Irregular Wars Wargaming

I have now finished my first unit of 10mm hoplites. These are the earlier hoplites from Magister Militum. In the Men of Bronze rules, there is supposed to be a 'leader' figure to act as a measuring/line of sight point. Because the polemarch of a phalanx is supposed to be in the front right of the formation, I've gone with a sacrificing priest out front as the marker.  These hoplites are intended - initially at least - as 'Macedonians'. Or, rather, Greeks from cities in Macedonia. Or Greek mercenaries in Macedonia. All of these seem to have been a feature - if a minor one - of Macedonian armies from the reign of Perdikkas II (454-413 BC); even  the Highland Macedonian kingdom of Lynkos seems to have had access to hoplites. " Brasidas and Perdiccas started on a second joint expedition into Lyncus against Arrhabaeus; the latter with the forces of his Macedonian subjects, and a corps of heavy infan try ( ὁπλίτας ) composed of Hellenes domiciled in the countr...

Happily ensconced on the Foyleside, we got in a quick and bloody game of Dux Bellorum . Lee led my Angles in their first game - a force consisting of warrior companions, one warband of noble warriors,  five warbands of ordinary warriors and some bow-armed skirmishers. The Angles took javelins for their warriors as a stratagem. I was the aggressor with a much smaller force of Ulstermen - warrior companions, four warbands of noble warriors, and some riders. I invested in two additional leadership points as a stratagem. As a result, although the Angles had the numbers, the army of Ulstermen were both better trained and better led. The Angles deployed in a long line behind a muddy stream, their nobles and leaders in the center of the line, and the skirmishers at their extreme left. The Irish were spread out more with the companions second from the left, and the riders on the extreme right.  In the opening turn, both armies made haphazard advances. One Germanic warband in...

This week I found myself gaming with Lee on the far side of the River Foyle. We started off the evening with a couple of quick introductory gladiator bouts using  Blood Swear and Cheers . In the first bout, despite being wounded early on, my thraex managed to get the better of Lee's murmillo, tripped him up, and then delivered a telling blow. The crowd favoured both gladiators equally, and were happy enough to allow the bleeding murmillo to walk out of the arena to entertain them another day. The second bout saw Lee's dimachaerus take on my sagittarius. The sagittarius is always a tricky gladiator to use; his melee attack is so weak and he doesn't tend to do well going toe-to-toe. The crowd, however, loved watching him slip past the dimachaerus multiple times, popping off shots with his bow from a distance as his opponent lumbered after him, swatting away the arrows with deft parries. In short order, both gladiators were staining the sand red from multiple wound, but ...

Most readers of this blog will know that I don't do a lot of 28mm (AKA novelty-giant-scale) stuff. None, in fact, with the exception of my forces for Of Gods and Mortals . After my recent 6mm push, it was a nice break to paint up another dvergr (dwarf) for my very  slowly growing Norse force. This wee chap is from Macrocosm Miniatures, converted with a few medieval plastic bow and arrow bits gifted by gaming mate Jim, and a hand axe and quiver from Hasslefree Miniatures, and some modeling putty to fill out the hair at the back of his head. And here he is with the rest of the dvergar to date - and also that cheeky chappy Ratatoskr. I have another four dvergar to do still, but next up in line for my Norse will be more jötnar to flesh out my unit of elite trolls.

War rages in Viking Age Britain (the ninth to eleventh centuries AD). Two opposing armies – Anglo-Saxon and Norse shieldwalls – are about to come into contact. Arrows will fly overhead; spears will jab out from behind shields; swords and knives will hack at the legs and fleetingly-glimpsed faces of the enemy; and both sides will attempt to shove one another back. When a gap opens – a warrior has recoiled from a heavy blow or has fallen wounded – your warriors will surge through, breaking their enemy’s tightly formed line of shields, and cutting and stabbing their way to victory. Above the chaos and fear swoop ravens, waiting impatiently to feast on the war carrion. I was really honoured recently when Dan Mersey - author of Song of Arthur and Merlin , Dux Bellorum , Lion Rampant and more - approached me to do a review of his new game, Battle Ravens . Unlike his previous games, this one is a boardgame rather than a miniatures game. Like all of his games, the rules are relatively sim...

We tried out the  Donnybrook rules for the French and Indian War this week. While the rules seem to have an awful lot going for them, we were not convinced that there was enough mid-18th century, North American theatre, flavour in the rules. They feel like they would be great with a bunch of scurvy buccaneers, but for this sort of conflict, maybe not.

This is an update of a list I worked out out a while back of which l'Art de la Guerre armies I can run from my 6mm collection. I'm sure I can do others, but these are the ones I'm interested in enough to run from the figures in the war chest. 30. Minoans 12. Libyan, 14. New Kingdom Egyptians, 20. Hittites, 22. Syria, Canaan and Ugarit, 24. Sea Peoples, 30. Mycenaean 39. Alexandrian Macedonian 33. Celts, 58. Kyrenian Greek, 60. Classical Greek, 62. Illyrian, 63. Thracian, 64. Achaemenid Persian, 66. Lykian, 68. Late Achaemenid Persian, 75. Early Arab, 76. Scythian 40. Alexander the Great 75. Early Arab, 76. Scythian, 79. Classical Indian 42. Seleukids 41. Early Successor, 42. Seleukid, 43. Ptolemaic, 53. Republican Roman, 61. Hellenistic Greek, 63. Thracian, 67. Bithynian, 69. Kappadokian, 71. Armenian, 72. Galatian, 73. Pergamon, 74. Aramaean, 75. Early Arab, 76. Skythian, 79. Classical Indian, 102. Parthian, 103. Judaean Jewish, 104. Kommagene...

Over the last couple of months I have been slowly finishing off the last 6mm ancient units in my painting queue. with these last reinforcements I can field even more  l'Art de la Guerre  armies, and should we return to  Hail Caesar  for 6mm gaming, sure, these guys will help out too. First up are three units of Baccus Thessalian heavy cavalry. I've put these in wedge formations to act as either Macedonian companions or early Hellenistic sarissaphoroi. They will certainly see service under Philip II and Alexander III of Macedon, Pyrrhos of Epeiros, or Seleukos I. Then we have two units of light infantry with javelins. They are Baccus Greek peltasts but can be used as either generic psiloi or as elite Agrianians under Philip II or Alexander. These Rapier Roman triarii and velites will allow me to use my existing 'imitation legionaries' as hastatii and principes and field a Polybian legion. Republican Romans - here we come! Of course, I also needed a sui...