Irregular Wars Wargaming

Well I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I bought Mighty Monsters and Samurai Robots Battle Royale from Ganesha Games (I got them together in a US$14 pdf bundle). Last night I had my first couple of games and you know what? I have two regrets.  The first is that I didn't invest in the hard copy books - because lets admit it, a book is always nicer than pages you printed at home. The second, is that I waited this long to play the games. They were, genuinely, a real laugh. The lads I played with and against were top quality chaps anyway, but the rules really bring the giant stomping monsters and mechs to life and make destruction and havoc a real blast (mind the pun)! It's the sort of destructive fun that my generation haven't had since the 1986 arcade game Rampage . In both games I took the much shot at Mantis, my chitinous kaiju based on a giant praying mantis. In the first game Mantis was in a one-on-one duel with IRN Mech. While Mantis is very powerful...

I am finally gearing up to have my first few games of Mighty Monsters and its sister game, Samurai Robots Battle Royale, this week. I have previously posted a couple of models for these games, IRN Mech and Mantis, but I have rebased them, so I thought I would repost them now, together with their com-padres, an ISIS Response Force and Dagan.  As readers of this blog will know, I am a bit fond of my historical wargames and only branch into fantasy gaming these days via Song of Blades and Heroes (of which I am a card-carrying fanboy). For me, MM and SRBR  - from the Ganesha Games family - will mark my first foray into sci-fi gaming for almost 20 years. I did have a Warhammer 40K army back in the days of 3rd edition but I lost the love for that sort of game a long time ago.  Even though I gave up on sci-fi games, I've always enjoyed Star Wars (at least the good ones) and Pacific Rim , in my opinion, rocked. It was the latter movie which compelled me to give these gam...

I enjoyed another fine afternoon of wargaming today with a game of 6mm Hail Caesar  chased down by a great playtest of the 2nd edition of Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End . In the first game I took an overwhelmingly superior Seleukid army (superior in both numbers and, for the most part, quality) against some Hellenistic Spartans. The Spartans were tasked with defending a fordable river while my boys were required to force a crossing. We were playing on a very narrow front so my numbers were somewhat obsolete. In the shot above you can see Conor's Spartans moving up to defend the river.  He made a bit of a gaff by sending his lighter thureophoroi to take control of the hill and left some of his heavy ex-helot and Periokoi pike units to hold the wood on his right. I pushed a light division of infantry towards the  wood and some light cavalry towards  my extreme right, to head around the hill. Sending my light infantry across the rive...