Here’s a quick After Action Report from Mark Luther. This was a 6mm I Ain't Been Shot Mum game played at GigaBites Cafe in September 2025.
This was a fictitious scenario that was based on some units of the 21st Panzer Division moving closer to the Sword Beach landing area than they did historically on June 6th.
Click on the picture to see all.
Three games down: two wins and one loss. Onto the next: more Carthaginians, this time of the Middle rather than the Late variety and led by that thoroughly nice chap, Mark.
Before I start this report I think it only fair to state two things. The first is that Mark was suffering from the after-effects of a rather nasty shoulder dislocation (no, it wasn’t me): not sleeping and largely unable to use his left arm! And, yes, I did make sure I attacked on the right, shame on me!
Secondly, those of you who follow this blog will know that I am usually plagued by terrible cards. Well, not today. All my terrible cards found their way into Mark’s deck: I’ve only ever seen such a collection of Aces before on my side of the table!
Anyway, with those opening statements out of the way, on to the action.
The Carthaginians outscouted and, after deployment, advanced forward confidently.
On the Carthaginian left was their cavalry: a mass of veteran heavies and lights. My first action was to essay a shot at the lead unit of enemy horse with my crossbowmen and light crossbowmen. Quarrels (the word comes from Old French quarrel (from carré, “square”), referring to the bolt’s square-shaped head) flew across the battlefield and, much to both our surprises, slammed into the enemy unit and cut them down to a man, including their general. The shock of seeing their comrades slain was then too much for the surrounding light cavalry units, who fled the field to bring tales of woe and impending disaster to anyone who would listen!
I’d played four cards and taken six coins…all which I would obviously be paying to my mercenary crossbowmen!
Worse, for Mark, was the fact that my Knights then charged forward (“what’s that coming over the hill…is it a monster?” “No, worse: it’s the Venetian knights!”) and thundered into the remaining enemy horse, lances poised for carnage!
Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, my other Knights were watching the enemy elephants stomp slowly forwards accompanied by the Carthaginian heavy infantry.
My plan was now to avoid fighting on the left until my right hand Knights could turn and roll up the enemy line, and I also moved my main infantry force in the centre forward in order to pin some advancing Celtiberians in place until the Knights were ready.
I needed to keep the Carthaginian right focussed forward as opposed to allowing them to turn to reinforce the centre and left, so was forced to make my Knights a threat even if I wanted them nowhere near the advancing enemy nellies.
This led to some dicey moments for the left hand Knights as Mark’s clever use of the Someone has Blundered card along with my only bad luck of the game left them vulnerable but, for once, they had remembered to put on their proper as opposed to cardboard armour, and they were able to retreat out of danger having done exactly what they were supposed to do.
Meanwhile, my Knights on the right had sorted themselves out and proceeded to carry out the other part of the plan: curling round to hit the Carthaginians’ Celtiberian allies in the flank.
Aided by my infantry advancing out from the camp, it took only a turn or two to take Mark’s remaining coins.
Well that had, from the canal-dweller point of view, been a cracking game!
Mark was so unlucky in that first turn to lose half his cavalry like that, and even more so as that perfectly opened up his flank to my Knights. He might have been able to compensate on the right but, again, just didn’t get the cards to get his men forward fast enough.
As for the Venetians: it was on to the final game and, with three wins out of four, the same as the other leading contenders, a chance for overall victory!
My final game of day one of this year’s Britcon To The Strongest tournament was against Howard and his Later Carthaginians.
I’d faced these lads before, and they have always been a tough nut to crack, especially with Howard’s propensity to put loads of steep hills onto the tabletop and then hide his light infantry on them: very difficult to winkle out!
I lost the scouting again, so set up in a tight formation weighted towards my left flank, but a slow Carthaginian start gave me the time to readjust for their deployment and establish a more central position as the game began. My plan was to defeat the Carthaginians on the left with most of my army, before turning right to finish off the remainder.
The action duly began on my left flank, where I had rapidly advanced my Knights in an attempt to knock out the Carthaginian and Numidian cavalty there before heading into the centre behind the enemy line.
My first charges were very successful: knocking the Numidians and a unit of cavalry off the table. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to exploit this initial success, and the Carthaginians were able to bring across reinforcements and stabilise the situation.
This pattern then repeated itself as again my Knights successfully charged forward only to fail to finish the job and let the Carthaginians back into the game…so much so that it looked as if I was about to lose that flank entirely.
Fortunately I managed to bring some reinforcements of my own across and, by the end of the game, the left flank was very much in a tied position, both sides too exhausted to do much more than glare at each other!
Note that that initial unit of veteran Carthaginian legionaries was still standing, as were my Knights on that side: some units prove just impossible to kill!
Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, fearsome amounts of Carthaginians were heading towards my lone command there.
Very quickly, the Carthagians managed to get their cavalry right down onto my baseline, and I now faced the classic problem of trying to defend both front and flank at the same time.
The Venetian Knights are, however, very tough (when, that is, they remember not to put on their cardboard armour!) and that initial flanking position was defended successfully and all seemed to be stabilised on the right, especially as the main body of Carthaginian infantry (nasty veteran javelinmen types) hung back in relative safety on the steep hills that scattered that side of the table.
This couldn’t last for long and, as Howard realised that his right wasn’t going to win the battle on its own, he send the infantry forward, and the situation on my left suddenly got a whole lot more critical.
Althoug helped by a bit of bad luck on Howard’s part, my troops on the right soon found themselves pushed right back to my camp and under extreme potentially game-losing pressure!
All was not lost, however: fighting from behind the walls of my fortified camps (the rather infamous barbed wire!) gives you a major advantage, and my camps remained inviolate.
Both sides were now on their last legs, but the cards were smiling on me for a change and, as both Howard and I ruefully checked how many coins we each had left, my veteran Later Knights (with two heroes from the Tonight We Dine In Hell card I’d played earlier) swung into action and, with a cry of “Venice Forever, whilst they keep paying my wages” they charged forward against the two units of Carthaginian cavalry in front of them.
It’s the Knights on the right that you need to be looking at!
It was, quite frankly, glorious: with both enemy units being dashed from the table along with their accompanying general to give me victory!
These ones!
Well that had been a very close run thing!
If the Knights hadn’t charged when they did, and if my cards hadn’t been good and Howard’s bad, then I doubt that I could have held my camp for that much longer. But they did, and they were, so the game was mine - just!
All my games with Howard were good, but this was particularly so, and a great way of finishing day one of the tournament.
Figures packed away, we headed out to sample the delights of Leicester’s nightlife…
This weekend it was off to Newbury Racecourse for the Colours wargaming show.
I was competing in the To The Strongest competition there, so needed to be in position to play well before the doors officially opened…which meant an early breakfast somewhere. I had done a bit of Google research and found a cafe that opened at 7.30am on Newbury High Street. That was a little late, but I thought I’d go for it anyway: I can always eat quickly.
I got to the designated location at about 7.15am, to find my original destination was unsurprisingly still closed…but there was another cafe, King’s Cafe, not only open but with a row of empty parking spaces right outside. Excellent news: and the breakfast (the “King’s Breakfast”) was absolutely lovely. So a “highly recommended” for King’ Cafe: set me up nicely for the day.
Being there early also gave me the chance to see the “Lust for Glory” table all set up and ready to be played without hundreds of people surrounding it. LFG is the new set of rules from the TTS camp designed for the late 16th and early 17th century wargaming. It’s still in playtesting, and Simon and co. had done a great job with the table.
I was busy competing when the show actually opened (more on the TTS competition when I come to write the battle reports) but I did get plenty of time to walk around later on.
First impressions were that it was as excellent as ever. Let’s tick off what I like about it:
relatively easy to get to, and without passing any speed cameras (if you know, you know!)
plentiful free parking
huge numbers of trade stands
good catering, although the queues can be quite long at lunchtime
plenty of places to sit outside if you fancy a bit of fresh air
This year was also nicely busy without being insanely crowded, which meant that it wasn’t as close and hot as it has been in the past. I also think that the visitors were more spread out between the floors than before: mainly, I think, because the standard of exhibition games was the highest I have ever seen it.
In the past, Colours has had the some good games on show, but this year I really felt that everyone had excelled themselves. I certainly spent a lot longer than usual looking at the game, and you can see from the photos how spectacular some of them were.
So an excellent event made even better by a higher-than-usual standard of demo game, plus the TTS competition of course. Definitely in the diary for next year, and well done to Jon H for sorting the TTS event: another in 2026 please!
My second game at this year’s Britcon tournament was against Adrian’s Imperial Macedonians: not the ideal army for me to face as I didn’t have much that could beat the pikes head-on, and those Companion cavalry are very nasty!
As is now becoming usual, I lost the scouting, so set up traditionally with my knights on the wings and my infantry in the centre.
Looking at the Macedonian deployment, it looked very weighted towards my left flank, so I determined to refuse my troops there and try and hit the left end of his line (i.e. on my right) as hard and fast as possible, hoping to get around the side of his Pike and Hoplites before they connected with my Spearmen in the centre.
That meant wending my way Knights through the rough ground in front of my right whilst I kept his Companions (already in wedge formation) at bay in the centre.
The cards really helped me out here, as Adrian’s men advanced forward then stopped dead, letting me take the initiative. The Companions also failed to make any real headway against the Venetian Spearmen they had charged, allowing the infantry to retreat back to the comparative safety of the hill in front of their camp.
This let my Knights on the right charge home secure in the knowledge that the line behind them was secure, sending some veteran Macedonian infantry fleeing from the field before turning to face the enemy flank.
It has to be said that Adrian was suffering from the same sort of luck that I usually enjoy: he couldn’t pull an activation or save card to, er, save his life!
Back to the action…in the centre, the Macedonian Pike had finally got moving again, only to be disordered by handgun fire from my Armati di schioppo and then double-disordered as the Alabardieri (halberdiers) joined in the fun.
Meanwhile, on my left, my other Knights had calmly been waiting for the right moment to get stuck into the battle. This came as the Macedonian right flank finally got its act together and advanced forward.
Before the Macedonian right could properly make their presence felt, however, a series of good activation cards for me and poor saves for Adrian saw the Macedonian left flank collapse: large amounts of coins lost as the Venetian Knights and Alabardiers really got stuck in to the cavalry and pikemen in front of them.
The end came quickly after that. My outflanking Knights chased the last bit of Macedonian cavalry across the field before riding them down as they turned to fight and, at the same time, more Knights finished off some Hoplites from the flank, despite being disordered themselves.
It had been a glorious victory for the Venetians: I had only lost two coins (both units of mounted light crossbowmen) so scored a great 14-2 win. As mentioned above, however, Adrian suffered from the most appalling luck throughout the game, so I’m not sure that much of my triumph was down to superior tactics or suchlike on my part!
On to game three…
Friend Nigel often fields some kind of Condotta army at the tournaments we both attend, and one troop type that usually causes his opponents all sorts of annoyance are the Rotularii or “sword & buckler men”.
I’ve faced these a couple of times, and can attest to their effectiveness, so I thought it was about time I reinforced my 28mm Venetians with some Rotularii of my own.
Now I finished the Venetians as a project some time ago so, aside from wanting to make a couple of coolio camps (canals, piazzas, gondoliers or something like that!), up to now I’ve had no intention of adding more units…which meant that if I wanted to field some more infantry, they were going to have to come from the bits box as I wasn’t going to buy any new figures just to get four light infantry types onto the table.
Not sure how historically accurate they are, and they are a real Frankinstein collection of odd bits and pieces (knights, foot soldiers, even light cavalry) but they look suitably ferocious to me!
And talking of finishing projects, here’s the last of the Arabs that I’m planning to add to the collection: a couple of units of Javelinmen just in case the ground is very rough!
These are 3D Breed sculpts of 15mm Moorish Warriors printed by Geek Villain. They are very nicely detailed figures that take the paint very well.
Again, however, there were some problems in getting the models to stand up without support: not as bad as the Moorish cavalry from the same source, but not as good as the Red Copper prints I’ve been using previously.
I particularly like the way the shields have turned out.
So that’s hopefully the last of the Arabs I’ll need to paint: a quick look at the my Painting Challenge gallery for 2025 shows that Arabs are almost all that I’ve painted this year. Not sure what’s next, but they won’t be wearing mostly white!
My first game proper at this year’s Britcon tournament was against Chris’ Bretons i.e. lots of cavalry and light cavalry!
Unsurprisingly, I lost the scouting, so set up in a largely defensive position in the centre of the table. I did have one unit of Knights off-table to begin with: they were carrying out a flank march on the right and were designed to be my battle-winning trump card, arriving just in time to roll up the Breton flank!
Unfortunately, Chris got some pretty decent cards on his first turn and, almost before I knew what was going on, the Bretons were all over me, especially on my left flank, the one that was weakened by the absence of the flanking Knights.
Worse, the Later Knights who were on that side of the table seemed to have put their ceremonial cardboard armour on that morning, so that rather than runnng rough-shod over the opposition, any initial success that they had was soon wiped out as the Bretons in front of them evaded and those to the side flank-charged them off the table!
That’s what happens when you pull six Aces in one turn, two of them doubles!
In a tournament as well!
I was now pretty beleagured on the left side of my camps, and it looked as if the game could be over very quickly.
Fortunately, my off-table flanking force chose that moment to arrive, and did exactly what they were supposed to do: driving into the left flank of the Bretons and starting to roll them up.
At the same time, the troops on the left of my line suddenly remembered how to fight, and the situation around that end of my camps stabilised.
The game could now go either way. We each had eight coins remaining, but whilst I had begun on 14 coins, Chris had begun on 11, so all I needed to do to win the game was to take out 1½ of his units…and I could see two clear opportunities to do so.
Unfortunately, both these opportunities slipped through my fingers - a combination of more poor cards and some excellently slippery tactics from Chris - and the initiative passed to the Bretons without me having been able to firmly put them to bed!
Chris, too, could see an opportunity to take the last of my coins and, without hesitation, he swept a unit of light cavalry into two of my now undefended camps (we were busy trying to stabilise the other end!) taking the last six of my coins and the game for a 14-8 victory!
Excellently played by Chris, but highly annoying for the Venetians. If you look at the picture above, you can see a unit of light infantry handgunners on the flank of some Breton horse. If those handgunners had managed to step back into the camp (anything but an Ace!) then Chris would only have been able to take one camp and I’d have had another chance to win myself.
So that was two defeats in a row for the Venetians (the warm up game and game one) and with a result that somewhat belied the actual situation on the tabletop. All credit to Chris for taking full advantage of the opportunity on my left and his super evading tactics (which made it very difficult to kill the Bretons as they retreated and were then recycled back into the action) and I had better pull my finger out for the next four games if I was to have any chance of holding on to my title!
Exactly what it says on the tin: a quick end of August update to the Painting Challenge.
First up is Mr Burt with the last of his Traitor’s Toll figures and a return to his Agincourt Knights.
Next we have Mervyn with a couple of Darkest Africa entries: British Naval types and Askaris.
Also sending in a brace of entries is Stumpy, with some casualty markers for Sharp Practice and some British Light Dragoons.
Finally we have Mr Helliwell with his usual cornucopia of entries. This time it’s mostly medieval with just a hint of the AWI.
Loving the shields on the last two!
That’s it for this time: just a quick one as I said.
Keep them coming!
Friday late afternoon at this year’s Britcon saw an opportunity for a warm-up game where my Venetians (Abroad) would flex their muscles against Richard’s Later Achaemenid Persians.
The Venetians lost the scouting, with the Persians taking full advantage to load their cavalry onto my open right flank whilst countering the Knights on my left with their mercenary Hoplites.
A Potentially Unfortunate Deployment for the Venetians
As the game began, I advanced forward rapidly on the flanks, determined to use my Knights to smash through his first line of cavalry on the right whilst attempting to slip around the Hoplite flank on the left.
On the left, my plan initially succeeded, with one unit of Knights getting well behind the enemy line, poised to turn and go crashing into the rear of the enemy infantry. Unfortunately, the Knights then decided that what they had achieved was quite enough, thank you, and decided to stop for lunch: refusing to turn and charge the Hoplite rear for a couple of turns.
This then allowed some Persian javelinmen to get into the rough ground anchoring the Achaemenid flank and, for some reason (probably incompetance) I allowed myself to get tangled up in dealing with them rather than focussing on smashing the Greek heavy infantry. You’ll also see, in the photos below, how my other unit of Knights has got itself trapped on the sideline: more stupidity on my part!
As the very promising situation on the left now looked like a pile of poop, it was time to focus on the right!
Here my Knights had sallied forth determined to kick some Achaemenid butt: we might be outnumbered at the moment, but smash a couple of units from the field with your first charge and the numbers start to make sense!
Unfortunately, although I disordered both units of veteran enemy cavalry on first contact, I didn’t break them, meaning that they had the opportunity to pull back and rally.
This also allowed the rest of the Persian cavalry to break off from that melee and hit my units in the centre: the result, combined with some devilish missile fire from some Persian Lights, being the loss of two units (the militia spearmen and the crossbowmen) and a hole the size of the Blackwall Tunnel right in the middle of my line and, more worryingly, in front of my camps!
The Persians promptly poured some light infantry and their “spare” cavalry into the gap, and suddenly what had looked like a great position on both flanks now looked like Armageddon in the centre!
I desperately needed to free up my units stuck on the left, but an unwise decision not to lead with the Knights bit me firmly on the derriere when my Balestrieri montati (mounted crossbowmen) failed to activate on an Ace and so condemned their entire command to sit there doing nothing for another turn.
All was not lost, however: all I needed was the Alabardieri (halberdiers) to charge back into my camp, disperse the enemy Lights there, and thus rescue three coins and the battle from disaster.
All I needed…
Now the initiative passed to the Richard and the Persians, who clinically finished me off by hitting a unit of Venetian Knights in the flank and front with the cavalry whom I’d failed to destroy in the first melee of the game. He didn’t even need his Lights in the camp to move sideways and take another three coins!
It had been a great game that had started so well for the Venetians. Just a pity that it ended so badly!
Not the first AAR from Britcon, but a catch-up AAR of a game played a couple of weeks ago: the Thai (Siamese) commanded by me versus Rob using the Ancient Britons. This was another big game: 160 points per side.
Both sides advanced quickly towards each othere, although one of the Ancient British cavalry commands dawdled behind, obviously pausing to finish their “full English”!
The action began on the right flank, where the two veteran and one fanatical British warbands smashed into the Thai Royal Guard, some Spearmen and an elephant unit.
The Thai had the initiative by threw it away through a couple of unfortunate Aces but, surviving this, went on to disorder the Celtic line. Even better, the elephants on the far right smashed the Gaeseti fanatics (with accompanying Druids and obelisk!) from the field!
Meanwhile, on the left, the rest of the Thai army prepared to take on the massed chariots and light cavalry.
Thw two sides came together with an almighty smash, and a colossal melee broke out. Things swayed backwards and forwards until the advantage slowly began to turn the Thai’s way despite the intervention of some more Ancient British infantry that came across from the centre.
Back to the right, where the Thai’s were slowly pushing the British back. More (this time raw) British warbands joined the fight, necessitating deploying the Thai cooks and bottlewashers to stop the Brits getting into the Thai camp.
Then, suddenly, the tide began to turn on the right flank. The veteran British warbands pulled back and rallied, with some of them even managing to flank the elephants that had mullered the Gaeseti.
Things were also sliding for the Thai’s on the left flank. From a commanding position where it looks as if the end was nigh for the Ancient British, the Thai’s suddenly found their opponents had managed to extricate themselves from the fight, rally, and were now threatening all sorts of mayhem. In fact, the Thai’s were very lucky that some of the British chariots pulled an Ace when preparing to flank charge some Thai infantry!
Fortunately, despite these late set backs, the Thai Royal Guard were able to finish off a raw Warband, giving me the coins I needed to win the game.
That had actually been a much closer battle than the above report suggests. The Ancient British had suffered quite bad initial reverses, but all credit to Rob for managing to pull them back from danger of immediate destruction, rally those that he could, and then come straight back at the Thais. As I said, I went from being quietly confident to thinking I could very well lose the game!
A terrific game of To The Strongest and the first win for the Thai/Siamese!
This bank holiday weekend featured the only two-day To the Strongest! competition, taking place at the annual Britcon show.
This year’s event took place at the De Montfort University: an excellent venue just on the outskirts of Leicester city centre. There were about 400 gamers there, ten of whom were present to take part in the TTS tournament. There were also plenty of traders present, with a very popular Bring & Buy as well.
For those of you unfamiliar with the TTS-at-Britcon format, most people get there late on Friday afternoon, when there’s an opportunity for a practice game and then an outing to Wagamama’s for dinner.
CARTHAGINIAN RECRUITMENT DRIVE
Saturday sees three games of TTS, with plenty of time for the action to reach a definitive conclusion. In fact, the third game plays until a finish as the hall is open until late - some of you may recall Howard and Simon’s infamous five-hour marathon from a couple of years ago - followed, again, by dinner out somewhere, usually an Indian restaurant local to the venue.
Finally, Sunday sees another two games, again with the second one playing to a definitive conclusion, and then the prize-giving, with everything wrapped up by about 4pm.
The tournament was played at 140 points a side, with any armies from the Ancients or Medieval lists allowed. My thanks to Tim: who couldn’t play but did check and verify all the lists. The terrain system used was the one from the rulebook, which really seemed to encourage a wider choice of armies than usual. There were some really interesting set-ups generated as well: from Greek valleys full of steep hills right the way through to bowling green-like manicured fields.
The To The Strongest competition was, as usual, fought in the very best of spirits: we certainly seemed to be having more fun than anyone else!
The tournament works on a random draw for the first round (although you can ask not to play a regular opponent) followed by a Swiss system for the next four i.e. each round, the top two players fight, then the next two, then the next two etc, but with no-one fighting the same person twice.
Points are awarded for coins taken from your opponent plus coins you have remaining, with a bonus if you achieve an outright victory. This last had been halved for this tournament, something tnhat everyone seemed to think worked very well.
ACTION FROM ROUND THREE
It was an incredibly tight result: going into the last game there were four people who could have won the event with, serendipitously, those four playing each other in the final round. Not only that, but when one of those two games had finished, the result meant that the player who won the other game could still have won overall. It truly was a nail-biting finish when drawing that Ace two games back would mean the difference between 1st to 4th place!
Here are the round by round match-ups and results:
Jon White (Ikko Ikki) beat Adrian Downey (Imperial Macedonian)
Chris Cornwell (Bretons) beat Robert Avery (Venice Abroad)
Howard Litton (Later Carthaginian) beat Nigel Phillips (Early Italian Condotta)
Mark Freeth (Middle Carthaginian) beat Ian Ralph (Viking)
Sid Bennet (Early Hoplites) beat Richard Lawrence (Late Achaemenid Persian)
Sid Bennet (Early Hoplites) beat Howard Litton (Later Carthaginian)
Robert Avery (Venice Abroad) beat Adrian Downey (Imperial Macedonian)
Richard Lawrence (Late Achaemenid Persian) beat Nigel Phillips (Early Italian Condotta)
Mark Freeth (Middle Carthaginian) beat Chris Cornwell (Bretons)
Jon White (Ikko Ikki) beat Ian Ralph (Viking)
Sid Bennet (Early Hoplites) beat Jon White (Ikko Ikki)
Robert Avery (Venice Abroad) beat Howard Litton (Later Carthaginian)
Adrian Downey (Imperial Macedonian) beat Mark Freeth (Middle Carthaginian)
Chris Cornwell (Bretons) beat Richard Lawrence (Late Achaemenid Persian)
Nigel Phillips (Early Italian Condotta) beat Ian Ralph (Viking)
Chris Cornwell (Bretons) beat Sid Bennet (Early Hoplites)
Robert Avery (Venice Abroad) beat Mark Freeth (Middle Carthaginian)
Howard Litton (Later Carthaginian) beat Jon White (Ikko Ikki)
Ian Ralph (Viking) beat Richard Lawrence (Late Achaemenid Persian)
Nigel Phillips (Early Italian Condotta) beat Adrian Downey (Imperial Macedonian)
Chris Cornwell (Bretons) beat Howard Litton (Later Carthaginian)
Robert Avery (Venice Abroad) beat Sid Bennet (Early Hoplites)
Jon White (Ikko Ikki) beat Richard Lawrence (Late Achaemenid Persian)
Nigel Phillips (Early Italian Condotta) beat Mark Freeth (Middle Carthaginian)
Adrian Downey (Imperial Macedonian) beat Ian Ralph (Viking)
Robert Avery (Venice Abroad) 694
Chris Cornwall (Breton) 682
Sid Bennet (Early Hoplites) 531
Howard Litton (Later Carthaginian) 511
Jon White (Ikko Ikki) 502
Nigel Phillips (Early Italian Condotta) 471
Adrian Downey (Imperial Macedonian) 447
Richard Lawrence (Late Achaemenid Persian) 421
Mark Freeth (Middle Carthaginian) 335
Ian Ralph (Viking) 294
To give you an idea of how close the final result was, the 12 points difference between the top two players represents only about three coins across the five games: the equivalent of only one deep unit. Even the 20 points between positions three and four are only the equivalent of about 2-3 standard units.
The TTS-at-Britcon tournament was a great event that everyone seemed to really enjoy.
I know Briton can be an expensive weekend, but it is well worth it not just for the games themselves but also for the socialising that goes along with them.
And if Britcon still doesn’t appeal, then I highly recommend entering other TTS events: they are all fought in a great spirit of friendliness and fun! Remaining this year we have Colours (6th September); Warfare (15th November) and the Two The Strongest Doubles (29th November). Next year begins with the Welsh Open in January and then the Worlds in February.
Rob and I fancied a game of For King & Parliament - Eastern Front variant. I wanted to get my newly-painted Azabs onto the table, so Rob would play the Ottomans, and I took the Zaporogian Cossacks as (a) they hadn’t been on the tabletop for some time and (b) they would be a historical match-up for the Turks.
This could also be an interesting game as, rather than being cavalry versus cavalry like many of our recent games, this would be cavalry versus war wagons! It would also be fairly epic, as we were playing at 160 points per side: a large game even for FK&P.
The Ottomans had committed the majority of their cavalry to the left flank, facing the rather motley Cossack horse and their Tatar allies. I wasn’t going to win this clash, so my horsemen sallied forward aiming to do as much damage as they could before dying gloriously!
One unit of Tatar lancers, four bow-armed lights, and two units of raw Cossack horse versus the pride of the ottoman empire!
Now if you’re going to go, you might as well go in style, so one unit of Cossack horse charged the Ottoman guns that had, perhaps unwisely, strayed too close to the front line.
Much to my surprise, the Cossacks ran right over the unfortunate Turkish artillerymen and announced their intention to charge the Janisseries behind them…before realising how stupid that would be and skidding to an abrupt, Ace-inspired halt!
This did leave the Cossacks a little exposed, but the Sultan’s elite Sipahi’s of the Guard were so stunned by the action that they just stood there watching as their motley opponents charged by!
Meanwhile, the other Sipahis had been clearing the Tatar light cavalry from the table, the unfortunate horse-archers’ attempts to evade failing dismally.
The Tatars weren’t done yet, however: forward went their single unit of noble lancers and, although disordered by the process, they smashed one of the remaining Turkish Sipahi units from the table.
Even better, after pursuing the survivors for a bit, the Tatar nobles then spotted the Ottoman camp, pulled themselves together and, executing a smart right turn, went on to do what Tatars do best and sacked the camp, stopping only to gather in the spoils!
Back to the Cossack horsemen…who’s blood was obviously up!
Those of you who know the history of my Cossack army will know that I bought the box-set in ignorance thinking Taras Bulba like waves of elite light horse riding down all in front of them, only to be somewhat surprised that the army was almost all foot, and foot in wagons no less, with the only cavalry available being little and raw!
Well, no-one had told the Cossack horse that they were little and raw. The so-far-unengaged unit leapt forward and ran over a unit of Janisseries, only to be followed by the other unit, still disordered from running over the guns, then crashing into the Janisseries that they had pulled up to avoid, and sending them flying from the field too, despite the disadvantage of their disorder!
Meanwhile, the Cossack tabor (war wagons) had been slowly advancing forward in the centre of the field, looking for the right spot to stop and form an impenetrable wall of wood from behind which to fight the advancing Ottomans…except that the Ottomans weren’t advancing!
Although a couple of their cavalry units had bashed through the Tatar light horse and were ready to turn inwards and attack the Cossack left flank, the rest of their cavalry and half the Janisseries had either been destroyed or were worrying about the Cossack horse who had got through behind them.
The tabor were therefore bunched together firing sideways at the enemy cavalry that had beaten the Tatar lights, with some Cossack moloitsy (literally “lads”) moving to protect the rear left flank.
And what of the Azabs, the reason for the Ottoman presence?
They had been kept back on the Ottoman left along with a couple of units of light horse. They finally got moving forward as the Turks became a bit desperate, having been hemorrhaging coins for most of the battle so far.
The Cossack right, however, was ready for them: three units of infantry (admittedly two more Raw “lads” units) would be enough to hold them up at least until the battle was won elsewhere.
The end of the battle came not with a “huzzah” but with a bit of a damp squib.
The tabor opened up of whatever they could see, and one of the casualties caused was a Turkish officer, which was enough to remove the final Ottoman victory coin. Defeated, the invaders slunk off the field back to Istanbul, leaving the victorious Cossacks to both celebrate and to wonder what the Cossack horsemen had been drinking!
It had been a cracking battle from the Cossack point of view: some very good cards meaning that their raw Cossack horse had rather surprisingly swept all before them rather than acting merely as speedbumps as anticipated.
Add in the Tatar noble cavalry doing what they were supposed to, and some lucky sniping from the tabor, and everything had gone rather extraordinarily well!
I just hope I haven’t used up all my good luck: I’ve got Britcon next weekend!
With Neil having beaten my Achaemenids with the Alexandrian Macedonians, it was time to swap sides and give thinsg another go.
As you can see from the picture, above, deployment was interesting. On the far right, my three Companion units faced the entire mass of Persian cavalry, whilst on my left, the rest of the Macedonian horse (a motley crew of Greek allies) had nothing in front of them and would hopefully have the chance to loop around the Persian right flank.
As the battle opened, therefore, I sent my left flank cavalry full steam ahead, held back the Companions, and advanced my pikemen and hoplites strongly forward in the centre, confident that my infantry were more than a match for their lighter Persian equivalents.
My initial advance was, however, a bit stymied by the appalling performance of my troops: with a unit of ally Hoplites left-centre being mullered by more Hoplites allied to the Persians (traitors!) and, more worringly, my lead pike block being double-disordered from, of all things, missile fire!
The pikemen were, however, safely pulled back and protected by some handy lights.
More important tactically, the pike block to the right of the wounded Foot Companions had burst through the enemy line, and the mounted Companions had moved across and engaged the left hand units of Persian cavalry (actually Indian allies), meaning that the majority of the veteran Persian horse were now fighting thin air!
Unfortunately, the Persians had light infantry that were able to get in front of the injured pike block and dispatch it with javelins: Alexander’s finest foot troops removed from the field all from missile fire!
Things looked a little dicey for the Macedonians, but they were saved by the actions of the right hand pike block: the one that had broken through the enemy line. This ignored the temptation of the left flank of the Persian infantry line and turned right towards the Persian cavalry. Then with two 10’s in a row, the pikemen gloriously dispatched the unit of Indian cavalry that were pinning the left hand Companions (actually Thessalians) in place!
This freed up the Thessalians to turn smartly to their left and, after a problematic first attempt, crush two units if Persian light infantry against the Macedonians left hand pike block: all exciting and highly amusing stuff!
Meanwhile, over on the left, my glorious outflanking manoeuvre had, as last game, achieved absolutely nothing: their initial flank charge being thrown off by, of all things, a unit of raw Persian Levies!
Things were, however, looking up just to their right. Those of you who are paying attention will recall that Hoplites in Persian service (traitors!) had punched through the left end of my infantry line. Hoplites in Alexander’s service (loyal heroes!) had, however, turned to face them and were in the process of driving them from the field.
The loyal Hoplites are the ones without the double-disorder marker in the picture below!
The Persians were now getting a bit desperate, so launched an all out attack against Alexander himself on the right wing. If, the Persians thought, we can kill the God-King himself, perhaps the Macedonian army will disintegrate.
If…
Despite being attacked on all sides, and hit with an Infamy stratagem (another traitor trying to stab Alex in the back when no-one was looking), the Companions with Alexander at their head remained strong, shrugging off five attacks with ease.
This was too much for Darius to bear (his opponent obviously proven to be at least part divine) and he ordered a retreat.
These had been two big battles (160 points a side) fought to a conclusion in just four hours.
They had been two excellent games with plenty of excitement and glorious ten’s, and very few dismal Aces. My thanks to Neil for his hospitality and producing the two armies: I think he’s doing Crusaders and Ayyubids next, so something very much to look forward to!
…or rather Berbers!
The main difference between the early “Arabic” armies and those from Caliphate times is the composition of the main body of troops, with North African Berbers becoming the dominant constituents.
Havign painted 160 Arab infantry, then 160 Berber spearmen, it was time to add the other troops I’d need for a fully rounded force.
First up were the mainstay of many Berber armies: the javelin-armed light cavalry:
These are actually Moorish medium cavalry from 3D Breed, printed for me by Geek Villain. I couldn’t find any 3D printed Berber light cavalry, and the 3D Breed Moorish archers had proxied very well for Berber light infantry, so I thought I’d give these guys a go.
They are very nice figures that take the paint very well. The only problem is that they come without bases and, unlike every other 3D printed models I’ve bought (including the Moorish light infantry from the same range) I couldn’t get these b*ggers to stand up unaided.
This meant that I had to use Superglue to attach them to their permanent bases and paint them in two’s like that rather than use the lolly-stick temporary mounts that I would usually use. Not a catastrophe, but certainly a pain in the backside as, obviously, lolly-stick pounted figures are based to make them easy to paint and permanently based troops are not!
This was very disappointing as I have loved the other 3D Breed miniatures that I have bought without reservation. Still, they are done now, and look very good.
Next were some Berber archers:
These were Red Copper 3D prints: the last of those printed for me by Baueda Italy before they were sold to the UK. Nice figures with plenty of animation and very easy to paint.
All the above were painted in the same way as the other Berbers: undercoat in Grey Seer, then splash on a base coat on Contrast White paint. Leave to dry. Then dry brush a bright acrylic White over the Contrast White to give you the folds in the robes. Then paint the faces, eye slits and hands in a dark flesh Contrast paint. After that, the sash and headdress in a Contrast colour of your choice: here I used Stormfiend Blue.
Then it’s just a matter of finishing the figures. The Spear shafts are in Wyldwood, the pennants in a variety of Contrast colours. The shields are Wyldwood (painted at the same time as the spears) then drybrushed in bronze then washed with Agrax Earthshade.
Just some javelinmen to go now and then the Arabs/Berbers are finished…or as finished as any army can be!!
Off to Neil’s house for some more 2mm To The Strongest action. Today we would fight a 160 point clash between the Later Achaemenid Persians and the Alexandrian Macedonians, with me taking the Persians and Neil the Macedonians.
An unusual battlefield with no terrain features at all, but apparently Darius had had the surface cleared and flattened for his sxcythed chariots!
Once we were both deployed, I immediately noticed that I had achieved an overlap with my cavalry on the right, and was facing three unsupported pike blocks. This looked like a good opportunity to me, so I sent my cavalry forward down the open flank, bringing up my infantry in support.
Unfortunately, the pikemen proved surprisingly manoeuvrable despite their depth, and some good cards for the Maccys and poor cards for the Persians meant that, try as I might, I never managed to exploit my initial advantage.
In fact, things went from bad to worse on that flank. The General commanding the infantry coming up in support was killed in the first clash, meaning they couldn’t keep the pikemen pinned in place, and those pikemen remained eerily manoeuvrable: I never managed any flank or rear charges and, in fact, soon found my cavalry pushed back against and then off the edge of the table.
As the final cherry on the cake, I then got caught with the new Even Stronger v13 rule (only a week old at time of playing) that kills a unit that draws an Ace when trying to return to the table.
So that was the right flank well and truly lost after what looked like a great initial advantage: I would have to win the battle elsewhere.
Neil had placed his Companions on the far right of his line, but some deft use of my deep units of cavalry kept the elite lancers bottled up against the right-hand edge of the battlefield, whilst I tried to manoeuvre my single unit of elephants into a position where they could disrupt the Macedonian cavalry.
Meanwhile, left-centre, my Allied Hoplites and Mobs of unwilling infantry moved forward and engaged the rest of the enemy line.
This latter figth developed into a grinding melee where neither side seemed to be able to get the advantage.
Back to the left, where the ebb and flow of the battle had finally let a unit of Companions out of their cul de sac: success with my Indian horse leaving them vulnerable to a charge in the rear from the lance-armed veterans.
For once, however, the cards were well and truly with me: the Companions, headed by Alexander himself, had armed themselves with lances made from spaghetti rather then wood!
Relief was, however, only temporary. More Macedonians flooded into the combat, and the brave Indian horsemen were destroyed: the five medals that cost me (deep unit plus commander) also costing me the game.
An interesting encounter where I don’t remember doing much wrong but still lost the battle!
My cavalry, most of it veteran, should have ridden down at least one of the pike blocks, and I still don’t quite understand how I never managed to get even one flank charge in.
Bottling up the Companions so that they took no part in the first half of the battle was also a tactical success, but led nowhere as I couldn’t seem to find a way forward elsewhere on the field.
And my scythed chariots - the reason for the lack of terrain? Shot down by archers in the first turn!
Time to play the battle the other way around, but that is a story for another day…
Ask any miniature painter what the most difficult thing to paint is and “tartan” will always appear near the top of the list. I’ve certainly struggled with getting kilts ands cloaks to look good whether I’m painting 19th Century Highland infantry, Highlanders to support my 17th Century Covenantors, or just looking to add a bit of variety to Celtic types.
A new company, Weave of War, now has the solution: they sell little 28mm “Campaign Cloaks” that simply wrap around your miniatures.
This is an absolutely brilliant idea that has me reaching for the lists to plan a new army of some kind of Highland infantry just so I can use them!
There are currently eight varieties of tartan with, according to the website, more planned. A pack contains eight cloaks and there’s currently a launch offer giving you two packs for £11.
Here are the eight varieties:
And there’s even a YouTube video that shows you the best way to fit the cloaks
What a good idea…now all I have to do is persuade them to produce them in 15mm!
It’s beena couple of weeks since the last Painting Challenge update, so let’s have a quick run through the latest submissions…
First up is Nick with his usual collection of fantasy figures. I particularly like the six thieves, bottom left.
Dex has also been busy, this time with a German WW2 Volksgrenadier platoon with a section of Jugend in support.
Dex also sent in some rather neat sci-fi figures as well: check out his gallery (accessible via the top NavBar) to see them.
Let’s get the third large submission out of the way as well now: Mr Helliwell with a rather lovely set of American War of Independence figures (well, it was July when they were actually painted) mainly from Peter Pig’s excllent range.
Stumpy is up next, with a few odds and ends sorted. Here are his Roman cavalry and a few British WW2 Home Guard.
And last, but by no means least, is Mervyn with some trolls of the non-Internet variety:
Keep them coming! I’m off to finish my Berber horsemen…
One of the great things about the To The Strongest system is that you can fight a decent sized battle in a couple of hours and still get a definitive result.
Thus it was that after our game featuring Ayyubids and Crusaders, Rob and I still had time for a game of For King & Parliament/Eastern Front variation. Rob would take the Ottomans, I would play the Muscovite.
The game began with strong advances on both sides, in particular with the Turkish horse seeking to break through on the Muscovite right flank.
The fighting opened on the left flank, with a massive cavalry clash between ten units of cavalry: five Turkish, five Russian.
The Muscovites had managed to get a tactical advantage: getting into position to be able to charge into the flank of the Ottoman line. Unfortunately, the Turkish horse proved extraordinarily resilient, failing to take any damage even when attacked from front and flank!
Not a bad set of saves!
Despite this resilience, the initial clash went to the Muscovites, who now still had five units of cavalry versus the three remaining to the Turks.
This advantage was, however, an illusion: the Muscovite horse had been badly disordered in the initial clash and, as the two lines closed again, it was the Ottomans who burst through the Russian line, evening up the scores to three remaining cavalry units each.
Meanwhile, on the right flank, the Ottomans were definitely dominating the situation after the Muscovite Cossack and Tatar allies had suffered a ‘mare on first contact, leaving the Turks utterly dominant in that sector of the battlefield.
Meanwhile, in the centre, the Ottoman Janisseries watched the action, unmoved…
Back to the left flank, and the Turks saw an opportunity to wipe another Muscovite cavalry unit off the field with a flank charge stymied by the cards.
This gave me the opportunity to move their targets to safety, but in one of those quirks of fate that makes FK&P so exciting, the Sons of Boyars decided that they would rather be flank-charged after all!
The Turks were keen to oblige, de-Boyarising the table with ease. At the same time, the rest of the Ottoman cavalry on that flank charged forwards and that, combined with the losses on the right flank, was enough to send the remainder of the Russian army fleeing back towards Moscow!
Well that had been an epic game, well won by the Ottomans: their cavalry had proved unstoppable even by the usually super tough Muscovites!
Another great game!
Another stunning 6mm game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum from Mark Luther: the Germans defend as the Soviets advance on the Kursk southern front.
Click on the picture below to see all…
Having painted up all my Berber spearmen, it was time to get them onto the tabletop where, as part of an Ayyubid Egyptian army, they would face the Early Crusaders.
As I watched the Crusaders deploy, I began to evolve a plan: I placed all my cavalry on my right flank intending to overwhelm the Christian Knights in front of me whilst the rest of my army held back.
The two cavalry forces quickly got to grips on the right flank but try, as I might and even with the advantage of numbers, I just couldn’t break the enemy Knights: even when outflanked by my lights they just shrugged off any damage and carrried on.
At the same time as my plan was being thwarted on the right, the Crusaders were trying to outflank me on the left. Fortunately, I had an infantry command ready to cover that flank and, just as the enemy Knights on the right, they were able to hold their ground against everything thrown against them.
In fact, the troops on the hill were so successful at repelling Crusader Knights and Arriere Bans that they were able to begin pushing forward.
That was both wings tied up, but what of the centre?
With one of my infantry commands tied up protecting the left flank, that left three units of Berber Spearmen (one the veteran Black Guard) facing all the Crusader foot. Fortunately, their deployment meant that I wouldn’t necessarily have to face them all at once: the pilgrim contingent on the right of the Crusader line would initially be fighting thin air!
The two sides closed quickly.
My troops on the right of the line were victorious, sending a unit of Crusader infantry fleeing the field. To their left, however, the Arab Spearmen were pushed back, but managed to retreat to a safe distance to reform.
The rest of the Crusader infantry then finally got into a position where they could join the fun, and the melee neatly pivoted through 90 degrees.
Meanwhile the battle between my cavalry and the Crusader knights on my right flank was still very much in the balance: try as I might, my Jund cavalry, even supported by all those lights nipping at the Crusader flanks, just couldn’t break the veteran Norman horsemen.
Sidenote: I can’t help feeling that if I had been facing my Venetian Knights, the Arabs would have wiped them out in one turn! Why can’t my Knights ever survive attack after attack in the same way?
Some Crusader infantry came to help the Knights, and a cunning use of the Cry Havoc! stratagem card (caltrops!) almost derailed my attack entirely, but the Arab horse survived and the fight went on.
Things were also starting to look a bit dicey on the left, where the Crusader Knights there were having a bit of a resurgence…
…but in the centre a lucky run of cards knocked the enemy Arriere-Bans off the table, and I only needed a couple more coins to win.
In the end the battle was decided on the right, as the cavalry unit that had retreated back from the enemy caltrops managed to catch a unit of Crusader infantry in the flank as they moved to intervene in the big battle on the right. Already disordered, the Crusader foot crumbled under the onslaught of the Jund, and the game was mine!
That had been an epic battle, with thrills and spills throughout.
All kudos to the two units of veteran Crusader Knights facing my right flank, who at one stage were keeping four units of cavalry and four units of light cavalry occupied, and it was really only a bit of luck in the middle of the field that would eventually give me the game.
Vis Lardica is a website devoted to wargaming and military history, with a special emphasis on the company-sized rulesets produced by the TooFatLardies: I Ain't Been Shot Mum (WW2); Charlie Don't Surf (Vietnam); and Quadrant 13 (science fiction)
Welcome to Vis Lardica, a not-for-profit website mostly dedicated to the company-sized wargaming rules produced by the TooFatLardies, but encompassing my other gaming interests as well.
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