Irregular Wars Wargaming

Another small diversion, and helping to break up all the green of the 3rd Brigade's light infantry, I've painted up a single battery of Württemberg Foot Artillery to give some long range support. The figures are all from Front Rank, sold by Gripping Beast, and a prouder officer was never sculpted! Together with the two light battalions and clever generalmajor, I can now muster an arguably not-quite-negligible 132 points worth of Württembergers for Black Powder .

Halflings are the perfect antidote to the traumas of my other current project! Here are the next two characters for my Fantastic Battles halfling burghers army: the third meister, and a beer meisje. The third and last of the planned captains for the army of Beerenburg, this halfling is one of the command pack characters from The Assault Group's (TAG) halfling range. He's certainly less well armoured than the other meisters in the army, but the determined look on his face and the casual way he rests the warhammer on his shoulder suggests he knows what he's about. The beer meisje (barmaid) is from Reaper. She's a wonderful sculpt but, as sold, was about 4-5mm taller than my other halflings. Luckily, a quik amputation of her feet below the dress brought her down to size with little in the way of noticible issues. With her huge... pints of ale ... and sympathetic face, I plan to employ her as a second magic-user for the army. While the troubadour will focus on empowering ...

Our campaign for Burrows & Badgers got off to a smashing start this week with a three-player game matching my rogues, the Dirty Paws, against the rival royalist bands, the Special Animal Service (Andrew), and Force 8 and a half from Newtownards (Roger).  The open battle took place in a contested royal borough/royal burrow. The Dirty Paws (bottom right (and in front of the burrow centre left) had been tasked to purge any magic-users they could find, and hoped to scavenge anything they could from the burrows while they were there. The SAS (top right) hoped to win the engagement by wearing down the enemy forces by attrition and, always showboating, orchestrate a showdown between warband leaders. Force 8.5 (far left) just wanted to defend their patch, and take and capture a few more burrows while their rivals were distracted. The Dirty Paws began by setting up ambushes along the perimeter of their deployment area, while Robyn the fox, Gypsy the mouse, and Seren the bat all se...

It has taken the better part of a year, but I'm delighted to have now completed both Württemberg light infantry battalions for our 1812 group project.  To aid in differentiating the two units who wear more-or-less the same uniform, the 1st Battalion (with yellow metal) have been given warmer coloured campaign breeches, while the 2nd Battalion (with white metal) have cooler coloured breeches.  Two small jäger battalions and some attached artillery, and the 3rd Brigade, 25th Division will be complete.

Flush with the success of his Zoidolorian earlier in the month , the wee lad has followed through and created a second sculpt with enough momentum to make most wargamers cry.  Originally it was to be a rubbish bin/astro mech, but things got out of hand! The new creation, Zoidberg in trash armour, is again entirely his work. He sculpted and painted it entirely himself except for the Slurm writing on the can. 

I'm so chuffed with my wee lad - although he's not so wee anymore! He's been watching a lot of Futurama and the Mandolorian, enough to have sculpted himself a 28mm Zoidolorian! He then proceeded to paint him up with only a little guidance. At only 12, I think he has done an amazing job! What a champion - can't wait to see what happens next.

Over Easter I managed to complete the first two companies of the 1st Battalion of Württemberg Light Infantry for our 1812 group project. All minis are Front Rank, now sold through Gripping Beast. This is very much a slow burning project, but after completing each wee bit, I always hope the momentum will build! I've the other two companies sitting on the desk now to be painted, and two small jäger battalions and a light artillery piece on order to complete the Light Infantry (3rd) Brigade.

Taking advantage of time off over Easter, I got in a game of Fantastic Battles with Jim who was good enough to tailor a small 650 point army of orcs to face off against the current state of my halfling burgher army on a 20u x 20u table (4' x 4').  The halflings of Beerenburg fielded (from left to right) two hackbut small artillery batteries, a small unit of urchin slingers commanded by a rogue, a three-company unit of skilled guild archers backed up by a magic-user and the warlord, a giant, and a single company of mounted burgers accompanied by a captain.  Facing then were a reckless three-company unit wild orcs led by a captain, a four-company unit of archers, an elite four-company unit of spear-orcs with the orc warlord, and another reckless unit of wild orcs - this time four-companies strong, led by a magic-user. During the Mishaps sequence, all orc units except the slower elite spearmen became enthusiastic and deployed further forward than expected. The halflings suffered...

Life and work have been a little busier than usual over the last few weeks, so there's not been a lot of gaming, or painting completed. However, following a notion I've harboured for a while, I started pulling together the basic mechanics for a game of ancient naval warfare. I managed to corner JB last weekend and we set about messing about with boats. We were only testing and tweaking the basic mechanics - activation, movement, combat, shooting, and balancing the risks and rewards of ramming, shearing oars and playing with fire etc. All in all, it seems to give smooth play, and satisfactory results. There's plenty more to test, and that's before you start introducing traits and tactical doctrines... Something to keep an eye on for the future.