Irregular Wars Wargaming

After numerous and continuous defeats, the Duchess of Cheddar's Own Regiment of Foote (a warband for Ganesha Games' Song of Blades and Heroes rules system) was disbanded a few months ago. I couldn't quite decide what to do with my painted raties but have now settled down to rebase them for WRG's Hordes of the Things , a DBA derived fantasy game. Version 2.0 of the rules have been long out of print and may be downloaded free from the WRG website SEE HERE . I have put painted up a few more rats to put two full regiments of foote (1x spear, 2x shooter) in the field and put in an order at Pendraken for some League of Ratsburg dragoons (1x riders),  artillery (1x artillery) and a Dwarven steam-powered armoured car which I will convert into the Ducal battle wagon (1x behemoth).  The last element that I wanted for my new Grand Duchy of Cheddar HotT army was an airboat. I set about constructing more or less one from scratch as there was nothing which really suited the feel t...

Work has been a bit hectic and I've not had much time for painting recently. The little time I have had has been devoted to working on the new battle lists and scenario rules for Irregular Wars . However, this weekend I managed (with the welcome assistance from the wife) to get a couple of companies finished up and ready to be previewed. The first doughty warriors are three companies of Indian mercenaries to join Don Diego Diablo del Mar in his struggle to maintain order in His Most Catholic Majesty's possessions in the Caribbean. The figures are 15mm Essex Aztec Cuachics. I did a simple head swap to give their captain a morion helmet - evidence among his own people of his pro-Dago status. These noble savages will join the battle started  HERE. Opposing Don Diego are the savage savages from the Caribbean coasts and islands. The main battle is featured  HERE.  Sneeking down from their hideouts to help in the fight against Spanish oppression are two more companie...

I'm pleased to introduce the prototype Satyr warband for Song of Blades and Heroes by Ganesha Games. I decided to start with a smaller warband of higher quality characters (after all, it requires less painting). I have more models with hand weapons in my lead pile, but I'll see how these little chaps perform first. The Satyrs are all Eureka (panpipes added to Pan as a small conversion), the Dryad is Shadowforge. The warband as it stands: Pan; Q3 C3 (100pts) Hero, Forester, Mountaineer, Terror, Unique Phoebe the Dryad; Q3 C2 (56 pts) Entangle, Forester Satyr archers (x3); Q3 C3 (48pts each) Forester, Mountaineer, Shooter: Medium All Satyrs have both the 'mountaineer' and 'forester' special abilities to reflect their sylvian habitat. The dryad model has legs that turn into roots at the feet and I liked the idea of her being able to make roots or plant matter spring up out of the ground to entangle her foes and so gave her the 'entangle' abil...

At MOAB this year I finally submitted to my long-time desire and picked up a few 28mm Eureka satyrs and a Shadowforge dryad. I'll use them for  SBH  for now, and for the Greek Myth version,  Song of Gods and Heroes ,   when it is finally written. The 'satyrs' are technically  Panes , the twelve Pan-esque nature spirits, Greek  Satyrs  having human legs an horses tails, but I'm happy to go with 'satyrs'. Note that the pictures below are from the respective manufacturers' websites. Pan Satyr spearmen Satyrs with hand weapons Satyr archers Dryads Not sure whether I want more of less satyrs for  SBH . I tend to find that less (with higher Q) is more in the game, but my provisional lists are as follows:  <SBH warband builder HERE> ;Arkadians Pan;100;3;3;true;Hero,Forester,Mountaineer,Terror,Unique;; Satyr archer;48;3;3;false;Forester,Mountaineer,Shooter: Medium;; Satyr archer;48;3;3;false;Forester,Mountaineer,Shooter: Me...

The Southern Battle Gamers host MOAB (Mother of all Battlegames) over the three-day October long weekend each year  (see HERE) . This year I was only able to attend the Saturday and took part in the DBA historical matched pairs competition. On the Sunday there was a AD 1067 campaign, but I was pre-booked to drink bier and eat suspiciously shaped German sausages to welcome in Oktober... The main hall early on Saturday morning... before it got rowdy. The many many MOAB events take place over three floors of a gymnasium/hall/basketball court. The main floor including stage (pictured), a mezzanine (sort of in the picture), a basement and a bunch of rooms out the back. All manner of games are on offer as competitions, for demonstrations and participation. No Conflict at the World's End this year, but I might see if we can't have a couple of games on the go next year. In the historic matched pairs competition I managed to scrape into 9th place out of ten entrants. No...

Antiochos VIII Grypos (Hooknose) 125-96 BC As most DBA players would be aware, evolving lists have been posted and made available through Fanaticus ( HERE somewhere ) for some time now. Back in July, I caught on to this and had a look at the Seleukid list (II/19) to see what changes had occurred and was relatively pleased with some things, rather concerned by others. I shot off the following email to Sue Laflin-Barker   at WRG: Dear Sue, Apologies for not being in touch sooner. I have been snowed under with work (and fatherhood) over the last six months and have only just seen the suggested DBA 3.0 army lists. I have a couple of comments or suggestions for the Seleukid lists (II/19) that I feel qualified to make. i) While I'm glad to see the Seleukid list finally being continued dow to the date of Pompey's dissolution of the Sleukid kingdom, the event happened in 64 BC, not 69 BC. ii) Sekunda's volume on the Seleukid army is very flawed and not regarded very highly am...

I have recently started work on a new battle of Colonial Spanish (using the less vicious post-1617 list) to compliment my Hollanders ( HERE and HERE ) and Caribbean Indians ( HERE ). Most of my original figures who were flagged as Spanish have since been absorbed into other lists. Finding time to paint at the moment is difficult so the completion date for these little chaps is estimated at 'some time in the future'.  As a starter army, His Most Catholic Majesty's man in the New World (Don Diego Diablo del Mar), will include the two compulsory company types: d2 Herreruelos  2 Militia pike I've then gone with five of the possible options the provide a limited amount of adaptability: d3 Militia shot d3 Armed mobs* 1 War-dogs* d3 Indian mercenaries 1 Saker* * completed The scale is 15mm using a greater variety of brands than I'm usually prone to - a mix of Grumpy, Essex, Museum and Peter Pig. The armed colonists, rallying to defend their settlements...

An after action report of Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End : It was all looking so well for the Hollander lord, Colonel Clijsters. En-route to the East Indies, he brought his small flotilla across to the Caribbean to stock up on fresh perishables, tobacco and the odd golden trinket which may or may not have held significance to the hapless indigenes.  Landing a small expeditionary force of a group of merchant adventurers,  two companies of trained shot, a company of mercenary halberdiers, two batteries of ship's guns and a personal retinue of ruijters, Clijsters established a beachhead on a small hillock within cannon shot of the shore. Before he had a chance to send out scouts to make contact with the poxy natives, he started to feel like he was being watched... "There aren't many of them sir - this might be a fore gone conclusion."  As the engagement opened, only three companies of Caribbean natives were visible to the Hollanders...

The Royal English battle arrayed Here are a few shots of the main infantry forces for the Royal English - the English mounted and longbowmen were previously previewed  HERE . All figures are Essex, a mixed selection from their 15mm 16th century and ECW ranges. I added the ECW figures to a) provide a bit more variety as far as poses are concerned and b) to try to give them a very late 16th centruy (O'Neill's rebellion-ish period) look. The colour concept was to have the demi-lancers, border horse, billmen, longbowmen and artillery in a red and green (Tudor) livery, while the pike militia and plantation militia are in greys, browns and blue. I think they came up alright. The Queen's billmen Saker Militia from the English plantations Finally, here are a few 15mm Irregular sheep and lambs. Irregular's range of animals is quite extensive. I used their goats for my DBA Paionian camp and I liked the figures very much. Unfortunately their she...