Clotted Lard 2025.

Last weekend the club gathered in Lympstone Village Hall to celebrate Clotted Lard 2025, the eighth Lardy show since we started back in 2018, and another opportunity for DWG club members to enjoy the company of other enthusiasts for the Lardy stable of games, many of who have been coming since the first show and have become firm friends of the club with our regular annual gathering.

As well as enjoying the multiple games on offer and the opportunity to play two of them over the day, with games ranging from Sharp Practice, I Aint Been Shot Mum (IABSM), What a Tanker, What a Cowboy, Midgard, Coastal Patrol, Chain of Command II and Infamy, the gathering would see the club raising monies for our local charity, Devon Air Ambulance, as well as enjoying our usual Devon Cream Tea to keep everyone going in the afternoon.

This year I decided to take a break from hosting a game during the day to opting to play in two of those on offer, thus this show report will differ from those of previous years in that I intend to present it from the perspective of a player, focussed very much on the games enjoyed rather than an overview of the show as a whole.

My game choices would see me in the morning session of play enjoying reappraising myself with the delights of IABSM, a set of rules I played to destruction when they first appeared way back in 2002, and so different from the then typical IGO-UGO playing systems that gave player commanders a control omniscience that real life commanders could only dream of; instead IABSM introduced tabletop wargamers to the principles of 'Clausewitzian friction' and the frustrations of potentially not being able to do things when or indeed how one would like to, a principle that has become in one way or another a feature of many of the games we like to play today.

With their card generated play sequence and the possibility of units not being able to activate in any given turn, or units not quite doing exactly what their player commanders intended, these rules revolutionised the concepts around initiative-driven-activation ways of playing our games and creating some of the command issues (friction) faced by real-life commanders, having to deal with issues beyond their control, and still carry on fighting their battle to achieve a given outcome.

So once we had finished setting the rooms up and helping game organisers arrange their table spaces, I joined friends Phil and Jenny Turner for the morning game as our group of players settled in to recreate some of the drama experienced around the Oosterbeek area of Arnhem in September 1944.

The battle around Arnhem as the British battalions, including the Border Regiment, break off their engagements and withdraw into the Oosterbeek perimeter, 19th–21st September.

During the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944, elements of the 1st Battalion, The Border Regiment, a part of the 1st Airborne Division, successfully destroyed a German PzKpfw B2 (f) Flammpanzer, which was a captured French Char B1-bis tank converted into a flamethrower tank by Panzer-Kompanie 224, using a 6-pounder anti-tank gun. The action took place on September 20th, 1944, near the Oude Herbergh in Oosterbeek, as German forces advanced on the area defended by the British paratroopers.

A Flammpanzer B2(f) which was commanded by Leutnant Siegfried Giesa and belonged to Panzer Kompanie 224. This tank took part in Operation Market garden and was involved in the fighting in Oosterbeek, Holland. On the 20th September 1944, Giesa’s vehicle was on the move but as it stopped in front of the De Koude Herber restaurant, at the intersection of Sonnenberglaan-Utrechtseweg, it was engaged by Captain Peter Chard from C Troop, №2 Battery, 1st Airlanding Light Regiment, 1st Airborne Division. He fired a PIAT at the tank some 20 meters away though the weapon misfired. Armed with grenades, the captain attempted to run around the enemy vehicle and drop a grenade inside. Unfortunately he wasn’t quick enough as the Flammpanzer reacted the quickest and using its hull-mounted flamethrower, spewed fire onto Chard who ran back to his comrades. Enveloped in flames, he screamed at his men to shoot him and end his misery. As Chard did this, he was grabbed by his colleagues who rolled him around in the sand and were able to put out the fire. The burns the 24-year old officer received were so severe that he died on 9 October 1944 in a hospital in Apeldoorn. While this was happening, a 6-pdr AT gun named “Gallipoli II” from №26 Anti-Tank Platoon, S Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Border Regiment, 1st Airborne Division, which was located at the corner of the Van Lennepweg and the Utrechtseweg, took aim and positioned Leutnant Giesa’s Flammpanzer in its sights. As the tank approached the Oude Herbergh, the crew of the British gun, commanded by Corporal B. Lever and manned by Private Joe Cunnington, Private G. “Taffy” Barr and Lance Corporal Wilf Pridmore opened fire and struck the German tank in the bow, knocking it out. The enemy crew bailed out and ran away, covered by German small arms suppressing fire. Leutnant Giesa was slightly wounded but went on to survive the war.

Phil and Jenny had recently visited the battlefield where our action took place and used that experience to inform their delightful table married of course with their usual attention to matching it up with an equally glorious collection of model figures and vehicles.

We quickly sorted out sides and I joined fellow clubmate Jack to command the German forces as we quickly decided to focus our efforts to take the ornate art-deco restaurant that was shelled to smithereens by the Germans in the actual battle, being that it occupied a vital position overlooking the Driel Ferry on the Lower Rhine (see the map above, showing the location of Driel) and a potential crossing point for the Polish Airborne Brigade set to reinforce the bridgehead.

German infantry sections spread out as they move towards the towered restaurant building, with tank support on the road to their right. 

Our force, Kampfgruppe Von Tettau, was the usual hotch-potch mix of former Luftwaffe groundcrew now recently recruited to a ground force role in support of our intimidating force of Char B Flampanzers, clanking towards a series of blind markers set up around the restaurant and in among the light woods that surround the area.

I hadn't played IABSM for several years now, but the sequence of play quickly became familiar again, and the need to practice the 'one foot on the ground, one foot off' method of advancing infantry towards an unspotted enemy, so trumpeted by the likes of General Montgomery, by constantly placing forward sections on overwatch as advancing rearward sections attempted to close on suspected enemy positions.

The use of blinds is a very effective way of simulating jump off points for deployed troops and adds other choices to the players on the attack as they balance the need to move forward with the need to stop and provide covering fire, should the enemy reveal themselves, as well as using activations to attempt to spot undisclosed blinds a force the enemy to be revealed prematurely.

Inevitably the time comes when the defenders feel impelled to reveal their positions and open fire, and thus the first rounds of 6-pdr AT fire slammed into the leading Char B, disabling the tank but not sufficiently to force its crew to bail or to impede its ability to fire.

The Char B responded with a devastating burst of flame that destroyed the 6pdr and its crew but then itself falling prey to a nearby PIAT team as the Borderer infantry revealed themselves, and then to shoot up the first German infantry teams passing through the British smokescreen in the wake of the tanks and closing with the hedgerow in front of the Parachute troops.

Our attack plan was simple in that the tanks were the spearhead to help shoot the following infantry onto the target, namely the restaurant area, and with all the tanks arriving together in front of the enemy a multiplicity of targets ensured some of them would survive long enough to do the damage that was required of them; thus although they suffered from multiple rounds of PIAT fire as they closed the position to begin spraying flame, the damage inflicted on the dug in Paras was horrendous.

As the Paras battled with the Char B's more and more German infantry closed in on their positions forcing a desperate 'Whoa Mohammed', the battle cry of 1st Airborne troops, as the red berets surged out of their trenches to battle hand to hand with the leading sections of German infantry.

Hand to hand combat is always a bloody affair and this fight was equally so with both sides suffering heavy casualties, but with numbers favouring the German troops, the victory went to Kampfgruppe Von Tettau and the airborne troops were forced to fall back shaken, only to be hit by another charge to combat that drove the surviving airborne troops to take shelter in the building.

As our game drew to a close, Phil declared a draw, with the surviving Paras occupying the building ready to sell themselves dearly, but with a sizable group of German infantry in close proximity ready to attempt the final assault that had been enabled by the three wrecked Char B's that sat smouldering on the nearby approach road.

Thank you to Phil and Jenny for putting on a very entertaining scenario and to Chas, Jeff and Jack for providing the fun of playing it.

So with a quick break for lunch, the afternoon session soon beckoned with a scone, clotted cream and jam to look forward to a bit later and also the next game which was a complete change of theme and indeed century as I looked forward to a bit of Sharp Practice action in the Peninsular War, with fellow DWG clubmate Bob.

I'd had the pleasure of play testing Bob's scenario at our last club meeting and having played the Allied Anglo-Spanish force, I opted to have a go with the French this time, being careful not to give anything away to my fellow French commanders as to what might happen, so as to keep the game fresh for my fellow players; and with myself taking command of the French hussars and voltigeurs found myself at the head of the French column tasked with marching out of the town to the opposite board edge whilst escorting our waggon load of ill-gotten booty.

The congestion of French troops trying to extricate themselves from the tight streets of the Spanish hamlet replicated the play test game and the situation presented soon caused enough suspicion among my fellow French commanders, that troops were soon positioned facing outwards from the route of march in anticipation of any potential ambush along the way.

As the French infantry guarded the route of march, the light troops and cavalry assumed the role of advance guard as the more open country beyond the shallow creek beckoned an increased opportunity to manoeuvre, should a fight develop further along the road.

Of course as I suspected we didn't have to wait long for the British and Spanish opposition to make their presence known, as the Spanish guerrillas in the town, supported by light cavalry with lances took the opportunity to add a bit more chaos and confusion amid the streets of the town, this while British infantry started to emerge from the olive groves and small buildings in the open country beyond the town. 

The French seemed to give a better account of themselves in the town fighting than before, but the poor old French hussars got a right seeing-too from combined British musketry and rifle fire, as they vainly attempted to manoeuvre their line into a position to charge.

The French dragoons witnessing the remnants of the hussars ride back past their position, tucked into dead ground behind a large hill, wisely decided on discretion over valour and stayed put, leaving the battle on the other side of the hill to the voltigeurs and line infantry pushing out of the town and over the bridge.

British firing superiority was taking a heavy toll on the French as they attempted to dispute the open ground, but the threat to the French rear and the booty wagon seemed to be being contained, but the French progress was slow because of the fight in the town and the unequal struggle over the river was made worse by the fact that the small number of French units fighting the British were in desperate need of reinforcements that were otherwise engaged.

The situation remained somewhat deadlocked as we called the game to a close, with a strong force of French holding the town, but with a formidable British roadblock growing in strength beyond it.

Thank you to Si, Chris, Alistair, Ian and Bill for their company and the fun of the game and to Bob for letting us play with his marvellous collection of toys.

Our team of players and game organisers for Clotted Lard 2025

As always much fun was had by all, with a great choice of Lardy games, lovely tables and figure collections, good company and an enjoyable day doing what wargamers do best, all this whilst raising money for a very important local charity, the Devon Air Ambulance who help lots of local folks and perhaps even more, the thousands that visit the county every summer on holiday to the region.

Thank you to the DWG Clotted Lard organiser in chief, Colin, running this his second Clotted Lard event, to Jack for providing the cream teas from his bakery, and to fellow DWG club mates who helped set up and prepare things for our guests, and to the Lympstone Village Hall committee who have supported this event for the last three years and enabled our use of their magnificent facilities.

Here's to Clotted Lard 2026

JJ