Irregular Wars Wargaming

For the last outing of the year, my brave, bold and bronzed Bronze Age Cretans led by Minos the Younger took the field once more to raid and pillage the Egyptian delta. Against them were ranged the devious desert dogs of the Nile led by Andrewhotep and Leemose. The stage was set for another  game of L'Art de la Guerre .  The open field of the Egyptian Delta (must have been the height of summer as the ground was firm underfoot) was broken only by a narrow river, a small settlement so insignificant as to have had its name forgotten by the historians, and three plowed fields. Taking some learning points from their last battle, this time the Minoans undertook no flank marches. The snarling Myrmidon allied command took up position on the Minoan right, opposite a much larger but significantly softer command of Egyptian medium infantry. The Minoan heavy chariot division, supported by medium spearmen occupied the centre opposite Pharaoh's Sherdan mercenaries, while the slow Mi...

Staying on the Bronze Age wagon, this week we had another 6mm game of L'Art de la Guerre , this time ranging my yet-to-be-vanquished Minoans against Lee's Sumerians. This is the first time we've played a technically ahistorical game. However, as both armies are Bronze Age and chariot/pear based, what's a thousand years between friends?  By the will of the gods - and a few dice rolls - my Minoans were defending again in a hilly area, this time with a river down one flank, a steep hill (behind which the Minoans stealthily hid their camp), two areas of brush and two ore gentle hills.  The Minoans were deployed in a pretty linear formation, between the hills, using the steep hill to anchor their right flank, a line of heavy infantry, then heavy chariots, with medium infantry extending up towards the gentle hill on the left flank.    Ambush markers were deployed on both flanks and, in a ploy that was in equal parts ingenious, dubious and potentially drunken,...

We played around with a couple of three player games this week, trying out Grimdark Future Firefight , followed by a game of Rogue Trader (1st ed.). Both were fun games, and it was great to see the wee toys out on the table. In general GFF is more my kind of game - more simple and easy to pick up and play - while RT is emminently more involved. Both produced good games, and I'd happily give either another run.

The crunch of thousands of tiny feet on the dry ground, and the rumble of a thousand chariot wheels, echoing down among the hills. It could only mean one thing. Bronze Age armies on the move again. Keen for a 6mm  L'Art de la Guerre rematch after their last bruising defeat (one of those crushing defeats that would have seen a lesser commander sell their army), the New Kingdom Egyptians had crossed the Great Green to land their massed levies in the hallowed country of Minos, the Great Bull, Son of the Sea, Priest king of Knossos, High king of Crete, Lord of the Islands. The two forces assembled. The Minoans had hoped to catch the Egyptians in the narrow defiles where the hills came down to the sea. Unfortunately, the Egyptians managed to deploy on the edge of a broad plain. Sweeping inland in what appeared to be a single line, Stevenhotep commanded the Sherdana mercenaries of the Egyptian right flank, while Andrewhotep took overall command of the centre, consisting of medium ax...

At long last, Olympos has fallen. I have been working on Four Against the Titans ( 4AT ) for a while now, and I'm delighted to see it released. Although it is based on the highly acclaimed Four Against Darkness series of dungeon delving adventures by Andrea Sfiligoi, 4AT is a standalone pen and paper adventure game designed for solitaire or RPG-lite co-operative games. Set in ancient Greece in a time of myths and legends, players choose heroes from ten different character types to complete mighty quests and battle creatures such as centaurs, harpies and maenads, all in an attempt to defeat the titans and forestall the destruction of Greece. So far the rules are available as a pdf from the Ganesha Games Gumroad store , or in hardcopy from Lulu  and Amazon .