Irregular Wars Wargaming

We have been playing around with a few ideas for naval actions to accompany the Irregular Wars land actions rules. Further details will be forthcoming (later...) but for now I just thought to post a couple of pretty pictures. Ships are 1:1200 scale 16th century vessels from Valiant Enterprises. Here are the ships that have been painted up to serve Good Queen Bess: The large galleon and flagship,  Lady Jane Seymour . The galleon,  Tudor Rose . The pinnace,  Swiftsure .

This was the first army I painted when I started up wargaming again last year. The paint scheme was simple so they turned out ok, but I think I've improved a little since then. They were bought to be the foil for my Seleukids - and have a surprising success rate. The figures are 15mm Xyston, the tent is Baueda. I wanted to run an army of Ituraeans, an Arab group who controlled the Beqqa valley and much of the surrounding highlands (Lebanon, Antilebanon, Gaulan, Auranitis, Trachiontis etc) during the later part of the Hellenistic period. The historical sources are all rather hostile, but its quite clear that they were a major power of the Levant in the 1st century BC. From c.115-20 BC, the Ituraeans fought and allied with the Seleukids, Hasmonaeans, Nabataeans and autonomous cities, to a lesser degree against the Romans, and almost certainly with Emesa and the nomadic Arabic Skenitai. They are one of the more important states to be considered not important enough by WRG to...

Duchess  of  Cheddar’s  Own  Fusiliers The disciplined rodents of the 4 th “Duchess of Cheddar’s Own” Fusiliers are called upon for all manner of ‘special’ operations. High mortality rates means there is no need for names – these lads fight hard and die young in the service of Cheddar. The figures are 10mm Pendraken miniatures from the League of Ratsburg range but I use them for 28mm games – they are rats after all. Battle honours Opponent                     victories           losses Orcs                                1                      0 Total              ...

Ballygobackwards  Yeomanry Here stand the proud fellows of the Ballygobackwards Yeomanry. They are a generic 'little peoples' militia from the sleepy hamlet of Ballygobackwards led by the local judge whose name just happens to be the same as my favourite beer.... The scale is 28mm although none of my lads reach that esteemed height.  They are a mix of Hasselfree, Heresy, Reaper and Alternative Armies. I felt compelled to give them a pink and green colour scheme, but I'd like to think that it works... Battle honours Opponent                     victories           losses Savage orcs                      0                      1 Goblins  ...

I have mocked up a test map for a campaign based on the rebellion of the Geraldines of Desmond. This is only the first trial, separating Ireland into 20 territories (apologies if I have offended any patriots by leaving out their favorite sept!) but hopefully it will help show the way the campaign mechanics might work.

The bulwark of Seleukid power was the military, particularly the royal army. The support of the army enabled Seleukos I to establish himself first as satrap of Babylon and later as king – none of his successors were able to maintain their position without the army’s support. As a body, the army provides a second insight into the ethnic composition of the population living under the kings. Unfortunately the extant historical sources, deficient at the best of times in regards to the Seleukids, provide the modern scholar with only three detailed breakdowns (listing nationalities and numbers) of the Seleukid order of battle. Of these, two represent the army in pitched battle (Raphia, 217 BC and Magnesia, 190 BC), the other is a description of a festive military parade (Daphne, 167 BC). That said, the three examples taken together can be used to extract a great deal of information regarding the sources of manpower in the royal army during the late third and early second centuries BC. ...

The 'elite', but irregular, forces of the VOC ( Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie  = Free [Dutch] East India Company), based up for Irregular Wars . This is quite an effective little battle, but it does suffer from being quite small - a maximum of 10 companies. Scale is 15mm, all foot figures are Grumpy, the mounted are Essex. Merchant adventurers (1); trained shot (d3);  ruijters (1);  halberdiers (d2);  native scouts (d2);  ship's guns (1).

Here is my late Seleukid DBA army - this was the army which sucked me back into wargaming. They are 15mm, the figures are Xyston, the tent is Baueda. I rarely win with them, but that's ok - I'm devoted to the history not the victories....  <holding back tears> 1x4Kn (Gen), 1x4Kn, 1x2LH, 1x4Bd, 4x4Pk, 1x4Ax, 3x2 Ps. The latest Seleukid list covers the period 166-83 BC. The dates really do seem very arbitrary - the start date is in the middle of the reign of Antiochos IV Epiphanies, and the end date is 19 years before the end of the Seleukid kingdom. It used to be believed that the Seleukid territories were conquered by Tigranes II in 83 BC, but it has now been established that he did not take Antioch until 75/4 BC, Damascus (which was probably the capital of Kleopatra Selene and Antiochos XIII) until 72 BC, or Ake-Ptolemais until 69 BC. The Seleukids were then re-installed in Antioch from 69-64 BC. Never mind. DBA is an abstract enough system that I suppose real dates ...

Here are a few pictures of my Irish battle for Irregular Wars. There are actually the two compulsory types shown along with six options, so they wouldn't all be fielded together under normal circumstances. The figures are all 15mm. Mainly Essex but with a couple of Freikorp15 kern and a single Peter Pig pirate-queen as a stand in Grace O'Malley (should the need arise). The full rising. I wanted a really irregular feel to these guys, so no sense of uniformity - but I felt that they still needed some sense of identity. I chose the Irish harp as my 'badge' and put it on both flags and all the Irish shields. I know that it wasn't the universal symbol of Irish nationalism like it is today, but it added a nice touch of overt Irish-ness to the battle. The lord and his galloglasses. The kern of the rising out. Irish horse. Bonnachts or alternative galloglasses (with the O'Malley 'lord'). Priest and redshanks. Spanish targeteers.