SALUTE 2012 - Spanish Armada heading to London

Some of you may think this is premature, but I wanted to share with you our project to attend the Salute 2012. The idea came up in the group within my local club that gathers regularly to play TooFatLardies games and the response has been enthusiastic so far, with nine members already signed-up. In fact the initial plan has become more ambitious, and the latest version is to fly Friday early in the morning, hire a car and straight to Bovington Tank Museum; Saturday morning will be invested in Salute and in the afternoon we will visitthe National Army Museum; on Sunday it will be the time to visit the Imperial War Museum and then back to Madrid.

Action at Bois-en-Hache

Probably spurred by all the noise around Armistice Day yesterday, we played last night a WWI game with the TooFatLardies battalion level rules If the Lord Spares Us. Although these were initially designed to play Middle East actions, a Western Front adaptation was published in the Summer 2011 Special called "Storm of Dice".

This has been my first experience with this set of rules. Released in 2005, they maintain a good quality level but I have to admitt that look a little bit outdated compared to the most recent products of th TFL factory like the WW II period I Ain't Been Shot Mum or the Vietnam era Charlie Don't Surf. Having said that, they make a very good and relatively short game, for example in a late Friday afternoon.

At the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month... 93 years ago

Spain was a neutral country in WWI and for that reason there's almost no emotional attachment to this period of history in my country. And probably for that reason too, it is only very lightly covered in the Spanish school's official programs. The knowledge among the general public is low at best.

After 30 years wargaming and tasting almost all possible gaming periods, I never felt particularly attracted to play WWI... until 3 years ago when in my local club I got hooked by one of the best scenery displays put on a table by two of my club members, who were playing WWI in Africa.

Vietnam First Blood

At last! After several months of delay, we gathered in our local club to play a first test game of the TooFatLardies Vietnam rules Charly Don't Surf. And what a fantastic game it was! As a test field, we chose the first scbeario of the companion book Surf's Up, in which a US infantry company must take and control a farm village, to deprive the Charlies from its daily rice supply.... but of course, the village is infested of Cong enemies.

Stalingrad Part V: The Workers Militia Courage

 

After missing the foruth game of our campaign, I could attend the fifth game, played on a Friday evening two weeks ago,  although I was totally exhausted after a full working week (and not just me, but the rest of the gang too). To remind readers and blog followers, we prepared this year a campaign around the last German effort to conquer Stalingrad in October 1942. Although it was supposed to be played through the summer, the fact is that it has extended well beyond our estimates and it's now clearly heading into winter...or as one member of the TooFatLardies Yahoo Group told me a few days ago "funny how history repeats itself"... and I cannot agree more!

Wargames rules and the new technologies

Sorry for the lack of activity lately. Work, trips and family are sometimes a lethal combination to maintain the blog alive. I have a good pipeline of posts pending including a very impressive Zulu War AAR, a new game of our Stalingrad campaign and our first blood experience with the Vietnam era rules Charlie Don't Surf. I hopefully progress with this over the next days

But the great news are that the very much anticipated new version of I Ain't Been Shot Mum is out for sale since Monday this week. I have the opportunity to read them quietly on Monday, as I had a long-haul trip to the States, and I can only say the Señor Clarke has excelled himself this time. The lay-out is superb and the new game mechanisms included (some of them widely tested in previous rules sets like Charlie Don't Surf, TWT or Sharp Practice) do really look good. This is not a simple revamp of the previous version written 10 years ago, but a complete new set of rules.

The other great piece of news is that Señores Clarke and Skinner (IABSM co-writers) had decided to embrace the new technologies and  have launched the first (at least to my knowledge) Ipad-based wargame rules version. I was not sure what to expect from this, but our Italian(-American?) Lardie friend Victor Cina (also one of my favourite bloggers) came to the rescue, posting this interesting video in Youtube today.

Are we reaching a new an inflection point in the wargames rule world? And is TFLsetting a trend here: a high-quality, affordable, and friendly-user product? Only time will tell, but in the meantime I advise you to both watch Victor's video and give a try to IABSM: perfect wargames happines is only 12 British pounds away in Ipad or pdf... can't find a better price/risk product combination around. 

Chuikov at Stalingrad: heroe or villain?

As some of you may know, since July I'm  playing an spectacular IIWW Stalingrad skirmish campaign with a group of club mates. A key source of personal information for the battle has been  Beevor's well-known and popular Stalingrad book which recreates the Soviet commanders as almost sadistic, forcing troops to make frontal attacks at the German machine guns, sometimes with their bare hands, as not enough rifles were available all the time... and "backed" by detachments of the NKVD who shot in the spot those who refuse to committ these suicidal attack.