Irregular Wars Wargaming

To my great disappointment, I discovered this morning that I have been kicked out of a Facebook group. Normally, this sort of thing wouldn’t annoy me, but in this instance, it has rather touched a nerve. The group in question was The Caveman vs Wild Secret Tribal Council, a closed group for backers of the Flytrap Factory Kickstarter from November 2016, Caveman vs Wild: The Big Chill . As readers of this blog will know, I have championed Flytrap Factory since mid-last year when I started my descent into prehistoric hunting games with TUSK . The sculpting of their 20mm cavemen is, in my opinion, superb. Despite having already started developing Palaeo Diet , I did my best to promote Flytrap’s Kickstarter, my blog post on the project received over 1300 views and I also posted about it on various forums (Lead Adventure Forum, The Wargames Website and TMP). I have never hidden the fact that I was working on a prehistoric hunting game for Ganesha Games. Indeed, I have posted on it f...

 I'm delighted to say that three more brave (if not bright) hunters are almost ready to join my tribe.  All three are from the second pack to the original 20mm hunters produced by Flytrap Factory in New Zealand (now re-branded as pygmy hunters alongside their 28mm range). With the exception of the centre gentleman, all of  the FF cavies come armed with spears, but Palaeo Diet: Eat of be Eaten allows for four different equipment types: spears, clubs, bows and fire. Among my existing hunters, Fergg had already been modified as a fire carrier (green stuff flame courtesy of my mate Jim), and Bow had received a quick nip and tuck weapon swap, switching his spear for a plastic bow (again donated by Jim). To flesh out my tribe a bit I wanted more variation. The big boy already carried a club, so that was great. However, seeing a hulking brute with a club made me think immediately of Herakles/Hercules. Herakles is usually shown wearing the impenetrable skin of the Nemean ...

Once more, the time is nearly upon us for Northern Ireland's favourite, annual, Song of Blades and Heroes event - the Cú Chulainn Cup. 2017 marks our fourth outing of the competition, and we will again be hosted by the delightful Wee Gamers at their bunker in Whitehead, Co. Antrim. When? Sunday 3 rd September 2017, 10.00 for a 10.30am kickoff. Where? Whitehead Primary School, 3 Islandmagee Road, Whitehead, Co. Antrim BT38 9NE. The competition, consisting of five rounds, will be run over a single day.  Entry will cost £7.00.  Prizes will be provided by Ganesha Games and will be awarded to the Cú Chulainn Cup Champion and, by popular acclaim, to the ‘best’ warband. Our previous days have been loads of fun, and with 14 entrants in last year's competition, there has also been loads of variety in warbands. From classic fantasy forces such as ratmen and orcs, to Vikings, pirates, zombie pirates, voodoo zombie pirates, Liliputians, Komodo dragons and much much mo...

This week I decided to play around with the Palaeo Diet rules a little bit and take them to a different setting. From the distant mists of time to the mythical past, I dug around in my box of Greek myth stuff for Of Gods and Mortals and came out with a big pig and three heroes. Welcome to the closing scene of the Kalydonian Boar hunt! Oineus, king of Kalydon in Aitolia, west-central Greece, has offended the goddess Artemis. Forgetting to honour her at the annual harvest festival, she has sent a giant boar to ravage the kingdom, destroying its crops and vineyards. Desperate to kill the beast, Oineus has sent out to all the neighbouring kingdoms, seeking heroic hunters to bring the beast down. Prominent among the hunters who respond are Meleager, the king's own son; Atalanta, the Arkadian huntress with whom Meleager is besotted, and Peleus, exiled prince of Aigina, soon to be king of Phthia, and future father of Achilles. Here we see the three heroes having cornered the...

This week I managed to get a bit of paint on my new purchases from Scotia Grendel, all from the Warheads range. The first is this giant deer/stag. I have decided I am not overly fussed on the sculpting with this gent to be honest - it is too shire horse-like really - and it really required someone with a better painting hand to do it justice. Size wise, he is certainly imposing when placed next to poor old Urgg. Giant deer were rather massive and would have been quite a fearsome prospect - especially during rutting season. Here is a comparative shot of giant deer antlers and a red deer from the Ulster Museum. They became extinct in Ireland just before people first arrived, but there certainly would have been encounters between giant deer and hominids elsewhere. And here we find Urgg with the two boar figures available from Scotia Grendel. These wee piggies have stolen my heart (much to my wife's bemusement). I just think they are tops! The tribe are going to be extra ...

Mark's journey through prehistory using playtest drafts of Palaeo Diet: Eat or Be Eaten continues with two more hunts: The Grey Wolf Clan has endured a miserable long winter. The last hunt of autumn was only a partial success and hunger has claimed the lives of the weaker Clan members. Now as Spring approaches some small hunting parties have gone out to scout for game. This report follows the adventures of one such scouting expedition, based on Nic's "Hunger Games" scenario. They have stumbled across a hidden valley, surrounding by high cliffs, never explored before and populated with strange but doubtless edible creatures. Amazingly it is free of ice and snow! The first photo shows the general table layout. The two hunters (1 x Spear, 1 x Bow) survey their discovery from a cliff top in the foreground. On the valley floor some giant armadillos (Giant Grazers) and some caribou (Herd Grazers) go about their lawful occasions. Because this is a hidden valle...

It gives me great pleasure to be able to post another of Mark's game reports below. This time, his attempt at the "Picnic at Hanging Rock" scenario from the Palaeo Diet: Eat or Be Eaten draft rules. The aim of the game is to drive a heard of large grazers into an ambush in order to set the tribe up for the coming winter. If you missed it, our first test run of the scenario was posted back in April .  The first photo shows the overall table layout and figure placement after Turn 1. A herd of eight Aurochs (Giant Grazers) including two calves, is grazing placidly in the mouth of the valley, getting ready for their migration south. The hunting party of the Grey Wolf Clan is six strong, all spear armed except for Smoky who is carrying fire (a burning branch). The hunters started at various points along the L table edge. Three of them are already in position to tumble the boulders down onto the herd as it passes the valley choke point. Two more are in the defile between t...

Although these particular lads have yet to see any (tabletop) action, they have already bee reinforced with more 15mm AB Prussians! The force now stands as follows. Kapitän Johan Fuchs (Status III Leader), 9 points Unteroffizier Shultz (Status I Leader), 3 points Hornist Schwartz , 2 points Sharpshooter Schnaps , 2 points 3x Jäger groups, 30 points Total 46 points Sgt. Schultz is always going to be a bit hard to spot on the table because AB do not produce any unique NCO sculpts for their Prussians. However, as it seems the only rank insignia for Jäger NCOs was gold trim on their collar and cuffs, I suppose there is no real call for separate sculpts. Schultz has the gold trim, but it's not really obvious at a distance.

After I got my bunnies from Scotia Grendel , I decided that the best this to do would be to order more of their animals...   I've just received my second order, this time a great hart - to be used as an elk - and two inquisitive piggies - to be used as wild boar. The pictures above are from the Scotia website. They came much faster than the bunnies, presumably because they had them in stock but had to cast the rabbits up fresh? Either way, I'm very pleased with the sculpting and look forward to painting them up and hunting them down.