"My 28mm Irish War of Independence armies" Topic

I finally finished by IWI figures – pictures on my blog at link

Nicely done, a good gaming collection. Looking forward to some AARs.

Great looking armies – good gaming!

Some of our group began playing skirmish-level games in this period a few years ago. We have been using Two-Hour Wargames rules, basically, and everyone has kicked in figures of one type or another. I'm looking to find a different rules set or craft my own.

Nice collection of figures! I see many of the same types I've got.

Gathering vehicles and buildings is a challenge, but makes this an interesting gaming project.

There are some things which should never be gamed.

Foremost among these is anything to do with the IRA.

They were, are and always have been terrorists, murderers and criminals

I respect chubby's viewpoint, although I don't agree with it. The pictures show a nice collection of figures, well done.

Chubby,

would you game the americam war of Independence ?

Oh yay, the morality police arrived!!

Chubby,

do you game ancients? Mongols or Romans perhaps?

I respect your right to your opinions, and your right to game or not game whatever period interests you.

I for one ask that you extend me the same courtesy.

Deal?

Leland R. Erickson

It's a game.

In real life, I've been in Northern Ireland 30 years ago, and again a few years ago. I have met very nice people from both sides.

30 years ago, some of them would probably have killed me if I'd told them I was friend with people of the other side.

3 years ago, they understood it and they were very nice.

Ireland is a very nice country, there is a "peace process" going on, please don't fight again, let's play with miniatures. The IWI is an interesting subject to game.

It is a difficult conflict to game due to a lack of suitable figures, I have owned the lovely Musketeer figures as well as the somewhat smaller stature figure range produced by Reiver Castings but there is a lack of RIC other than the sinle MM pack, plus a lack of Auxies as opposed to Tans. Musketeers' Tans do not suggest former officer types to me, lovely as they are!

Reiner has been very active on this front. They have RIC and Tans as well as IRA and even Free State. My terrain right now is a green cloth and lots of stone walls and hedges. I made two cottages and have a RIC barracks and a two story pub as WIP. My problem is getting distracted by American War for Independence. I know this has come up before but I can't resist: why don't we read postings full of moral outrage in the SCW section? Or colonial wars? I don't think I've ever seen a posting in the WWII thread that reads " as for German figs in 15mm, I think Hitler is a war criminal" Let's keep it to the games.

Piper,

a few of the guys at our club plays IWI and ICW in 28mm using the contemptible little armies rules and swear by them.

Phil

People who do not subscribe to this forum probably all believe that no war should be gamed. Anybody in this group is weird to do it. Is it not the case that one side in every war is as said, "terrorists, murderers and criminals"

I can understand chubby's position (leaving aside the issue of the IRA in 1920 not being the same organization it was in, say, 1970). A lot of the Irish rebellion/civil war history is pretty nasty and un-gameworthy stuff -- assassinations, murders, not as much of what you might call straight-up "war" exactly. If you're aware of this, I think one can still work up some scenarios that are more, um, honorable and less brutal. I suppose you'd call most of what we game as "fantasy", clashes between armed rebels and soldiers or police in a vaguely 1919 setting. Or earlier -- 1916 clashes between uniformed Irish Volunteers and Irish republicans and forces of the British Crown. There are a lot of ambushes, attacks on barracks, defenses of urban strongpoints, military sweeps of suspected rebel hideouts in the country, that sort of thing.

Admittedly, no one games the atrocities and massacres that stain every conflict in every era.

Never mind Chubby, he's still sore that his beloved Rangers FC are dead.

These figures are great, I love the paintwork on them. What is the armoured car kit?

dafydd – what an offensive sectarian remark.

For what its worth I was born and brought up in Northern Ireland, although I no longer live there. 2 of my close relatives had their health severely afected by the actions of the IRA so I am touchy on this subject.

For all you IRA apologists : enjoy your IRA games but dont lose sight of what they were.

Dafydd

The Lancia armoured lorry is a metal kit from Musketeer.

Great looking Units. I got a load of Black and Tans at Claymore and im unsure if i should paint them as Black and Tans or Glasgow Covenanters for VBCW.

Chubby: While i respect your view and agree with it coming from the same side of the coin i wouldn't let this upset you mate. Sadly it will take a generation for the wounds to heel for the people caught up in the conflict but this was a different conflict altogether. At least you can get to enjoy playing as the Black and Tans in this one :P

dafydd: We never went away ;)

I agree with flags of war – this is very much a different conflict, and together with the Irish Civil War has a fair bit of potential for skirmish gaming. No point guilt-tripping other gamers over historical sensitivities or we'd be left playing chess, draughts and not much else.

My own family had sympathies on both sides at that time – the division in our society has never been as clean or as absolute as people seem to think.

Great figures, and nice choice of rules, looking forward to the aar!