Irregular Wars Wargaming

Zeno is your typical  militiaman from a game of  Song of Shadows and Dust . Zeno (Antiochene militiaman) 39 points Q4 C3 Special Rules Armed, Bludgeon, Steadfast Born and raised in Antioch at the dawn of the first century BC, he is proudly descended from Macedonians ... at least on his father's side. That his mother's father's family come from stock indigenous to Koile Syria is a fact seldom raised in Zeno's presence. Despite his august ancestry, Zeno's family have fallen on bad times of late and, when his father's sausage factory burnt down, he decided to find his own way in the world. Convinced that there was no greater cause that the protection of one's metropolis, Zeno decided to join the Antiochene Civic Militia. He had originally through to sign up as a regular phalangite in one of the royal armies, or even apply for the elite agyraspides, but certain past indiscretions with the recruiting ser...

I am pleased to be able to publicly announce my new forthcoming rules set: Song of Shadows and Dust which will be published by Ganesha Games. More astute readers of this blog will have noticed a build up over the course of the year of ancient urban scenery and miniature civilians, thugs, ne'er-do-wells and gladiators. This has all been in preparation for the new stand alone set of historical miniature wargaming rules I have been working on based on the Song of Blades and Heroes fantasy rules by Andrea Sfiligoi. Song of Shadows and Dust ( SSD ) is inspired by the breakdown in civic order which plagued the great cities of the Mediterranean in the first century BC such as Rome, Antioch, Jerusalem or Alexandria. In Rome the long-running feud between the optimates (conservatives) and the populares (popular party) was punctuated with street brawls, bloodshed and assassinations, erupting numerous times into open civil war. In the great metropolises of the East, rival claimants intri...

Chapter 4, The Last Battle Unrest reigns across the kingdom. Rival warbands march across the hills while the country folk have fled their homes and taken shelter in the marshlands and the woods. Ten years have passed since Sorviodunum and the affair of the Holy Toe of St Pius. Victorious against their weaker foes, the proven and legitimate rulers of the land had demonstrated their worth and ruled well for three long glorious Summers. That was before the Year of the Rains and the three Years of the Famine which followed close on its heels. In those dark days it was only rumours of the reappearance of an old enemy which filtered through to the prince’s court, brought by travelers  bards, priests and merchants. Then, as the prosperity of the land dimmed, the visitors grew fewer but the rumours continued. Women, children and livestock started to disappear and shadowy figures were seen crossing the fields in moonlight. The Prince of Venta’s prestige faltered as he failed t...

If a picture tells a thousand words, here are a few enigmatic pages... Please excuse the unfinished nature of everything. One of the highlights of this series of games was when the Boris Johnson-esqe demagogue in the toga took down the bellicose tribal warlord. Pure poetry in motion.

Here is a quick snap showing some of the recently painted citizenry of Antiocheia Mikros - my 15mm scale ancient cityscape. These figures come from a range of different manufacturers but I hope you'll agree they all work perfectly well together. From left to right: three Xyston women from the women and youths camp followers pack, a Xyston Athenian oarsman/rower, a Xyston priest (with sacrificed goat) from the Seleukid command pack, a Donnington Arab merchant and camel, a Donnington Roman senator from the civilian pack, a Corvus Belli Roman scribe from the engineers pack, a Mick Yarrow Assyrian girl carrying a water pot and the Lurkio Moorish javelineer who seems to have snuck into the shot despite already appearing earlier as a potential gladiator...

Sir George Clifford (1558-1605), 3rd Earl of Cumberland, 14th Baron Clifford of Westmoreland, Sherrif of Westmoreland, 13th Lord of the Honour of Skipton in Craven, Yorkshire, Baron Vesey, Lord Vipont, was born a few months before the accession of Elizabeth I. As a famous jousting champion and privateer, he was to become one of the most influential figures within the Elizabethan court. Below are some of the key dates in his career. 1570 - Succeeds to his father's lands and titles in at the age of 12. These included the ancestral lordship of  Skipton Castle  in north Yorkshire where his life is much celebrated. 1577 - Marries Lady Margaret Russel, daughter of the influential 2nd Earl of Bedford. Margaret Clifford was to become a Maid of Honour to Elizabeth I and a powerful figure in her own right. 1586 - Peer at the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots. 1588 - Captains the Elizabeth Bonaventure during the Armada campaign. 1590 - Appointed Queen's Champion 1592 - Made a Knight ...

... when the latest version of your newly written rules set is ambushed by a rainbow.

All round helpful gamer Le Coq Fou (AKA Prince Albert's Revenge on TMP) was kind enough to snap a shot of a few unpainted 15mm Irish figures showing the relative sizes of Corvs Belli and QRF figures. From left to right: Corvus Belli Irish kern (100 Years War range); QRF Irish kern (Tudor Wars range); QRF Irish kern (Elizabeth's Irish War range); QRF Redshank (Elizabeth's Irish War range). Note that the two ranges from QRF vary in size quite a lot with the Tudor Wars figures being a tiny bit smaller than Essex, the Elizabeth's War figures being quite a bit chunkier and a couple of mm taller. This shot of my own Irish kern shows the two QRF ranges together with Essex Irish kern. The two bases in the from show (from left to right) Essex, QRF Tudor, QRF Tudor, Essex Essex, QRF Tudor. The base slightly back and on the extreme right shows QRF Tudor, QRF Elizabeth's (with the axe), Essex. You can see just how big the Elizabeth's War figure is in comparison.  ...

I have been fairly quiet of late due to some pretty tragic events in the family. However, behind the scenes the hobby marches on as a nice diversion from a pretty sad reality. One upshot to having a bit of time off is being able to spend lots of time with my (mostly) awesome son/monkey and my lovely wife. In other news, I recently found an exciting young Hungarian artist to work on some illustrations for the rules set I'm working on for Ganesha Games. For now, lets call them SSD ... Due to recent events, I've not been able to playtest them as much as I would have liked but I will shortly be looking for a wider sphere of testers to try out the new rules mechanics. My buildings for my 15mm scale suburb of Antioch are almost completed and a few more civilians have been painted up (including my first ever camel). No pictures as yet. I have also been procrastinating a little on ebay recently and came across this smashing 28mm heroic scale miniatures from Lance and Laser. The...

Although I have, of late, been negligently distracted by other projects, fellow gamer Le Coq Fou has been hard at work putting together some wonderful 15mm forces for Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End . Below I have attached a few images of his excellent Woodland Indians (Iroquois) and English Adventurers (Jamestown-esque colonists) battles swiped - with permission - from his own write ups. I encourage you to check out his full blog here . Extra! Extra! Read all about it... English massacred by noble savages .