Irregular Wars Wargaming

The heroes went to Cattraeth in marshalled array, and with shout of war, With powerful steeds,   and dark brown harness, and with shields, With uplifted  javelins, and piercing lances, With glittering mail, and with swords. He excelled, and penetrated through the host, Five battalions fell before his blade; Rhuvawn Hir,  —he gave gold  to the altar, And gifts and precious stones  to the minstrel. Y Gododdin 33. It has taken a little bit longer than expected, but the next unit for my Romano-British army for Fantastic Battles is now complete. These are more 10mm Pendraken lovelies, mixing the armoured command with unarmoured cavalry packs. This small two-company unit (one of two such I've planned for the army) will be profiled as formed companies with the mounted, barrage and skirmishers traits to represent the swirling, dashing javelin-armed style warriors mentioned in Y Gododdin .  So far I only have 351 points worth of this army painted - three unit...

This week Andy T and I faced off in the dungeon depths for another playtest of the dungeon crawling element of Fantastic Scuffles . Andrew ran a team of adventurers with four characters (two warriors, a sage and a rogue) and four minions (two archers and two spearmen). I returned to the roll of dungeon keeper, filling my dungeon with hidden movement tokens filled with potential. Knowing me, of course that potential was always going to include kobolds - this time with goblins! With such a large adventuring party, Andy split his team into two groups. All four minions and one of his warriors - the polearm toting knight - went left, discovering the wing of the dungeon populated by kobolds. Having slaughtered a group of kobold spearmen, they continued into the next room, finding the first of their treasure chests, but also running into a group pf kobold slingers led by a mighty (in his head anyway) kobold warrior. Although all the kobolds were to fall, it was not without cost, leaving all t...

I've just finished up this little swarm of 28mm goblings from Old School Miniatures. They will be treated as minions with the swarm trait in Fantastic Scuffles . These smaller goblin cousins have great character and a 1980s-90s vibe that made the kickstarter difficult to dismiss. Some of the casting was a little rough, but mounted five to a base, they are kind of irresistible.  Lets hope the enemy finds it that way too!

At the end of August, Gio organised an amazing looking Blood, Sweat & Cheers tournament in Mexico. It looks like an amazing time, with eight competitors sending their gladiators into the ring to claim the adoration of the crowd and the much coveted title of ludus champion. Putting a crowd-pleasing twist on the game, Gio arranged for Lego mini-figs to represent all the gladiators! I would encourage you to pop over to Gio's blog and have a look (in Spanish and English). He's graciously allowed me to borrow a couple of his images, but I only wanted to show a taste here. So go on, go check it out! Congratulations to Gio for what looked like a brilliant event, and to all the players - not least the ludus champion, Isaac!