Irregular Wars Wargaming

The last core element for playtesting Palaeo Diet: Eat or be Eaten is the pack predators. Here I have opted for a pride of four DeeZee large cats. They are sold as 'Jaguars, Leopards or Pumas', but given their size in relation to my wee hunters, I have painted them up (not very well I admit) as cave lions. The figures are very affordable and the sculpts aren't bad.  In game terms, pack predators are highly strung beasts that are as likely to run away, or to lunge for the jugular. We are currently testing out a reaction that will see predators attack other beasts as well to keep the interactions dynamic. We'll see how it works.

I still have a couple of groups of eight fusiliers to do for my 'Skillings, but in preparation for a learning game of Sharp Practice 2 this week I have finished up my commanding officer, an ensign bearing the regimental colours, a drummer and a reverend. All are 15mm Blue Moon figures. By the time I am done, my base force will be the better half of a company of the 27th Inniskillings along with a scouting party of a dozen Mohawk and a clutch of civilians. I know that, even then, it is unlikely that such a group would ever have had custody of the regimental colours, but... it'll look nice to occasionally pop it out on the table. *EDIT* Below are a couple of photos from my introductory game of SP2 . We only had small forces, three groups on my side, and four groups on the French-Indian side. This is not the place for a full review of the rules - I'd like to understand them better first - but it was a fun wee game in which Captain Hotspur gave the Frog a bloody nose

Keith Finn (of Orca Finn Basement ) has just posted a report of his replay of the Diadochic battle of Salamis (the one off Cyprus in 306 BC, not the Persian Wars one).  This looks to have been a fairly massive game with three players a side and a total of 25 galleys in play. The fleets were broken down as follows:  Ships of the attacking Ptolemaic fleet: Left Fleet (Joel) - 1 Septereme (7er) Flagship, 3 Quadriremes Center Fleet (Mike D) - 1 Decareme (10er) Flagship, 3 Quinqueremes Right Fleet (Mike S) - 1 Septereme (7er) Flagship, 3 Quadriremes Ships of the defending Antigonid fleet: Left Fleet (Keith) - 1 Septereme (7er) Flagship, 1 Quinquereme (5er), 2 Triremes (3er) Center Fleet (Allen) - 1 Decareme (10er) Flagship, 3 Quinqueremes (5er) Right Fleet (Pthomas) - 1 Quinquereme(5er) Flagship, 4 Triremes (3er) all Q3 with Skilled Oarsmen The post is well worth reading, so if you haven't already seen it ( HERE ), do pop over and check it out!

Over on the Song of Blades and Heroes Facebook group, Stefan has posted a few pictures of a recent game where he used Song of Shadows and Dust along with other rules borrowed from Fear and Faith to run a pulp game set during the War of 1812 (the one where the local lad from just down the road from me, Robert Ross , managed to burn down the White House). Below is Stefan's account of the game: My gf and me started to play with Andrea's rules a few weeks ago. Was not that easy to get her into playing. Traumatized like most nerdy girls by an ex with 40k, she was sceptical about skirmish games... But she loves larp and pen and paper roleplay, so she gave it a try and found out that wargames really can be fun. We played so far some games of Fear and Faith and SoBaH . Today was our first try on Song of Shadows and Dusk although in a Weird War of 1812 setting. So it's a Song of Crossover. We did most of the game straight out of the book. It was noon, her (or better th

I have just been catching up on a little light blog reading over at The Stonghold (Rebuilt) blog. If you don't know it, go any have a look. There is a tonne of stuff relating to Hordes of the Things , as well as all manner of other games and gaming resources from all periods. Recently there have been a lot of naval games posted using Galleys & Galleons and its expansion, Fayre Winds & Foul Tides . Below are a couple of pictures lifted from the most recent posts there, along with the links. There really is a lot of great content, so do go and visit. The Arkansas on the Yazoo (American Civil War) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Capt. Nemo vs the Kraken) A weekend of different games (including this great looking match up between Laputans and Chinese) Legend of the Shachihoko (Japanese fantasy - with Vikings!) Henry Avery and the Mughals (late 17th century)

And so, quietly, step by step, I am drawn back into the mists of time, where the few peoples of the earth struggled to survive in a hostile environment, and when one bad dice roll could ruin your day. As Palaeo Diet: Eat or be Eaten  ( PDEE ) takes shape, so has my collection of prehistoric beasties. My current collection featured in the last playtesting post, although much of it was then only partially painted.  So lets take a look at what I've put together. My hunters and mammoths are the original 20mm range from Flytrap Factory . I can't praise these models enough, although I was disappointed that their new prehistoric range, brought out as a Kickstarter last year, is scaled up to 28mm. However, with the exception of one Flytrap cavie with a club, all the other 20mm hunters carry spears. PDEE will differentiate spear, club and bow class weapons, as well as fire carriers. I have previously converted a spearman to carry a flaming torch, but I have also carried out

Below are a couple of early playtesting shots of Palaeo Diet: Eat or Be Eaten from last weekend. The games ran quite well with a few small issues raised. As a result, we have tweaked predator reactions to be more interactive with prey animals, and upped the aggression of giant predators like cave bears. In the last shot here, the hunter failed to activate and his incompetent stealth caused both a mammoth and a cave bear to attack him. However, due to some very poor attack rolls, he came out unscathed... Never again. :)