"Gaming the "Irish Revolutionary Period"" Topic

Look through the Message Boards for more discussion of the Irish War of Independence. It is indeed a very tough era to game. Beautiful figures are available from Footsore Miniatures and assorted figures from other ranges. Osprey has a few good titles for the conflict. For films -

Michael Collins
When the Wind Shakes the Barley
Ryan's Daughter
The Informer.

Good luck with it.

QC Check out a recent discussion here:

TMP link

Keeps looking to me like a good guerilla war setting--assassinations, kidnappings, robberies, sweeps and ambushes. Some gangland scenarios would fit. So would many set in occupied France.

I keep fighting the urge to build a late war Allied force in 28mm, a few civilians and some Volksturm, then do 1919 Ireland or 1943 France scenarios as 1946 werewolves.

My Irish are 15mm 1798.

I would start by reading Tom Barry's Guerilla Days in Ireland.

Trinity by Leon Uris is good historical fiction, gives you a feel for the period.

I am gaming the period. Two sets of rules are Osprey's A World Aflame and also Triumph and Tragedy available from Empress Miniatures. You will have to develop scenarios as it is not a force on force style period. You need to add in a certain level of role-play. My idea is to have civilians spread throughout the town and have the crown try and get information from them. Each encounter would trigger a card with information, some good, some bogus, as to where the IRA is located.

I played Triumph and Tragedy a few times and wanted to do a personal supplement available for free download. I have three scenarios, all based on actual events; one was an RIC Barracks raid, one was a Black and Tan retribution attack on a village, and the third was a British Army assault on a flying column defending a farm.

I'd like to give A World Aflame a go as they are more commercially available, then decide between that and T&T. I hear both are good rules, just a matter of personal preference. Maybe I'll give A World Aflame a go this weekend and post a review.

Tom Barry's work is ideal if one wants to read a hagiographic self-promoting work of propaganda. If you want a serious account of what the Rebellion and the Civil War were actually like, try this link by a modern Irish historian.

Reiver Miniatures also have a range of figures, more extensive than Footsore, but not quite as nice.

Musketeer Miniatures, acquired by Footsore, also used to do a very nice, but fiddley, Lancia armored lorrey, but when Footsore picked them up it disappeared.

Company B does a gorgeous Crosley Tender in resin.

Chouan

I wasn't in any way intending to suggest that Barry's work is objective, only that it gets you into the feel of the period (from one biased perspective). For the same reason, Dan Breen and Ernie O'Malley are also worth reading. Plenty of time to read the more objective works after that.

Regards

That's no problem, I just thought it better to get an understanding of the rather unpleasant reality first, so as not to have to rid one's self of the somewhat romantic and heroic illusion later.