Irregular Wars Wargaming

  With our part of the world under increasingly stringent lockdown rules once again, I've found myself playing more and more Blood, Sweat and Cheers , both with my nine year old, and also solo. Bouts can take between 5 and 25 minutes each, and there is little prep time, so it is an easy game to wip out, roll dice and put away again. In honor of his increased use, I decided that Lycus, my left-handed murmillo , needed to have his shield pimped out a bit. As Lycus seems to be the latinised Lykos, Greek for 'the wolf', I went for a wolfish motif based on coin imagery of the wolf that nursed Romulus and Remus (though I left the boys themselves off the shield). I'm not wholly convinced that I captured it with too much skill, but hopefully the aim is clear!😁   Roman Didrachm, c.275-255 BC, courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group (CNG)

Progress on my 6mm Austrians has been painfully slow, but I am getting there. In the great tradition of 1914, I'm sure I'll be finished by Christmas... Never-the-less, with the completion of my first cuirassier regiment for Bataille Empire , I am just three units away from a 200 point army. Given the blue facings, these gents shall nominally be the 7th (Moravian) Cuirassiers commnaded by Carl Eugen Prinz von Lothringen-Lambesc. Uniform guide lifted from the interweb.  

Over the last couple of months I have been on a re-basing journey with my 10mm early Macedonians, switching from 60mm base widths (which did look great), to the more common 40mm base widths (with the aim of having more ways to use them - principally for l'Art de la Guerre and Fantastic Battles ). Except for the Thessalian cavalry and Illyrians (both from Pendraken), all are Magister Militum figures. Readers who have passed by this blog in the past might have seen that I have a bit of a love affair with this army. I've some background info on the early Macedonians spread across various earlier posts, but for a good summary, I'd point people to this article in Ancient Warefare Magazine 13.3. The title is a bit of a give away about the reputation of Macedonians before the reforms of Philip II. The army in all its mediocrity. Combining small amounts of fine cavalry with pretty woeful infantry, I have opted to stiffen it with a Thessalian ally. Hetairoi/companion heavy cavalry...

Here are a few more emergency purchases from Excellent Miniatures. All scaled for 10mm, these 3D printed figures are pretty remarkable. The first two are treemen or tree-shepherds, sold on license from Forest Dragon. They will ultimately join my Wyld Elves when I have more wee pointy-ears to build a larger army.   ... and here we have a cracking cyclopes, produced by Excellent Miniatures on license from Artisan Guild Miniatures. I believe he was sculpted for 28mm and resized for 10mm but he's a great figure. He'll be joining my 10mm Greeks should they ever require a mythological element to their army.

  4. The Portuguese relief force arrives We’ll draw a veil over the responses of the alliance commanders to news that a Portuguese relief squadron was on the offing. Let’s just say it made the Trump White House seem like a well-oiled machine. But somehow, by the time enemy sails were sighted, there were three galleys of the Knights of St Michael of Singapore, and two more of Songkhla (undermanned) ready to meet them, commanded by Gian Andrea Pecorino in the Corona. The galleys were deployed to protect the bay anchorage where the other non-operational galleys, and the transport junks, were sheltering. Land troops were deployed to prevent the Portuguese from coming ashore and burning them (a favourite tactic). In accordance with the contingent dice rolls the Portuguese comprised the Galleon Santa Caterina da Goa and the frigates Sao Jorge and Sao Martinho. The commander, you won’t be surprised to learn, was that popinjay Don Marco de Pattaya (self styled Viceroy of the Indies) himsel...

With everything in place, the siege started in earnest. 2 The Siege begins “Our siege battery opened fire, and the Kupang fortress responded. The bombardment continued for four days, by which time the fortress guns facing us had been silenced and a large section of the wall had been reduced to rubble. Regrettably the siege battery also sustained serious casualties. Bombardment by the galleys on the seaward side of the fortress however, had little effect. Tomorrow at dawn we will launch as assault that (God willing) is certain to overwhelm the Portuguese dogs” ... That’s how the progress report from Eunos Abdullah to the Sultan of Songkhla read.  What happened in G&G terms was a succession of 12 paired dice rolls pitting the Attackers (C5, no modifications) against the Defenders (C4, Master gunner), representing the siege battery shooting, and the fortress responding. At first the Attackers made little headway, but gradually they got the upper hand and the fortress was gradually...

I've been a bit remiss over the summer and never quite got around to posting this epic series of Galleys & Galleons AARs from Mark in Thailand. **** T he Sultan of Songkhla and the Knights of St Michael of Singapore have formed an unholy alliance against their mutual enemies the Portuguese. Their audacious plan is to capture Kupang on the island of Timor: a first class fortified place and key piece on the Portuguese colonial board. If they are successful the Sultan will get to hold this very des res (as a pirate & jihadi lair) and the Knights will get to keep all the loot they can load onto their ships. Naturally each partner doesn’t fully trust the other and any setback could put the alliance under strain. OTOH, although the fortress of Kupang is adequately garrisoned and provisioned, there are only scanty forces available to mount a relief expedition. The opposing forces are: Songkhla / Knights alliance The alliance naval force is commanded by Gian Andrea Pecorino (Knigh...

Things have been pretty quiet here of late thanks to a combination of work pressures, a rebasing project, and no gaming courtesy of renewed lockdown restrictions. However, editing and formatting of Fantastic Battles has continued in the background. Below are a few sample pages - not necessarily the finished product, but hopefully it will give a sense of the final look.