Irregular Wars Wargaming

The experiences gained this year during the writing and production of Song of Shadows and Dust have left me with a hankering to create a heavily revised version or, more accurately, a successor game for Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End . Other than improved writing and production quality generally (and the option of ordering a hard copy of the rules) I am currently thinking about a number of rules revisions which I suspect will streamline the game. In the first instance, I feel like the new game would benefit from being more focused - probably on the Americas, with twenty-odd army lists for that theatre but with an appendix discussing how to apply the rules to other theatres and periods, perhaps with several examples - hoplites, Elizabethan Ireland, the 1804 Castle Hill convict rebellion, something like that. Keep in mind that all lists from the original game would be 100% compatible with the new version. The number of phases in the turn sequence might wel...

With the traditional Christmas slowdown in work (and current - hopefully temporary - unemployment) I've managed to snag quite a number of games over the last couple of weeks. Here is just a taster of the miniature madness. We played the largest game of  Hail Caesar  to date - six commands of Republican Romans (Brett and Conor at the helm) vs. three commands of Seleukids (myself) and four commands of Carthaginians (JB). A bloody affair and a stalemate which could have gone either way several times throughout the night. It was great to see the 17th century Hollanders and Colonial Spanish back on the table again having a go at each other. Don Brett and Herr Jim played an introductory game of  Irregular Wars  at the Wee Gamers' Bunker this week which seemed to go down quite well. The Spaniards had the upper hand from the very beginning with more success in the recruitment phase but the Dutch held on quite well. For a while.  I took my new Apollo ...

In the lead up to the festive season I just wanted to say a very big and heartfelt thank you to all those who have supported the development of Song of Shadows and Dust this year, especially to those of you who have gone out and bought a copy - either as a pdf or as a hard copy. While the author's cut of the profits has not quite been enough for me to by the holiday cottage in Donegal that I've had my eye on, it has enabled me to make a donation of £80 (approx. US$130) to the UNHCR Syria Crisis Urgent Appeal .  For me, 2013 has been a bad year. We lost our little daughter, Aoife,  in the summer and we have been left with a huge hole in our lives when there should have been such joy. However, there is some sadness and suffering that we as a community can do something to  mitigate. When I wrote SSD I decided that I would use the proceeds to do something to help some of the weakest and least fortunate. As I have said before, 50% of all royalties from sales...

This lovely not-quite-safe-for-work model is the second of my two kickstarter figures from Crocodile Games, Artemis. Although she is wearing a cheeky little number (in the most literal sense), Artemis is no easy girl around town. The mistress of animals and perpetual maiden, she doesn't take kindly to lads trying to eye her up. It certainly didn't end well for the last chap, Aktaion, who accidentally saw her having a bath. Turned into a stag so he was and attacked by his own hounds. Nasty.   Together, the divine twins Apollo and Artemis will be used as a two figure Song of Blades and Heroes warband. Their progress can be followed HERE .

Here stands the Crocodile Games Apollo in all his glory; well most of it - he is still wearing clothes thank the gods! As the poster-boy par excellence of the Greek pantheon, I guess it's only right that he strikes a pose.

The exciting news today (for me anyway) is that Song of Shadows and Dust is now also available as a paperback book through Amazon. It is published using the Amazon Createspace website which is also used to print hard copies of other Ganesha Games products. Buy it from Amazon (UK) Buy it from Amazon (USA) Buy it from Createspace (USA) Buy it from Amazon (Germany) Buy it from Amazon (France) Createspace/Amazon shipping is reasonably fast so orders placed in the next couple of days should reach your Christmas stocking before the big day! As a side note, a little procrastination shows that I've got a couple of other books up there too. Well worth a look if you're interested in such things. Divine kings and sacred spaces: power and religion in Hellenistic Syria (301-64 BC)   Coins from Asia Minor and the East: selections from the Colin E. Pitchfork collection

Now, I'm not one to get caught up in the excitement of kickstarters (on this matter, please ignore my previous post) but by golly I was impressed by the WarGods of Olympus kickstarter  from Crocidile Games which ran earlier this year. Once again, I was not sold on the game as such - not that I know much about it but I steer away from any game which requires miniatures from only select manufacturers - but I was sold on the figures themselves. I was one of 34 backers who signed up at the Painter x2 reward level which cost me US$30 and bought me two so-called demigods, pdfs of all Crocodile Games rule sets and any other specified bonuses that wanted to come my way should the project be funded. Well funded it was. In all, 544 people backed the kickstarter raising US$147,194 for the project. They set out looking for a minimum of USD$25,000, so I'd say that was something of a success. I decided to back the project because I have, in the past, found it hard to find aesthetically p...

I have been keeping an eye on the progress of West Wind Productions ' kickstarter for their new 15mm scale ancients game War & Empire . Now, I can't say that I am hugely interested in buying into their new ruels system as - for my big battle needs - I am having huge amounts of fun with my newly discovered game-I-never-knew-I-needed,  Hail Caesar . In the same vein, I have developed a real love affair with 6mm scale armies for big battles. However, I have been impressed generally with West Wind's preview sculpts that have been showcased. Here is just a taster, but there are many more on their websites and scattered across the interweb. So, why my sudden interest in the project if I am neither interested in the game they are selling nor the scale : game size ratio? Well, for their civilians of course. One can never have enough civilians and when one wants to brawl in alleyways - as one must! - then one must have enough civilians to brawl with. I have, over the cou...

Note that this post is picture heavy and may not be suitable for work computers (NSFW) or slower connections. Of course if you are reading this, you've already clicked on the link and it may be too late... This week saw the invasion of the Seleukid highland satarapy of Glenavia by the loathful lowland Romans. Although the general consensus around our way is that the points system in Hail Caesar is not necessarily capable of producing evenly matched games - the system was never intended for competition play - both forces were composed of roughly 330 points arranged in three divisions.  Why 330 points you ask? Because that is what I currently have painted and it allowed me to run a Seleukid army without any substitutions for the first time. "All trees present and accounted for sir!" The Seleukid crown prince aids in preparing the battlefield. The forced assemble and deploy - Seleukids screen left, Romans screen right. The Romans: Left - One Roman legion compo...