Irregular Wars Wargaming

Finishing off the posts for 2021, I have returned to revise and expand on my c.1200 (+/- 75 years) retinue of the apocryphal knight, Sir Guillaume le Fauconnier. These hardened 28mm warriors (kitbashed mostly from Fireforge sprues) have not seen a lot of service since first painting them up in 2019. However, in the new year they will form the basis of a small 500 point retinue I plan to build to try out Adny Hobday's Barons' War rules.  Sir Guillaume and his veteran sergeants.  The start of a group of sergeants with crossbows. The first two archers. Two wolfhounds from the Wargames Atlantic Irish warriors box.

This week Andrew and I got our pirate-types on the table for the first time. Between us we have a raft of suitable rules focusing on pirates and swashbucklers, but we decided to use the post-apocalyptic rule set, This is Not a Test , instead. Despite first (post-apocalyptic) appearances, the rules are pretty flawless for pirate themed skirmishes for crews of a dozen or so characters.  Both crews were built around the Caravaners warband roster, but given the flexibility of the rules, they had completely different flavours. We restricted weapons to melee weapons and 'primitive' missile weapons which includes the likes of black powder pistols, muskets and blunderbusses. The only house rule we implemented was to have guns 'jam' after every shot, regardless of die roll, to represent the load time. Despite the impediment this caused, the strength of the musket shots made them still lethal on the table. The crew of the cutter Charlotte , commanded by Capt. Sammuel Blood, docke...

What better way to celebrate the festive season than with a bunch o' scruffy buccaneers!? Way back during the first lockdown I ordered these wee vessels from Games of War (sold as the Sea Dog v.2, and the jolly boat). Before I got a chance to do more than undercoat them, work ramped up and I focused what free time I had in other areas. With a good bit of time off over Christmas, I decided that it was time to get back to them! The larger vessel is the four-gun cutter, Charlotte . I may need to pick up some actual cannon in the future, but for now she just has two brass swivel guns. The cutter comes with that huge area on the stern just crying out to be decorated, so I tried to fill it with her name - for what it's worth I chose to copy TreasureMapDeadHand font. And then added a swirl.  The wee jolly boat is a great wee model and significantly easier to paint!

The final element for my 1000 point Fantastic Battles beastling army of the Red King is a three-company unit of bog trolls. Like the rest of the army, the figures are from Warp Miniatures - this time from the 3D printed beastfolk 10mm range; I had them printed at 130%.  They were, perhaps, the mose enjoyable thing I've painted in a loooooong time. There is great detail and bucket loads of character in each sculpt. The trolls have mushrooms and small stunted trees growing out of their fur; you can imagine them squatting dormant, hunched over for long periods of time, looking like hillocks in the bog until some unwary bypasser disturbs their slumber. I plan on using these chappies as fantastic beasts with the monstrous, shooting and powerful missiles traits to represent their great size, but also their penchant for hurling great boulders at their foes.

 

The Bacchae are an army I have long wanted, but never had to opportunity to build. The flexibility of Fantastic Battles  almost feels like it was designed to facilitate just such an army. Themed around the thiasos, or procession of Dionysos, this force has drawn it's inspiration from the broad palette of ancient literary and visual sources. I kept the units as wild as possible (no hoplites etc) without it becoming a bland swathe of brown as I wanted it to have a timeless feel, so it would feel just as natural fighting against Trojans, or an army of medieval knights. The army uses berserk as a racial trope to represent the intoxicating leadership of Bakchos. They were trialled with the stimulants trait as a racial trope, but I find it easier to remember who can do what this way!  The characters in the army are an exotic bunch. From left to right: a company of dryad magic-users (entangle); Pan, a magic-user (curse); Bakchos/Dionysos, the mage-lord (confusion); and two captains, ...

I recently picked up these awesome 10mm my-little-pack-ponies from RPGPrints on Etsy. I think they are digital sculpts from Varus Miniatures (for whom RPGPrints have a license), but I could be wrong. Regardless, the service from RPGPrints was very good and the quality of the resin used in the prints is up there with Excellent Miniatures as the best I have seen. Intended as a mining cart and pack horse (for dwarves?), I will be using it as a convoy to be ambushed in scenarios for Fantastic Battles . I figure these sturdy wee guys will work well enough for most of my fantasy armies (dwarves, halflings, beastfolk and goblins), although the haughty and elegant elves might have to take a more open-minded approach to their animals than they are used to...

The army of the Red King grows with another unit of Warp Miniatures 10mm beastlings - this time three companies of skirmishing slingers and a captain. I continue to struggle to photograph these guys, but they areally are a joy to paint and I'm very much looking forward to geting them on the field of battle. In Fantastic Battles , I will use them as irregular companies with the skirmishing and shooting traits - and perhaps stretch out to make them fast as well.

Finding myself with a little unexpected time on my hands this weekend I focused my attention on the three Warp[loque] Miniatures beastfolk chariots I've had waiting patiently in the queue. These are one-piece digital sculpts/prints. There are three chariots, each with very distinct crews - and even the composition of the dogs differs. For my Fantastic Battles army of the Red King, these will be vehicles with (I think) the berserk, furious charge, and passenger traits. The most heroic of the thegns (big-beastfolk-warrior-chaps) is a goat with a mouse charioteer. I gave all the thegns the same Antrim-inspire tartan I am using across the army. The ram and his squirrel charioteer. The ram's shield is decorated with an Irish trinity knot - one of the other unifying motifs I am using sporadically across the army. I'm not sure that the contrast between the light blue and the dark green is enough to make a convincing shield design. The wolf and his mouse charioteer. The wolve'...

The newest forces to marshal under the banner of the Red King are the moohemoths - monstrous highland bovines augmented with sturdy battle platforms to carry beastlings into battle. In my beastfolk army for Fantastic Battles , these will be used as fantastic beasts with the monstrous, heavy melee weapons and passenger traits. Also shown is a golden hare piper to serve as one of the army's captains. As with the rest of this force, everything is from Warploque Miniatures - or Warp Miniatures as it seems they have just been renamed. The piper and the beastling crew are from a pack of tiny wee beastfolk spearmen. The two giant cows are from the halfling range. Once again, a joy to paint and a tough range to photograph well...

  A second beastling levy unit is now ready for the beastfolk army of the Red King. Once again, the unit combines Warploque 10mm beastfolk spearmen for the front rank, and archers for the rear two ranks. Splendid miniatures, if hard to photograph!

Andrew and I came to blows again this week in another 28mm l'Art de la Guerre Hittite-Trojan clash. Unlike the last encounter between these two armies, this battle really came down to ther wire. The Trojan centre of heavy spearmen matched up against a mix of Hittite medium spearmen and heavy chariots. On the Trojan left, the small corp of elite light chariots took on the Hittite chariot archers, both supported by assorted skirmishers and javelineers. But on the Trojan right, more Hittite heavy chariots rode into over  too many LMI bowmen in the open. Despite a strong showing at the extreme flanks, and the heavy spearmen holding their own, it was the deployment of the bowmen in the open which proved the undoing for the sons and daughters of Troy. They fought like proverbial Trojans, and died like Homeric ones. The battle came down to a single breakpoint in the end, but it was the Hittites who proved successful. With this particulat match up, it is clear than my Trojan chariots, de...

It was with great pleasure that JB came up over the hills this weekend for a game of Fantastic Battles . He led my standard goblin army against my wyld elves. Mishaps were unfortunate across the boards with disease rife and both armies losing companies to desertion. Early in the battle, the goblin wolf- and bat-riders swarmed the elvish stag-riders supported by the great eagle. After a couple of melees, both blocks of troops routed, taking a goblin captain and the elvish warlord with them, and leaving the flank wide open. Likewise, a large unit of goblins and a unit of elvish rangers - caught in the open - fought each other to breaking point. In the centre, the wyld hunt launched into a hill giant. But in the end, it was the clash in the woods where more rangers and a tree shepherd took on goblin madcaps and spider-riders was where the battle of resolved. The goblin dice gods abandoned them when it mattered and the elves got the upper hand, scattering the madcaps and breaking the gobli...