Irregular Wars Wargaming

While I have been hard at work preparing tutorials and writing grant applications, other people have been harder at work playtesting the forthcoming second edition of Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End . I'm really pleased so far on the feedback that I have received and the good work that other people have been doing, playing, testing, creating counters and researching new armies. Doctor Phalanx has been a particularly good sort with his feedback and counter making. He has updated the counters since last time I posted and they can be downloaded from his website HERE . I've also just come across a great little blog called 'The recoiling knight and the surrounded spear'. Franko the blogger has been playing the current version of Irregular Wars and posted a great overview of the game back in August. I'm a bit slow on the old uptake and have only seen this now. I recognise Franko's opponent's army in these shots and know that he has the...

I just wanted to share a bit of the good work being done over at the Doctorphalanx blog where enthusiastic Irregular Wars playtester (and dare I say 'convert'...?) has been preparing for his games by producing counters while he waits for his miniature armies to be painted, delivered and sculpted - although probably not in that order. Check out his blog here - its well worth a look!

I had my first game of the year today - 6mm Hail Caesar .  Not enough photos to give a proper run down but it was a great pseudo-historical game set c.220 BC. Eight divisions of Romanites and allies (Brett  and Steve)  against seven divisions of the Syro-Punic alliance (JB and myself) .  Scipio's Roman legions plus their Italian, Gallic and Spanish allies once more proved themselves tough infantry soldiers. The Seleukid and Carthaginian cavalry were by far the boldest - if not the most effective. In the end, a  very bloody (almost) draw - advantage, Rome.

With the new year well underway I thought that it might be time to post something. The problem though, is that there is little physical hobbying that I can show so far. The first game of the year for me will be tomorrow and I have not had a chance to paint anything in a while. However, I have had a lot of time in the evenings to do some writing and I have already put together a first draft for a second edition of Irregular Wars . There are quite a number of changes and I am rather hopeful that there will be a great deal more clarity in some aspects of the rules. There is still a lot of work to be done, but the rules are in a playable format and I will now be in a position to play test them for a while.  Certainly drop me an email if you are interested in stepping in at this stage of development. I could certainly do with a few more dedicated playtesters. If I have learnt anything about wargaming over the last few years, it is that all players think differently and play differen...

The experiences gained this year during the writing and production of Song of Shadows and Dust have left me with a hankering to create a heavily revised version or, more accurately, a successor game for Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End . Other than improved writing and production quality generally (and the option of ordering a hard copy of the rules) I am currently thinking about a number of rules revisions which I suspect will streamline the game. In the first instance, I feel like the new game would benefit from being more focused - probably on the Americas, with twenty-odd army lists for that theatre but with an appendix discussing how to apply the rules to other theatres and periods, perhaps with several examples - hoplites, Elizabethan Ireland, the 1804 Castle Hill convict rebellion, something like that. Keep in mind that all lists from the original game would be 100% compatible with the new version. The number of phases in the turn sequence might wel...

With the traditional Christmas slowdown in work (and current - hopefully temporary - unemployment) I've managed to snag quite a number of games over the last couple of weeks. Here is just a taster of the miniature madness. We played the largest game of  Hail Caesar  to date - six commands of Republican Romans (Brett and Conor at the helm) vs. three commands of Seleukids (myself) and four commands of Carthaginians (JB). A bloody affair and a stalemate which could have gone either way several times throughout the night. It was great to see the 17th century Hollanders and Colonial Spanish back on the table again having a go at each other. Don Brett and Herr Jim played an introductory game of  Irregular Wars  at the Wee Gamers' Bunker this week which seemed to go down quite well. The Spaniards had the upper hand from the very beginning with more success in the recruitment phase but the Dutch held on quite well. For a while.  I took my new Apollo ...