Irregular Wars Wargaming

Bring on the Clowns The Jokers and Buffoons I've had the Time of my Life And the Life of my Times In the Company of Fools Great Big Sea,  Company of Fools Inspired in equal parts by Great Big Sea and  Commedia dell'arte , the next party pulled togather in preperation for Fantastic Scuffles is the Company of Fools, an assortment of subversives to undermine the seriousness of any situation.  All are 28mm metal sculpts which, despite their vintage, have mostly withstood the test of time. The exact role of each character in the party has yet to be finalised, but I plan for them to each have a bit of magic up their sleeves to put on a propper show! Scapino the tumbling goblin and is familar, Pappa Luna, are from Warmonger Miniatures.  The ever-enchanting elf, Columbine, is from Reaper Miniatures. Pantalone, the skeletal jester is also from Reaper Miniatures. Arlecchino the Trickster is from Bad Squiddo Games. Of all of the miniatures, his is the most complex in trms of d...

This week Roger and I dusted off our 6mm collections for a 1,000 point historical game of Fantastic Battles , pitting his Gauls (Galatians really, if they are this far east) against my Seleukids.  The army breakdowns, and deployment after rolling for mishaps appear in the photo above. The Gauls had a tough centre and powerful left, while the Seleukid strength was heavily biased to their own right. The opening turns saw the Gallic racial trope of 'impulsive' adding a nice bit of spice, as some units such as the two warbands hurled themselves towards the Seleukid line, with both the medium and heavy warbands receiving volleys of missile fire as they approached.  The Gallic light horse on their extreme right entered the woods that anchored the Seleukid left flank. The Seleukid heavy cavalry on the right opened out in preparation for the assault of the Gaestati. Across the line, the Gallic infantry crashed into the Seleukid line. On the left, the medium warband charged the Arab ca...

This week saw the completion of the second-to-last unit on my Magnesia roster for ProjectSeleukid. I needed an elephant - the iconic peice of Seleukid wargear .  After my previous work on an Aventine beastie , I would have loved another. However, storage-box-height concerns meant that I needed to make certain compromises. After a bit of a search, I figured that scalecreep might be my friend for a change, and ordered an elephant from Essex. What can I say? The inside of the elephant is marked Essex 1984 - the sculpt is 40 years old. While it's showing it's age - especially the crew which have the same proportions of Essex 15mm ranges - the elephant itself isn't bad. It is roughly the same height as the Aventine one, it is significantly narrower, and the head is smaller. The howdah was equally tall and skinny, so I cut it down by about 10mm to allow it to fit in the storage box.  Just a couple more commanders and a three-comapny unit of cataphaacts to go!

Attempting to keep up some momentum - although I'll admit these were a struggle - this week we add two companies of scythed chariots to my 28mm late Seleukid army. The models are from 1st Corp. They were fiddly to build, but look decent painted up and, most importantly, just about fit on a 60x60mm base! Scythed chariots are an enigmatic legacy of the Acheamenid army, absorbed into the Seleukid military machine. While we know almost nothing about their exact look and fit out, they were seemingly employed by the Seleukids from the 4th to at least the mid-2nd centuies BC, present also at Ipsos (301 BC), against Demetrios Poliorketes in Kyrrhestis (285 BC), on the left flank at Magnesia (190 BC), 140 were paraded at Daphne (166 BC), and were perhaps also used by Lysias in Judaea (162 BC). In Fantastic Battles, I plan to use these as fantastic beasts with the expendible, furious charge and reckless traits to represent their battlefield role as one-shot disruptive terror weapons. 

Taking advantage of having a day off work, I forged on and painted up another unit for my 28mm Seleukids, this time its the mercenary Galatian cavalry. These'uns are from Crusader Miniatures Celtic range and they are pretty nice La Tène mounted nobles. I wanted an irregular feel, but always prefer to stick with a limited palette (so they don't look too much like a rainbow), so stuck with a green theme with a bit of red, but multiple different horse colours. The army is now coming together nicely and the last units needed for Magnesia have been ordered... more to come.