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! ✊

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 pretty intense few months, I was lucky enough to pop o'er the water to Scotland for a wee break with the family. I was doubly lucky that my family are most happy scrambling over monuments in the middle of nowhere.  We went a little Pict/Iron Age/early Medieval crazy over the course of the break, visiting brochs, standing stones and hill forts the length of the highlands. Here are a couple of pictures that may inspire some miniature broch-builders out there... Dun Troddan Dun Toddan, near Glenelg, was the first broch we visited and probably the best preserved, standing 7.6m tall for almost a half of the circumference.  Dun Telve Dun Telve is only 500 metres down the glen from Dun Troddan. It's less well preserved overall, but stands taller at more than 10m. Cairn Liath On the opposite side of the highlands, Cairn Liath sits on the coast between Golspie and Brora. It's a lovely little broch with a well preserved outer wall and visible elements of other structures in t...

In recent weeks, Andrew and I have been dabbling with Barons' War . We both read the rules cover to cover, and have played two games with the same 500 point forces. This post has been a long time coming, because our short-form conclusion is that the rules are ok. And that is a little disappointing. In both games - one a straight clash, and one a scenario from the back of the book - we used the same retinues themed around Anglo-Normans in Ireland, but using the standard retinue raising rules. I have to say the flexibility in building retinues in Barons' War is great. I really appreciate the freedom to create a band of veteran sergeants, militant monks, green levies, and everything in between. However, not all things are created equal, and it feels that the points values are not necessarily well balanced. Indeed, although the game is only recently released, there have already been official errata circulated to start correcting some of the imbalances. Spear and bills seem very ef...

Making up for lost time, we've just returned from a family trip to Copenhagen - a wonderful and gorgeous city, although not over-easy on the wallet. I plumb forgot to bring Four Against Raganök with me for a promo shot, but it was ever in our hearts... I can't say enough positive things about the city in general, but I wanted to flag up the National Museum to anyone who happens to pass through as a brilliant resource and source of inspiration for wargaming any number of theatres. We spent more than four hours there, and still didn't get to the Iron Age, High-Late Medieval or Modern galleries. The images below are just a taster of what's on show really. Mycenaean weaponry. The detailing on that gold pommel doesn't really show up, but I was impressed! Sub-Saharan African shields and swords from the Ethnographic collection. Mesolithic paddle, bow, and axeheads. Neolithic casualty (bone-tipped arrow through the nose), and Late Neolithic flint dagger. Bronze Age 'Egt...