New Prize Draw

As the winner of the "In the Name of Roma" prize of my 200k Visits Awards has failed to contact me after a week, I have rerolled again among the remaining contenders and the new winner is...

Whisperin 'Al

Congratulations, sir! And please contact me ASAP to send you the copy of the scenario book

Deutsche Afrika Korps List for Chain of Command

On the heels of the British Army list, TooFatLardies has just released the German Afrika Korps list, also for the initial phase of the North African campaign (1941). Information and lists available at the official blog Lard Island.

Note that the base force in the infantry platoon in the Panzer Divisions, comprising three squads with 2 LMGs each, so a tough nut to crack on the table. Also note that according to General Toppe, motorbikes as well as Pz I & IIs were largely replaced by Kubels and the Mark III model respectively after the summer of 1941. On another note, the famous tropical helmet saw little life, quickly discarded by the troops and replaced by the cap (or the steel helmet in combat). 

The TFL Yahoo Group will concentrate this week in discussing the lists for the Barbarossa campaign, so expect some new list releases as early as next week.

Summarising, in addition to the lists published in the Chain of Command book and CoC España materials, we have now the following armies available from TooFatLardies:

• Poland 1939  http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1778
• Germany 1939  http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1791
• Red Army 1939-1940  http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1801
• Finland for the Winter War http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1813
• France 1940 http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1823
• Germany 1940 http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1832
• BEF 1940 http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1840
• Belgium 1940 http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1890
• Italy 1940-1941  http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=2025
• British Early North Africa (1941)  http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=2524

Early War British 8th Army for Chain of Command

After a long spell, Toofatlardies has just released a new army list for Chain of Command, time now for the Early War British Army in the North African desert. Information and lists available at the official blog Lard Island.

Following a discussion this past week in the TFL Yahoo Group we expect the DAK lists to follow very-very soon. Perfect timing also for the launch of our Afrika CoC Project (slightly delayed due to personal issues with some of the project participants).

And the Winners Are...

Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you were awaiting... and the winners of the Anibal Invictus's 2o0k Visits awards are...

From flooding Britain, Fran a.k.a. The Angry Lurker winner of the At The Sharp End

From the far Scandinavian lands, Joakim a.k.a. The Minatures Man winner of a copy of Charlie Don't Surf

From the Low Countries, Mike and his Ministories winner of a scenario bundle (let me know which one you'd like to receive)

And last but not least, a copy of the In the Name of Roma goes to Dave Bailey

Congratulations to the winners and many thanks to the rest of paticipant for taking your time to put a comment in the blog.

Will the winners please contact me at gce.mail33@gmail.com to provide an email address where you want to receive a copy of your selected books from TooFatLardies and from Chris Stoessen?

Chain of Command: A Diary # 6

This is the sixth (and unexpected) entry of my Chain of Command Diary series, after several months of happy play with what are now my top wargaming rules.

Topic today: make it bigger... or how to handle four pairs of hands on the table

The launch of our Afrika CoC project brought some discussion among the participants of how to use CoC when at least six eager wargamers are involved. Considering that on average we expect there will be 4 or 5 active in a game, the implication was obvious: either we look another set of rules (no way!!) or we adapt the system to accommodate more tan the standard two players.

Someone in the TFL Yahoo Group brought my attention to page 102 of the rules manual, a section called “Bigging it up”, where Richard Clarke provides some guidelines to play larger games. Unfortunately these are general recommendations, and after playing a first test game, we concluded that we had to work in detail some of the key mechanisms.

On the other hand, a good discussion broke in the same forum and has ended up with a set of recommendations that I’d like to share in this post for the benefit of other players.

Review of At the Sharp End

TooFatLardies recently released the much anticipated campaigns supplement for Chain of Command called At the Sharp End. This is a 47-pages book (only available in electronic format) edited in the same style as the rules book divided in four main sections.

The Ladder Campaign, which  explains this innovative system to run campaigns in which both players fight and move along the typical structure of a battlefield, made of the no man’s land, advanced outposts, main line of defense and the final objective. Games are organized by fighting in this different areas, and winning or losing implies moving up and down the ladder as well as gaining or losing the initiative, providing endless possibilities to the players. 

A defender gaining initiative for example, is allowed to counterattack and eject the enemy from their recent gained ground; or to reinforce its defenses, making the attacker’s life more difficult in the following campaign phases

In the Field provides the detail of the campaign system, including the options available when the initiative shifts to the enemy (counterattacks, consolidation of defenses…) or handling casualties and replacements 

A Gift from the Far Nordic Lands

Nordic blogger and fellow Lardista The Miniatures Man,  celebrated its 50k visitors with a nice giveaway early in January, and I was rewarded with one of the prizes: a box of Caesar's WW II German Panzer Grenadiers. A very useful reinforcement for my late-war German Army collection from one of my favouritea manufacturarers in this scale. Now I only need to start painting...

Many thanks for this, Joakim. And incidentally, remember that my own blog celebration is still running, and you have the opportunity to win one of many TooFatLardies publications offered as prize.

Anibal Invictus' 200K Celebration Awards

After 4 years since I launched this blog, we have reached one of those milestones that are worth celebrating by giving back to you a token of my gratitude for your continuous support since 2010.

If you are a regular follower, you'll know that this blog is all about my hobby and Too Fat Lardies. Why? Not that I have any family or business ties with Mr Richard Clarke, but after being introduced to the WWI rules ("Through the Mud and theBlood") in the autumn of 2009, I entered into a complete new and increasingly exciting phase of my hobby life

Over this 5 years I have enjoyed more than ever playing with each new of the rules set released (Charlie Don't Surf, I Ain't Being Shot Mum and more recently Chain of Command), thanks to the ability to both bring new innovate game mechanisms and to simulate the historical battlefield conditions in an effective manner. 

My interest for history (military and general) has been an additional lever to improve my gaming experience. In fact, I cannot recommend playing TFL games without a good knowledge of the contemporary military tactics at the small level organisations (from company down) if you really want to extract maxium enjoyment. 


Launching this blog and sharing with anyone interested my games has also been part of this new wargaming experience. And now almost four years down the road, I have accumulated 2000,000 visits, 230 followers and the recent monthly visits toll moves consistently between 8,000-9,000 count.

Well, enough introduction and let's move now into the important issues. 
These are my rules of engagement to opt for one the prizes detailed below:

Chain of Command España: A One-Stop Source

NEW UPDATES: Army lists have been revised, typos amended and updated with feedback from players. I recommend downloading again all materials. Links provided in this post will take you to the right lists.

As mentioned a few days ago, TooFatlardies started the publication of materials to play the Spanish Civil War with Chain of Command (CoC España), an herculean task undertaken by fellow Lardites ("Lardistas"?) Jim Hale and Rolf Grain.

Over the Christmas period TooFatLardies official blog "Lard Island" has been releasing new lists covering in high level of detail the different actors of this conflict. In this  post I want to make the compilation of all the available materials, aiming to become a one-stop point to any person interested in the period. This post will be republished and updated with the release of new materials.

In addition to the lists, each specific entry in the Lard Island blog has a very interesting introduction that provides useful background information, that I strongly recommend to read in conjunction with the lists.