Irregular Wars Wargaming

I popped a bit of paint on my first ever sculpt. Aye sure, she's no beauty, but I love her like an underachieving child that only it's parent can love... 😉

Today was not a good day working from home. Combining work with home-schooling is one of the biggest challenges - perhaps the biggest - of the current Covid-19 lock-down. There are better days and worse days, but this wasn't a good one. By way of distraction/creative release, I decided to have a go at sculpting my first miniature: a new character (a rogue or captain) for my 10mm halfling army. She's not what you'd call a classic beauty, but she does have a certain comeliness - if I do say so myself.  Here you can see the scale that I'm working in. From the feet to the top of her head she is 6mm tall - and almost as wide. She is the same height as the Magister Militum halfling infantry (but not their cavalry who are rather massive by comparison). She comes up to the belt of the Pendraken elven swordsman. I've no idea how she will come out when painted, but I'm looking forward to finding out!

The last of my current tranche of 10mm Greco-Macedonians are now completed with the fourth unit of hoplites. Above you can see the four units together, below, the fourth unit. As with most of my 10mm ancients, these gents are from Magister Militum.

Continuing to enjoy the sun while it hangs out in the Irish sky, my lad and I took Palaeo Diet outside this weekend for a wee co-operative mammoth hunt. We each started with three hunters from 'the tribe' (you don't need tribe names when there are no other tribes). I controlled Ogg the Calm (spear) and Frygga (spear), both starting on the beach to the south, and Tark (bow) starting off inland to the east. He controlled Fergg (fire) who started inland next to Tark, and also Bow the Thinker (bow) and Rarr (axe) who started off the beach to the north. Earlier, the tribe had dug a decent-sized pit and then sat back to await a small migrating herd of mammoths (large grazers). In the interim, a couple of feisty boars (pack predators) had also moved into the area. For the hunt to be a success, the tribe would need to kill enough animals to produce six bulk.  In the opening stages of the hunt, Frygga and Og skulked up on the mammoth herd from the south, while Rarr and Bow mo

After our small game of Horizon Wars last week , my wee lad (9yo) developed a hankering to build a force of his own. I had a few airborne infantry figures and a mobile artillery piece left over from building my Elysium Trading Corporation strike force - enough for a 7P platoon of his new maritime insurgency - Lobsters' Revenge. He painted them up himself with only minimal assistance from me; I am super proud of him. I asked to hear their backstory and was genuinely surprised to find out the answer. Apparently the industrialised warmachine of the  European Empire  has impacted on marine life and decreased fish stocks. People from the coastal areas have risen up in armed rebellion. If you know what you're looking at, that is a pretty convincing lobster claw painted on the artillery piece.

While I wait on more Baccus 6mm Austrians to arrive, I've been diverted by a small pirate project. I have set out to do 15x 28mm figures nominally divided into three groups - a blue crew, a red crew and 'natives' (more Pulp natives than any specific culture). Capt. Brown's Boys are all from North Star Miniatures: the boy is a metal 'Jim Lad', the others are all made up from a Ghost Archipelago plastic sprue with North Star's resin conversion kits.  There are a range of games that they could see action in: Song of Blades and Heroes , Song of Drums and Tomahawks or Flashing Steel are all options from Ganesha Games. I have also picked up En Garde! from Osprey which looks very promising.  

  My wee lad and I have had a good few games of Song of Blades and Heroes over the last few weeks. I've been keeping the warbands pretty simple, but he's becoming quite adept. Taking advantage of the sunny weather, we took our 200 point game outside this weekend for a clash between his knights led by Sir John the Magpie, and supported his ghost (with the Terror special rule - I have decided to call him Terry). I ran out a warband of four dvergr led by Thorfinn Hardluck and supported by two trolls. Making far too much use Terry the ghost (I forgot to give him the undead special rule, so we reasoned he was just a bloke wearing a sheet), my lad took an early lead, eliminating my two dvergr archers. However, I then counter attacked with Thorfinn and the trolls, sweeping up over a hill (if stunty legs can 'sweep') and attacking his axeman and Sir John. Despite knocking the axeman down, my Scandi trolls failed to finish him off. Sir John then charged the right-mo

The young master surprised me this evening asking for an introductory game of Horizon Wars . Happy to oblige, I selected two simple enough 9P forces from my collection and we set up a small 2' square table of buildings and ruins. I ran the European Empire running a P6 super mech and three squads of dragoon mobile infantry. He controlled a P3 mech, a P2 mech and two mobile artillery pieces from the Elysium Trading Company.  He grasped the concepts of the game really quickly. And then I crushed him. Mercilessly. About time too. Good game. 😁

Next off the painting table  are three more unit of 10mm 'Greeks' for my Classical Macedonian army.  The queue of remaining 'stuff to be painted' is now looking very short - only one more unit of 10mm hoplites; then onto other minis that are currently AWOL somewhere in the manufacturing/postal process. A second unit of Magister Militum archers for my force. A sixth unit of peltasts/Macedonian levy - also from Magister Militum. And a second unit of light cavalry. These are the new Thessalian cavalry from Pendraken (unlike all my existing mounted units which are Magister Militum).  As a unit, these are really nice figures. The horses are superb sculpts, even if the riders are a bit like muscle-bound mountain men. They've hugely muscled arms and their faces are really just bushy beards with noses. Above you can see the Pendraken cavalry on the left, and Magister Militum light cavalry on the right. The biggest shame from my perspective, and this i

A final(?) two men have enlisted to serve in the early 13th century retinue of Sir Guillaume le Fauconnier. Built because I still had bits on my Fireforge sprues (the bow arm is borrowed from elsewhere?), and and idle mind. What I really need now is to get them on the table! Below is the full retinue in all their yellow and blue glory 

As a special treat to myself (I'm odd like that) - and to add much needed muscle (or the halfling equivalent there of) to my Hearthshire militia, I put in a special order to Magister Militum for a full pack of 10mm halfling standard bearers. A few added hats and head swaps with Magister Militum Greeks later, and I am proud-as-punch to present the Hearthshire Hearthguard, the closest Hearthshire gets to fielding a professional unit. And don't they all look smart in their green and white livery waistcoats?

I needed to place an order with Magister Millitum for some more Greeks and halflings, so added some of their 15mm hill trolls. I like the blue skin that is often used for trolls, but as we have blue skinned elves in this house, I decided to go with more of a pallid green.  Here is a size comparison shot showing the different races in my goblin army, from left to right: goblin warriors (Polar Fox 10mm goblins), ogre mercenaries (Magister Militum 15mm orcs), trolls (Magister Militum 15mm hill trolls), giant (Blind Beggar Miniatures 32mm prehistoric hunter).

This week we combined testing the solo/co-operative guidelines for Galleys & Galleons , with our homeschooling wargame. G&G has elements of addition, subtraction, probability, risk vs reward, and compass points, as well as the opportunity to blow up ships... There was also a useful learning point about social distancing.😷  My son and I set out as loosely affiliated pirate sorts. I took the brig,  Oberon (entering the area from the SW), while he captained the ghost ship,  Bluebeard's Revenge (entering from the NE). The quarry were a flotilla of AI controlled Dutch East India Company merchant ships - the Nutmeg (merchant junk), Tea Chest (junk), and  Pepper Corn (junk), accompanied by the cromster, Utrecht as a small warship escort. The Dutch ships ignored advise to follow social distancing and were set up close together in the NW of the area. Their exit point was the SE corner, between Fort Blaggard and Hangman's Rock. As the Oberon sailed towards the ce

  But one man of her crew alive … Being guidelines for running autonomous merchantmen and warships in solo or co-operative games of Galleys & Galleons .  Activate autonomous vessels in order of their proximity to the player’s vessels – the nearest autonomous vessel attempts to activate first. Autonomous vessels always roll 2d6 to activate, only rolling damaged dice if necessary. Follow the charts provided. Where there are two sets of orders, prioritise 1) with a first available order, moving on to 2) only if a second order available. Autonomous vessels always carry out their orders first, and then make their compulsory movement. Autonomous vessels will sail over shallows, but will never intentionally run aground. Autonomous vessels will never intentionally change their heading if it will leave them In Irons. Bastions will always fire on the nearest target, and/or reload if required.