Irregular Wars Wargaming

I am still waiting on most of my gaming supplies, but I thought I'd do a quick WIP post showing off my first painted Song of Arthur and Merlin warband, Æthelwulf's Angle Exiles. Dan Mersey refers to these poor lads as Cei-fodder... Æthelwulf resents that. They still need to have their bases flocked, and a few little touch ups done here and there when I get a finer brush. The figures are all from pendraken's 10mm Late Roman range - I'm still impressed by the sculpts. I went for a blue, black and white theme with the obligatory browns thrown in for good measure. Originally the shields also included yellow, red and green, but Mrs Hotspur laughed at my so-called rainbow warriors... Æthelwulf resents that too. ;Æthelwulf's Angle Exiles Æthelwulf the Exile;106;3;4;true;Heavy Armor,Leader,Tough;; Sigtrygg Silvertongue;50;2;2;true;Bard;; Hrolf Stoutheart;52;3;4;false;Fearless,Shieldwall,Shooter: Short,Standard Bearer;; Ceorl;36;3;3;false;Shieldwall,Shoo...

Somewhere in the midst of the chaos of the release of Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End 1.5, followed by 'the big move', James over at Political Dice  posted a inter-web-view with me covering some of the background behind Irregular Wars. For those who haven't seen it, I have reposted it below in another time-poor attempt to keep the blog lit. = ) This is most… Irregular… Posted on   04/22/2012   by   Chairman Asheth Like what you see? Spread the Love! Greetings all and sundry. Today I have another of my world famous interviews with an independant wargames developer/publisher. For the first time today I am delving into a little bit of historical warfare. Usually I steer clear from this as my experience of historical wargames is 2 guys with their heads buried in books trying to out-read one another in the meanings of rules. I think most historical games get to bogged down in trying to be “Realistic” and they suffer as a result. I say t...

The following text has been lifted directly from the blog Toy soldiers, painting and ale ( HERE ). The author of the blog, Wakmaggot - not sure if that's his real name but as I don't want to cause any offence I'll leave that line of questioning right there ; ) - any way, he was quite complimentary about my wee set of rules. As I'm still a little stretched for time at the moment, I thought I would just repost his blog entry wholesale. **** Wednesday, 16 May 2012 Finished Greeks and first game of Irregular Wars Right, I haven't updated anything here for a few days as I was finishing off a painting commission for Mr Mersey.  I've previously painted Athenian and Aitolian DBA armies for him and this time it was an army from Argos.  Sorry, I have no idea what they should be called and Argosian just sounds wrong to me! Anyway, they're a 15mm Xyston army and, I'm sorry to say, I wasn't able to take a single decent 'photo of them befor...

My family and I are now arrived and ensconced in deepest, darkest Ulster. compared to the rubbish weather in Sydney so far this year, I must say Belfast is most favourable. A quick word of advice to anyone considering flying 24 hours around the world with a toddler seat-belted to you. Don't. I was recently asked, very politely, if I could post a few more battle reports/after action reports of games of Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End . Unfortunately at present, the answer is no. All* of my miniatures and terrain are currently either: a) on a container ship somewhere between Sydney and Belfast, or b) in the stronghold of some Somali pirate/warlord. I hope Capt. Abdul Hassan or whoever has succeeded him appreciates the inclusion of an East African battle list in version 1.5 of the game. I solemnly pledge to post more Irregular Wars posts when my little lead minions arrive in the UK/are ransomed back to me. *I say all my miniatures are on board a ship...

After many months of play testing, I am delighted to announce the official release of Irregular Wars: Conflict at the world’s End version 1.5. Irregular Wars: Conflict at the world’s End v.1.5 offers a revised and expanded set of Renaissance rules (focused on the period c .1519 to 1641) to recreate the historically based struggles on your tabletop. For those not too familiar with the period, the rules cover the reigns of Queen Elizabeth, Montezuma and Ivan the Terrible. Irregular Wars: Conflict at the world’s End provides rules and army lists for engagements set around the fringe of the European world – Tudor Britain and Ireland, the major European colonial powers, and the peoples of the New World, the East Indies and the Eurasian steppe. The basic rules of version 1.5 have retained the fun and fast mechanisms found in the original game. Rather than focusing on the minutiae of individual casualties and armour based saving throws, the core game mechanic is based on the res...

Last night, Friday the 13th, saw my last outing to the Southern Battle Games wargames club in Sydney. It was a great night, if a little sad, and my dice rolling turned out ok for a change and I went out with a bang. I got three games in for the evening: 1) My Arkadian warband for SBH took on some Greek hoplites supported by Medusa. Medusa's quick kill ability and long range shooting was a little intimidating, but we were playing the 'difficult ground' scenario, and the woods were most definitely on my side with two hoplites being swallowed up by the trees. Pan's terror causing charges broke up the enemy line while Daphne the dryad entangled them and the satyr archers picked them off one by one.  2) I played my first game of SAGA against the unofficial SAGA Minister of Popular Enlightenment, Alanus Dux Homunculorum. Alan is always a great sport and I suspect he went a little light on me. I fielded 4 points of Vikings (all hearthguard) against his 4 points of Welsh...

Graham Chapman - perhaps the most ernest Arthur of them all. The rules engine which drives Song of Blades and Heroes by Ganesha Games has been successfully developed for use in all manner of contexts – from giant Japanese inspired pulp monsters and teddy bears to Napoleonic or modern period skirmishes. However, In my mind, one of the simplest and most elegant transitions was the creation of Song of Arthur and Merlin ( SAM )written by the master of Arthurian wargaming, Daniel Mersey, originally as a SBH supplement, but now as a stand alone game. The game provides all the rules and contexts for you to wargame struggles and skirmishes in Arthurian Britain. Which ever Arthurian Britain you choose. SAM includes campaigns and special rules for you whether you prefer the traditional shiny, chivalric Arthur of Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur and John Boorman’s Excalibur , the more traditional mythical Arthur of the Mabinogian and other Welsh sagas and poems, or the reformist modern tenden...