Irregular Wars Wargaming

Over the course of the year I've been slowly working on some old (mostly) 2nd edition 40K Space Marine scouts and a chaplain. These likely lads have been painted up to join with my much more recent subversive Irish marines, the Éireannach Preservers . However, if fielded with a squad of ratlings from the Flores Minor Ranger Corp , there are 500 points of 2nd edition Warhammer 40K recon goodness. Ah yes, 2nd edition - back in the good aul days when the grimdark of the war-torn future was a lot more tongue-in-cheek.   Scout squad with swords and bolt pistols, with one lad with a heavy bolter. Scout squad with shotguns and sniper rifles. I believe the lad with the shotgun on the far left is actually 3rd edition (if still dating from the 1990s).  The Brother Chaplain is good aul craic.

And now for something a little different. I was contacted by Chris B recently who let me know that he'd played some Devilry Afoot on Table Top Simulator. While I'm aware of Table Top Simulator, I'm a bit analogue and have never used it, so I asked Chris how it worked and his thoughts. He graciously allowed me to share them, and a few pictures of his game. Chris begins:  Long story short, TTS does not handle the mechanics. TTS is "just" a physics engine that lets you move objects around on a table. That is a very simplified answer.  It has built in dice rollers and decks of cards. It has bags you can put tokens in, and then draw out randomly. And it has a ton of other built in functions that you can go nuts with if you are a tech wizard. And it lets you import your own game assets, which is wild. And there is a massive library of community made stuff. Some of it is a bit questionable on the copyright front.... And it is a bit of a mud pile. Some of it is great. So...

I had a nice little mid-week game of Ilium: A Game of Heroes this week when Mrs Irregular Wars decided she wanted a go and we had a skirmish fought on the Trojan plain between the opposing lines of massed soldiery. Opting to go with Achaean blue, she started the skirmish with Idomeneus, king of Crete (top centre), and Machaon, Lord of Trikka (top left), on the board. They faced off against my red Trojans, running the Trojan prince, Helenos (bottom centre), and his cousin, the Dardanian prince Aeneas (bottom right).  At the outset, Trojan archer made a mockery of the Achaean shield-bearers, dropping two and having an arrow ricochet of a third to hit Idomeneus, causing three gruesome wounds. Machaon dashed forward to assist Idomeneus and heal two of his wounds, before the wounded Cretan king led his promachoi forward, hurling his own spear to wound Helenos, but otherwise having little impact.  Aeneas led his Dardanians forward and laid waste to the Cretan promachoi before them....

As sleep descended on the Trojan camp outside the walls, only the occasional cough from the sentries broke the silence. But out in the darkness, among the wild dogs, Achaean sea wolves stalked the night. This week Andrew and I gave the Night Mission scenario for Ilium: A Game of Heroes a run through. Based very heavily on book 10 of the Iliad , it sees two heroes set out in the darkness to attack the enemy camp and steal a team of horses. Andrew ran Odysseus and Diomedes (bottom of the picture), sneaking into the camp near the contingents of Sarpedon, Asteropaios and Aeneas. All of the prone models are asleep, with only a single promachos from each contingent keeping watch.  The three sentries have restricted actions and a maximum move of 4" per turn. As Diomedes and Odysseus made straight for the chariot in the centre of the camp, the Lykian sentry (keeping guard for Sarpedon) was alerted and called the alarm, waking most of his own contingent and even the closest Paionians from...

We return once again to our man in the Indies, Mark, for another dispatch. ***** Encouraged by the success of the Maluku Strait operation (Sep 2025) An-te Hai (Admiral of the Tribute-Bearing Fleets, Ming commander in the Indies) started a blockade of the KhiNok Islands. With the mothership Peony Pavilion parked at a convenient but hidden location he can keep one submersible on station at a time. Malakka had anticipated the Chinese move and augmented the small naval presence at the KhiNoks with some experimental aerial units which can - up to a point - spot and bomb submersibles in these clear shallow waters. The arrival of the Santa Isabella da Goa, inbound from the Moluccas laden with spices, brought matters to a head. The Ming blockading force (62 points) comprised - Zuhong Liyu (Vermilion Carp) (62) (Captain Wang Yi) Q3 C3: Ramming, Sluggish, Submersible, Unarmed, Unorthodox 3 x blinds, marking the possible positions of the submersible while submerged. The Portuguese defensive f...

This week Roger B and I took Ilium: A Game of Heroes out for another spin at Clare Gaming. I gave Roger the choice of sides and he decided 'filthy sea wolves' sounded like the force for him, so I was playing the noble Trojans once more. He started with Idomeneus, king of Crete (top centre), and Menestheus, king of Athens (top right), while I had two Trojan allies, Sarpedon, king of Lykia (bottom centre), and Asteropaios, Lord of Paionia (bottom left). I wanted to leave a pathway oven for Aeneas to arrive in his chariot leading the Trojan reinforcements, so weighted my starting contingents on the left of the field. Roger swarmed his Achaeans towards the Trojans, leaving many potential targets to be over-run. In due course, Aeneas arrived, mounted in his chariot at the head of the Trojan reinforcements. With surprisingly good dice rolls (given all the other rolling of the evening, it was quite remarkable), every Achaean in the path of the chariot leapt out of the way to safety! ...

Two more whacky wargears completed for the super secret "beer and pretzels" project underway. The goblin bike is made from parts of an utterly charming 3D printed set of multipart bikes from Mezgike Miniatures. For now I only need one, but there are pieces there to make four more unique little gobbos and it is quite tempting! The walker is another multipart 3D printed kit, this time from Filamentio, with a couple of transfers from ForgottenChapters.

It is the tenth year of the Achaean war with Troy. The loss of Hektor has brought the Trojans low but, from the East, Penthesileia has arrived with a contingent of fierce Amazonian warriors and archers, rallying to the Trojan cause . On the plain between the city walls and the Achaean camp, the rival armies muster. Between the lines of the massed fighters, a number of heroes and their selected promachoi range about, seeking honour and the chance to inspire their forces with deeds of great glory. On one dusty part of the plain, the contingents of Helenos, prince of Troy, and Penthesileia, the Amazonian queen, advance as a compact body. Opposed to them, Menestheus, King of Athens, and Idomeneus, King of Crete advance more slowly. Early shooting by the Trojan promachoi archers proves accurate, as the warriors of Menestheus start to fall. Seeing his favourites in difficulty, Poseidon assumes human form and stalks across the plain to take up position next to Idomeneus, replacing one of the ...