Irregular Wars Wargaming

This week we returned to our new Burrows & Badgers campaign with a three player rumble in the ruins. The roguish Dirty Paws, (purple deployment), Lord Knawsley's royalist retinue (blue deployment), and the Jackass free company (yellow deployment) went at each other in an open engagement. For secondary objectives, the Dirty Paws were trying to assassinate enemy leaders and bring down the biggest beast in town - Lord Knawsley. In turn, the noble beaver's aim was to assassinate enemy leaders and take down as many of their men as possible in the process. The Jackass aim was to deliver a wee parcel in across the far side of the table - we played the opposite corner - and otherwise to strike unseen from the shadows. On turn one, one of the Jackass moles emerged from underground with his parcel mere paces from the exit point on the battlefield, far beyond the reach of either of the other bands. At the start of turn two he nipped off, earning experience and delivery fees, but pla...

Andrew and I started another wee Burrows & Badgers campaign this week. I ran my rogues again - the Dirty Paws - but with a new line-up: badger, polecat, bat, rat, and two stoats. Andrew ran a new retinue of royalists led by the beaver, Lord Knawsley, supported by a badger and five mice. We played the treasure hunt scenario from the core rules - my secondary objective was to push through and get off Andrew's side of the table, his aim was to crush my warband and take at least four of them out of action. Sadly I was too shattered to take enough photos for a full narative, but first blood went to Hugo Hairtrigger, the crossbow-weilding rat rogue who got an early shot in on one of the royalist mice. The two seconds met for a brief melee - Sgian the polecat rogue was actually gearing up to search for treasure, but that royal badger had other ideas. After one round of taking a beating, Sgian legged it and ran to get off the royalists table edge. It was the mouse-nun Ivy who discover...

After the tussle by the temple, the Dirty Paws stepped up their game and hounded the Special Animal Service through the wilds, eventually catching them for another open engagement. This time the Dirty Paws were aiming to assassinate the royalist leader and also bring down their toughest beast - conveniently, both of those paths led to Lady Briar. The SAS were looking to break the rogues by devistating their numbers. Osgood the otter and Knut the squirrel, both skilled as melting into the shadows were delpoyed forward in ambush, and as the two parties advanced, they started shooting their bows from their hidden position at the base of a tree. Basil the beaver led the charge for the SAS, soaking up arrows and acting as something of a meat-shield for his leader. who dashed past to try to get in an early kill against Sgian Dubh. However, by leading from the front, Briar was quickly surrounded. While her armour and innate toughness kept her standing, wounds started to mount up. The wounded ...

The Dirty Paws' third encounter of the campaign was in the wild lands around a long-abandoned temple. After their two previous victories, the royalist Special Animal Service were looking to exert pressure on the rogues in an open engagement, but they were quite unprepared for how many rogues there now were. Clustered near the foot of the cliffs, Lady Briar the badger and Basil the beaver had spread out their forces. The mouse nun, Sister Bridget, sheltered near the two massive creatures; Martin the mouse was off on his own (top left) and Cornflower, the dormouse archer was up on the cliffs looking to provide cover. Other than crushing their foes again, the SAS' secondary objectives were to conserve their own strength, and defend the territory they already held. Opposed to them, the Dirty Paws arrayed eight beasts. Behind the ruins, Lucky Robyn Longtooth the fox leader stood with the badger, Old Broc, and Sgian Dubh the polecat, supported by Seren the (horrifically scarred) bat....

The second game of our campaign also took the form of a three-player game of the Witch Hunt scenario from the Burrows & Badgers main book. All three warbands from the first skirmish returned, hoping to claim the bounty on a squirrel witch who was loitering among some standing stones. Above, the witch is in the centre - Force 8.5 from Newtownards (Roger) is in the upper left, the Special Animal Service (Andrew) is upper right, and the Dirty Paws (Nic) are lower centre. Both the Dirty Paws and Force 8.5 had a secondary objective to loot the dead, while the SAS had a secondary objective to search for treasure among the terrain features. The opening turn saw the Dirty Paws advance slowly, dropping into hidden positions ready to ambush the squirrel if she moved, and avoid her firey blasts if she didn't. Force 8.5 moved as rapidly forward as they could through the thicket, all except for Inch-high, the mouse crossbowman, who tried to get into his own ambushing position with a clear...

Our campaign for Burrows & Badgers got off to a smashing start this week with a three-player game matching my rogues, the Dirty Paws, against the rival royalist bands, the Special Animal Service (Andrew), and Force 8 and a half from Newtownards (Roger).  The open battle took place in a contested royal borough/royal burrow. The Dirty Paws (bottom right (and in front of the burrow centre left) had been tasked to purge any magic-users they could find, and hoped to scavenge anything they could from the burrows while they were there. The SAS (top right) hoped to win the engagement by wearing down the enemy forces by attrition and, always showboating, orchestrate a showdown between warband leaders. Force 8.5 (far left) just wanted to defend their patch, and take and capture a few more burrows while their rivals were distracted. The Dirty Paws began by setting up ambushes along the perimeter of their deployment area, while Robyn the fox, Gypsy the mouse, and Seren the bat all se...