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Any jolly swagman camped by a billabong at CanCon in the Australian Capital Territory last weekend won't have failed to notice our Lard Ambassadors hoisting their banners and boarding Australia's biggest wargames event. We hear yesterday how the Sydney Ambassadors got on in their report, and today is the turn of the Berwick Wargames Association who traveled from just outside Melbourne in Victoria. Berwick Ambassador to Lard Peter Rossetti tells us all:
At Australia's largest games convention, Cancon, in January 2014, the Berwick Wargames Association launched its post-colonial African campaign. Ten players from across Eastern Australia had built 28mm forces and terrain in preparation for what is Australia's premier wargaming weekend.
After testing various popular rulesets, we chose the excellent TooFatLardies WWII platoon-level rules, Chain of Command, to fight the table battles. Chain of Command are designed for WWII, but with some simple additions, the rules were an great success. We also created a simple campaign system to link table games, and then just let the players take their characters and faction on a journey.
We set the games in the fictitious Democratic Republic of Zumbanda, a nation located somewhere in Central Africa. The DRZ is a failing state on the verge of civil war, with significant natural resources, unfriendly neighbors, powerful competing foreign interests, and a diverse and fractured population. The players over the three days of the convention took on the roles of such diverse groups as the current President, President Gerald N'Zogbia, and Government Forces of DRZ, Free Zumbanda, a popularly based reformist movement, the Brothers of Rhodrica, the remnants of Colonial rule, and Federated Independent African Socialist Christian Organization, FIASCO – under their charismatic "nutcase" Warlord.
Over the three days of CanCon, players lead their factions through various scenarios. Many players had never played Chain of Command, but the rules proved they are easily learnt, and the outcome of actions are usually determined by using real tactics.
- Shooting Terrs
- Crossing the Border
- Leaving on a Jet Plan
- Zumbanda Airport
- Rare Earth
- The Mine
- The Voice of Freedom and Democracy
- Radio Zumbanda
- You Must Pay
- VIP Rescue
- Loaves and Fishes
- Delivering aid to the refugee camp of Little Joy
- Going Downtown
- Fun in the capital, Joyville
- The Palace
- The culmination with a massive game, all players meeting on one large table and in one big game. Chain of Command proved themselves more than able to handle purely armored commands and multiple players.
So, how did it go? It was a resounding success, with a whole three days of fun and frantic scenarios, ending in a suitable crowd-drawer. We had a great response to Chain of Command. Many gamers were aware of the rules and wanted to see them in action and have a go. The fact that the traders had sold out of Chain of Command completely by the end of the weekend tells you all you need to know about how well the rules were received!
You can read all about the campaign in more detail on our website.
You'll find all the rule adaptions and scenarios in the files section there!
Our thanks to Peter and the gang from Berwick for all of their hard work. Sounds like a fun day was had by all. In our increasingly global hobby, we have Lard Ambassadors planning games all over the globe, so watch out for the Lard banner being hoisted at a show near you!
For some reason, I want to talk like a pirate. Aaahhaaaaa!