Irregular Wars Wargaming

This week saw a much-needed rematch between my halfling militia from the shires and Roger's ogres from the northern tundra. Just a straight up battle between two 1,000 point armies, both hankering for a second serve of pie... The halflings were the defender, but the ogres used night march, so the armies deployed closer together than normal. Roger placed yetis and other fast beasties on either flank, tough ogre melee units inside that, and a unit of cannon-toting ogres in the centre, supported by a warlord riding a monstrous fantastic beast and an array of characters including two magic-users, each with level three blink. My halfling centre was composed of an elite hearthguard of spearmen (still militia), and units of kitchen militia and militia archers. The woods and rough ground were held by treefolk auxiliaries, while the mounted wing of poultry riders and cavalry (almost a pun) sat on the far left flank. A cockatrice and small indirect artillery battery provided support from beh...

The heroes went to Cattraeth in marshalled array, and with shout of war, With powerful steeds,   and dark brown harness, and with shields, With uplifted  javelins, and piercing lances, With glittering mail, and with swords. He excelled, and penetrated through the host, Five battalions fell before his blade; Rhuvawn Hir,  —he gave gold  to the altar, And gifts and precious stones  to the minstrel. Y Gododdin 33. It has taken a little bit longer than expected, but the next unit for my Romano-British army for Fantastic Battles is now complete. These are more 10mm Pendraken lovelies, mixing the armoured command with unarmoured cavalry packs. This small two-company unit (one of two such I've planned for the army) will be profiled as formed companies with the mounted, barrage and skirmishers traits to represent the swirling, dashing javelin-armed style warriors mentioned in Y Gododdin .  So far I only have 351 points worth of this army painted - three unit...

This week Andy T and I faced off in the dungeon depths for another playtest of the dungeon crawling element of Fantastic Scuffles . Andrew ran a team of adventurers with four characters (two warriors, a sage and a rogue) and four minions (two archers and two spearmen). I returned to the roll of dungeon keeper, filling my dungeon with hidden movement tokens filled with potential. Knowing me, of course that potential was always going to include kobolds - this time with goblins! With such a large adventuring party, Andy split his team into two groups. All four minions and one of his warriors - the polearm toting knight - went left, discovering the wing of the dungeon populated by kobolds. Having slaughtered a group of kobold spearmen, they continued into the next room, finding the first of their treasure chests, but also running into a group pf kobold slingers led by a mighty (in his head anyway) kobold warrior. Although all the kobolds were to fall, it was not without cost, leaving all t...

I've just finished up this little swarm of 28mm goblings from Old School Miniatures. They will be treated as minions with the swarm trait in Fantastic Scuffles . These smaller goblin cousins have great character and a 1980s-90s vibe that made the kickstarter difficult to dismiss. Some of the casting was a little rough, but mounted five to a base, they are kind of irresistible.  Lets hope the enemy finds it that way too!

At the end of August, Gio organised an amazing looking Blood, Sweat & Cheers tournament in Mexico. It looks like an amazing time, with eight competitors sending their gladiators into the ring to claim the adoration of the crowd and the much coveted title of ludus champion. Putting a crowd-pleasing twist on the game, Gio arranged for Lego mini-figs to represent all the gladiators! I would encourage you to pop over to Gio's blog and have a look (in Spanish and English). He's graciously allowed me to borrow a couple of his images, but I only wanted to show a taste here. So go on, go check it out! Congratulations to Gio for what looked like a brilliant event, and to all the players - not least the ludus champion, Isaac!

There is plenty of editing and page setting going on at the moment in Irregular Wars HQ, meaning there is relatively little new brush work going on. I have, however, finished up a couple of exceptions to that rule over the last couple of weeks, posted below. First up we have this fiercely majestic gryphon digitally sculpted by Cast N Play. Buying 3d printed minis from Etsy can be a bit hit and miss, but this was definitely a winner. She - for some reason I picture it as a female gryph - can either join a party or be used as a hostile fantastic beast. Then we have these four chests and two mimics from Onmioji Miniatures - essential for any dungeon delving! And lastly a couple of photos from our latest dungeon crawl using Fantastic Scuffles . While it looked touch and go for the adventurers in turns two and three, expedient spell casting left the so-called heroes as masters of the dungeon for the low low cost of the life of their halfling rogue.

In a rare alignment of the stars, I have been working on a very simple game through work: Mountsandal , a game of hunting and gathering for 1-6 players. This game has been created to help engage Key Stage II and III pupils (8-13 year olds) with the history of Ireland’s first people. It was developed under the auspices of Causeway Coast and Glens Museum Service as part of The Royal Society’s Places of Science programme. In Mountsandel , players take on the role of Mesolithic people struggling to survive in Ireland almost 10,000 years ago. Living in the Middle Stone Age, at a time before farming or permanent homes, the Mesolithic people moved between different camps at different times of the year depending on what food they could hunt or gather. This game is named after the local archaeological site of Mountsandel, on the River Bann near the modern town of Coleraine. Mountsandel is the site of the earliest known settlement on the island of Ireland, dating back to around 7,...

The most challenging part of creating a fantasy skirmish game is building mechanisms to make dungeon crawling fun and challenging, while still engaging all players with smooth mechanics. The dungeon crawling rules for FS have been through multiple iterations now, switching between matched and asymmetrical parties, from hidden movement, to free-flowing visibility and back again. At this point, we feel the balance is about right, although further testing is, of course, going to be required!  Last week we played a three-player dungeon crawl, with two parties of adventurers attempting to raid the same dungeon through different entrances. Re-instituting hidden movement, my poor denizens were represented by mini playing cards until an adventurer came withing line of sight, when their true nature was revealed. Jim took a 100 point party of gnomes (top centre), Andy T controlled 100 points of Japanese bandits (centre right), will I had 200 points of kobolds dispersed throughout the dungeo...

Part 2 - Frommage hopes for the best Soon the village was buzzing with news about the Monster attack at Everdene Farm. The dead Wolf and Barghest told the story, and Everdene added more information later, as she got better. It’s a busy time of the year throughout Rutlandshire as the harvest must be gathered-in during the next few weeks. All available hands are put to this work, including village folk who pick up seasonal employment out in the fields. There are even folk come from Leicestershire, leading to suspicious glances and mutterings in some quarters. Bloody immigrants. So news of the outrage comes at the worst possible time. But the local authorities (Uriah Heep the Reeve & Obadiah Slope the Curate) scrape together whom they can and a scratch Watch is put on night patrol. Some of these Watch-folk have bought extra equipment with funds, including bounty pay, c/f from earlier games. And here they are (L to R) (Photo #1) - Margaret Pole Goodwife: Doubting, Penitent, Strong. Hal...