Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End

Frankly I need another set of rules like I need a hole in the head! Yet once again I found myself purchasing another ruleset whilst browsing the 'net one day a week or so ago. To be fair I had considered these before, based upon some games I'd seen via the Pendraken forum, but for one reason or another I never bought them.

So why did I buy them this time around? Well some retail therapy for sure was a factor given we are more than likely entering another lockdown stage in England. Also the rules looked good on yet another reading of reviews etc, but more importantly contained 48 army lists so, if nothing else, a very useful reference book for other games like 'The Pikemen's Lament'. Also at £12 inc p&p they were good value compared to previous times I've checked.

 

The rather nice front cover of part of a map from 1573 by Domingo Teixeira.

The back cover with the usual brief overview of rules, contents etc.

 

So what do you get for your money? The easiest answer would be to check out the authors  Irregular Wars Blog here, where obviously you will find plenty of AAR's as well as some sample pages etc. For my money the rules are nice and simple, but not simplistic, with plenty of choice for the players in terms of force composition as well as a huge range of armies to choose from.

The areas I particularly like are

• Army Composition. In short you have core units that must be in your force then you can choose 5 others from a varied list, depending upon the army. Some are guaranteed to be available, other you roll a D2, D3 or D4 to see how many are you might get per game. A nice touch so each game is different which I like to see for this sort of game.
  
• The Disease and Mishaps chart. Basically once you have your force, you roll on this to see if units are late, missing, down with the pox etc at the start of the game. Some may not even arrive! So with the above, a nice amount of uncertainty reflecting the nature of the battles being fought.
• Chance Cards. Well that pretty much says it all. At the start each player draws a number of cards that may help or hinder his army. These aren't strictly nescessary and some players don't use them but they tickle my fancy.
• Campaign Guide. A simple gudie to running a campaign using the rules, with sample ones for Elizabethan Ulster and The Spanish Main. As I find narrative campaigns great fun, this is a nice touch as not all rules include this sort of thing. 
  

 

The only downside I would say is that you are spoilt for choice as to what you might want to game! Currently I'm looking at an English force that can campaign on the Scottish borders, in Ireland or on the West Coast of Africa. I want to get some trial games in with my wooden blocks first before ordering some new toys. I also need to decide upon a base size, with 1" squares giving a good game on a 2' x 2' table. However this size might not give me the visual look I'm after, but has the benefit of being my standard base size for most games. Plenty ot think about for sure.

 

Well this post is the first with the new Blogger and, famous last words, hasn't been too difficult, which is a relief. Getting used to the new icons and layout is a bit annoying, but overall it seems to work OK. This begs the questions of why give it a new look when the old one worked perfectly well as it was? the only annoying thing I've found is it is constantly saving itself which can slow things down.

 

Next up is my Sealion campaign game, now that the Indian Summer weather has finally gone and Autumn has arrived in true cool, cloudy and wet fashion. So hopefully more games and painting will ensue as I spend more time indoors, which will be a bit of a shock as we seemed to have had 6 months of near perfect weather here in Bristol. Anyway, enough waffling from me as I need to prepare for my game. So until next time...