Welcome once more to our latest issue of Irregular Magazine, Issue 15, Volume 2 for Spring 2021!

We begin with looking a the latest News in our gaming hobby, including news about new Critical Role figures from WizKids so you too can play more in Exandria!

This is followed by an update from our Editor on how he has been doing in his ongoing campaign about his personal grey hoard.

We have a review of the board game Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps! which is a real draw to many of us gamers who are fans of the Alien movies, as well as RPG reviews of the exciting Talisman RPG and the Achtung Cthulhu setting for Call of Cthulhu, as well as a review of the Towns and Taverns book of battle mats.

We look forward to the hotly anticipated Stargrave, the miniatures agnostic sci-fi followup to the very popular Forstgrave from Joe McCullough, and will be published by Osprey in April; and we also look back at Blast from the Past in the form of the old, but hugely popular Games Workshop game, Mordheim.

Many of us are interested in miniatures, so we have a few interesting articles for us all this time – we have an Alien painting tutorial, that sits nicely alongside our board game review of Aliens; but we also look at the fantasy range of Celtos miniatures and the sci-fi range of Hammer’s Slammers miniatures, both of which are available from Brigade Models. And to complement all of this, our Editor has a look at the Back to Basics of miniature painting, for those of us who need a refresh!

Finally on the miniatures front, we have a good look at a new and often asked question at the moment: Are 3D printed miniatures any good?

Following up on previous issues, we have a look at eSports once again. This time in the form of mobile eSports. Can we now play online games at a high level using the powerful computers that many of us now carry around in our pockets?

We also have and interesting review of the early 20th Century US plan to attack the British Empire, should it have proven to have been necessary. This article definately provides some interesting alternative history options for our 20th Century gaming.

This issue is also packed full of book reviews once more, with no less than fourteen book reviews. Stretching from Ancient times to 20th century warfare, if you’re looking for a recommendation of something new to read, we’ve probably got you covered!

Being something of a fan of the Orient, and being a Sinophile in particular, our Editor brings us another great review of Asian TV shows to watch online, that we might otherwise have missed out on.

Finally, although we may tease him a little, we have a lot to be grateful to our Editor for, not least the service he gave for his country, which includes his participation in the 1st Gulf War. This was now 30 years ago, and he has a look back at this conflict, including a personal perspective and a couple of period photos of him in situ.

Of course, many of the games we are talking about still need friends to play with, and although the world now has more hope than ever, many of us remain unable to meet up with friends to play games. Please stay safe everyone, until the times come when we can all play together again!

Time to get reading – go on, download a copy now!

Issue 15 Volume 2 / Spring 2021

Finally took the light box out to take some better images of the finished Ninja Goblin

During this lockdown I wasn’t as productive as I had been in previous ones, but I did finish an army and I started building the modular tiles for the Asian town project.

Team Yankee

I’m currently building two armies for this in preparation of being able to meet up with friends and introduce them to the game. I’ve been building a BAOR(British Army on the Rhine) force and a Soviet force that will also double up as a Chinese PLA force for Asian battles, as I plan to possible run an invasion of Hong Kong campaign. So how far have I progressed, well I literally just finished the British force about an hour prior to writing this up. As for the Soviets/PLA all I have left is 2 T-80’s, a T-64 tank and a BMP-1 left to finish, which I should hope fully complete this weekend. Which means by March 2021 I will have two completely painted armies for Team Yankee.

Bolt Action

Like Team Yankee I’ve been building two armies, an American force and a German army. I’m just about in the final stages of completing both of these and fingers crossed will have finished painting both by the end of March. All I have left to paint for the US are the infantry, all 13 tanks are now done, along with the half-tracks, mortar unit and MG crews. As for the Germans all I have left are some half-tracks and two 88’s left to build and paint. I managed to paint up the last of my Panthers and final Puma a week ago so these are on track to being both finished ready for when we can all start meeting up again and playing games.

The Ninja Goblin

This is a large scale display piece and he’s been sat on the shelf unbuilt and unpainted since 2011, yep, 10 years I’ve had this mini sat waiting for me to get him started and finished. So I finally started painting him, well I did the base last year and didn’t get any further until quite recently when I bit the bullet and decided to get him painted. I like tackling large scale every now and them as it takes me out of my comfort zone as it requires a slightly different approach when compared to painting 28 or 15mm gaming miniatures. I’m happy with the skin tones and the wooden elements on the figure, though I think at some point I’ll need to go back to the cloth parts and touch up some of the highlights to make them pop more, but for now I’m happy to leave him as he is.

Asian Town Modular Terrain

I finally got off the starting blacks in actually building the tiles, most of last year was spent building the terrain pieces to go to the tiles, such as bridges and buildings. Finally I made the leap and built the first two tiles, which consisted of a set of ruins and a pathway tile running alongside the ruins and a wooded area. The next tiles I plan to build will be a couple of outlying farms/rural dwellings outside the town, along with the town entrance tile. I’m hoping to have these completed by April, then I can concentrate on the river sections and the actual town itself.

The conflict between Kernow and its neighboring enemies has been raging for a while. Skirmishes across the border have been ongoing for some time. Yet a daring raid into Plymouth by a newly trained commando raiding unit saw an upscale in the conflict.

The Kernow Commandos are a highly specialized unit trained in making raids into enemy territory with the aim of causing as much destruction as possible. After a few successful small raids along the border, they were ready to carry out quite a daring attack on Plymouth and the Royalists stationed there.

The plan is to attack two targets, the main attack would be on the Royal William Naval yard, with the intention of destroying as much as possible. The other would be a diversionary attack on areas around Devonport, this would be designed to make as much noise as possible, so that the main attack goes unhindered as Royalist resources are dragged over to the diversionary attack.

Both teams would be armed with small arms in the form of SMGs, hand grenades and high explosives. They would attack at night and cross the estuary to Plymouth from Salt Ash in small water going craft. The main attack would plant explosives and return to Salt Ash by boat. The diversionary attack would create as much noise and damage as possible and the commandoes would have to make their own way back by any means possible, capture is a likely situation.

One of the targets for the diversion attack is the Royal Marine barracks at Stonehouse, attack the main gates and throw grenades and high explosives into the buildings where possible. The main naval dock yards would be another target to attack and cause mayhem.

During all this chaos the main attack would sneak into the Royal William yard to strategically place high explosives. The two ships in dry dock would be a prime target, along with various buildings. The aim is to give the Royalists a bloody nose.

For this scenario you could any number of possible rule systems, though we recommend Bolt Action. We would suggest making the commando teams veterans, to allow for their specialized training and the fact that most served professionally in the army before the civil war.

You could play this as two separate games for each of the attacks, for the diversion I would suggest to just play through an attack on an area of Plymouth attacking anything and everything. It’s all fair game, the team can attack anything.

For the attack on the Royal William Yard, you could play rules to see if they manage to sneak in undetected and plant explosives. If they’re spotted, then it all goes to chaos and the commandoes just attack anything to try and damage as much as possible before being killed or captured.

Alternative history campaigns, battles and backgrounds have always held an interest for both war gamers and historians, it’s the question, What If? Such as what would have happened during World War 2 if Hitler had invaded Britain?

A campaign could be built around the that question, in which the first wave of German military are paratroopers, followed by beach landings. The possibilities are endless and the scenarios numerous, but an alternative campaign setting needn’t be restricted to the 2^nd world war, any period can be used as a possible alternative setting. Such as the Imperial Roman military might marching to conquer ancient China, or just making the existence of magic real in the ancient world.

In the last couple of years alternative settings have become extremely popular, especially with campaign settings around the 2^nd world war, both leading up to it and during. A very popular growing setting is A Very British Civil War, set in 1930’s Britain, surrounding the abdication of the King. In real life the king abdicated, in the setting he doesn’t, and this leads to a civil war, with various factions all fighting for control of the country. Much more mainstream and popular settings are those set during the war, based on the Nazi’s obsession with the occult. In the setting they discover a way to harness the power of the occult. This sees the war take a different turn, with demons, vampires, zombies and advanced technology. Let’s face it anything with zombies will be popular, and these are Nazi zombies.

Though you don’t have to purchase into a background, as there are plenty of good resources on the net and they’re not all set in and around the 2^nd world war, which is quite popular at the moment. There are plenty out there for free, which is always a good thing, and these delve into other areas of history. Also, you could always develop your own alternative background, which could be developed with the armies and periods you already own. A possible idea could be an invasion of England by France during the Napoleonic period. A good jump off point may be the invasion of Fishguard in Wales in 1797, though in reality this invasion was a dismal failure for the French, you could decide that they manage to get a foot hold, which leads to a massive invasion of French forces.

I’m going to look at some of the current alternative backgrounds available commercially and those which are free out on the internet.

A Very British Civil War

A very British civil war is an alternative history setting based around the abdication of King Edward VIII. In the setting it assumes that he didn’t abdicate, and this in turn sets in motion a civil war in Britain. The background is centered around the idea of wargames played with small companies of soldiers who represent factions and locals, who many assume if history had unfolded in this manner.

AVBCW doesn’t have a set of rules to play by this is left to the players, allowing them to use a set they are already familiar with. It’s become very popular over the last 12-18 months. The reason for this is the organic nature of the background, players have the ability to input their take ideas on how the background should develop. I myself shaped and developed the initial flavor of the conflict in Cornwall. This has now been developed and nurtured by other players on Gentlemen’s Wargame Parlour. It’s also that element of being set in our own backyard and the ability to fight battles and skirmishes in our own towns, cities and villages which make this an interesting and fun game to play.

There’s the fun aspect of developing of new units, adding local flavour to them, being able to add fun local flavour to the background as well is a great aspect of this game. I decided to make Druidry the main religion of the Cornish Nationalists, with druids joining units and factions within the nationalists. The reason being that a druid society was created during the 1930’s in Cornwall, plus I thought this would be a fun aspect to the Cornish. There is basically no restrictions to how you develop your game or factions.

More information can be found at the following websites.

www.solwaycraftsandminiatures.com

www.wargamesp.18.forumer.com

1588 and All That (Spanish Invade England)

This is an alternative background developed by Tim Eagling over at the website www.spiritofthegame.org.uk. Set in Elizabethan England, during the period of the great Armada and the question. What would have happened if the Spanish had invaded England? it’s a period sandwiched between two hugely popular gaming periods, The War of The Roses and the English Civil War. The period of 1588 is a period of transition in war and weapons, it’s the switch from Medieval Europe through to the early modern period. It also comes after climatic change and in the wake of the black death.

Had the Spanish landed in England it would have been an interesting period in history. There was no trained standing army in England, the trained bands in the counties varied from each other. Though there would have been thousands of men, mainly peasants, equipped and ready to fight, though they would have varied in training and competency. The trained bands were provided by each of the counties, and this meant that a trained band could get held up if required at a national level.

It was during this period that saw the decline in the use of the longbow, is was slowly being replaced by the forerunner of the musket. This was a weapon that was easier to supply and train troops to use, whereas the longbow required years of training to become competent in its use. The longbow would have still featured heavily on the battlefield still, it was also during this period that soldiers started to lose their armour, which made the use of the longbow more devastating.

So, could the Spanish have conquered England if they had managed to invade? The Spanish would have faced problems with supply lines between mainland Spain and England. This could be a very interesting alternative history to explore. It allows the use of both longbow and early muskets/handguns. Though best of all its completely free.

More information can be found at.

http://www.spiritofthegame.org.uk/1588andallthat/about.htm

Another alternative history idea would be one that looks at the recent riots, developing a storyline that sinks Britain into a modern civil war. The Falklands war has the potential to be used as a alternative backdrop. What would have happened if the war had escalated and Britain was forced to invade Argentina? What would have been the consequences and how would the rest of South America reacted?

The possibilities are endless which is why alternative history gaming can be an interesting and fun to play.

So, I decided to take a look at an event in ancient history and specifically the 9^th Legion.

9^th Roman Legion

Professor Birley once wrote.

The fate of the ninth still engages

The minds of both nitwits and sages

But for that problem one fears

Will be with us for years

And for ages and ages and ages

One of the most infamous legions to be connected to Britain is the ninth. There is a legend or myth that surrounds this legion, which has fascinated a lot of people down the ages.

These myths are connected to the disappearance of the 9^th, of which there are several theories. The last record we have of the legion is in Britain, is that they were stationed at York in 108 AD, later AD 122 they are replaced by the 6^th.

The usual theory is that the ninth was routinely replaced by the 6^th. Yet another interesting theory is that the ninth was destroyed in the Carlisle area, when they were sent north due to problems in that locality with the local tribes. Some people have suggested that this was the main reason for the construction of the wall by Hadrian.

Another theory put forward by C.E Stevens, was that the ninth were sent to Carlisle to assist with the construction of the wall. He noted that the wall was originally built in turf and timber in the Carlisle area, because of this we don’t have any inscriptions, as evidence. It was during this phase of construction that the ninth was defeated and destroyed. Which he then states, for the sudden change from a turf and timber wall to a more permanent stone wall.

Many people believe that the 9^th ‘s last days as a legion are connected to the wall and the Carlisle area. Another theory has the ninth legion leaving Britain, being reposted to the Rhine and then onto Armenia where they were destroyed in 161 AD.

I have a very different theory as to what happened to the infamous 9^th legion in Britain and afterwards.

AD 108

The Ninth becomes the official legion that deals with supernatural events and zombie outbreaks. I was thinking that when something occurs that is extraordinary and can’t be explained then the Ninth is sent to deal with the situation. The Ninth has become a clandestine organisation that doesn’t exist on paper (or scroll), and only the Emperor and certain senators know of their existence, which is why they disappear from official records.

You could play a range of scenarios involving all manner of supernatural and strange creatures, including Cthulhu Mythos. I would suggest looking Osprey’s Broken Legions as a possible rules set and you could kit bash a small warband of Roman warriors with a variety of kit and weapons to deal with the unnatural world.

I have a number of terrain pieces in boxes that I’m slowly trying to get painted whilst in lockdown. Here are some the finished pieces so far.

I have numerous pieces of terrain in a variety of scales that need to painting, so whilst I’m stuck at home during the lockdown I’ve been trying to get as many as humanly possible painted.

One of these is a water fountain in resin by Airfix, it’s 1/72 scale but will happily work for 15mm and 28mm. I painted this is a simple grey colour with some shading using Nuln oil. I then added weathering powders to make it look more weather beaten. A very quick and dirty paint job to get it tabletop ready. I picked this up about a year or so ago in Home Bargains for about 3 quid.

I’ve had this tower from Games Workshop built for several years and for some reason I’ve never managed to get any paint on it. So I decided over the Christmas holiday to finally whack some paint on it. I decided to go with a simple paint scheme, and finish it of with weathering powders to give it a weather beaten look.

Finally I had a couple of farm building in 10-15mm, now I bought these back in 2011 and didn’t do anything with them, mainly because I didn’t get around to purchasing and painting a 15mm army. In the last 12 months I’ve started armies in this scale for Flames of War and Team Yankee. So I decided now was the right time to get some paint on them. This was done using a simple and quick paint scheme making use of contrast, washes and a couple of normal paints.

Last year I started a few new projects, and I have a couple of ideas for projects this year. So this post is a round up of how each of the projects are going and what I have planned for this year.

So last year I started the year with a few new project ideas, some of those are near completion, whilst others have fallen by the wayside some what. The first of those projects was Flames of War armies, both a US and German army, based on the contents of the Hit the Beach starter set.

Both of these are coming along nicely, and I’m happy to say both armies are nearly finished. I’m in the last stages of completion on both of these. For the Americans I have 6 Sherman Tanks to finish and then all that needs finishing after these are the infantry. I added mortar and HMG platoons to the Hit the Beach infantry units, all of which need a lick of paint. With regards to the Germans I have a few half tracks and 4 Panther tanks to paint and this army will be finished.

My Lord of the Rings project has been rather slow going over the last 12 months. I have managed to get some bits and pieces painted but nowhere near as much as I wanted, so this will continue to chug along this year as well. I did open the year by painting a unit of Gondor infantry. I’m hoping to get more units painted this year, and that’s what I plan to concentrate on, as last year I mainly painted character models.

Another project I started last year was to paint up miniatures for both SPQR and Mortal Gods. For both of these I managed to finish a small unit of infantry. For SPQR I managed to paint up the Roman infantry from the SPQR starter box. I’ve now started on the Celts, already completing the limited edition Druid, and making a start on a couple of hero models. For Mortal Gods I’ve painted a unit of Phalanx and the Macedonian command, along with two Macedonian Heroes. I’m currently painting up King Philip and Alexander. The aim for this year is to finish the starter models from both box sets, and purchase the Roman and Celtic hero boxes later in the year.

My Bolt Action projects have been ticking along for a couple of years and will continue to do so this year. I main aim is to build and paint more US infantry, as well as finish the few Germans and British I have left. I also need to do more work on my Chinese army. I plan to purchase the German WW1 infantry, Partisans and the Boxer Rebellion boxes to make Chinese Nationalist infantry. I managed to paint a unit of Communist Chinese for the Korean War campaign and will add to this later on this year. Another purchase I’ll need to add to my Bolt Action project, is a vehicle/tank for the US and some jeeps/LRDG trucks for the Brits. I was supposed to pick these up last year but for one reason or another I didn’t get around to it. I did manage to pick up a T-34 and paint it for my Communist Chinese.

Towards the end of last year I did plan and start research for a small skirmish project set during the English Civil War. I planned to build a 1/72 warband and plan a campaign set in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire, which is close to where I live. I’ve talked about running a ECW campaign for some time, but never really gotten around to it. So around Autumn time last year I finally bit the bullet and ,made a start. I carried out the research for the campaign, and picked up some 1/72 hard plastic miniatures. The aim this year will be to paint enough for two small forces.

The big project I planned this time last year, was the Asian/Chinese town game board using the modular tiles by Sarrissa. Most of last year was spent building and painting terrain pieces. This included a number of buildings, and a couple of bridges. Now while I didn’t finish this project, or start any work using the modular tiles I did get quite a few of the building I plan to use built and painted. So this year the aim is to make a start on the modular tiles and get as much as that done as possible.

Another project I started last year, around August/September time was two armies for Team Yankee. The first was a Soviet army, which is nearly finished apart from a T-64, BMP and two T-80s. The other army I started was the British, which I decided to base on the 4th Armored brigade which was stationed in Germany and served during the Gulf War. I started this project with the British Army starter set, and plan to add some additional units such as an M109 artillery regiment, which would be my old unit 2nd Field Regiment Royal Artillery. The starter set is nearly finished apart from 4 Challenger tanks and a Chieftain.

So what are my project plans for 2021, well I pretty much only have 3 potential projects for this year. The first is a Qin army, which most people will know as the Terracotta army. I have some miniatures from Studio Eye in the states. I was fortunate to visit Xian in China where the Terracotta army is and since then I’ve been inspired to build an army. The second plan is to build a small force to try out Saga Age of Magic game. My plan is to used the old Celtos miniature range to build a barbarian style warband for this game. The final plan I have is to build a small warband for the forthcoming Baron’s War rule set. This will be a small force just to play skirmish size engagements.

The practice of dueling was at its peak during the 11^th to 20^th centuries and involved two people engaging in combat with either sword or pistol in later centuries. Today we have a sort of romantic notion regarding duels, as they are perceived to be about honor, duty and chivalry, but this is much further from the truth. Most were vicious brawls resulting in the death of one or both of the duelists.  From the early 17th century duels were often illegal in Europe, though in most societies where dueling was socially accepted, participants in a fair duel were not prosecuted, or if they were, were not convicted. Only gentlemen were considered to have honor, and a gentleman would never duel with anyone of a lower social status.

Most sword fights were generally inconclusive, swordsmen generally died from wounds, rather than during a fight. They generally die after a fight from blood loss and infections. The majority of duels ended when blood was drawn, and honor was satisfied by one side or the other.

On occasion a sword blade may break, this would normally mean that combatants would finish the duel grappling, using similar techniques seen today in the mixed martial arts arena. The use of elbows, knees and eye gouging were all acceptable. Duelist’s could and would use other parts of the sword, during a fight, for instance a swordsman may smash the pommel onto his opponent repeatedly, and this is where we get the term to pommel someone from.

Despite the modern idea of chivalry and the Marquis of Queensbury rules, most duels were vulgar scrappy street fights, nothing more than deadly brawls. There were no rules or chivalric behavior, these were fights to first blood or on the rare occasion to death. This meant that both sides were desperate to win and would use any tactic or technique at their disposal, no matter how ungentlemanly we may now think they are.

The most successful duelists were dashing swashbucklers, but professional killers. Those who were considered swashbucklers were normally braggarts, as the term swashbuckler comes from the 16th century to describe rough, noisy and boastful swordsmen. It is based on a fighting style using a side sword with a buckler in the off-hand, which was filled with much “swashing and making a noise on the buckle.

Today we would probably say that a duel as nothing more than cold blooded murder sanctioned by law.

When considering duelling for gaming ideas we probably all think of the Three Musketeers, but a duel could be between two champions from opposing sides, who call each other out before the start of battle. A similar scene to the one in the film Troy, when Brad Pitt’s character Achilles is challenged to open combat.

There are several rules on the market that cater for a duel type scenario such as Open Combat coupled with the expansion Sword Masters, En Garde by Osprey Games or the aptly named fantasy rules set by Alternative Armies called Duel. Anyone one of these would be perfect to stage a duel on the tabletop, especially if you want to recreate scene from the Three Musketeers books and films. For those wanting to recreate scenes of sword duels from Hong Kong films them I’d recommend A Fistful of Kung Fu.

The great thing about recreating a duel, is you could set it in any location indoor our outside. You could recreate a Tavern Brawl/Duel and fight amongst the table and chairs in a bar. You could fight on the city roof tops, leaping from roof to roof fighting and any mis footing could result in falling to your death. Or you could just fight a single combat in front of an army on the battlefield. There are endless options available and this makes for a quick and exciting game to play, great for those with very little time on their hands.

This article was first published in Irregular Magazine (http://www.irregular-magazine.com/latest-issue/)

This is a topic that been raging all over the net quite recently after Little Wars uploaded a YouTube video regarding the topic. So as a historical war-gamer a few people have asked me for my opinion regarding this issue. Now I started wargaming in the early 80’s playing a set of war-game rules using my Airfix models, before being introduced to Warhammer Fantasy Battles, along with D&D.

I’ve always played historical over the years and from my days as a teen up to day, most of my opponents have been older gamers, as a teenager I had to play gamers who were in their 20’s or older, as I’ve gotten older the age of my opponents have come closer to my age. Though a lot of the gamers I play today didn’t start off playing historical games when they were younger, they originally played Fantasy or Sci-Fi games, predominantly Warhammer Fantasy or 40K. They made the switch or added historical games to their repertoire as they became older.

The age demographic in my experience has always been an older age group, mostly guys over 40, with some younger, between 25-40. There was hardly anyone in their teens playing historical wargames when I was growing up. Most of my peer group played fantasy games, along with a few Science-Fiction games. When I was in my 20’s then the predominant game among the younger age group was 40K.

The main reason I believe for this was the simple fact of how easy it was and still is for someone to start playing war games. Companies like Games Workshop provide a starter box for their games, also they have a very visible high street presence which makes entering the hobby through those games very easy. Pop culture will play a large role influencing the younger age groups, when I was a kid growing up war films were always on the TV along with old fashioned westerns. These days kids are influenced by Science fiction and fantasy based television, so they’ll be drawn to games of those genres.

Historical games have always been thought of as having a difficult entry point, everything from rules through to miniatures. The biggest problem is the fact that history is a big subject, which means there are a plethora of periods to play, and there are a ton of different rule sets for each period. Then getting hold of miniatures for any period can be quite difficult. The lack of starter boxes and easy to purchase units of the shelf have always made entry difficult and as a result deterred many a new gamer from historicals. It was easier as a kid to walk into a Games workshop store, grab a starter set that included two starting armies and the rule book. They even had starting panting sets which made entry into the hobby a breeze.

For most of my youth I used Airfix or 1/72 plastic soldiers and model kits to play historical games, as this was an easy approach but the more, I played Fantasy battles I slowly stopped playing historical games. I would later pick up historical gaming as I became older in my twenties when I started attending war-game shows.

Then roughly 10-15 years ago things started changing, with companies like Warlord and Battlefront appearing onto the scene, who followed a similar model to Games Workshop. They started to make entry into historical war-gaming a lot easier. In fact, there was a shift of 40K players around 2010 to Bolt Action, Warlord’s 28mm WW2 game system. These companies started making rule system starter boxes, or companies like Xyston Minatures started producing starter armies from their ranges. Suddenly entry to playing historical gaming started to become a lot easier, as a result I noticed a shift of players picking up historical games who previously wouldn’t have entertained one before.

Companies have realized that if historical gaming is to survive they need to produce easy entry through starter boxes, army starters or gateway games, such as World of Tanks, which was and is a PC game where players take control of a tank, which now has a table-top version. These types of games are easy to pick and play, they give a flavour of historical gaming without the necessity to build and paint a large army. There are plenty of examples of easy to start games, especially in the skirmish genre, a particular one I started playing a year or so ago was Gangs of Rome. This is a great way of introducing someone to the world of Ancient Wargaming, without handing them either a massive pile of metal or a tower of plastic sprues.

Historical games have always in the past had a problem in that, there wasn’t a game you could pick off the shelf with everything you need to get going. You had to hunt around for both rules and miniatures. When I was a teen the nearest shop was a 2-hour bus ride away, in Exeter. There was a Games Workshop and two independent stores. I would go in to all three outlets to browse and make purchases, now the two independent’s didn’t carry much in the way of historical products. They carried Avalon Hill style wargames, but not much in the way of miniature based wargames and the only miniatures they carried were generally medieval period, simply because they could be used in fantasy games.

Fast forward to today and it’s much easier to purchase miniatures and rules, especially with the invention of the internet. There are also plenty of games across several historical periods that have games that you can lift straight off the shelf and play. Another development which has made entry into historical games is the explosion of skirmish gaming, it’s not just the historical genre, there has been an explosion of fantasy and Sci-Fi skirmish games as well.  Last year I picked up three skirmish games SPQR from Warlord, Mortal Gods, along with Test of Honor, all three are historical skirmish games that come with a starter box which contains everything you need to get playing straight away.

Basically, there is a change occurring in historical gaming whereby a lot of new players getting into the genre are playing skirmish and smaller games rather than the large historical armies facing each other across the table. The last time I played such a game would have been around 2011, when I played a battle of Towton in 1/72, it was fun to play but the process of building and painting such a large army was very time consuming. These days I tend to play skirmish games across all genres, and starting a new historical period is easier for me especially if there is a skirmish rule set or a starter box.

So, is it dying, I don’t think so? It’s defiantly changing from what it was when I first started in gaming back in the 80’s. It’s now a lot easier to get started into historical gaming and there has been an explosion in great games available. The demographic has always in my experience been a lot older, and will probably always be older, as most youngsters who start playing war-games will most likely start with fantasy and Sci-Fi games. Several of those younger gamers will probably migrate across to historical games as they also get older. I think it’s in a healthy place especially in the UK, currently I believe that large scale battles of two large painted armies is probably dying out at the moment. There may also be a drop in particular periods of history being played, but on the whole, I think it’s currently in a rather healthy position.

World of Tanks: Miniatures Game is an easy to learn, quick play game, where you take command of a unit of tanks, seeking to destroy your opponent and secure victory!

All the models in World of Tanks come ASSEMBLED, PAINTED, and BATTLE READY!

The starter set contains everything you need to start playing, including:
4x Highly Detailed, Assembled, Painted Plastic Tanks
6x Custom Dice
Tank Cards
Terrain and Tokens
Crew & Equipment Upgrade Cards
Damage Deck

Gale Force 9 have released a tabletop version of the popular computer game World of Tanks. The starter box comes with 4 fully assembled and painted tanks (base/under coated), along with dice, tank cards, terrain, tokens, crew and equipment cards and a damage deck. It’s basically everything you need in one box to get started and playing as quickly and easily as possible.

The rule book is nicely laid out with clear instruction and nice large images to illustrate the rules being explained on each page. It’s very easy to follow which allows you to grasp the rules very quickly. There are also videos on YouTube that will explain how to play the game as well.

The tanks are 15mm in scale, anyone familiar with Flames of War will recognise all the tanks. Provided in the box is a British Cromwell, German Panzer IV, US Sherman M4A1 and a Russian T-34. You don’t require to assemble or paint these to start playing, though you could add some simple painting to make them look a lot better, and we’ve included a very simple tutorial in this issue.

The Pz.Kpfw. IV (or Panzer IV) is an iconic German tank, a true workhorse of that saw use throughout the war. The Ausf. H version was introduced in 1943 and saw numerous improvements over previous versions, including improved firepower and protection, that allowed to continue to deal with even the heaviest Allied tanks.

The Cromwell tank was one of a series of cruiser tanks fielded by the British in World War II. The concept of cruiser tanks was that they would combine speed with numbers, allowing the to swarm the enemy and overwhelm them. First deployed during the invasion of Normandy it found a natural home in the reconnaissance regiments where its excellent speed and low profile made it difficult to hit.

The T-34 tank was the cornerstone of Soviet armoured forces in World War II. Other tanks may have been lighter, better armed, or had a bigger gun, but there is only one T-34! When first encountered by German forces, they were shocked by just how good it was and scrambled to find ways to deal with the revolutionary design.

The M4A1 Sherman tank was, much like other releases in this wave, one of the most iconic tanks of the war. The Sherman first saw combat in the deserts of North Africa and continued to serve on battlefields till the end of the war in a variety of models.

Both the T-34 and the Sherman also saw action in the Korean War, with the US forces using the Sherman and the Korean/Chinese military using the T-34. Which means you could take your tank battles from Europe to the Korean Peninsula.

Each of the tanks come with its own stats card, which can be added to with upgrades and equipment just like the computer version of the game. Alongside this you can add and train up crew to make them perform better and in turn make your tank perform better.  They have also included a sheet of future tanks to upgrade to, which indicates what the future releases are for each faction.

This really is an easy to learn, and quick to play and games take around 30 minutes each. It’s a great gateway game for someone who has never played a tabletop game before, especially if they’re a fan of the computer/console version. It’s also a good game to introduce those wargamers who normally only play fantasy or Sci-fi genre.

For me it’s very reminiscent of the Fantasy Flight X-wing game, as in you purchase additional vehicles which come with stats and additional cards as you go. There has not been this type of game on the market for the historical gene, it may not appeal to old grognards, but it could be a good game to introduce to the kids or grand kids over Christmas. Let’s face it who doesn’t love the idea of battling tanks on the kitchen table. I think it will also appeal to those of us who have the collector genre, as you will be able to build your collection of tanks with future releases, as you progress from one tank to a much bigger and better tank. Wave 1 tanks are already available to expand on this starter set.

Team Yankee is a tabletop miniatures game set in a Cold War gone hot environment. It’s based on the book written by Harold Coyle in 1987, Team Yankee brings the conflict that simmered throughout the Cold War to life in a game by Battlefront Miniatures where you command your troops in miniature on a realistic battlefield.

This is a 15mm or 1/100 scale miniatures game set in Western Europe, where the Soviet Union has attacked the Western Powers. The Cold War was an era where the Superpowers were constantly at a stage of near conflict, fingers hovering over the button so to speak. Through out this period from Post WW2 right up to the Nineties there were several incidents that could have sparked another global conflict. It was also a period of proxy wars, these were conflicts between factions or countries that were directed or supplied by the Superpowers, but those powers didn’t get involved directly with their own military.

There was a smaller starter set called Hammerfall, though was a good introduction to the game it didn’t have enough miniatures in the box. This new starter set is a much better introduction to the game. So, what’s in the box?

Three Abrams Tanks

Two Bradley Scouts

Two M60 Patton Tanks

Four T-80 Tanks

Three T-64 Tanks

Two BMP-3 Scouts

One Complete A5 Rulebook,

One Quick Start Guide

Eight Unit Cards

Twenty Dice (Two Sets)

All of the miniatures are plastic which is a massive reason alone for getting this box set. The vehicles are really easy to build, they are quite simple model kits but at the same time extremely well detailed especially for this scale.

So, the two factions in this box are the Superpowers that dominated the Cold War period, the USA and USSR. The US forces are supplied with the mighty Abrams tank and you get three of these, alongside these there are two M60 Patton tanks and a couple of Bradley Scouts. The Abrams pack a serious punch and are your main fire power with this set. There aren’t many tanks on the Soviet side that can deal with these beasts one on one.

All of the vehicles come with their own stat cards and formation card, which is very useful when playing the game as you don’t need to constantly refer to the rule book for this information. They’re made from a study laminated card and will stand up to some wear and tear.

So, what do you get with the Soviet forces, as you’d expect you get more vehicles or tanks than the US? These come in the form of T-80s and T-64 tanks. The T-80 is your main MBT and it’s quite a powerful armored tank though not as good as the Abrams or the British Challenger nevertheless it can still hold its own. Alongside this there are some T-64s, these are dependable tanks though they lack the punch of the T-80 and will need to attack a Challenger or Abrams as a group rather than one on one.

I’ve decided to build a Soviet force which will also double up as a Chinese army as well for gaming in the east.  On top of these there are some BMPs as well, these were the standard APC of the Soviet military, the Chinese only purchased the original BMP-1 from the Soviets, so I would need to purchase BMP-1 to use as part of a Chinese army.

So, what else come in this starter set, well you get an A5 size rule book which is quite handy for travelling. I have purchased an A4 hardback version of the rulebook, but it’s not really necessary.  There are also dice, the unit cards which I’ve mentioned already and a QuickStart guide which also includes instructions on building the miniatures.

So where could you after purchasing this to expand your army, well firstly I’d recommend picking up the appropriate army book as this will aid you in deciding what you should add to your force. Another recommendation to pick up is the Colours of War painting guide as this has a lot of useful information in regards to slapping some paint on the minis.

As I’ve decided to build a Soviet force I’ve already added more tanks to my army in the form of some T-62s and T-55 tanks, these are cheap to field and while they’re not as advanced as the T-80 they can slow you opponent down. My intention is to use them to help flank the evil Western capitalists’ thugs on the battlefield. I’m also looking at air support and will most likely pick up a couple of Mil Mi 24 Helicopters to give my force that additional punch and moveability.

This is a great starter and just like Flames of War it’s great value for money, in the UK it’s retailed at £35, and if you look around it can be found cheaper. I have seen this set on one website for £27 at either price is a bargain. I’d go as far as to say it’s probably worth picking up two sets as this will give you a really great starting army.

Each starter sets from Battlefront for Flames and Team Yankee are probably the best value for money starter boxes on the market. You really can’t go wrong with either, the miniatures in both are exceptional and the rules play out nicely for both games. In fact, at these prices you could get both games.

So, with a pandemic enveloping the world, and most countries enacting some form of lockdown to slow the spread of Covid-19, and in even when lockdown has been lifted social distancing has become the new normal. This has meant that getting out to clubs, stores or at a friend’s house for a game or two has been limited, but that doesn’t mean you can’t play a game, there are several solo options out there and in this art we’ll explore some of those options.

The trend for solo gaming has increased this year, not because we’ve all become unsocial fiends but simply because of the global pandemic. We’ve been limited to either gaming with a very small select group of friends or family, or on our own during periods of lockdown.

Solo gaming isn’t anything new, it’s been around for a long time. In fact, I suspect most of us have already at some point partaken in solo gaming. When I was a teenager Fighting Fantasy adventure books appeared on the market and I played several of those, and I suspect many of you out there this has been how you’ve also participated in gaming solo. Yet I suspect you want to experience other options in the world of solo gaming but are unsure how to get started. Well we hope this article will give you a kick start.

This article is intended to be an introduction to the world of possibilities you can experience through solo gaming.

What is a Solo Game?

A solo game is a tabletop game which has been designed so that it’s possible to be played with by a single person. In the past most people have probably only played games which required a minimum of two players. Yet with the advent of the pandemic this year, and with lockdowns instilled in most countries there’s been a growing interest, need and desire for solo gaming.

There are some benefits to solo gaming, it’s a great way to learn the rules of a game before introducing to friends and it’s also a good to way to relax on your own. So, without the ability to meet up with friends to play a game or two, solo gaming may be your best option for the time being.

So, what is out there for solo gaming

Several manufacturers have responded to this need for solo gaming and developed some rules of existing games. For the purpose of this article I am going to concentrate mainly on free rule sets, supplemental rules and Print n Play downloads. Most of these are on on-line digital file sites such as DriveThruRPG.com, which is the first site we will take a look at.

DriveThruRPG is one of the largest of these sites and belongs to a group of online marketplaces that also include Wargame Vault and Dungeon Masters Guild. These sites sell both digital and print on demand products. There are a lot of solo supplements on this site both official and unofficial for a number of pre-existing rule sets.

Here are some of my recommendations

Alone against the Flames

This is an introductory solo adventure for ‘Call of Cthulhu’ set in the 1920’s, where you are the main character, and your choices deter mine the outcome. It’s also been designed to guide and teach you the basic rules for the main RPG in a gradual and easy manner.

Chronicles of Arax – Solo Adventure

In this game you take on the role of a hero who in the face of darkness stands up for light by undertaking missions and adventures. The core rules are free, and some adventures will cost about a dollar.

Chronicles of Blood – Solo War Game

This game is produced by the same company that produced Chronicles of Arax and is set in the same world. In this game you will take on the role of an army commander trying to take your army to glory.

Advanced Fighting Fantasy (Quick start)

This is a great set of rules, easy to use, unexperienced players will be up and running in 10 minutes, with pre-generated characters. It’s also a great set for more experienced gamers as it’s a very fast and adaptable system.

One company to check out for solo gaming is Micro RPG who produce a range of solo products that includes several free games. The Micro Chapbook RPG system is an ultra-simple RPG game that can be played either as a solo game or in a more traditional mode with several players. The Core rule book is available for around $1.99 on several sites including DriveThruRPG. I’ve played this myself during lockdown whilst stuck at home and found it to be a good enjoyable system to play.

Having had a quick look at some of the RPG offerings out there, we’ll move onto war-gaming something I much prefer. I’m interested in finding some suitable war-game and skirmish rules I can get to grips with. Now normally these games are played with 2 players and in some instances possibly more, but what’s out there for us war-gamers. Unlike board games wargaming has a whole plethora of options for us to get to grips with, in a variety of genres and historical periods.

So, I jumped on to War Game Vault to have a look at some of the games available. Just like DriveThru RPG there’s plenty of choice available to you, so here’s a few of my picks below.

Lock N Load Tactical Core Rules

Lock n load is a squad level game with an innovative game play mechanic, historical scope which is suitable for both new players and veterans. It’s a hex based board/War game covering WWII and modern combat at the tactical level, with counters representing individual squads, vehicles and support weapons. A lot info and resources can be found on their own website (https://store.lnlpublishing.com/)

Relic World Expeditions

Seek out ancient treasures and battle your enemies in Relic World Expeditions, but beware, secret traps and fierce monsters await within the ruins of an ancient alien civilisations. Build a warband of treasure hunters, pirates, corporate armies, spies and more from the vast Relic World Universe. Then battle against other players or play in solo mode.

The Adventurer

This is a journal writing game for a solo player. As you play the game, you’ll be creating a world and populating it with people, creatures, traditions and myths simply by writing about your characters adventures. All you’ll need to play the game is a set of the rules, a pend and pad, along with a traditional set of playing cards.

https://jameschip.itch.io/the-adventurer

Two Hour Wargames (https://www.twohourwargames.com/chainreaction.html) publish two sets of rules for free which can be played solo or with several players. The first is Chain reaction focuses on fighting with firearms covering historical periods and beyond, whilst the second set they produce Sword Play covers gaming with swords, spells and shields. These are a both good robust sets of rules and there’ s plenty of supplementary products to purchase to go alongside the core rules.

Several publishers have released free solo rules for existing rules sets they produce; this includes Mantic Games who announced recently a free supplement for download allowing you to play The Walking Dead in solo mode. Osprey were another publisher who has also released free solo supplements for download that includes Frostgrave, Last Days, Zona Alpha and Burrows and Badgers (https://ospreypublishing.com/blog/8_games_solo_players/).

Print N Play board games is the next stop on our introductory look at solo gaming. What is Print n Play I hear you ask well, “Print and Play” games have made game collecting a lot more affordable and have put hundreds of titles right at the fingertips of gamers. Print and Play are games that can be downloaded, with printable game pieces, and are often free.

Zombie in my Pocket  (http://funmines.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/zimp.pdf)

Zombie in my Pocket is a print-and-play game solo game. The game fits in your pocket, and the modular board combined with the development cards make it a different game every time.

9-Bit Dungeon (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/277427/9-bit-dungeon)

9-Bit Dungeon is a 9 Card Print and Play Rogue like Solo Game, with a randomly generated dungeon with over 1500 possible layouts, retro artwork, four increasingly difficult levels, random enemies and events, and shops full of upgrades.

Board Game Geek website has a plethora of free solo games to download, print and play. So it’s worth heading over there and signing up as a member, which is free (https://boardgamegeek.com/). The site is an on-line board gaming resource and community, there’s plenty on the site to keep you busy. The site includes reviews, ratings, images, play-aids, translations and session reports from players around the world, well as forums for discussing everything board game related.

There’s plenty of options available on the internet to get your teeth into without having to spend a great deal of money, with plenty of freebies as well. So, there’s no stopping you from getting a game in or two whilst stuck at home in lockdown, or whilst we’re having to implement social distancing rules. While we may not be able to meet up with friends to play a game there’s no reason why we can’t get some hobby time in by playing a solo version of a game you already play or downloading a new solo game. As they say where there’s a will there’s a way.

Personally, I’ve been going old school and searching for out of print games on sites such as Scribd and Drive Through RPG. I recently discovered an old OOP magazine for the Fighting Fantasy world called Warlock, which back in the day was the main source for FF and in many issues a solo adventure was included. You’ll find several issues on Scribd, for any more you’ll have to scour the internet. So, until we’re able to meet with our gaming groups and friends, solo gaming may be the way forward and could a great way to learn a new rules set and stop you going bored.

I’ve already prepped 60 minis to paint, and made a start on some of them including a piece of terrain. A good batch of the minis will be 15mm vehicles for both Flames of War and Team Yankee. The reason for this is I can paint those really fast, and should hopefully get a large chunk done by December 2nd.

So what have I prepped so far. To begin with I’ve prepped and started some late WW2 Germans, as this will pretty much finish of the plastic German infantry I have built. I can then put the Bolt Action Germans to one side after this and concentrate on the US infantry.

Next I’ve prepped a few minis from Lord of the Rings, as I’ve neglected this project for awhile, so I plan to paint up some orcs and a couple of characters to get back into the swing of the project, which I hope to finish next year.

My Burrows and Badgers minis have all been prepped apart from the Panda mini from the Bushido range I have. This will complete this small project for the time being. I plan to return to this project to build another war band around the Panda in the new year.

SPQR and Mortal Gods project needs some attention, so I’m painting up some of the personalities for those two games. Which includes two Celt chieftains, a Roman officer/hero and a couple of Greek heroes on horse back.

Finally I’ve prepped a random range of historical, sci-fi and fantasy minis for various random rule sets I play.

#LockdownLeisureLeague

Loke Battlemats

In a previous issue of Irregular we reviewed the Big Book of Battle Mats for RPG encounters, no we have on our desk the Giant Book, and if you thought the Big Book was great then you’ll be impressed with the Giant book.

Its A3 size book with 62 pages of full colour glossy maps that have been beautifully designed. As usual there is a plethora of different locations within the book that can be used for numerous encounters. It’s 1-inch grid based, that makes it very easy to use for a number of games, not just RPG. We have used it in my house for several games of A Song of Blades and Heroes, which for those who don’t know is a great little skirmish game.

There are wilderness locations, caverns, building interiors, town layouts dungeon layouts in the book, which means there’s plenty of scope for a wide variety of uses in your game. The book is wire bound which means it’ll lie flat , it’s also laminated which means its wipe clean and can be used with any non-permanent felt tip pen so you can draw all over them. The great feature is it’s light and easy to carrywhich makes it a very portable product. We take the big book which is A4 in size on holiday with us so we can play out some encounters if the weather isn’t great.

I really like these products, and the Giant Book is exceptional. It’s great when you don’t have time to set up a gaming table, you can place this down open up to any page and you’ve got a great location to skirmish over. You could also run a quick and dirty RPG game using this product, by selecting various mats and playing through them creating an adventure as you go.

To go alongside this, we have the Dungeon Decorations.

Dungeon Decorations

Loke Battlemats

This is a pack of 100+ reusable static clings for use on any laminated surface, which makes them ideal for use in the battle mat books. These decals can add some scenic elements to your mat and game. It allows you to quickly furnish a location or add some interesting elements for you adventurers to deal with.

There are five sheets of decals that includes additional walls, stairs, furniture, doors, traps and treasure. This is another great product for travelling with, it allows you to add terrain without the bulk of MDF or plastic pieces. It’s an easily transportable product with a plethora of options to furnish a dungeon or add some great elements to a room or building interior.

I would like to see another set produced that focuses of exterior locations, such battlefields, camp sites and market stalls. This is an easy to use set, the decals peel off both the page and laminated surface. They very well illustrated with plenty of bright colour. There is plenty of variety of items for use in the pack and will be a useful addition for any GM or player.

I don’t think they’re exclusively an RPG accessory as we’ve used them in conjunction with the Book of Battle Mats for skirmish games, as well as RPGs. My niece used both products to create a simple dungeon for myself and a friend to play through, whilst she DMed the game. Which was her first game as a DM, she said she wouldn’t have tried to DM a game before because she didn’t think she could, but this gave her the confidence to create an adventure by herself.

She has since used both the book and the Dungeon Decorations several times to set and create some skirmish scenarios. She really likes the fun of sticking down all the decals and creating a narrative to game around.

Myself I liked the fact that I can quickly set up a game with these two products with much effort when time is of the essence. I can take this to the club or pub and grab a quick skirmish game with friends, and we can easily change locations without any effort. Both are great products that any hobbyist should consider picking up, especially GM/DM’s.

I was sent home in late March from work due to the lockdown in the UK and was furloughed, so with nothing to do I decided to catch up on some miniature painting.

I normally managed to squeeze an evening in the week for painting and an afternoon during the weekend. This gives me a few good hours painting each week to slowly plough through the grey army or should I say armies.

I like most in the hobby probably have too much squirreled away in cupboards and boxes, we all kind know or at least we tell ourselves we know how much we have, but I suspect thinking we know and actually knowing are two different things.

I was aware I had quite a lot of miniatures, but I wasn’t really sure how much I had. The problem is that like most hobbyists they’re hidden away in boxes, out of sight out of mind. I didn’t really pay attention to how much I had until lockdown.

Now if you’re sat there thinking why lockdown, well that’s because my productivity in painting miniatures increased dramatically. I had the spare time to plough through a tone of miniatures between March 23^rd and July 31^st I managed to get roughly 180 miniatures painted, which also included some terrain built and painted. That’s generally a lot more than I’d probably paint in a year, I’d be happy to go through half that in a year.

I placed all the painted miniatures together for a photo shoot, and it dawned on me that even though I’d painted a colossus amount on miniatures I’d hardly put a dent into the grey army. That’s when I realized I had way too much stashed away in boxes.

This prompted me to actually get all my unpainted miniatures out and see how much I actually had. I took out all the wargaming miniatures, it was far too many. I was never going to get all those painted, and all the miniatures in the board games I had. I realized this was ridiculous situation, so I started going through what I had and making some hard decisions about what I should keep and which ones I should get rid of.

This also helped me to hone down which projects I wanted to continue and which ones I should stop. It also allowed to narrow down which systems, periods and games I wanted to actually play and paint minis for. There’s no point keeping stuff if you’re never likely to ever get around to painting or playing with it. They’re just gathering dust and taking up valuable real estate in my hobby room, so a cull was/is planned.

First, I looked at all the moderns I have, which consists of Chinese PLA, US Special Forces, some Russians and PMC’s. I backed the Empress Miniatures kickstarter to get the PLA, so I have quite a lot of them, but I don’t really need that many. I could probably get away with about 12 for most of the games I’ll be playing. So that was one chunk to sell, next I looked at all the metal miniatures I had, and a lot were random fantasy minis. I picked out the few choice ones I liked and will cull the rest, I don’t really play a lot of fantasy and most of the games I do play are ones like Frostgrave that don’t require a high model count.

The one area I haven’t culled yet are my 40K minis, now I don’t have a lot, the small amount of Space Marines I have are painted bar a couple. I also have a small amount of Tyranids that are painted apart from one brood lord. I do have a rather large collection of Eldar which are unpainted, but I’m not ready to cull any until I’ve tried the latest version of the rules. If I like the new rules, then I’ll keep what I have if not I’ll cull them down, so I have just enough to play Kill Team.

Likewise, I decided to cut down on my Age of Sigmar miniatures, I don’t play AoS so there’s no point in keeping them. I only play Warcry and occasionally Shadespire/Underworlds, which I have a few warbands for. I will paint these up, but I won’t be purchasing any more in the future. I’ll do the same with Blood Bowl, I have a couple of teams waiting to be painted so I’ll get those finished and I may buy one other team, along with the new rules when they’re released.

My Flames of War armies are nearly finished, the Germans are complete. I managed to get the Germans all painted during Lockdown, so I just have the US to finish. I’ve added some new units to the US which will need building and painting, but that project will be complete once that’s done.

Bolt Action is the sticking point, I have quite a lot that’s unpainted and some that also need building. I currently have enough infantry for the US army, likewise I have enough vehicles for my German force, and enough infantry for my SAS. I just need to pick up a tank for the Americans and a couple of attack jeeps for the Brits. My Chinese need more troops, but I’m not in any rush to get those yet, as I’ll try and finish the US infantry first.

Whilst going through this process I begun to realize that as hobbyist we probably have a problem with hoarding, yet don’t hoard any where else in our lives, well I don’t. I don’t buy randomly with other items, yet I do with hobby stuff. I’ll see a miniature and think ooo that looks nice and before I even thought about whether I need it or not I’ve bought the bloody thing. So, going forward I plan to be more conscious about what items I purchase for my hobby. This should be helped by narrowing down which games I plan to play, because if a miniature can’t be used in any of the games, I play then there’s no need to purchase it.

It’s been quite a cathartic experience going through all my hobby bits and bobs and really forcing myself to make decisions on which items I’ll actually paint and use. It was also great for forcing me to make decisions regarding which games and rules I’ll actually play, this should also help me to focus more on those games, rather than flitting from one thing to another and never really getting to grips with anything. I should also have going forward fewer if any half-finished projects, I’m hoping this will help me to actually finish some of the projects I’ve started.

I’ve been looking around for an alternative setting for a Gangs of Rome campaign, and I didn’t want to set it in Rome. I’ve been thinking about setting it in Britannia for a while, and did initially consider Londinium, but this felt a bit obvious.

This prompted me to go more rural, and I wanted to set a campaign that was localish to where I live. Now the most obvious locations near me would be York or Chester, but yet again I decided these locations were still too large. Then it dawned on me, a few years back I did a desktop survey of Derby or as the Romans called it Derventio.

The plot for the campaign will around the lead and silver industry, the gangs have been sent north from Londinium to try and take control of the lead and silver industry. Not only are there gangs from Londinium but also from Eboracum (York) and Deva Victrix (Chester) all trying to gain control of the lead and silver.

It was originally a Roman military location bit a small town grew up around it, probably because of the lead mines in the Peak District not that far away. The idea was that gangs had moved into the area, which would include Aquae Arnemetiae (Buxton) , Castrafeld (Chesterfield) and Melandra/Ardotalia (Glossop).

Aquae Arnemetiae was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. The settlement was based around its natural warm springs. Today it is the town of Buxton, Derbyshire in England.

Castrafeld was a Roman Fort along with two vici nearby the Roman military site. This would have been the equivalent of a small rural town.

Melandra/Ardotalia is a Roman fort in Gamesley, near Glossop, there was also a Mansio or posting station nearby, along with a large vicus or local town sized settlement. Several of the local farmsteads were owned by veterans who had completed their length of service.

Derventio

Established in the latter part of the first century by the Romans, the military role of this vital river-crossing was diminished as a prosperous small town emerged.

Derventio was occupied for 40 years as a military location until around 120AD. To put this in context, the Emperor Hadrian visited Britannia in AD120 and ordered his wall to be built. Though Britannia always had a large garrison, focus now changed to industrial production. Derby produced pottery and had access to the lead mining to the north in the Peak District, later it became a centre for metalworking. This continued for the next 200 years.

Scenario suggestion – Steal the Silver

Description: The shipment of silver is being transported from the mine to the local warehouse before being sent on to Londinium. Players are allowed 100 coins of fighters and Denarii for this scenario.

Location: On the outskirts of the Vicus, the building will a combination of workshops, round houses and simple Roman buildings. There will be carts and scattered stalls in the area.

The Silver Convoy: This is made up one cart, with a driver and labourer, which is guarded by 2-3 guards.

Deployment: Players deploy their gang members on opposite edges, the silver cart is placed in the centre.

Mob Justice: The mob will become active once the gangs attack the cart, they will come to the aid of the silver workers. They will move straight into rage state with no dice rolling required.

Gang Mission: The gangs are determined to steal the silver as this will aid them when they try to setup a protection racket on the silver merchants at a later date.

Winning: The gang that manages to steal the cart and take it off they’re own table edge wins the game.

Loosing: If the gangs are beaten back by a combination of the silver workers and the mob, then they loose and limp off in disgrace.

This scenario should be played out in 7 turns.

Other scenarios could include attacks on a local villa, bribing officials, attacking a rival gang hideout or rampaging through a small settlement causing fear and destruction.

let us welcome you again to our latest issue of Irregular Magazine, Issue 13 Volume 2 for Autumn 2020!

As we usually do, we begin with a review of the recent News in gaming, followed by a look again our editor’s ongoing saga of the battle against his grey hoard – and how lockdown and furlough has affected his views on his grey hoard, as well as making great progress!

With the new version of Blood Bowl being announced by Games Workshop, we have a look back at where Blood Bowl has come from.

We have a fantastic range of books reviews in this issue, starting, with a look at the Big Book of Battlemats (Vol 2) for the dungeonmaster looking for some visual impact and minimum effort. Also for RPG fans, we have a look at Does Love Forgive? a scenario for the Call of Cthulhu RPG, which is designed for just a single Player and to be run by their Keeper.

Staying with RPGs, we also have a review of The Klingon Empire release from Mophidius for the Star Trek Adventures game – a must for any Star Trek and RPG fan!

We also look at Operation Colossus, a detailed examination of the first airbourne raid of WW2 and Tiger Battalion 507, which collects together accounts from the crewmen and workshop companies bringing a brutal and honest insight into the operations of a Tiger tank battallion, also in WW2.

In addition, we have a review of The French at Waterloo, the first of two volumes featuring the first-hand accounts of those who fought on the French side. This is compliemented by a review of The Light Devision in the Penninsual War, which looks at the actions of their predecessors from the perspective of modern riflemen.

We also have a review of On Operations with C Squadron SAS, which is a firsthand account of SAS teams’ operation in Africa in the 1980s, a period of chaotic upheveal and proxy wars on the continent. In addition, we also look at With the SAS Across the Rhine, which is an account of SAS operations in an earlier, but no less fascinating, time.

Looking at a much less well known period of history, our Editor first reviews Cousins of Anarchy, looking at the period of Stephen and Matilda’s civial work in the 12th centry, followed by Rebellion Against Henry III, which looks at the battles with the rebel Barons and This Disinherited against Henry III in the late 13th century. This period doesn’t often get much attention, and these books could be very interesting if you want to know more about this pivotal but little-known period of English history!

Jason also has a look at some of the multi-volume Cold War Series, 1945-1991, from Pen and Sword Publishing. Picked out of this facinating series, he particularly looks at volumes on the the Suez Crisis 1956, the Korean War Chinese Invasion and the Korean War Imjin River, althogh the whole series is much, much larger!

In a non-historical vein, we also have a review of The History of Toy Soldiers. Pretty much an essential read if you love your toy soldiers and especially if you have in interest in the collecting side of toy soldiers.

As usual, we also like to look at the future of gaming as it comes to us, and the rise of eSports cannot really be ignored any longer! We look at some of the reasons why it is on the rise as well as trends and changes in eSports that look at how it is changing today and looking at what the scene could look like in the future.

With the global pandemic situation being what it is, many of us are missing the opportunity to go to gaming convensions, meeting up with friends and playing games new and old. Our Editor has writen up his experiences of the UKGE virtual weekend which was something of a replacement for these activities, based on what was possible.

But, our Editor has not been idle sitting at home! He also takes a look at tabletop wargaming in the Dark Ages and how you can go about getting started, examining what choices you have are in terms of miniatures, rules and terrain; as well as providing us with a fascinating description of Roman Derby, which is not only a fascinating general read, but may be of use if you like Roman skirmish games such as Gangs of Rome and want to set them in this area!

Staying in the areas of Derby, Jason has alos looked at what it woudl take to develop a local ECW campaign in the area around north Derbyshire and south Yorkshire, which is complemented by an unboxing of A Call to Arms’ rather lovely 1/72 scale Parliament Infantry.

Finally, we conclude with a look at a press release from Kwalee gaming that says 1 in 10 gamers would rather their was was destroyed than their game save data, and what that means to gamers.

Time to get reading – go on, download your copy now!

I picked up the Apocalyptic Scooby Gang from Hasslefree at Salute a few years back and it’s been sat gathering dust for awhile. So I finally made the decision to get some paint on the miniatures.

I used a picture from the Scooby Doo cartoons as a reference for getting the colours as correct as I could with the paints I had. I also didn’t want them looking too clean either, as these were supposed to be in a zombie infested world.

Overall I’m happy with the outcome, and they’ll stated up and used in Walking Dead  and other post apocalypse games.