Irregular Wars Wargaming

Over at the Lead Adventure Forum , Fred has posted a great little right up of a double sized game of Irregular Wars , pitting two forces of Royal English against a pair of Mogul armies. It was so good to see that I repost it here (with permission). This is from some months ago, so details are a bit vague, but I have a good few pictures! The forces arrayed were Royal English vs Moguls - not something you would expect for a good few hundred years more!. We wanted a big game, and matched the armies to availability of figures, rather than historical likelihood. The Royal English were represented by 10mm WM Empire figures, the Moguls by a mix of Araby and Goblin figures (hey, it worked as a game, no matter how odd it seems written down now!!). We had 4 companies per side, I was commanding two of the Royal English companies, one blue, one red. The Mogul commander took huge amounts of the very cheap Hindu Levy - he tends to favour cheap tat. My troops crest the hills while the Mogul...

Finally, after a bit of a wait, I have hard copies of Faustus Furius in my hands. And oh my, but they are lovely! Above you can see the Italian version on the left, and English versions on the right.

I decided late last year to create a Saxon army for Dux Bellorum . I already had two units of Saxons painted up with a blue, white and black theme in my predominantly red white and black Romano-British army of Rheged, so that was always going to be my jumping off point. However, depriving Rheged of it's foederati meant that I would have to find new, stout men of the northwest to reinforce the depleted army. I have previously posted these gents, another unit of noble riders, bringing me up to the maximum of three units in the army. This weekend I finished off another shieldwall of common spearmen. They will compliment the only other remaining unit of Romano-British shieldwall left in the army (below). Of course, should I decided to take a more stolid army against those raving Hibernians, I can always invite the Saxon spearmen back on a short term contractual basis, doubling my pool of available infantry. I have already bought, divided and undercoated my remaining six war...

Avast! Fayre Winds & Foul Tides , the expansion volume for Galleys & Galleons is now available as a 6"x9" softcover from both Amazon and Lulu . If you haven't already heard about it,  Fayre Winds & Foul Tides   provides everything you need the bravely sail beyond the Seven Seas. New special rules  -  FWFT  introduces 51 new special rules to further customise your fleets, including traitorous captains, mutinous crews, indirect fire and ironclads. New terrain  - The seas just got more dangerous with a range of new terrain features including icebergs, volcanoes and assorted native islanders.  Advanced rules for flyers  - Take the fight to the skies with advanced flying rules and new types of flyers, from da Vinci inspired ornithopters and lace-pulp airships, to dragons, gryphons and flying carpets. Magic  - The tides of magic cause additional waves on the tabletop with new rules for shipborne sorcerers and magical creatures...

Ralph over at the Wargaming in Central Oregon blog has been in contact to let me know about his fantastic East African campaign using Irregular Wars . He already has    Portuguese, Zanj (also can be Omans when camels/horse included), Interior Native, Ming and Ottoman armies painted up, with Abyssinians on the way. In the photo above, Zanj forces (left) launch their attack on the Portuguese of Lord Renaldo (right). The blog is well worth a read with characterful battle reports that draw you in and create a great little narrative. If you are interested in the flow chart he uses to streamline campaign decisions and resources, it can be found HERE . 

Although my existing European Empire battle group for Horizon Wars contains more elements that I can realistically use in a single game, I wanted to play around with other force types and compositions. With that aim in mind I have created the Elysium Trading Corporation's military division, the Pegasus Force. The infantry are Onslaught neo-shinobi, the artillery are... I can't quite remember. The mech is my old favourite, IRN Mech ! As with all my Horizon Wars stuff, these will also work for Mighty Monsters/Samurai Robots Battle Royale.

There are two nice little AARs for Galleys & Galleons up on the Stronghold blog . Well worth a read for people interested in joining the crew!

On the first day of 2017, the army of the Macedonians in Asia, led by Antiochos, the Great King, and supported by sundry indigenous national contingents, confronted an invasion force of western barbarians led by the arch-tyrant Scipio himself. The rules were  L'Art de la Guerre , with 200 point 6mm armies, based on 40mm bases. I forgot to bring my camera, so all images have gracefully been supplied by Imperator Brett who was fielding the western barbarians, otherwise know as the Romans. The Romans deployed with a command of Gallic cavalry supported by Gallic warbands on the left, an elite legion in the centre (led by Scipio himself!), and a regular legion on the right. Facing them, by Seleukids had a mixed command of elite heavy cavalry, horse archers, Galatian warbands and Cretan archers on the right led by Antiochos, a pike block supported by elite elephants in the centre, and a weaker command of archers, scythed chariots and heavy cavalry on the left facing the Roman ...