"Irregular Wars 2nd ed. army lists" Topic

Irregular Wars: Conflict at the World's End are a fast play set of wargaming rules set in the 'Age of Discovery' (i.e. c.1500-1650ish). The rules recreate the smaller actions so common at the fringes of the European world and include factions from Britain, Ireland, the colonial and native forces in the New World, the East Indies and the Eurasian steppe.

Designed for engagements with forces 500 – 2,500 strong, the emphasis is on the tactical concerns of command, company resolve, weather & disease.

The original rules came out in 2011 and were distributed as a pdf through Vexillia Ltd. The second edition should be out 'later' this year and will be available as either a pdf or a hard copy.

I have been plugging away converting the old Irregular Wars army lists to the new format for the 2nd edition and taking the opportunity to edit, update and amend the companies available. I have also added a few new lists and intend to add a few more. The army lists to date include:
Royal English
Northern English
English Adventurers
Lowland Scots
Highland Scots
Mere Irish
Spanish Expeditionary Force
Conquistador
Colonial Spanish
Colonial Portuguese
French Adventurer
Coureurs des Bois
Hollanders
Swedish
Japanese Shogunate
Ikkō Ikki
Ottoman
Arabian
East African
Songhai
Tribal African
Caribbean Indian
Amazonian Indian
Mesoamerican
Chinantecs
Inca
Mapuche
Desert Indian
Mississippians
Woodland Indians

I also plan on including the following. There may well be more but this is the list to date.
Imperialist
Polish-Lithuanian Union
Muscovites
Cossacks
Moghuls
Steppe Khanate
Safavids
East Indies Sultanate
Eastern Pirates
Ming
Manchurian
Yi
Pacific Islanders
North African

Good!
Nose to the grindstone please – I need to buy these. (but I'm not so sure I'll get even a quarter of the way through the armies:^)

Looking forward to it.

Is there a US distributor? What do you mean by "Desert Indian"?

Is there a US distributor?

Two things:

[1] The second edition hasn't been released yet.
[2] The pdf doesn't need local distribution – bit.ly/NOmMHg

--
Martin Stephenson
Vexillia Limited :: Wargames Miniatures & Accessories
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@ Red Hoerring – As Vexillia says, the pdf is region free. The hardcopy will be distributed through Amazon, so will has more-or-less world wide distribution.

DESERT INDIANS
Initiative 3; Command 5u
This list should be used for all the groups living in deserts and mesas to the north of the Aztec empire whose warriors almost exclusively used the bow as a primary weapon. These include the various nomadic or semi-nomadic Chichimeca groups and also the settled Pueblo Indians of the south-west of North America. The Chichimeca reportedly terrified their opponents to the south, Aztec and Spaniard alike. They fought naked but for red war paint and were the finest archers encountered by the Spanish in the New World. The Chichimeca War of 1550-1590 was the longest running war fought by New Spain. It was a huge drain on the colonial infrastructure and only ended when the Spanish reversed their aggressive policies for a more conciliatory approach.

Thanks, V&HHE….I'm familiar with the Chichimeca, glad to see someone stepped up and included them. Sounds like a definite "go!"

Are Buccaneers to be included?

Pacific Islanders is a general term there seems a degree of difference in the islands.

TWR, a lot of the factions are designed to apply to multiple groups who fought with roughly the same types of warriors/soldiers. The 'Desert Indians' cited above being a good example of this. The draft 'Pacific Islanders' list is as follows (not sure how the formatting will show up but hopefully you will get the idea:

PACIFIC ISLANDERS
Initiative 1; Command 5u
This list represents the armies of the Polynesian, Melanesian or Micronesian island chiefdoms of the Pacific. Spanish exploration brought European contact with the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu in 1568, Vanuatu, the New Hebrides and Kiribati in 1606; Spaniards may have charted Hawaii as early as 1542 although the evidence is ambiguous. Dutch voyages encountered Tonga in 1616 and New Zealand in 1642, engaging in armed conflict against the natives of both. In Hawaii, chiefs' elite warbands often fought with long spears or pikes, as did some Melanesian warriors. Melanesian chief could be protected by picked bodies of men who fought with large wooden swords or clubs. Wooden swords such as the Maori taiaha were also the favoured weapon of most Polynesians.

COMPULSORY COMPANIES
No. Company Resolve Move Melee Short Long Special
3 Warriors (10pts) 3 3u 3 5+ - Archaic missiles. Charge +1, Native
1 Dart throwers (10pts) 3 3u 2 4+ 6+ Archaic missiles, Charge +1, Natives

OPTIONAL COMPANIES
No. Company Resolve Move Melee Short Long Special
1d3 Picked warriors (13pts) 5 3u 4 - - Charge +2, Native, Reliable
1d3 Picked spearmen (13pts) 5 3u 4 - - Long Spears, Natives, Reliable
1d4 Warriors (10pts) 3 3u 3 5+ - Archaic missiles. Charge +1, Native
1d3 Warriors (10pts) 3 3u 3 5+ - Archaic missiles. Charge +1, Native
1d2 Warriors (10pts) 3 3u 3 5+ - Archaic missiles. Charge +1, Native
1d4 Spearmen (10pts) 4 3u 3 - - Long spears, Native
1d3 Dart throwers (10pts) 3 3u 2 4+ 6+ Archaic missiles, Charge +1, Natives
1d4 Slingers (8pts) 3 4u 0 5+ 5+ Archaic missiles, Natives
1d2 Scouts (13pts) 3 4u 0 5+ 5+ Archaic missiles, Elusive, Loose, Natives
1 Kahuna (12pts) 3 3u -1 - - Natives, Loose, Pious

Buccaneers, in the golden age of piracy sense of the word, do not feature as they fall a little after the focus area of IW. However, if you mean English and French pirates and privateers of the 16th and early 17th centuries, each have an applicable list as outlined below.

ENGLISH ADVENTURERS
Initiative 3; Command 6u
This faction represents those forces of Englishmen recruited to take part in the private ventures which typified Tudor and early Stuart overseas expeditions – whether they be military, piratical or colonial in nature – in the New World or East Indies. The list might equally be used for Englishmen such as Thomas Wyatt who raised their standards in rebellion against the state. Gentlemen adventurers tended to be the financial backers of these ventures or their representatives and could be expected to be both well-equipped and valorous. Depending on the chosen background, volunteers might represent ships' crews or trainbands equipped with a variety of mixed melee and shot weapons; armed mobs represent poorly equipped colonists or rebellious peasantry. Cimaroons served alongside English privateers such as Drake when raiding New Spain; native scouts represent friendly Indians aiding English colonists.

FRENCH ADVENTURERS
Initiative 3; Command 5u
This list should be used to represent the forces at the disposal of French corsairs like François de Clerc, Jacques de Sores or Jean Bontemps who pillaged the Spanish colonial empire in the early sixteenth century. It could also be used for the attempted Huguenot colonies at Fort Caroline in Florida and France Antarctique in Brazil and the seventeenth century royal Brazilian colony of France Équinoxiale. Gentlemen adventurers reflect the financial backers of expeditions and the colonial elite. While volunteers might represent either ships' crews or colonists equipped with a variety of mixed melee and shot weapons, halberdiers and shot companies reflect the more organised elements of colonial defence. Boucaniers were originally Europeans who eked out a wild existence hunting and trading in the meat of manatee and feral cattle and boars.

Nic

Are you going ahead with the Barbary Corsairs list?

I have my eye on the Thoroughbred models and the Minifig Moors. As the Barbary pirates slaved around the coasts of Britain and Ireland they would be credible opponents for my English and Irish armies at the scale represented in Irregular Wars.

Richard

I'm attempting to refresh this thread as there was a lock error when I made the post above and this thread did not move to the top of the board.

Richard,

Yes I will – the only question is to where there will be separate North African and Barbary Corsair lists. I still need to look into this.

Nic

I can't remember offhand whether I made this suggestion directly or not, but I might as well repeat it here.

Would you consider splitting or supplementing the Moghul list so there are several Indian lists? Or, if the list will stand it, providing guidance in the notes for various different Indian armies?

Richard

Looking into it Richard.