Irregular Wars Wargaming

Continuing to paint up playtesting models for Fantastic Scuffles , this weekend I have added Flint Runehammer, the heavily armoured dwarf warrior, to my party of murder hobos itinerant adventurers. Flint is another 3D sculpt, this time from MOM Miniatures. He's a good height for a 28-30mm dwarf, but almost comically wide. That is a 30mm wide base he's on, and there's not much space for anything else. I happen to like caricatured miniatures, so I feel he fits well with my collection, but he may not be to everyone's taste. This is the last of this party that I'll be doing until I realise I 'need' more. Next up I have some more jesters to join the company of fools, a few goblins to support Clachtoll and Nigg, and then a whole new party to start! I've just discovered an AI programme that animates still images, so had a go with this chap as a wee free sample. Not perfect, but a bit of fun (if you ignore the dangers of feeding data into The Algorithm).

Joining Boggle, Bert, and the other kobolds, I present, Looty mcLootface, the treasure golem. Another characterful 28mm 3D sculpt from Warp Miniatures, once I saw him, the name stuck, and now he refuses to answer to anything else! This big boy (that's a 50mm square base) has been painted in stolen moments over the last fortnight. Being a little bit colour blind, I was of two minds about the use of rubies for eyes - there is not enough contrast for me between the red and the gold - but it just felt like the right gem to use.  The heater shield is a bit of an improvised device. It was going to be another Lego-inspired lion shield ( like Bert's ), but I made the head too big and things got out of hand! 😄   Looty has a big pile of loot dragging between his feet and it didn't feel right to just have him walking over otherwise pristene ground, so I picked out appropriate sized lumps in the mud texture paint and painted them like coins of pieces of gold that have been left behi...

It has turned out to be a pretty slow month for wargaming and hobby time in general, but this weekend I managed to paint up a human seer to join my party of itinerant adventurers.  He is an Artisan Guild 3D sculpt which, if I'm honest, I wasn't all that fussed with when I saw the physical sculpt. However, I'm delighted that I persevered because I'm really pleased with how he painted up. I'm hoping to get back into the grooze of playing, painting and writing over the Christmas break, so watch this space!

Because I'm apparently drawn to the wee beggars, here are another troop of Warp Miniatures kobolds. These piggyback riders have clearly scavenged some human kit and decided to do human things like look for jobs, drink tea and eat buns... Sir Bert the real hoomin knight. Kobold hoomin minions. Andrew and managed to get in some playtesting for Fantastic Scuffles this week as well. We played a couple of engagements between kobolds and itinerant adventurers. Neither game went well for poor Lyra Halfcraft, but both went well in terms of mechanics and game play.

This week Roger and I revisited our quasi-historical-pseudo-mythological 10mm grudge match: Early Macedonians vs Early Imperial Rome. This would be the third clash between these armies.  In their first match, the Macedonians stormed to victory . The rematch saw the Romans put up more resistance, fighting the Macedonians to a bloody standstill.  Once again, we mustered 1,500 point armies and fought over a standard 30x20bw table (120cmx80cm using 40mm base widths.) The Romans deployed with three solid units of formed and drilled foot (auxiliaries, praetorians and legionaries). The centre was supported by two units of slingers, an onager battery, and some harpies. On the Roman right (top left of photo), German foot and Numidian cavalry held the flank, while on the left (top right of photo), German cavalry presented a reserved flank. A unit of minotaurs had been sent on a flank march but were driven back by a stronger enemy flanking force and redeployed behind the German cavalry. ...

The third and final dispatch from Mark relating events recently transpired in Rutlandshire... The attack on Sir Thomas Bertram’s hunting party at Cottesmore shocked the whole county. Indeed it was a topic of conversation as far afield as Northampton and Leicester. Many communities got together to establish defences in case the Revenants came after them next. One of these was the insignificant village of Frommage, in the SE of the shire, near Fineshade Wood. Sir Barty Hardacre, the local bigwig, was out of town, but the parish men of business, mainly the Reeve (Uriah Heep) and Curate (Obadiah Slope), called a meeting to enlist temporary additional Watchmen. It was felt the standing Watch, comprised mainly of the local wastrels and sturdy poor, and armed mainly with sticks and agricultural tools, wouldn’t be up to the job of fending off the undead fiends without black powder support, and the steadying influence of their social betters. So it was that when the Revenants did make their nex...

The second in a three-part dispatch from Mark relating events recently transpired in Rutlandshire... It’s two or three weeks after the terrifying news of the ‘orrible murders on the Uppingham road, and things are beginning to calm down. Anyway, this sort of thing was not going to keep the gentry of Rutland from their normal avocations. So we find a party of deer stalkers in the woods on the Cottesmore estate, walking back to the house at dusk after a fine sporting day. It comprised three gentlemen and their men. Sir Thomas Bertram, Bt. Gentleman, Demonologist. Sadist. Sword, Flintlock. Brompton. Follower. Drunkard*. Lantern, Spontoon. Henry Crawford Esq. Gentleman. Secret witch. Sword, Flintlock, Silver shot** Cleeve. Follower. Secret witch. Pole-arm. John Maddox Esq. Gentleman. Flagellant***. Sword, Flintlock. Maury. Follower. Gambler. Lantern, Club. * affected by drink. -1 on all activation & resolve tests for the game. ** Crawford was a cautious man. *** unaffected. In the photo...

The first in a three-part dispatch from Mark relating events recently transpired in Rutlandshire... The ancient festival of Samhain, celebrated at the end of October in modern reckoning, marks the end of the harvest season and the onset of winter. According to Wikipedia it’s pronounced SAH-wen and is a time when the boundary between the living and the dead becomes liminal, and the spirits of ancestors are honoured and propitiated. So it seems appropriate that Revenants (undead) came into Rutlandshire just at this time. Coincidence? I think not. Writing many years later but drawing on stories he had heard first-hand, the antiquary and gossip John Aubrey recorded the only narrative we have of this terrifying chapter in the history of the East Midlands. I have used his notes (unpublished ms in the Ashmolean) as the basis for these reports. There were two “human” revenants, in the form of ghastly horsemen, said to be dead cavalry soldiers or huntsmen. One wore a red coat and was known as J...

This week I was down at Battle Inc in Belfast to take my Seleukids out for a spin at a game of Hail Caesar with the lads from the Irish Historical Wargamers Guild. With a total of seven divisions and six players, two of my divisions were commanded by other players - I retained command only of a division of eastern thureophoroi and Arab auxialiaries. It wasn't necessarily their most glowing performance, as reported below by Nikias, commander of auxiliaries. An account of Nikias of Amphipolis, commander of auxiliaries. Being in command of thureophoroi from Osrhoene, scythed chariots, and various camelry and other Arab tribesmen, I was posted to the far right of the Seleukid line; a position of honour, but also beyond the left flank of the barbarian enemies - an assorted line of Libyans and Romans. At the outset, my speeches fell on deaf ears as the translators struggled to convey my orders from Greek into Aramaic and Arabic. Restless for action, the two companies of scythed chariots...

Mark has just sent through the latest dispatch from the East Indies: The annual Goa convoy sailed down the Pearl River estuary. Once out to sea it turned SW to begin the first leg of its thousand league journey. It comprised the old carrack Sa Isabella (Don Manuel Silva), which had been making this annual round trip for many years, and her escorting fragata Sao Martinho (Don Cristobal da Crespo). Here are the profiles - 1 x Carrack (35) Santa Isabella das Indias Q4 C5: High castles, Merchantman, Reinforced hull, Sluggish, Square rigged 1 x Frigate (60) Sao Martinho Q3 C3: Chaser guns, Galleon rigged, Master gunner, Trained guncrew Some time later the topmast lookout on the Sa Isabella reported a group of ships on an approaching course. They turned out to be - 2 x Large merchant junks (20) Ginger Jar, Hainan Trader Q4 C3: Merchantman, Reinforced hull, Square rigged 1 x Small escort junk (50) Bamboo Shoot (easily mistaken for a pirate vessel) Q2 C2: Derring-do, Intimidating, Lateen rigge...