Irregular Wars Wargaming

I don't do a lot of sci-fi gaming, and when I do, I tend to play 6mm. However, over the last couple of years, an increasingly the last few months, I have been working away at three forces for sci-fi skirmish games using 15mm figures. I haven't decided on a rule set yet, but  Grimdark Future: Fire Fight  seems to work very well so far. The first faction is the Imperial Night Watch led by Capt. Pax Concordia. These are nominally a special forces unit for the European Empire (my main 6mm Horizon Wars faction), although there are other empires that I'm sure they'd fit in with... The bulk of the minis are from the Space Pals range (possibly OOP?) from Highlander Studios. The wee W.A.L.L.I.E. style droid is from Ground Zero Games.  These engineering space dwarves from the Nidavellir system are led by Sgt Grimm. They. Are. Absolutely. Class. Wee. Sculpts. These are 15mm versions of the Onslaught 6mm Grudds, both available in the UK via Vanguard Miniatures. They s...

"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

I've long had a small collection of 15mm sci-fi miniatures painted up for skirmish games. Then, last week, Andrew gifted my some 15mm sci-fi scatter terrain and a few bunkers and other small buildings which now allow me to future-up my ancient city Antiocheia Mikros. So, this week, I set up a table (along with my son's Slave One toy with is roughly to scale) and tried out a few turns of Grimdrak Future: Firefight by Gaetano Ferrara. The rules are freely downloadable and seemed simple, but effective. They are written for 28mm miniatures, so we swapped out inches for cm to convert to 15mm figures. I took a force of smugglers/rebels, while my wee lad controlled the Imperial Night Watch special forces. The rules are very definatley geared to the GW futuristic game set in the 41st millenium, but the force lists are pretty flexible allowing you to build most generic sci-fi tropes. I played more aggressively than the wee boy and took most of my forces through the alleys an...

The men of Ulster stood facing the Romanised British host. They knew the British king was young and inexperienced, and that their own swords were tried, tested, and thirsty for more blood. The coming battle was not going to last long. Behind the British lines, smoke tricked into the sky in thin wisps from the British village. The Irishmen could practically taste their new slaves. Another game of Dux Bellorum , as always, too long since the last. This time my Irish faced off against a new foe, the Romano-British forces of Andrew. He'd not played before, so it was a learning game. He was aided in inexperience by Lee, also having never played before. The Irish were the aggressors, the Romano-Brits were the repellers. From stage left, at the top, bowmen and three ordinary shieldwalls, the Romano-British king with his mounted companions, and three noble riders. From stage left at the bottom, two noble Irish warrioris, the Irish king and his warrior companions, two further noble ...

More of my recent painting outputs - four bases of Hellenistic horse archers. These are really nice little 6mm sculpts from the Bacchus Parthian range, but they will see service in the armies of Kommagene, the Ituraeans and the Kushan empire.

I painted this angry critter a few months ago, but have only just had the weather align with a moment of spare time to allow me to get him sprayed with matt varnish. I assume it's a him... maybe not. Who knows? Regardless, it's a badger from Krakon Games - part of their second Creatures Underground kickstarter.  In terms of Palaeo Diet - which is why he graced my painting table - he's a bit larger than I would have liked. In the picture below, you can see him with Herc who stands a good 22mm(ish) to the eye. The badger was intended to be a bulk 1 angry critter, but he may well end up being used as bulk 2 instead.

There may  have been a work meeting yesterday which resulted in me fiddling so much with a clicky pen that it broke. On the up side, I realised that there was a really easy way to create something approaching 6mm barbed wire. Nothing too sophisticated, but it'll work as 'dug in' markers for my Horizon Wars infantry squads.

Kapitän Johan Fuchs looked again at the map scrawled on the tattered paper in front of him. This should be the place - a small hamlet nestled between hills with a dilapidated stone church. The Hapsburg payroll was supposed to be inside the ruinous building, but the place was quiet. There were certainly no white-coated Austrians wandering around the place. Indeed, there didn't appear to be anybody wandering around at all. Maybe it was too quiet.  To the left, the ruined church which functioned as the Austrian deployment point and the objective for Fuch's Prussians. To the right, the Prussian deployment point in the woods. Playing Sharp Practice 2 ,  you never quite know who is going to activate first. The anonymous Austrians commanded by Brett kept having officer chits drawn out, but not deploying. Eventually I got an officer chit to, for Unteroffizier Shultz, my status I jäger seargent. who led his group straight up the right flank, through the woods. On the ...