Some Most Irregular Warbands

I’ve been itching for a number of reasons, (the main one I’ll talk about later) the other reason is to do with my Universal Skirmish rules. I keep rewriting them, writing entirely new skirmish rule sets and trying out all sorts of odd mechanics, but I haven’t got anything solid enough yet for a good […]

Mechanics Lab – Super Simple Universal Skirmish Rules: Groblins vs Elves

Often a throwaway line in a ruleset can have massive ramifications, or in other words – no ruleset has throwaway lines! While setting up for playtesting I read the deployment rules: Five shrines are placed before the game. Place a single shrine in the centre of the playing area. Player’s then place two shrines each […]

Mechanics Lab – Super Simple Skirmish Rules

Tinkering with rules is what I do. I suppose its part of the hobby you really can take with you, in a boring or slow moment at work when you haven’t got anyone to talk to you can theorise about combat systems, probabilities and hopefully think up new and unique mechanics. Having played a good […]

The Forest vs The Bobbies

Our forces are as follows: The Bobbies: 1 Inspector – Gunslinger, 15 Might 1 Detective – Gunner, 15 Might 1 Headsman – Berserker, 15 Might 1 Sarge – Soldier, 15 Might 2 Bobbies with Rifles – Soldier, 10 Might 2 Bobbies – Warrior, 10 Might The Forest – 1 Witan – Monster, 32 Might 4 […]

SUPER SIMPLE SKIRMISH RULES REVISITED AND The Clockwork Empire vs The Family

In the interest of spending less money on this hobby, I often find myself returning to old projects. This week I looked back at my Monochrome minis and the Super Simple Skirmish game, to see if I could simplify it further and add even more strategic depth. I think I’ve managed that. WARBANDS, FIGHTERS AND […]

mechanics lab: polygonal dice

It’s been an odd week, one of those weeks where I experience a bit of creativity overload, many new ventures, many new projects, almost none of them the Global Warfare rules I’m supposed to be working on. One such venture this week was a simple skirmish system using polygonal dice to do all of the […]

So what did I do in 2021?

One of the weird things about having a hobby blog is being able to look back over the year and see pretty much exactly what I’ve been up to in the year just gone. JANUARY I started the year with my 0 player duelling project. It was a fun distraction and got me revamping old […]

Infinite Battles – Another Irregular Project

One thing I’ve always wanted to have is a generic system that could be used for anything – fantasy, historical, sci-fi, anything. The idea is to keep the rules interesting enough that they give a good game while also allowing you to stat your own units to fit any genre or period. I’m calling it […]

Even Superer Simpler Skirmish Rules! Now With Added Strategy!

A lot has happened to my Monochrome Minis game over the past two weeks. I think I’m now on the third iteration of the rules, I’m up to 8 painted warbands, my second gaming board and there’s a load of new terrain. As you can maybe tell from the image below I’ve upgraded to a […]

Steampunk Colonial Brits… for some reason…

Sometimes you don’t need a specific rule set in mind, or battle to aim towards, sometimes you can just build and army for the sake of it. To this end I put together some 1800s Sci-fi Brits. There may well be a future attempt at some rules writing, but for now, just seeing them sat […]

Different Kinds of Chrome

As mentioned in my previous post, I had some more figures coming my way from Irregular, figures which were going to be painted up in different kinds of monochrome. The first were my ‘Metal Men’, which included a Battle Robot from their 15mm sci-fi range I’ve dubbed Killborg and a Battle Robot from their 28mm […]

U-Skirm Battle Report: The Family vs The Scrots

Two forces line up on the dark plain hoping to gain territory, and shedding a little blood wouldn’t hurt. I had a simple scenario in mind. At the end of each turn a side gains 1 point per figure they have in the enemy deployment zone, plus they gain 1 point per kill. First side […]

Monochrome Minis and Universal Skirmish Rules

I’ve attempted painting ‘monochrome’ miniatures this week. This is mainly down to my desire to speed paint things, to try out oil washes and just tackle a new challenge. Monochrome miniature painting is a style that I have seen some attempt in the past, even Games Workshop, however I don’t think they do it right: […]

The Return of My Anime-ish Rules

I cleaned up my hobby desk earlier this week. With so much more extra space I’ve managed to fit in a small gaming area right next to my painting station. So figures once dry can be pushed right into the action! The space itself could probably just about house a 2’x2’ board, but for now […]

A 6mm Distraction

Occasionally I find things in the drawer of abandoned minis. In the week just passed I found some 6mm infantry from Scotia Grendel and some sci fi tanks from Irregular. I think the trick I’ve learned is to paint less and paint more starkly. Don’t do too many highlights, keep your scheme simple and striking. […]

Playtesting Darkfell

As mentioned in a previous version post I’ve been playing a lot of Darkfell and rather enjoying it. The basic rules are still the same as seen here. Although now I’ve added 15 separate character classes, 5 Magic Users, 5 Ranged Weapon Specialists and 5 Melee Specialists, each with 10 different traits that your character […]

New Years Brawl

So I’ve managed to build a roster of 16 fighters for my zero player duelling game. Here’s the previous post if your unsure what I’m on about: https://thedeathzap.wordpress.com/2020/12/24/zero-player-duel-wargame-rules/ Funnily enough there are only 15 possible combinations of 3 whole numbers between 1 and 5 that total 7: 115,151,511 124,142,241,214,412,421 133,313,331 223,232,322 So I had to […]

Zero Player Duel Wargame Rules?

There’s a strange desire that a as I have to play a zero player game. Not a solo game but a game that plays itself against itself. I also have a strange desire to play a duel game. A game that only has a single figure on a side. So I thought why not combine […]

Painting Darkfell

So I won’t bore you with all the details. Prime it black, spray grey from above, basically base coat it, make wood and dirt brown, outer walls were mostly left grey, I did some interiors in a light blue, green or dark red. Then the entire thing got a black wash and then a bone […]

The Simple Toy Soldier Game V2 and Irregular Miniature’s 28mm Sci Fi Range

I think I’ve finally cracked it! The Simple Toy Soldier Game that is. Ever since the core idea of the game popped into my head a few years ago I’ve been constantly fiddling and tweaking with it, and I could get close to it working, but I was never quite there. Now finally I think […]

A Little Gaming Board

A little project I wanted to get done in the weekend just gone was a small gaming board for my anime-ish miniature skirmish game. I have somewhat of an obsession for playing games in smaller spaces and so I took a one foot square cork tile as the base. I cut the corners off of […]

How many projects is too many?

How long is a piece of string? How much more space is there on my hobby table? How many more draws do I have to store all my crap? To answer all those questions and possibly answer the question to why am I here, what is my purpose in life? Here are five gas mask […]

Featherstone’s Ghost Legions

Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones

I’ve always wanted an Undead army and although I’ve often bought and even painted the odd unit, I’ve never managed a full force. Until now… I’ve been somewhat gripped by my 15mm Fantasy project and rules, and couldn’t resist dipping in to Irregular Miniature’s Undead range. Plus since I was going for a more ghostly […]

Elves Vs Dark Dwarves Vs Me Vs Age of Sigmar

I couldn’t finish painting those Elves and not have a battle now could I? Originally this little Fantasy project was going to use and abuse Tony Bath’s Ancients rules from Donald Featherstone’s War Games. However having far too much confidence in my own ability to write rules I decided I’d take this opportunity to ‘fix’ […]