Irregular Wars Wargaming

One of the many, many , things that annoy me, is the appropriation of archaeological terms for new-age, self-help uitschot. The example in question - the so-called palaeo-diet - this strange premise that if we eat as our distant hunter-gatherer ancestors ate, we will live the full lives that they did.  That is to say:  having to kill stuff with your bare hands to live,  no penicillin, high infant mortality, poor life expectancy, spending every spare moment you have crafting tools to eek out your meagre existence,  competition with numerous dangerous creatures for scarce resources,  living constantly on the move as dictated by the weather and said scarce resources,  the constant fear that you have annoyed the sun and it will decide not to rise in the morning... Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but respect for our pre-pottery, pre-agriculture, pre-google ancestors; I just don't particularly want to live the life they had to in the name of a q...

It's been a little while since there has been an Irregular Wars post, but here are a couple of mid-game shots sent to me by Simon. The forces are Cossacks vs Koryaks, using Shahid Dadabhoy's Siberian campaign army lists. Shahid's lists are up on the Mick Yarrow website, where there are also appropriate 15mm ranges.

Along with my Flytrap Factory hunters, I picked up a small herd of mammoths. These mega grazers come in at about 45mm to the hump, just right for the diminutive hunters. In the recent Flytrap Factory Kickstarter they also released a larger mammoth model, to whom these guys could be calves I guess. Here is the herd together, along with a hunter for relative scale. They'll make a great wee feast some day ... and on that note, I wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy festive season!

Having only recently received my first order from Flytrap Factory , I forged ahead over the last week and painted up my first tribe of prehistoric hunters. Here they are on the glacial landscape of Black Mountain, ready to follow the migrating herds and hunt some mammoth. Bought on a whim, the tribe has already been used in some games of Tusk , and will certainly see use as a Song of Blades and Heroes warband, supported by a mammoth no doubt. Also, because I am an inveterated dabbler and tinkerer, I have started to play around with co-operative hunting rules of my own... I decided that this chap was clearly the head honcho. After all, he's shown explaining some notion to his tribe and he is wearing a tiger skin... This grizzled cavie makes a good second. The sculptor was clearly channeling both Ernest Hemingway and my father when he created this chap. The fire-bearer started life as another spearman, but after a little chopping and some flame sculpting by my mate...

Phase one of my French Indian War project is now finished up. I hope to get a few games of Song of Drums and Tomahawks and Sharp Practice 2  with these chaps in the new year and then get another 16 fusiliers to bring me up to a full force for SP2 . The redcoats are panted up to be from what would have been my local regiment, the 27th Inniskilling Fusiliers. In this uniform they served against the Jacobite uprising (1745-46) and against the French and Spanish in North America and the Caribbean from 1756-1767. They later returned to the colonies to take on the rebels during the American Revolution. Also featured are half a dozen civilians - one with a long barreled hunting rifle - and the dozen Mohawk whom I have shown previously.

The murmillo, Lycus, shifted his grip on the gladius as the humidity of the afternoon made his palms slick with sweat. So far, the bout had gone all his way. His opponent, Satyrus, was new to the arena, unsure of his own abilities, hampered by unfamiliar surroundings and the claustrophobic intensity of a thraex’s elaborate helm in the full heat of the sun. Nevertheless, he moved fast, that thraex. The razor-sharp edge of his wicked, curved, blade had come close lacerating Lycus’ shining torso a number of times. Only the murmillo’s months of drill had allowed him to bring around his mighty shield just in time to save his skin. A lucky jab had allowed Lycus to draw the first blood of the bout. Satyrus was bleeding, but was not so hurt that it would greatly impact the rest of the fight. The crowd were roaring now – cheering Lycus on to continue his attack, driving him, compelling him to stay on the offensive. How long would he be able to keep it up though? How long before Satyr...

I had my first game using Wessex Games' mammoth hunting rules  Tusk  this week, or rather, the wee lad played his first ever wargame this week - he played Tusk with me attempting to guide the game. The game has great potential, and was (almost) easy enough for an (almost) six year old to follow without too much trouble. However... I'm not convinced that the layout of the pdf version of the rules (from Wargame Vault) does the game any favours. There are certainly a few areas that could be written more clearly - the whole fire section for instance. I'm not sure we 'did' fire properly in our game and ended up with quite a conflagration in one corner of the board for a while. I'm honestly not sure whether a single page QRS would solve the few issues, or if it is best just to play house rules/understandings. Having a little bit of experience crafting rules now, it was a struggle to stop my mind racing off thinking about how I might do things differently... ...

Well that happened sooner than expected! What a wonderful surprise, to come home after a head-melter of a day's work to find a wee package waiting for me from DriveThru Cards.  Upon opening it, I was delighted to see my proof deck of cards for Blood, Sweat and Cheers . Above you can see the whole pack laid out excitedly - if amateurishly - on the table. In the centre is the six-card arena so that players can get stuck straight into the game without having to call in the set designers from Ridley Scot's Gladiator . Below that are two cards abstracting the mood or favour of the crowd into a linear tracking system. To either side are reference cards so players do not have to refer to the two-page rule sheet once a bout has commenced. The rainbow selection at the top right of the photo are the gladiator cards, each outlining attributes and two special actions unique to each gladiator type. To the right is the play deck of 40 cards (showing three example cards) which are dealt t...

We played a massive 30 presence game of Horizon Wars this week. Technically it was one 30P vs two allied 15P forces. I need to stress that, because my 30P of European Empire troops lost. Barely. I blame the extra free CHQ unit they had. No other reason. None at all. :) It was a really fun, three turn game actually, very closely fought. We had three objective markers with blind victory points, one worth I, one worth II and one worth IV points. My heavy infantry battle group was very aggressive and held all three objective for much of the game. They took a real mauling for their trouble too. Some late enemy parra-drops managed to size control of one objective at literally the last minute, and it turned out to be the one worth IV points. So... defeat from the jaws of victory once more!

A good gaming pal, terrain builder extraordinaire and all round enjoyable foe has recently had a bit of a health scare (a 'shot across the bows' as he puts it) and is off work for a little while. Helping to fill his day, as well as get myself away from the home office, I gave him a visit this week, and got in a quick game of  Of Gods and Mortals  while I was there. We opted for a 1000 point game - 100 points larger than the recommended game size. Both of us packed out our forces with mortal units, each using only two legends and our gods. This really changed the dynamic of the game a bit making it more of a 'conventional' game if you like, placing more emphasis on units and less on rampaging rogue heroes. I had a vaguely modeled notion to field Macedonians, patronised by Athena (with her daddy's lightning, but without the aegis). As legends I had Herakles and a harpy, supported by 8x Macedonian hypaspists, 6x undead hoplites, 4x Satyr archers, 4x Centaur archers...

Blood Sweat and Cheers has made it into it's final version and a proof copy of the deck has been ordered. However, due to how long it will take for the proofs to reach me, there is no point holding out for a release before the end of the year. Presuming there are no problems with the proofs, I would expect the game to be available from the start of 2017. Above is a shot from one of the playtesters in Australia. This was taken with a penultimate version of the rules which micro-managed movement. In the final version, the area is divided into 12 zones with movement abstracted by zone. It makes for a much more fluid game and removes unnecessary beardiness from the game. The deck will include six cards which will fit together to form an arena straight out of the pack, so all you'll really need to invest in before your first game is some gladiators. Of course, there is nothing to stop you modelling an arena (I have done so myself), but zones would have to be superimposed...

My small order from Flytrap Factory arrived yesterday having sat in HM's Customs for far too long. I have to say that I am absolutely delighted with them. I bought one pack of five prehistoric hunters (one-piece white metal castings) and three mammoths (resin with white metal tusks). Despite being very busy with work, I immediately stuck them on magnetised bases awaiting an undercoat (of which I am temporarily out). As you can see, all sculpts are unique and conform to a fun, exaggerated style. The chap on the right of the lower picture there comes with a full length spear but I 'amended' it ahead of converting his spear into a flaming torch. These first release cavemen are about 20mm to the tops of their heavy-browed heads. The mammoth pack also comes with three unique sculpts and two different tusk shapes so there is potential for a fair bit of variation in your herd. They come to about 40mm to the top of the hump. Now, I love these chaps, and they are desti...