Irregular Wars Wargaming

It was an autumn night in Frommage, a few hours before dawn. The Watch patrol tonight comprised only 4 men. Turncoat was laid up with an ague, or so he said, and Pole was visiting her sister in Ketton. The patrol was at the S end of the village, checking the burned-out house, when Slide’s dog began barking furiously … Turn 1 The chit-pull sequence was TWWWWT (for Watch & Troll). The Troll ran to its R, and hid in the shadows of the side alley. The Watch advanced, Dogberry and Slide to the fore, with Bumpkin not quite so keen and Bottom, that lone wolf, taking a different route. As they approached, the Troll came out of the shadows and stood in the middle of the street. The yellow tokens represent the lanterns most of the Watch are carrying. The Troll is illuminated by Dogberry’s lantern, as well as indicated by the dog, at the end of the turn. Turn 2 The chit-pull sequence was WTWWTW. The Watch continued a cautious advance as the Troll ran back into hiding (it seems a bit out of it...

We have just returned from a brief, but very enjoyable, trip to Greece - actually the holiday we had booked in 2019 for the following summer, before the world went into lockdown. After the additional stresses brought about by the pandemic, a couple of very political (and Political) years at work, additional work financial duties, job applications and moving house, life has felt like I've been pulled in too many directions lately. It was wonderful to get away and just forget it all for a week. I've no desire to give a blow by blow of the trip - nor would I expect people to what to read that - but thought I'd share a few pictures relevant to the hobby. I brought along Four Against the Titans for a pilgrimage to several sites that feature in the game. First up, here we are at the Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi for an obligatory promo shot. The site itself was amazing, and the museum was pretty marvellous as well. An 8th century BC bronze Herzsprung-style shield. A variety of ax...

Photo courtesy Andrea Sfiligoi With social distancing and self isolation becoming the new normal, it is worth remembering that there are a number of great games out there written specifically for solo gaming.  Some of them were even written by me!😉 Four Against the Titans , and Four Against Ragnarök are game books for sandbox adventures in worlds inspired by Greek and Norse mythology. Based on the highly acclaimed Four Against Darkness series of RPG-lite dungeon-delving adventures by Andrea Sfiligoi, they are standalone solitaire or co-operative pen-and-paper games for 1 to 4 players. You don’t need any other books. No GM is needed! All you need is a pencil, two regular dice, the book, and the luck of the gods! For a more traditional high fantasy dungeon-delving experience, you shouldn't look past Andrea's   Four Against Darkness . Now with 20+ expansions (and counting), 4AD has something to offer everyone. If you prefer your solo games to have miniatu...

I woke up this morning to read a review  of Four Against the Titans  by William C. Pfaff over at the Four Against Darkness Adventurers Guild group on Friendface. Be warned, it contains some hints which might be considered spoilers - but he doesn't really give too much away. Note that where ever he uses the names of gods, he is referring to children of those gods - not the gods themselves. **** I promised a while back a full review/report on my experiences with Four Against the Titans. First off, let me not bury the lede. This book is AWESOME! It’s not without some minor quibbles (you can get “stuck” outside of a town for a LONG time if you can’t manipulate dice) BUT it’s an “A” effort and should be on everyone’s “to buy” list. Nic Wright did himself proud with this one: he captured the actual “feel” of epic adventuring in ancient Greece- the mechanics support the source material and vice versa. [Minor spoilers – depending on how much you want to figure out on your o...

At long last, Olympos has fallen. I have been working on Four Against the Titans ( 4AT ) for a while now, and I'm delighted to see it released. Although it is based on the highly acclaimed Four Against Darkness series of dungeon delving adventures by Andrea Sfiligoi, 4AT is a standalone pen and paper adventure game designed for solitaire or RPG-lite co-operative games. Set in ancient Greece in a time of myths and legends, players choose heroes from ten different character types to complete mighty quests and battle creatures such as centaurs, harpies and maenads, all in an attempt to defeat the titans and forestall the destruction of Greece. So far the rules are available as a pdf from the Ganesha Games Gumroad store , or in hardcopy from Lulu  and Amazon . 

To paraphrase Helmuth von Moltke, "No plan survives contact with the enemy Andrea Sfiligoi." I had some splendid plans for my hobby time over the last few months, in a whole smatter of different scales. All have been stalled as I work away on a really nice little project for Ganesha Games. As a result, I have been posting much less than usual, as I've had much less to show off. There are the 15mm Prussians for my c.1806 force for Sharp Practice 2 . I have yet another group of jäger lined up, and a group of engineers led by an officer. Then there are my lovely, lovely, new ships; a handful of 1/600 ancient vessels which will be used for Galleys & Galleons , but for which I have been messing around with a few other ideas to do a much more detailed set of ancient naval rules. The concept is to run one galley per player and have a sort of galley-ballet. More of that anon. There are also 6mm horse archers lined up that I need to be able to field Kushan, Kommagen...