Irregular Wars Wargaming

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...

Part 1 - Everdene Farm Everdene Farm is a couple of miles from Frommage, in south Rutlandshire. With the start of the harvest season only a week or so off, and the usual band of seasonal workers expected, the farm instead received a less welcome visit. But although surprised it was not unprepared. Bathsheba, the tenant farmer, is an experienced hunter. Her farm workers Dogberry and Turncoat are both former soldiers and members of the Watch, tho rostered off duty this month because of the imminent harvest. When some of the farm’s flock of sheep were found one morning torn to pieces, and the sheep dogs terrified, the three of them knew what they were up against and prepared for the fray. Here are the Hunters as portrayed in the anonymous pamphlet Ye Devil went into Rutland Shire (c1642). Everdene was portrayed as a man (Woodcut #1) and her Christian name was suppressed, so readers wouldn’t be scandalised or imbibe any socially dangerous ideas.   Bathsheba Everdene Goodwife: Lustful,...

A second demi-marine is ready to join the Flores Minor Ranger Corps - my space halflings of various origins. She is another cut-down-to-size Games Workshop Mark VI space marine with some gentle conversion using green stuff and random bits from the bits box.  Together with Bunker, she marks a small side project to add to my space halflings with a few more wee chaps and chapesses. When times are rough, halflings can always be relied on to lighten the mood! More to come in due course.

Over the last few weeks I have been slowly plugging away at a few set dressings for playing dungeon crawl scenarios in  Fantastic Scuffles . So far I've only managed ten doors and two sarcophagi (both designed and sold by GatheringGroundsG), but it's a start.  The pieces work very well with the fantastic neoprene dungeon tiles from Tabletop Battlemats. These really are top quality and I'm very pleased with them. The white edges of the mats visible in the photo above are less obvious in hand, and I imagine running a black permanent marker around the edge will fixe any issue there. I bought one sarcophagus of each design. The undamaged one is actually cast from a marbled looking resin and I was a bit sad to paint over it. However, the other one needed paint on the skulls and vines, and I wanted both to look like they belonged together. For no particular reason I opted for purple vines rather than green or brown. Perhaps it is some sort of magical corruption? I based all the...

Having returned from a dander around France, Belgium and the Netherlands, we returned home to find that my wee lad's best mates are all away. A boon for me, as he agreed to play a couple of games of Fantastic Scuffles ! In the first game, I controlled my party five of rogues (mercenary, burglar, harlot, highwaywoman and potion dealer) who's objective was to knock out and abduct one of his party members. He controlled a foot knight, sorceress, ghost and two spear-armed minions who had been asked to acquire an item held (determined randomly) by my half-orc harlot. My highway woman took an early dislike to the sorceress, sneaking up to fire her pistol at short range. The sorceress was wounded, but still standing until the halfling burglar emerged behind her and finished the job.  The wee man's knight charged the potion's dealer who threw down a smoke bomb to escape. The knight then turned his attention to the burglar, taking revenge for the mess he'd made of the sorcer...