Irregular Wars Wargaming

I'm very pleased to say that  Fantastic Battles version 1.2 is now live! The new version makes a very small number of rule amendments and clarifications, and introduces two new relics and ten new unit traits to help you build your fantasy army. There are also four new asymetric scenarios included, as well as rules for playing out seiges on your tabletop.  Even though the example armylists in the original release were only ever intended as guidelines, they did prove popular, so they have been updated and more lists have been included in this version, bringing the total up to 36 different factions. *YOU DO NOT NEED TO BUY THIS BOOK* I can't abide the thought that players need to fork out more money for updates that I have decided to make to the rules - so they don't. If you previously bought the digital copy of the rules from Wargame Vault, you'll find that you now already have the updated files there waiting for you to download. If you bought the physical copy from Ama...

It would appear that the good folk at the Aberdeen Wargames Club have been at it again, hosting another participation game of one of my rule sets, this time  Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End at the Targe Wargames show (hosted by Kirriemuir Wargames Club ). The game was based on the Battle of Craibstone, fought in 1571 between the Forbes and the Gordons, part of the Marian Civil War. Craibstone was just outside medieval Aberdeen (since completely built over). One spectator at the battle was a certain Elizabethan courtier and his associates. No doubt he was visiting his Aberdonian fish-salesman cousin when hostilities broke out ... Not only did their table look amazing, but Aberdeen only went on to win both of the show prizes! The Targe : awarded for the best club display. This was the result of a vote by all the attending clubs and groups. The Crann Tara Targe : awarded to the best Scottish themed game or game with Scottish figures. This was the result of a vote by memb...

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...

In this second post introducing Irregular Wars: Fantastic Battles , we will look at two of the fundamental aspects of any game - the basing system and unit profiles. Unit basing and measuring distances The basic unit in Fantastic Battles is the company; companies may act independently or be grouped together into larger formations. Each company is represented on the table by a number of figures on a single base. Companies are an abstract representation of a large body of men (or orcs, or lizardmen, or elves etc ad nauseum), perhaps numbering in the hundreds or thousands. There is no figure removal to represent casualties, the exact number of figures per company is unimportant – players should base their units in the way that looks best. We recommend square 40x40mm bases for companies of 6mm-15mm scale figures, or 60x60mm for larger scales. However, the actual base size used is irrelevant to the game mechanics as long as the same base widths are used across all companies on the table....

In February 2011, I released Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World’s End . Originally inspired by the Elizabethan wars in Ireland, the rules were written to be suitable for all asymmetrical clashes around the fringes of the European world in the 16th and Early 17th centuries. A 2nd edition followed in 2014 which streamlined many of the rules to make the turns flow more smoothly and which earned fan-made supplements to cover ancient, medieval and fantasy genres. Since then, I have written 10 further rules sets and expansions, all published through Ganesha Games. As I approach the 10th anniversary of writing rules fit for public consumption it feels like the right time to return to the Irregular Wars system. Rather than releasing a 3rd edition of Conflict at the World’s End –which still serves its niche admirably – I have embarked on a more broadly applicable set of rules for fantasy mass-battles, Fantastic Battles . The title is a play on words do you see, ‘cause the genre is fan...

It all seemed so evenly matched. The Coureur de Bois army had mustered a decent strength and traveled south down the coast to confront a large force of Carib Indians heading north. ... but then we rolled for disease and mishaps. One of the only capable melee units in the Carib army was bought off, the chieftain's Cacique headhunter's own company was revealed to be afflicted by a virulent disease, and a couple of other Carib units had lesser strains of the same disease.  However, for all that the Caribs were afflicted by disease, the Coureur des Bois army was riddled through and through with their own variety of pox. Three companies rolled for virulent disease, while still others suffered slightly less, but were diseased none-the-less. In the first turn, the Coureur des Bois moved to form a line along the front of the woods, discourteously keeping all of the sick and demoralised units together in the centre. The Caribs formed a loose line within shooting range. In tu...

After quite a hiatus, I managed to get in a couple of games of  Irregular Wars  just before the year's end. Lee has been working on a French army for the New World - starting with Coureur des Bois with the intention of being able to morph it into French Adventurers in due course.  In out first game I commanded some doughty Hollanders, and in the second, a rabble of rag-tag Spanish colonials. I'm afraid that the light wasn't great for my shaky hands, and the sandy coloured battlefield caused havoc with the contrast settings on my phone, but I still wanted to give some sort of account for the games. After recruiting our forces, my Hollanders (bottom of the photo) had more companies present - but then the Disease and Mishaps rolling saw two of my companies - some crossbowmen and a unit of halberdiers - bought off completely. Lee found that one of his coureur companies was late deploying to their designated location, while another was led by an overly enthusiastic cap...

News just in from the Indies - this splendid Irregular Wars battle report from the Voyages à travers le temps blog. In this entry, Stéphane shows us his Hindu Vijayanagara forces, battling it up with Lee's Hollanders. Come and check out the full report (and practice your French) HERE . Earlier, Lee's Arabs took on Peter's Ottomans as shown on the It Figures blog. Check out that full report (and practice your French - or cheat with Google translator)  HERE .

I'm delighted to have seen two recent write ups of Irregular Wars games on the French blog  Petites guerres précolombiennes . The blog is very interesting and well worth a look - even if you do need to rely greatly on the Google translator... http://smallmaya.blogsp ot.co.uk/search/label/R%C3%A8gle%20Irregular%20war And the blogs summary: "A défaut de vous expliquer le règle aussi surprenante qu'intéressante, j'ai tenté de vous en faire ressentir l'esprit. Au final, concernant les théâtres et la période choisis, le rendu est tout aussi "historique" (notion à prendre avec des pincettes en matière ludique) qu'avec une règle plus classique. De plus, c'est vraiment distrayant et même parfois hilarant tout en étant tactiquement motivant." "Failing to explain the rule as surprising and interesting, I tried to make you feel the spirit. In the end, about the theaters and the selected period, the rendering is as "historic" (a...

Over at the Lead Adventure Forum , Fred has posted a great little right up of a double sized game of Irregular Wars , pitting two forces of Royal English against a pair of Mogul armies. It was so good to see that I repost it here (with permission). This is from some months ago, so details are a bit vague, but I have a good few pictures! The forces arrayed were Royal English vs Moguls - not something you would expect for a good few hundred years more!. We wanted a big game, and matched the armies to availability of figures, rather than historical likelihood. The Royal English were represented by 10mm WM Empire figures, the Moguls by a mix of Araby and Goblin figures (hey, it worked as a game, no matter how odd it seems written down now!!). We had 4 companies per side, I was commanding two of the Royal English companies, one blue, one red. The Mogul commander took huge amounts of the very cheap Hindu Levy - he tends to favour cheap tat. My troops crest the hills while the Mogul...