Irregular Wars Wargaming

Although my existing European Empire battle group for Horizon Wars contains more elements that I can realistically use in a single game, I wanted to play around with other force types and compositions. With that aim in mind I have created the Elysium Trading Corporation's military division, the Pegasus Force. The infantry are Onslaught neo-shinobi, the artillery are... I can't quite remember. The mech is my old favourite, IRN Mech ! As with all my Horizon Wars stuff, these will also work for Mighty Monsters/Samurai Robots Battle Royale.

Recent mania in my gaming circle for the new Osprey 'hard' sci-fi rules set, Horizon Wars , by Robey Jenkins got me enthused enough to paint up a few odd 6mm bits and pieces I had floating around to supplement my Samurai Robot Battle Royale  European Empire Imperial Response Group . I like having miniatures which can be used in multiple gaming systems and Horizon Wars is about the right operational scale for me, using little more than a handful of units in most games. As such, my existing  SRBR  human stuff actually converted directly over into a full sized force, large enough for all but the largest games. Then I added more... Seen here in the burned-out outskirts of Merkelburg, a complete European Empire battlegroup is ready for action. The battle group is formed around a heavy infantry company (CHQ and two platoons each of three sections) with support units in the form of a light fire support walker, two sections of recon Shadow Scouts and two Goliath artillery...

In breaking news, the European Ministry of Defense had announced that it has seen fit to increase spending on the armed forces, bolstering each Imperial Response Group to include a full platoon of Special Forces Storm Troopers including a brace of Shadow Scouts, a Banshee Gun Ship, Goliath Mobile Artillery Unit and a Vixen Battle Walker. Costing 600 points, the Imperial Response Group is ready to tackle even the mightiest of Mighty Monsters .

Last night I was greatly delighted to play two very enjoyable four player games. (un)Fortunatley, I had so much fun that only a very few in-focus photos were taken of the games - all the guphawing makes my hands shake and I can't take photos... The first round was a 900 point a side game of Mighty Monsters and Samurai Robot Battle Royale which saw the humans of the European Empire take on three kaiju who were holidaying in a distopian future Paris.  It didn't end up going well at all for the imperial forces. The infantry and their air support were all either fumigated to death by one enormous fishy-poison cloud from Dagon (fishman kaiju), or else suffered from his oh-so-acidic spit. I.R.N. Mech was finished off by a well aimed punch from a rather crippled Mantis, and the Goliath tank and Grendal (furry kaiju) more or less exploded each other to extinction. There was much close range bombarding from the tank which caused a lot of damage to everything in the vicinity...

Having had a longer-than-wanted break since my last bout of Mighty Monsters and Samurai Robots Battle Royale , I'm gearing up for another bash. Such a fun game! Here are the various monsters, mechs and army units that I now have ready. Each monster (vel sim.) is based on 300 points, allowing me to easily pick and choose between running 300, 600 or 900 points per side. The forces of humanity - European Empire and an Independent mech I.R.N. Mech Imperial Response Group Goliath IV Chaotic Kaiju Mantis Dagon Grendel

Well I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I bought Mighty Monsters and Samurai Robots Battle Royale from Ganesha Games (I got them together in a US$14 pdf bundle). Last night I had my first couple of games and you know what? I have two regrets.  The first is that I didn't invest in the hard copy books - because lets admit it, a book is always nicer than pages you printed at home. The second, is that I waited this long to play the games. They were, genuinely, a real laugh. The lads I played with and against were top quality chaps anyway, but the rules really bring the giant stomping monsters and mechs to life and make destruction and havoc a real blast (mind the pun)! It's the sort of destructive fun that my generation haven't had since the 1986 arcade game Rampage . In both games I took the much shot at Mantis, my chitinous kaiju based on a giant praying mantis. In the first game Mantis was in a one-on-one duel with IRN Mech. While Mantis is very powerful...

I am finally gearing up to have my first few games of Mighty Monsters and its sister game, Samurai Robots Battle Royale, this week. I have previously posted a couple of models for these games, IRN Mech and Mantis, but I have rebased them, so I thought I would repost them now, together with their com-padres, an ISIS Response Force and Dagan.  As readers of this blog will know, I am a bit fond of my historical wargames and only branch into fantasy gaming these days via Song of Blades and Heroes (of which I am a card-carrying fanboy). For me, MM and SRBR  - from the Ganesha Games family - will mark my first foray into sci-fi gaming for almost 20 years. I did have a Warhammer 40K army back in the days of 3rd edition but I lost the love for that sort of game a long time ago.  Even though I gave up on sci-fi games, I've always enjoyed Star Wars (at least the good ones) and Pacific Rim , in my opinion, rocked. It was the latter movie which compelled me to give these gam...