Irregular Wars Wargaming

The last post of a busy month is another three-company unit of Romano-British pedyt for my Fantastic Battles Britannia Burning project. Accompanying them are the first two characters of the army, one pretending that they still serve the empire, and another much more comfortable in a tribal setting. All miniatures from the wonderful Pendraken Late Roman range. Going more uniform for this unit, the pedyt shields are based on the Petulantes Seniores auxilia unit noted in the Notia Dignitatum ; their banner is inspired by the shields of the Felices Iuniores in the same document. I've been having a bit of an issue with my painting hand recently, so the shield work isn't as fine as I would like, but they are done and I can more on now to the next unit. In total I now have a little over 500 points across four units and the two commanders. Progress is slow, but there is progress! ✊

October’s Big Game Sunday saw Tony, Garry and I facing off with a somewhat plausibly historic game of Fantastic Battles – pitting 1900 points of my Late Seleukids against their unholy alliance of Republican Romans and later Carthaginians. I had hidden a three-company unit of Arab allies in the woods on the Seleukid left as an ambush to slow down the Roman advance on that flank, but during the mishaps phase, both they and a unit of Roman velites opposite were enthusiastic and advanced towards each other. Thus, melee combat was begun before either side received orders to advance.  Elsewhere, the Seleukid side suffered little from mishaps (a single late unit of slingers). It could have been far worse. At one point I think I rolled four or five 6’s in a row which would have caused havoc if they weren’t adjusted thanks to the quartermaster strategy. The Romano-Punic armies suffered more with late, enthusiastic and diseased units along the line. The opening turn saw general advance orde...

Andriochos and Antinichos met for a Seleukid civil war rematch this week running 1,000 point armies of second century BC Seleukids built for Fantastic Battles . Last time these forces clashed , I came out on top. Who would triumph this time? My legitimate forces, led by the rightful king, Antinichos, were defending which put me at a slight disadvantage. Normally I like defending, but our armies (by no means identical) both favour open terrain. This meant there were limited tricks I could play with deployment and Andrew/Andriochos was able to deploy cleverly in response to my setup.   Rolling for mishaps, the usurper's army suffered little other than a unit of skirmishers turning up behind the main line on his right rather than out front. Several of my units were suffering from disease and two units - slingers and thureophoroi - were late my left flank. The forces of the legitimate king advanced cautiously, trying to decide how best to negotiate the terrifying elephants facing the c...

This week saw a much-needed rematch between my halfling militia from the shires and Roger's ogres from the northern tundra. Just a straight up battle between two 1,000 point armies, both hankering for a second serve of pie... The halflings were the defender, but the ogres used night march, so the armies deployed closer together than normal. Roger placed yetis and other fast beasties on either flank, tough ogre melee units inside that, and a unit of cannon-toting ogres in the centre, supported by a warlord riding a monstrous fantastic beast and an array of characters including two magic-users, each with level three blink. My halfling centre was composed of an elite hearthguard of spearmen (still militia), and units of kitchen militia and militia archers. The woods and rough ground were held by treefolk auxiliaries, while the mounted wing of poultry riders and cavalry (almost a pun) sat on the far left flank. A cockatrice and small indirect artillery battery provided support from beh...

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...

Over the last few weeks there have only been a few snatched hours here and there to paint, so I have been slowly working on the second unit (and first infantry unit) of my 10mm Romano-British army for Fantastic Battles . Again, these are entirely Pendraken miniatures, taken from a mix of packs in the Late Roman range to give a real levy/ad hoc sense to the pedyt shield wall.  Rather than a single uniform shield device, I went a little wild with variations of geometric patterns, chi rhos, and alpha-omega in black and white marking what is most definitely a levy unit from a Christian civic community. I have aspirations for other shield walls to be more uniform, or more wild from the hills.

Between work and other commitments, I have not managed a lot of painting recently. This weekend, however, I did get the first three-company unit painted for my Fantastic Battles 10mm post-Roman British army. These are from the Pendraken Late Roman range. Well armoured and carrying spears, swords and shields, in-game, these will be a built as an elite company, probably also using the mounted, barrage and skirmisher traits to allow then to dash forwards and away, hurling their spears, but still able to hold their own in a melee. As this is the first unit of a new army, I have provided rather too many photos. As I become more jaded, I'm sure I will suffice with just one photo per unit! The shields are inspired by one of the designs in the Notitia Dignitatum showing a stylised dog/wolf/dragon head. The exemplar has a wee Christ/saint's head off to the right - not something I felt confident of attempting on shield less than 5mm across.  Horse butts...

  After an objectively Sisyphean week/month/quarter at work, it was a delightful moment when my new 10mm beauties arrived from Pendraken Miniatures on Friday. These are the start of a new Post-Roman British army for Fantastic Battles .  Expect sporadic updates for many months to come!

After a bit of an unintended break (too much work, not enough hobby), my 28mm Seleukids made it to the table with weekend for an 1800 point game of Fantastic Battles against Gary and Tony's combined barbarian horde (Carthage, Rome, Germans and Numidians). The Seleukid breakpoint was 21, the allied army had a breakpoint of 22. Mishaps messed up Tony's Carthaginian lines pretty badly, with slightly less impact on Gary's Romans and Germans. The Seleukid line suffered more from disease than poor deployment; the Cretan archers even found that half their number deserted before the battle began. I had hoped that the fields on the Seleukid right would mire the barbarian advance, allowing me to hold them back and shoot them with my Eastern archers. The scythed chariots in the centre charged forward, but were engaged to front and flank by barbarian skirmishers. In the centre, the heavy infantry and heavy cavalry were arrayed in the middle, while Arab infantry and camelry were deploy...