Clotted Lard 2021 - We're Back!

After all the disappointment of not being able to stage Clotted Lard in 2020, it was great to be back up and running this weekend for Clotted Lard 2021.

We had an excellent turn out of club members and fellow Lard enthusiasts from around the country for our celebration of all things Lard and a display of ten games using the rule sets Sharp Practice, Chain of Command, I Aint Been Shot Mum, Bag the Hun, Dux Britanniarum and Kiss Me Hardy, with conflict on sea, air and land, ranging across the ages from Homeric Greece, to post WWII.

With the venue arranged on Friday night and early Saturday morning everything was ready to welcome our guests and club members, and the day's games were quickly up and running from 09.30 with a break for lunch at 12.30 before an afternoon of another round of games, prior to the usual gathering for pre-dinner drinks, banter and a well earned curry.

Clotted Lard 2021

As with previous shows, I spent part of the day circulating with the camera to capture the different games on show together with a little video clip to try and show what the atmosphere is like in the rooms when everyone is happily playing, before I had to get ready to run my own game of Kiss me Hardy in the afternoon session.

 

Happy wargamers celebrating our hobby in support of charity, doing what we enjoy most, chatting and wargaming with great rules.

So in no particular order I present the games from Clotted Lard 2021, and would like to thank everyone involved in this year's Clotted Lard for helping to get the show back on the road.

'Badges? We don't need no Stinking Badges' Sharp Practice II, Filibusters in 1850's Mexico (28mm) - Colin Murray

Colin has a strong track record of turning out really interesting themes for his games, together with really lovely terrain and figures that capture the look of the era he is representing whether it is his 16th century Eight Years War, Dutch-Spanish collection or his 19th century Afghan War collection and this years game was up there with his best, taking the players to 1850's Mexico, for his Sharp Practice 'Filibusters' game.

Heroic Daring Do during the Trojan Wars, 'Sacker of Cities' a variation of Dux Britanniarum (28mm) - Chas Carter

As with Colin, the club can always rely on Chas to come up with an interesting theme for his games as illustrated here with his Homeric collection of figures and terrain designed around a variation of Dux Britanniarum that allows for the intricacies of the age of heroic warfare with Hector, Paris, Ajax and Achilles gracing the table, issuing challenges and trying to avoid the odd ankle shot.

'Arrows & Tomahawks' Bag the Hun, RAF vs Regia Aeronautica, WWII Western Desert - Andy Crow

Bag the Hun is a popular set of air-warfare rules and, having a large collection of Battle of Britain British and German types in 1:300th scale and with our own local Exeter based Spitfire in the air this week doing barrel rolls over Exmouth on Battle of Britain day, it was great to see Andy Crow's nicely turned out Western Desert collection of fighters wheeling over a suitably dressed table, as the players tried to devise ways of getting on each others elusive 'six', and with the Italians flying 'Vics' against the latest RAF tactic of 'finger fours'.

'BATT Force' Chain of Command, SAS & Gendarmerie against the Adoo, Mirbat 1972 (28mm) - Jason Ralls & Nathan Goodyear

Jason and Nathan came up with a great theme for their Chain of Command game recreating the dramatic battle at Mirbat in 1972 during which nine SAS soldiers alongside fifty-five Balochi and local Gendarmerie fighters held off an attack by two to three-hundred Adoo guerrilla fighters, during which British-Fijian Sergeant Talalasi Labalaba was mentioned in dispatches for continuing to fire the single 25-pounder gun single-handed at one stage, after being seriously wounded and later shot dead in the neck, prompting calls for and a later campaign to see his bravery recognised posthumously with the Victoria Cross.

'The Leeward Line', Kiss Me Hardy, Collingwood's column at Trafalgar 1805 (1:700th) - JJ

My own efforts this year and last, during the enforced lockdown painting marathon, has focussed on all things age-of-sail naval, with a large collection of Napoleonic 1:700th ships from Warlord Games built to facilitate a future playing of Trafalgar and with a small part of the collection out on the table using Kiss me Hardy and the attack by the leading elements of Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood's leeward column at the battle.

It was great fun testing this scale of model for Kiss Me Hardy.

My set-up for our game, with Collingwood's HMS Royal Sovereign (16) leading the charge against the Combined Fleet squadron led by Spanish Admiral Alava in the Santisima Trinidad (17)

'Somewhere in the Ardennes' Chain of Command WWII Battle of the Bulge (28mm) - Jeff Davies & Geoff Bond

There is something really compelling and very attractive about a well turned out snowy landscape as a backdrop for a battle and Jeff Davies and Geoff Bond produced this really stunning example for their Chain of Command Bulge set-too with German infantry supported by a single Panzer IV having a hard time in the snow against well dug in American defenders and their M8 armoured car.

'Emergency' Chain of Command, Royal Marines vs Communist Terrorists, Malaya 1950 (28mm) Stephen Luscombe

I think one of the best things about Lardy games is that I am always amazed at the variety of themes their rule sets generate and it was really nice to see this rendition of Malaya 1951 by Stephen Luscombe as an example of that variety, again using Chain of Command, and showing that the idea of using dog handlers to sniff out ambushes and improvised explosive devices is nothing new.

I reckon Stephen will be happy if he never has to create another model palm/rubber tree group ever again!

'Fighting at Stonne', I Aint Been Shot Mum, France 1940 (15mm) - Phil Turner & Jenny Owens

Phil and Jenny have supported Clotted Lard right from the get-go and have graced the show with some lovely games in that time with Jenny's ability to create a glorious table around their chosen theme and this year it was around a favourite set of rules for me, I Aint Been Shot Mum, that I played to destruction a few years ago with my Normandy collection of 15mm figures but here recreating the famous battle for Stonne in the May of 1940.

The fighting in this table-top engagement focussed around the main street as French recon elements clashed with the German armoured spearhead before French armour and each sides infantry joined the fray amid the maze of houses, back yards and streets.

'Up among the Pandies' Sharp Practice II, Indian Mutiny (28mm) - Simon Walker

The Indian Mutiny is a popular theme for Sharp Practice and one we have had feature in our own club games, and seeing Simon Walker's rendition helps to explain why, with a glorious mix of uniformed regulars and native irregulars amid exotic Indian buildings and suitably attired British ladies and their servants attempting to get away amid the exchanges of musketry.

'A Matter of Some Urgency' Sharp Practice II, American War of Independence (28mm) - Jim Ibbotson

I am in the process of building my own AWI Mohawk Valley collection of 28mm figures for Sharp Practice and so it was a pleasure to see the modelling talent of  Jim Ibbotson and his own AWI rendition of the Queen's Rangers plus Indians taking on a collection of American militiamen on a lovely table that has given me plenty of ideas for my own games.

As always, everyone had a great day's wargaming and much fun was had by all.

Once again thanks to all involved and here's looking forward to next year.

JJ