Irregular Wars Wargaming

I really like games that can deliver discrete, definable and achievable goals when it comes to building your armies. That is one huge tick in the box for Dan Mersey's Dux Bellorum . I am yet to play a game but the rules read very well and it looks to be a very enjoyable game.  Army lists in Dux Bellorum are defined , but loosely and allow for a lot of flexibility in the forces you raise. Generally you are looking at between five and ten units, plus  up to three strategies - strategies might be unique unit types like monks or wardogs, or they could represent unit upgrades etc. My starter army lists, as I may have mentioned before, were driven by the models I already had at hand, either painted or in the lead pile.  We will be playing our games based in the north of Britain ( c . AD 500) to permit Picts, Saxons, Irish, Welsh and Romano-Brits all to have a go. Here is my Romano-British army, sans strategies. It stands at 29 points, allowing me three points to spend on...

I realise that I have been unusually quiet for the past month. In part, that is because I've been busy with work and have had a number of nights working late, meaning that I have less time in my weekends to sneak off and paint/play games. In part, it is because June is now a pretty sad month in our family and everything grinds to a bit of a halt. Having said that, over the last while I have managed to make a little progress on the 2nd edition of my Irregular Wars rules. However, I've not really discussed any of the changes or progress. To give a bit of a taste of where we are at, I have included a contents list giving a rundown of everything as it stands below. The old phase system has been streamlined to make the basic rules easier and faster, impetuous companies now have a more realistic random movement system, there are now more optional actions for units within their lord's command radius, and every rule is more fully explained than before. To date there are also no...

Continuing on my slow plod towards raising a couple of Dux Bellorum armies, here are a couple of shots of my Germanic foedarati shieldwalls that will bulk out my Romano-British infantry. Although my Romano-Brits will have an overall red colour scheme, I have made these guys blue to a) distinguish them as 'different' from their comrades, and b) in case I decide to do a fully fledged Saxon army in the future, they will provide me with a core. The shieldwall on the right is my SAM Anglian warband rebased. All figures are Pendraken from their Late Roman range and include figures from both the Saxon militia and Roman militia packs, led by characters from the Arthurian personalities pack. One Saxon has had his spear replaced by a boar standard. I will used them as a regular shieldwall. The shieldwall on the right is made up principally of Pendraken Norse figures and include a mix of berserkers, bondi and hirdmen. The command are made up of a late Roman officer converted to ...

The Spartan phalanx, disrupted by Romans garrisoning the village. Elephants and cavalry go head-to-head on the left flank. Final positions. The entire combat south of the village was a perfect draw.

For some time now I have been pottering away building and painting a 6mm army for a friend of mine. When he was looking over the list of powers that might get involved in our c .220 BC theme for Hail Caesar , he decided that the crumbling state of Sparta was going to be the faction for him!  Now in theory, this is a fantastic period in Spartan history with fascinating personalities, social and military reforms and the joy of watching the driving ambition of a third rate power trying to regain it's previous ascendancy. In practice, after the reforms of Kleomenes III in the late 230s and early 220s, there are a whole lot of pikemen. I didn't really think about this before I started the painting project, but by golly  (after painting eleven units of the buggers)  I realise it now. Using the existing Classical Greek and Hellenistic Greek army lists as the basis, we did a bit of research and came up with the following specifically Hellenistic Spartan army list. There ...

My recent relative laxity in posting is pretty informative. I started a new job at the beginning of April and it seems to be using up a lot of by wargamey stuff time. How very tedious. None-the-less, it is a pretty good position and I probably shouldn't pack it in just to be able to spend more time here. Probably. So, after that preamble/ramble, I've only time for a very brief update. I have managed recently to put togeter some reinforcements for my Hail Caesar Seleukids and have even started a small side project. For 'started' read 'rebased some stuff already painted'. I added another base of Arab light infantry to 'upgrade' the unit to a standard sizes light infantry warband. I also made up a new commander with an Arab aide or sheik.  Galatian cavalry.   More katoikoi colonist cavalry (medium line cavalry). And without further adieu, here are some re-based Romano-British. The figures are 10mm Pendraken late Romans. They were previousl...

  On Sunday last, a dedicated band of high spirited gamers sat down for the the inaugural Northern Irish Song of Blades and Heroes competition, the Cú Chulainn Cup . There were seven of us in all, bucking the trend perpetuated by the 'bigger' name wargaming systems who dominate the hobby. Six competitors and myself as an impartial umpire. We had prizes provided by both Ganesha Games directly and from Wee Gamers, the host club for the event. These were for the overall winner and for the winners of two popular votes - the favourite warband and the most sporting player. Each player brought along one fixed 300 point warband and played against each of the other competitors  in a five round competition day. There were six different tables set up with predetermined scenery and scenarios which would put the various warbands through their paces. Ideally, I hoped that no player would have to play on the same table twice although as it turned out, one of them did have to...