Irregular Wars Wargaming

The forces deploy. The left hand force are the Carthaginians in deep formations. The long winding force is composed of the Seleukids (in the distance) and the Spartans (to right). The Spartan phalangites behind a line of Cretan skirmishers. My Seleukid scythed chariots are off in the distance. I had a great game of Hail Caesar on Sunday. We had five large commands of Carthaginians taking on three commands each of Spartans and Seleukids. It was a pretty brutal and bloody game - especially for the Spartans who were almost whiped out - which only narrowly went in favour of the allies. What follows are three battle reports, each prepared by a different player: Carthage: "I'm expecting the victors to write the history" Seleukids: "The well trained but small Seleukid army - along with some few auxiliaries whose participation in the battle was so negligible to make remembering their nationality moot - was assualted by a morally corrupt, effeminate and overwhelmi...

I sat down on Friday night with gaming chum (and all round good guy) Andrew for a short, three game, campaign of Song of Shadows and Dust . The campaign was set in the outer suburbs of Antioch, c.80 BC. The two factions were, as it turned out, very evenly matched. They were composed as follows: I was running the Kybiosaktoi, a 'merchant' guild specialising in the receipt and on-sale of seafood and other maritime acquisitions. KYBIOSAKTOI Strato Monophthalmos (Faction leader) Q3 C3 60pts Leader Philokrator (Foreign bodyguard) Q4 C4 42pts Armed, Barbarous, Heavy Drinker, Protect Erato (Witch) Q3 C1 40pts Dynast, Poison, Short Move, Threatening Apollonios (Retired veteran) Q3 C3 52pts Armed, Danger Sense, Hard Antiochis (Henchwoman with spear) Q4 C3 36pts Armed, Bellicose Zeuxis (Henchman with oar) Q4 C3 32pts Bludgeon, Grey Europa (Apprentice with sling) Q4 C2 36pts Agile, Grey, Quick, Sling Andrew was trying out a new merchant's guild of his own. The theme was a Palmyren...

Well I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I bought Mighty Monsters and Samurai Robots Battle Royale from Ganesha Games (I got them together in a US$14 pdf bundle). Last night I had my first couple of games and you know what? I have two regrets.  The first is that I didn't invest in the hard copy books - because lets admit it, a book is always nicer than pages you printed at home. The second, is that I waited this long to play the games. They were, genuinely, a real laugh. The lads I played with and against were top quality chaps anyway, but the rules really bring the giant stomping monsters and mechs to life and make destruction and havoc a real blast (mind the pun)! It's the sort of destructive fun that my generation haven't had since the 1986 arcade game Rampage . In both games I took the much shot at Mantis, my chitinous kaiju based on a giant praying mantis. In the first game Mantis was in a one-on-one duel with IRN Mech. While Mantis is very powerful...

I am finally gearing up to have my first few games of Mighty Monsters and its sister game, Samurai Robots Battle Royale, this week. I have previously posted a couple of models for these games, IRN Mech and Mantis, but I have rebased them, so I thought I would repost them now, together with their com-padres, an ISIS Response Force and Dagan.  As readers of this blog will know, I am a bit fond of my historical wargames and only branch into fantasy gaming these days via Song of Blades and Heroes (of which I am a card-carrying fanboy). For me, MM and SRBR  - from the Ganesha Games family - will mark my first foray into sci-fi gaming for almost 20 years. I did have a Warhammer 40K army back in the days of 3rd edition but I lost the love for that sort of game a long time ago.  Even though I gave up on sci-fi games, I've always enjoyed Star Wars (at least the good ones) and Pacific Rim , in my opinion, rocked. It was the latter movie which compelled me to give these gam...