Irregular Wars Wargaming

My newly completed 6mm 15th century project has prompted me to start thinking about the next step. I have some other bits and pieces that need doing first, but I've a mind to build a 15th century Low Countries, Scandinavian or German army. The thing is - and there is always a 'thing' - Baccus don't do mounted crossbowmen who will certainly feature in the next project. I know that both Irregular and Heroics and Ros do produce them, but I'm not really convinced that I want to mix the styles in the one army and I already have lots of unpainted Baccus stuff to get me going. As a trial run, I've begun playing around with the first of several conversion ideas to see how they work. These four chaps are Baccus light cavalry with their spears cut off at the hand. The off-cut was then reduced in length again by almost a half, bent slightly, and glued back on the hand as the arms of the crossbow.  Once I order a pack of foot crossbowmen I will also play around wi...

Part way through last year, a regular gaming mate of mine got himself a Medieval itch. Now, this was not the sort of itch that you can get creams for these days from any high street apothecary, but something a bit more.... 6mm and made of lead. He burst ahead and ordered his weight in figures from Baccus. With an impending sense of uncertainty - and a pinch of doom, I followed him into a folly of bill and bow. Totally out of my comfort zone, I also bought and read my first book on the Wars of the Roses (Dan Jones' The Hollow Crown ), which at least gave me a very readable context in which to wage wars across the table top. After a slow and much stalled start, I finally finished my first ever late Medieval army/ies early this month. We started with the intention of playing Bloody Barons from Peter Pig (hence the use of 30x30mm bases). The pre-battle skulduggery in that game is fantastic and very flavourful but in the end, we decided that L'Art de la Guerre gave us a m...

My 6mm street track for chariot racing is finished and, I'd like to think, it's pretty nice. I intentionally went for a robust, blocky feel, with minimal detail. I want the attention to be on the racers, not on the streetscape. The buildings started as cheap wooden blocks which were glued into assorted house shapes and them received a rough smothering of crack-filling wall putty. I always call it spakfilla, because that is the Australian brand I used to practically build/repair my first appartment, but it goes by many names and is easily found in hardware stores. Everything got a priming cover of dark brown paint, followed by two top coats of textured off white to look like lime-washed mud-brick. I then used left over tiled roof segments from my 15mm ancient city (oo gauge Spanish roof tiles for train sets from memory) to add tiled roofing to my two shrines. A quick set up of a hypothetical racing circuit, complete with short cut through the alleyway. I'm quit...

Dwarvern Dreadnaught – The stout heart of any Dwarvern fleet, a dreadnaught’s powerful ordnance and heavy metal hull make it a slow but steady force to be reckoned with. Q4 C4 Gun turrets, Ironclad, Sluggish, Steam engine

Over the weekend, we got together to try out a large game (300 points) of L'Art de la Guerre . As I wanted to get Pyrrhos of Epeiros and his Italian 'allies' on the table, we set the date at 280 BC. My foe therefore, ran Camillian Romans rather than his more usual mid-Republican (Polybian) selection. That meant less Gallic (et al.) auxiliaries, more Italians, substantially more heavy spearmen (Principes count as spear in this period) and, to my dismay, more cavalry than I could muster. We also discovered that I can get a good 200 point Pyrrhic army, but that I don't have enough appropriate figures for 300 points. Sod. Happily I was joined by our Hellenistic Spartan player who fielded a 100 point allies Spartan army which formed our left flank. Here you can see the lazy, stubborn Romans hanging back while our boys storm across the field. The Roman line, from left (top of picture) to right consisted of a heavy Roman legion, a medium Italian division skulking in som...

Continuing on with my low-cost:medium-impact approach to constructing 6mm buildings to run street races for Bread and Circuses , I caught a couple of dry hours (over non-consecutive days I might add), to spray all the kiddie-blocks from the first post in this series dark brown and them textured off-white. This left me with the almost finished product. Just a couple of tiles roofs to mock up for the Greek style temple and the propylaia (entrance) to the Semitic temple.

Just before Christmas we ran the last playtest of the year for the wee chariot game I've been working on, Bread and Circuses . I would suggest that with the feedback received from playtesters (a big 'heads up' to Tim for the most comprehensive reporting), the game is nearing completion. This game was a simple twice-round-the-basic-track race with six competitors. There are a number of fixed 'classes' that players assign to their chariots, allowing the game to be used in any race setting they like. With the exception of the standard class (which is ... well ... standard), each class has a unique bonus and a corresponding penalty. The starting line up. From the right/closest the camera: an Egyptian (archer), Roman (fast), Mycenaean (standard), Seleukid (scythed), Sumerian (heavy), and Indian (archer). The only extant chariot class that was not represented in this race was the 'agile'. Player order each bound is card-driven meaning that you never...

For your festive reading this week, I have been sent another great After Action Report from gaming raconteur Mark in Thailand. This time the game is  Song of Shadows and Dust , and the setting is Pattayavium, an apocryphal Greco-Roman trading post in Southeast Asia.  Mark writes: Background The Graeco Roman trading post of Pattayavium celebrates the Saturnalian festival every year, with gladiatorial games. The games are very popular, even with the many non-Roman, indeed non-Mediterranean, ethnic groups that comprise the majority of the people. The Roman and Greek expats go to watch the spectacle and think about home. The Asians place wagers on every aspect of the games. Large numbers of visitors come from upcountry and the neighbouring regions, to enjoy the festival and spend money. Everybody's a winner! Especially the Prefect who collects a skim off the bookies. I have been constructing buildings and accessories for SSD since April 2015, and this game uses eve...