Irregular Wars Wargaming

Many, many , months after applying the first paint to them, I have finally finished my first, and I can assure you dear reader, my only, unit of 15mm Napoleonic cavalry - a single group of Prussian dragoons for Sharp Practice 2 . These are beautifully sculpted AB Prussians from their 1806 range and like all AB figures, it is hard to do them justice. That said, these just took me so  long, and I got dispirited along the way, heralding further delays. I have come to the conclusion that life is too short for me to paint Napoleonic cavalry at this scale. 6mm, perhaps, but not 15mm. And these aren't even fancy lads like hussars! This small patrol is led by Cornette von der Burg and will, hopefully, provide some interesting support to my otherwise skirmisher-heavy Prussians led by  Kapitän Fuchs . The illegitimate scion of a noble house of the Rhineland, Fredrick Wilhem von der Burg was raised by a distant cousin in Magdeburg and seeks, someday, to establish his own pla...

After a bit of a hiatus in my Sharp Practice 2 1806 Prussian project, mostly caused by my dislike of paining 15mm Napoleonic cavalry (almost there...), I am back on the wagon. To start with, here is my deployment point. Not as fancy as many DPs I have seen, and not overly accurate, but still better than the plain plastic counter I have been using! Above, Lucky Kapitän Fuchs and Der kleine Husar shown for scale. The signs are just cut up business card with multiple layers of paint and my attempt at a traditional (if generic) Germanic script. In our gaming circle we have Prussians, Austrians, Frenchies and Russians, hence the signage.

We had out first game of Lord and Lands by Craig Armstrong this week and I'm happy to say that it did not disappoint. It had been a few weeks since either of us had read the rules, so there was a bit of flicking back and forth to check things, but the guts of it flowed pretty well even then. I took us about two hours from start to finish, and that included the looking up of army lists and creation of an undead horde. Brett fielded two units of wights, one unit of skeletal cavalry, two units each of skeleton archers, warriors, spearmen, a bone giant, and an undead dragon. I was running the halfling militia of Hearthshire  (well sort of, I had an older list but didn't realise it - so while Brett had 1200 points of skellies, I had 1320 points of stunties; whoops!). The undead horde pushed forward generally along it's whole front, moving faster on the wings where the cavalry, dragon and wights on my left flank, and the bone giant on the right flank, looked rather inti...

More characterful reporting from Mark in Thailand: Sensational news in Pattayavium a few days ago with the arrest of Barabbas, serious criminal and public enemy number one. After strenuous attempts to get him to name his associates failed, he will be executed this morning. Unknown to the authorities and most of the citizens, Barabbas has followers who are preparing to mount a desperate rescue attempt by overpowering the guards as he is led to his just desserts.  The factions are: The Rescue Party: Diehard confederates of Barabbas led by his main enforcer. Total 316 points. Matthias (106 points) Q3 C3 Armed, hard, leader, streetfighter Marcellus, Nikias, Plautus, Saul (45 points each) Q4 C2  Armed, streetfighter Letitia (30 points) Q3 C0 Distracting The Execution Party: A squad of the Prefect’s guard led by their officer, and accompanied by civilian relatives of some of Barabbas’s murdered victims. Total 312 points. Barabbas (0 poi...

I seem to have done a lot of painting so far this year. Here is the third army I've finished so far - and by finished I mean 'reached a natural pause'. The Legion of Super Evil is the creation of my wee lad, painted with some limited direction from him. The Legion is lead by night elves, but supported by other creatures of the night, including hoards of skeletal warriors. The units above are enough for a 1,200 point army in Lord and Lands (army list above), or 2,000 points in Kings of War .  The sorcerer, commander, and assassin - all from Pendraken. The sorcerer is a converted high elf standard bearer, the commander is another high elf hero, and the assassin is a wood elf hero. The Moon Knights, Magister Militum high elf cavalry led by a Pendraken high elf lord, and Magister Militum fallen elf spider riders. Pendraken high elf swordsmen - these were the core starting force for the army, handed over by JB because he's awesome, had spares, and knew my ...

... Corsairs off the port bow! It was a real joy to get some wee ships on the table again this week for a three player game of Galleys & Galleons . We all ran 200 point fleets, I had my trusty Dutch East India Company, Jim took the Pirate Bretheran, and Joel ran the Corsairs. Somehow, I even feature in this picture - swiped from Joel. It was a game that was manic and hilarious in equal parts.  All fleets started in separate corners. Top left are Joel's corsairs, top right are Jim's pirates, and bottom left are my VOC. Both Joel and Jim messed up a lot of activation rolls to begin with meaning Joel's galleys sat around doing nothing, and Jim's ships sailed about in an uncoordinated manner. The opening shot in the game saw the VOC sloop Nassau rake the bows of the corsair xebec Zenobie , leaving her badly damaged. The corsair's reciprocated with some heavy gunfire, all of which was ineffective. Unfortunately, while I was distracted by the ga...