Pocket Panzers

In the predawn light, shadowy figures move from tree to tree, cradling their firelocks against their bodies to keep them free of underbrush and vine. Some wear capotes and blue wool forage caps, others are stripped to the waist and adorned with fierce red and black war paint. Marius watches the men under his charge from the rear of the file, while the imposing blanket-draped Huron war chief at his shoulder has his eyes on the French officer. Balancing the hot tempers of the political dissidents that gathered in Parisian cafés kept Marius at his wit's end, but working with the crown's native allies had proved an even worse headache. "We go now." Hardheart growls in French, a language he knows only a little better than Marius knows Wendat. What the sachem lacks in vocabulary he makes up for in tone. The words are a statement of fact, not a question. The young exile nods agreement, adjusting his forage cap and checking the pan of his musket before the two leaders steal t...

Allow me to regale you with a tale of a game past. In particular, the story of my second game of the day for Virtual Lard 7, a long-distance tabletop event put on by the Too Fat Lardies community. I'll be the first to admit that this post is a bit... delayed. VL7 happened at the end of October, nearly four months ago. My post about my first game of the day was far more timely. However, as I said recently, last fall I hit a pretty bad creative slump that I'm only just new getting out of. This Sharp Practice 2 game is set during the American War of Independence — my first foray into the period after exploring the ruleset with our French and Indian War campaign last year (more on that soon). As always with my write-ups of virtual games, please keep in mind that the generous hosts have to juggle moving the forces of both sides and dealing with as many as four different players, all over internet connections that can sometimes be shady. They are very good about positioning webcams ...

Well, June's gone along so fast that now it's the middle of July. After the big move in May, work has picked up and the summer heat has arrived, making it difficult to get the motivation the paint and ensuring that my paints dry out almost instantly, even on my wet palette. That, combined with the recent distraction of getting back into Vietnam War collecting and reenacting, has made progress very slow. Gaming, however, has continued, and before long I'll start posting the narrative battle reports from our FIW campaign here. We're still in the thick of it, so I can't say too much. With that said, this week's completed project is this batch of rangers from Brigade Games, gifted to me by my opponent in the campaign and painted for his use. I've always liked the look and lore around the rangers, even if their exploits are probably greatly exaggerated. I believe this is three figures from the command pack and then one whole pack of rangers . Like the colonists ...

  Last Saturday was Virtual Lard 5 - the Too Fat Lardies community's answer to pandemic gaming restrictions. I played in VL4 back in January and was lucky enough to join a game of CoC hosted by Marc Renouf, who wrote a Pint-Sized Campaign set during Operation Crusader. The game was played through Zoom, so my ability to get photos was somewhat limited, and I have used some taken by Marc to supplement. We had multiple cameras set up and it was surprisingly natural to see the table, so major kudos to Marc for his stellar hosting. This scenario takes us to Libya on Sunday, 23 November, 1941, during Operation Crusader. The Germans of 15. Panzer-Division are fresh off the victory of sacking the British 4th Armored Brigade's headquarters the day before and are wheeling south to join up with Italian armored forces, smash the remaining British forces in the Sidi Rezegh area, and bring Operation Crusader to a grinding halt. On the morning of 23 November - a German protestant holiday call...