Irregular Wars Wargaming

A little while ago the lure of doing some Barbary corsairs for Galleys & Galleons grew far too strong and I succumbed, ordering some Mediterranean galleys from Skytrex. However, the vessel type which I really wanted in my little fleet of corsairs was a xebec, a sexy wee lateen rigged thing with curves in all the right places. As I have posted before ( HERE and then HERE ) I ended up ordering a schooner from Peter Pig and sat down with some blue tac and some spare galley sails to create this: She wasn't yet a beauty, but you could already see the ship she might grow up to be. Well I could anyway. Not entirely happy with the way she was going, I shipped her off to my mate JB who whipped her into shape. Now she was starting to look pretty fine, She certainly turn  heads wherever she went and I was pretty pleased with the outcome (understatement). I finally got her painted up last week. While I'm happy with the final product, I freely admit that sails are, in fa...

Three of us got together this weekend for a couple of three player Galleys & Galleons games. I'm really pleased with how robust the rules are proving to be and much anguish and laughter was enjoyed (in equal measure) by all involved. Both games had 600 points worth of models on the table - the recommended game size is 400 points total - and took between an hour and a half or two hours. All photos are mediocre to say the least. The first game was a king-of-the-hill type scenario where multiple pirate captains vied to have their vessels as close to the centre of the table as possible. The fleets on the table in this game were the VOC merchant fleet, some Madagascar pirates and some Barbary corsairs. Starting positions. The games were played on a 4 foot square board using 1/450 scale (4mm) vessels. The VOC as in the lower left, pirates in the upper left and corsairs upper right. It was the first outing for the new sea mat and the creases from the pack are very obvious. Fo...

I just wanted to draw everyone's attention to the fine work of YoyoSkywalker, AKA Lionel. He has a great blog which does well to remind all us Anglophones that the world of wargaming is larger than just the UK, North America and the ANZACs. Lionel's been playing some  Irregular Wars  in a Central American setting with his own Zapotecs mixing it up against Conquistadors and other Mesoamericans.  Check his blog out HERE . In addition, he's also prepared a French translation of the Irregular Wars 2nd edition quick reference sheets. If you're more comfortable with French than English, I'd advise you to pop over and download a copy when he gets it posted!

I finally got a chance to paint the last of my 200 point Dutch fleet for Galleys & Galleons this morning (blessed be St Patrick and his most public of holidays). I've had the first four ships waiting around for what seems like an age now, but here they are all together: a merchant fleet in the employment of the VOC - the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (United East Inida Company). In order of size from largest to smallest we have: The indiaman Brabant - 52 points Q3; C4; Chaser guns, Galleon rigged, Merchantman, Veteran NCO The cromster Haarlem - 48 points Q3; C3; Galleon rigged, Master Gunner, Merchantman, Shallow draft, Yare The sloop Nassau - 63 points Q2; C2; Galleon rigged, Razée, Shallow draft, Yare The junks Tea Chest (red sails) and Peppercorn (yellow sails) - 16 points a piece Q3; C2; Lateen rigged, Merchantman, Reinforced hull Next on the painting agenda, my Barbary Corsairs (four vessels), and a wee sea deity to mix things up a little. The rules are co...

I had a crushing, woeful, game of Hail Caesar this weekend which saw my entire force of Seleukids pitted against Conor's entire collection of Hellenistic Spartans. From start to finish I rolled very poorly and my damned cavalry refused to move all game - except when they were running away disordered from Spartan javelins and artillery.  The photos - all pretty bad quality I'm afraid - show the game in progress. It was great seeing so many wee men on the table; even if the table itself lacked a green cloth for this game. In short, my  left wing light division with light artillery failed to inflict any damage on the advancing Spartan pike division, despite 9 dice each turn for shooting.  The division of Arab allies took the town early one but suffered badly at the hands of unreformed Spartiate hoplites (outside the town) and chronic Cretan archery (inside the town).  The skirmishing cavalry division on the left fla...

They say a picture speaks a thousand words - this one must be only 1/10th of a picture.

I mentioned last month that I was entering a unit of Romano-British cavalry in this years painting comp over at the Pendraken Forum . Well the judges votes have been cast and counted. I'm absolutely honoured - and a little humbled - to have placed second (tied with Joshua from Le Coq Fou ). There were some great mounted entries there and I really thought I didn't have a chance this year. I'd like to sincerely congratulate everyone who entered, and organised the competition, it was another great year! Below I show a few images of some of this year's entrants to give an idea of the quality of Pendraken sculpts, and the skill of some of the painters.