Irregular Wars Wargaming

I introduced Lee to Andrea Sfiligoi's Of Gods and Mortals  last week with two games pitching a pack of hairies led by Thor, against my less hirsute Greeks. Initially Thor took on Hermes (out for his first game) and later he fought Athena. Once again, my camera(-phone) proved incapable of taking decent photos, although the fact I was shaking with man-flu may not have helped... So, to string together an ad hoc narrative to support the few grainy images: Thor had the same followers in both games - 8x berserkers, 8x skirmishing youths, and three valkyries. Hermes led a force consisting of 8x Thracians, 4x centaur archers, and 4x dryads, all supported by the minotaur, the hydra and the Kalydonian boar.  The Norsemen were all penned up behind the village to begin with. The berserkers and my Thracians kept snarling at each other, but neither managed enough activations to get close to each other for quite some time. This left the minotaur exposed in the middle of the two units...

Most readers of this blog will know that I don't do a lot of 28mm (AKA novelty-giant-scale) stuff. None, in fact, with the exception of my forces for Of Gods and Mortals . After my recent 6mm push, it was a nice break to paint up another dvergr (dwarf) for my very  slowly growing Norse force. This wee chap is from Macrocosm Miniatures, converted with a few medieval plastic bow and arrow bits gifted by gaming mate Jim, and a hand axe and quiver from Hasslefree Miniatures, and some modeling putty to fill out the hair at the back of his head. And here he is with the rest of the dvergar to date - and also that cheeky chappy Ratatoskr. I have another four dvergar to do still, but next up in line for my Norse will be more jötnar to flesh out my unit of elite trolls.

"I was met by golden-wanded Hermes; he seemed a youth in the lovely spring of life, with the first down upon his lip." Homer, Odyssey 10.135 "He fastened on his ankle-wings, grasped in his fist the wand that charms to sleep, put on his magic cap, and thus arrayed Jove's son sprang from his father's citadel down to earth." Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.583 Herald of Zeus, god of travelers, merchants, shepherds and thieves, guide of the dead. Hermes has always been the Olympian god that I most ... like. I'm not sure that we should like  the Olympians. Aside from Athena (who can still be pretty childish), they all exhibit rather unlikable traits. Regardless, I've always had a soft spot for Hermes.  This one is not technically Hermes the god, but is supposed to be a gladiatorial arena official from Crusader Miniatures. Still not my finest painting - I seem to have lost my mojo for 28mm painting - the sculpt itself is rather nice. Using ...

It has taken some time (months indeed - 28mm always do take me a while), but my Hellenistic Thracians are finally finished and ready to fight for their gods. The miniatures are from Crusader - Northstar, and decent wee figures they are too. I'll be using these gentlemen (in the loosest sense of the word) for Of Gods and Mortals . There are no official Thracian profiles in the rules, but the unit building rules in the back allow you to customise profiles. From all the options available, I think that the hammering blow rule should approximate their use of the rhomphaia - those nasty looking curved blades. Therefore, I'll be using the following. Thracians  (CO) 25 points Q4 C2 - Hammering Blow

Ratatosk, or Ratatoskr, was the mischievous squirrel that lived on Yggdrasil (the World-Tree) and spent his time running up and  down its trunk between the eagle at the top, and Nidhug the dragon at its base, to tell them each the latest insult that each had uttered against the other. I took a notion. I am apparently now going to put together a Norse force for Of Gods and Mortals . I thought the following might reflect how he would play as a legend: Ratatosk Q3, C2 Forester, Illusions, Long Move, Stealth Here he is with a sample of my existing Norse force to give a sense of scale: troll   f rom Copplestone Castings, dvergar dwarf from Macrocosm Miniatures. For the most part, this wee chap is one of the sabre-toothed squirrel rats produced for the (now defunct?) Flytrap Factory kickstarter. The head was my attempt to sculpt something out of green-stuff that vaguely resembled a red squirrel. It may have worked, I'm still not sure. The shield is a spare from a...

I finally got around to converting my old Glorantha not-Herakles to give him a club rather than a spear. It's not exactly elegant, but neither is a club. I'm happy enough with that result.

In 279 BC, hordes of Celtic invaders swept down on the Greek world from the wilds of the north, destroying all before them. One branch of the invading army attacked the sacred oracle of Apollo at Delphi. According to ancient writers, the god Apollo appeared before the barbarians and put them to flight. This is the story of the Delphi incident... This week I finally managed my first game of the month. It has just been one of those months... Jim popped up the mountain to visit and we reprised our old roles as Greek and Irish deities for a game of Of Gods and Mortals  (Osprey Games). I took Apollo and a force of Greco-Macedonians defending the temple of Apollo, against his Irish, lead by Lugh of the Long Arm. Apollo and his escort of centaur archers. Lugh, supported by Queen Medb and the warriors of Connacht. I had less-than-stealthily placed my Macedonian hypaspists on top of the hill to dominate the table. Jim won the initiative, activated his banshee and watched my ...

Right. I'm off work at the moment with the so-called (and ever so ironic) Australian flu. Bloody antipodeans. It means that, in theory at least, I can hobby. But, my god, that last post nearly killed me, so I'm just going to leave these pictures here. Model is the 15mm Hydra from Alternative armies, mounted on a 40x60mm base. Incidentally, if you like the bushes, they are being made up and sold very cheaply by an old wargaming mate of mine. You can see what he has HERE . Hey... who's that hiding in the bushes?

This week I decided to play around with the Palaeo Diet rules a little bit and take them to a different setting. From the distant mists of time to the mythical past, I dug around in my box of Greek myth stuff for Of Gods and Mortals and came out with a big pig and three heroes. Welcome to the closing scene of the Kalydonian Boar hunt! Oineus, king of Kalydon in Aitolia, west-central Greece, has offended the goddess Artemis. Forgetting to honour her at the annual harvest festival, she has sent a giant boar to ravage the kingdom, destroying its crops and vineyards. Desperate to kill the beast, Oineus has sent out to all the neighbouring kingdoms, seeking heroic hunters to bring the beast down. Prominent among the hunters who respond are Meleager, the king's own son; Atalanta, the Arkadian huntress with whom Meleager is besotted, and Peleus, exiled prince of Aigina, soon to be king of Phthia, and future father of Achilles. Here we see the three heroes having cornered the...