Irregular Wars Wargaming

It has been a long December, but over the weekend I managed to finish off the first batch of scenery for Bronze Age skirmishing. Of course, it's pretty universal stuff, but the driving ambition if to pull together material suitable for the Aegean periphery c.1,250 BC. All the terrain pieces shown here are 3D printed models created by Deweycat and purchased from a printer/seller on Etsy.  I expect that this would be spectacular printed in resin. The set I bought has been printed in FDM and if you look at any of it in detail you can clearly see the horizons between layers. That said, all together it cost me £10 plus postage and painted by much nicer than I expected, so I certainly think it was a good buy.  I particularly liked the very traditional well, although the proportions of the lever are a bit off and only work with the uprights at an angle. Still it gives it an aged, well-used feel! In the new year I'll look to add some trees - olives if I can find decent ones, cypresses...

As Fantastic Scuffles goes live, I have continued to build the first of my Trojan contingents that can be used as a Fantastic Scuffles party, but will also form a force for a future Irregular Wars wargame. This Amazonian contingent is made from Lucid Eye miniatures. Following on from the Amazonian  warriors posted last month , we have three archers to support the melee fighters.  To my colourblind eyes, they have a lovely rusty red and black colour theme. My better half tells me that its a very nice reddy brown. Ah sure! What can you do? To lead the Amazonian contingent we have Penthesileia, the doomed princess with a death wish, destined to fall to Achilles. As the Lucid Eye Amazons have a very Aegean aesthetic, I wanted to give a slight nod to the traditionally steppic feel of Amazons in later Greek art, so the bi-coloured rosettes on a black band across her cloak are based on the edge decoration of a rug I picked up in Bukhara when working in Uzbekistan many years ago.

I'm delighted to announce the release of Fantastic Scuffles , the skirmish wargaming toolkit designed for any fantasy or pre-modern historical setting. Fantastic Scuffles is designed to allow players to enjoy small-scale skirmishes with less than a dozen miniatures per player. It takes as its starting point the wargaming principles set out in its army-scale predecessor, Fantastic Battles (2020). Games should be engaging and unpredictable; force creation should be flexible, allowing players to play their fantasy. Being both setting and scale agnostic, the rules can be used with whatever miniatures a player has at hand for scuffles in any fantastic realm or historic setting from the dawn of time until the early modern period. Using one set of core mechanics, the rules outline several different ways to play solo, co-op and oppositional games including randomised encounters between two parties, arena fights, and dungeon delving. Where is Fantastic Scuffles for sale? The best place b...