Irregular Wars Wargaming

Find your niche, play your fantasy Irregular Wars Wargaming was born from a desire to play something different. To play historical games too niche to be a commercial success. To play fantasy games unshackled by somebody else’s world or the prescriptive demands to sell associated miniature ranges. To play games where the landscape drives decisions, and randomised events can allow even the most gamey players to snatch defeat from the jaws of glorious victory. With various tabletop wargames published through both Irregular Wars and Ganesha Games, my rules are designed to be engaging for all players throughout the game, employing randomised initiative with play passing quickly between players. They aim to create some degree of command friction, limiting the omnipotent control of the player and forcing interesting decision making. Above all, they are driven to be flexible, enabling players to build the armies, warbands, parties and fleets of their choice, applicable to whatever period or s...

The last post of a busy month is another three-company unit of Romano-British pedyt for my Fantastic Battles Britannia Burning project. Accompanying them are the first two characters of the army, one pretending that they still serve the empire, and another much more comfortable in a tribal setting. All miniatures from the wonderful Pendraken Late Roman range. Going more uniform for this unit, the pedyt shields are based on the Petulantes Seniores auxilia unit noted in the Notia Dignitatum ; their banner is inspired by the shields of the Felices Iuniores in the same document. I've been having a bit of an issue with my painting hand recently, so the shield work isn't as fine as I would like, but they are done and I can more on now to the next unit. In total I now have a little over 500 points across four units and the two commanders. Progress is slow, but there is progress! ✊

October’s Big Game Sunday saw Tony, Garry and I facing off with a somewhat plausibly historic game of Fantastic Battles – pitting 1900 points of my Late Seleukids against their unholy alliance of Republican Romans and later Carthaginians. I had hidden a three-company unit of Arab allies in the woods on the Seleukid left as an ambush to slow down the Roman advance on that flank, but during the mishaps phase, both they and a unit of Roman velites opposite were enthusiastic and advanced towards each other. Thus, melee combat was begun before either side received orders to advance.  Elsewhere, the Seleukid side suffered little from mishaps (a single late unit of slingers). It could have been far worse. At one point I think I rolled four or five 6’s in a row which would have caused havoc if they weren’t adjusted thanks to the quartermaster strategy. The Romano-Punic armies suffered more with late, enthusiastic and diseased units along the line. The opening turn saw general advance orde...

I had the honour to be invited down to Cork College of FET - Douglas Street this week for a Fantastic Scuffles playtesting day with their first and second year game design students. Although they are studying computer game design, they have to create tabletop games as part of their assessment. It was a great day with more than 20 students putting Fantastic Scuffles through its paces, stress testing the mechanics and trying to find game-breaking loopholes in the rules. Where issues were identified, mostly driven by trait and equipment synergies, we talked through different approaches to resolve them and implemented a couple of changes. My thanks to Neil Crowley and all who took part. It was a great experience for me, and I hope that the discussions that we had around game mechanics and design choices were useful to the students as they prepare for their future careers. 

Andriochos and Antinichos met for a Seleukid civil war rematch this week running 1,000 point armies of second century BC Seleukids built for Fantastic Battles . Last time these forces clashed , I came out on top. Who would triumph this time? My legitimate forces, led by the rightful king, Antinichos, were defending which put me at a slight disadvantage. Normally I like defending, but our armies (by no means identical) both favour open terrain. This meant there were limited tricks I could play with deployment and Andrew/Andriochos was able to deploy cleverly in response to my setup.   Rolling for mishaps, the usurper's army suffered little other than a unit of skirmishers turning up behind the main line on his right rather than out front. Several of my units were suffering from disease and two units - slingers and thureophoroi - were late my left flank. The forces of the legitimate king advanced cautiously, trying to decide how best to negotiate the terrifying elephants facing the c...

Using up a bit of leave from work, I was able to finish up the last (latest) two minis for The Flores Minor Ranger Corp, the Skipper and Psych. Here is the whole detachment ready for a Galactic Scuffle to defend Flores and bite some knees off. Skipper is a lovely little sculpt from Max Mini with an impressively augmented fist and a power sword. Psych is a halfling psychic from Four A Miniatures. She looks a little like she's just remembered something crucial, but maybe that's just her way to mess with her enemies...

We return to Mark now with another dispatch from the East Indies: ***** It’s some time in the middle third of the C16 - as usual - as we return to the East Indies and find the Ming Chinese piracy-suppression squadron hard at work. An-te Hai has positioned a wolf pack of submersible rams (total 183 points) in ambush in the Maluku Strait, through which many of the Portuguese spice convoys pass. They are commanded by Huang Ju, on the Silver Carp. 3 x Submersible rams (62) (186) Fecui Liyu (Emerald Carp), Jin Liyu (Golden Carp), Lian Liyu (Silver Carp) Q3 C3: Ramming, Sluggish, Submersible, Unarmed, Unorthodox They didn’t have long to wait, as a convoy (total 190 points) soon appeared, commanded by Francisco Alvares on the Sao Martinho. 2 x Frigates (60) (120) Sao Jorge, Sao Martinho Q3 C3: Chaser guns, Galleon rigged, Master gunner, Trained guncrew 1 x Merchant brig (18) Moscato (Nutmeg) Q3 C2: Lateen rigged, Merchantman, Master gunner 2 x Large merchant junks (20) (40) Ginger Jar, Haina...

This month's Big Battle Sunday saw the first of our Napoleonic games, featuring Tony, Karl and Andrew's Russians against Paul's French and my Württembergers. This was the first outing of a group project floated back in 2022. I finished my Württemberg light brigade over two years ago and decided not to put myself through the agony of painting more until they had a few battles under their belts. And here we are! Thanks to Karl, there is even a rare photograph showing that I exist! Very much the minor nation, I only had a single brigade on the table; Paul had four French brigades. Facing us were four Russian Brigades under Karl and Tony, with Andrew's large Russian brigade coming on half-way through the battle. Somewhere approaching Russia, c.1812. The thin green line of Württembergers, supported by French cuirassiers and dragoons hold the allied right flank. The left flank composed of French (and Italian) infantry. Generalmajor von Bruxelles encourages the Württembergers ...