. During the ensuing chaos, Eddie Tattsyrup inexplicably ‘fell’ down the stairs to the Gents, before the Dons ran for cover.

Moments Before the Explosion

Earlier in the day, Dr Pea’s Stinks and Bangs team, supported by the University Police, had slipped unnoticed into Hepworth’s menswear. Here they deftly avoided the attentions of Mr Humphreys who apparently was actually free. Making for the stairs they headed towards the BUF office. Outside a firefight had developed with a BUF section, ensconced in St Nicholas’ Church taking pot shots at the Chester Moor football team who had taken cover behind the brewery wagon. The Huntsmen, caught in the cross fire made a dash down the side of the church into Walkergate. Here they ran into a previously unseen section of BUF and a general melee ensued. With all seven Huntsmen armed with shotguns, the outcome was never in doubt. The BUF were wiped out to a man but predictably the Huntmaster Fitch-ffoukes bit the dust.
At this point, when the BUF morale was teetering, there was the sound of a huge explosion from the direction of Hepworths and smoke billowed from the windows of the BUF office. As the day came to a close, the BUF had retired leaving only a small section besieged in the Town Hall where they held the Mayor hostage.

                                                               

The Rabble Rouser himself. Rich Clarke of TooFatLardies at WorLard 2018.