Roll Call '26 Game Two: Venetians Abroad versus Bretons with Norman allies

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My second game at this year’s Roll Call tournament was against Chris’ Bretons with Norman allies.

The Bretons won scouting and, after deployment and as expected, headed straight for my line. Of particular concern was my right flank, where I could see the potential for a worrying overlap.

I managed to block the overlap, with my knights taking full advantage of the situation to drive back the Breton attack there.

This led to an amusing situation where both Chris and I used our stratagem cards in the same turn: each playing Someone has blundered!, and each using it to turn a unit of our opponent’s horse through 180° so ending up back to back on the edge of the table!

Meanwhile, the left and centres were thundering towards each other, and I had a quick success as my two units of knights on the left smashed a Breton cavalry unit from the table and forced another to evade backwards.

Elsewhere, more Breton cavalry charged my spearmen in the centre, but the Venetians held firm, with more of my infantry turning to take them in the flank.

My rapid advance on the right and the Breton rapid advance in the centre had meant that a gap had developed between the main points of contact. The Venetian Alabardiers, led by their general, saw an opportunity and marched through that gap and into the Breton camp, with three easy victory medals as their reward.

With the fleeing Breton cavalry unit on the left now hit in the rear and destroyed, and a Breton general killed somewhere on the field (I forget where!), Chris was now down to just one coin…which I took by driving the light cavalry off board on the right for a 10-1 victory for the Venetians.

A really fast-moving game of TTS where the action was literally non-stop. For once my knights were having a good day (i.e. were wearing their metal armour rather than the ceremonial cardboard version they usually seem to wear) and swept all before them, and my spearmen remembered which way round their weapons went!

Roll Call '26 Game One: Venetians Abroad versus Medieval Irish with Feudal Scots Allies

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My first game at this year’s Roll Call ‘Medievals-Only’ tournament was against Adrian’s Medieval Scots-Irish army.

The Venetians were outscouted, so deployed in a traditional “infantry in the centre, cavalry on the wings” formation. The woods on the right hand side of the battlefield looked ideal terrain for the enemy, so my plan was to hang back on the right, advance on the left and, quite frankly, see what opportunities presented themselves!

First up, however, was a general advance forward one square to give the Venetians some fighting room, making sure to keep the integrity of the line intact. Note the large numbers of Irish light troops trying to get around my right flank.

And it was on the right that the first threat emerged: those advancing enemy lights being joined by a unit that had started the game lost off table to pose a potentially tricky situation that required a bit of careful manoeuvring to deal with.

But in one of those coincidences that makes life interesting, I too had had one of my units lost off table: a squadron of light mounted crossbowmen appearing directly behind the Scots-Irish.

This disrupted Adrian’s plans as neatly as the appearance of his lights on the right had disrupted mine. He turned his longbowmen, safely ensconsed behind stakes on the central hill, to deal with the threat, only to see the flank of the archers charged by some of my knights coming in from the left.

Charging uphill against infantry behind stakes rarely goes well, even when from the flank: the knights failed to budge the enemy archers, leaving the situation as shown in the photo below:

Adrian (who was not having much luck in this game) turned some Scots spearmen to threaten the knights, only to see my horsemen retreat backwards two squares and then charge the same spearmen in the flank (whilst they still could, as ES14 has stopped this cheesy manoeuvre happening), whilst the Ballesteri Montati (mounted light crossbowmen) charged the rear of another bunch of Scots.

Meanwhile, the fighting on the right hand side of the field had intensified, with the superior armour of my knights there countered by the larger numbers of troops they were facing. Neither side seemed able to make much progress.

Back to the centre, where the Scots spearmen in the centre had crumbled under the loving attentions of the Venetian Alabardiers. The Scots spearmen near the hill, however, although disordered and attacked on the flanks, were still putting up a brave fight.

This stabilised Adrian’s centre, but I now had fresh knights, still with their lances, coming in from the left…but then a unit of veteran Irish javelinmen were thereatening the rear of my line.

Adrian had, however, gradually been losing coins throughout the game: in particular losing light infantry to crossbow fire and one, or perhaps it was two, generals in combat: as I said, he was having a particularly unlucky day.

The three coins lost when the spear in the centre routed took him close to the edge, and a final charge from my Knights into disordered Irish javelinmen on the right broke his army as a whole, although it took a Venetian hero to do so.

So a big 14-1 victory for the Venetians to open proceedings…although I was glad that the battle eneded then as too many of my units had fallen into disorder and, of course. that Lady Luck had shunned my opponent throughout!

Re-Fighting Mollwitz with Lust!

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Time for another playtest of Lust for Glory. Last time we played, our game was set in the mid-1600s, the lower limit of the period covered by the rules. This time, we’d go to the other limit and re-fight the Battle of Mollwitz, one of the first major conflicts of the War of the Austrian Succession.

The History

Fought on 10 April 1741 in Silesia (modern-day Poland), Prussian forces under Frederick the Great clashed with an Austrian army led by Wilhelm Reinhard von Neipperg. The battle opened in heavy snow, which hampered movement and reduced visibility. Austrian cavalry quickly gained the upper hand, routing the Prussian horse on the right flank and in the centre. Believing the battle lost, Frederick fled the field early.

Despite this, the Prussian infantry maintained remarkable discipline. Under the direction of Kurt Christoph von Schwerin, they held their lines and delivered controlled, effective musket fire that steadily drove back the Austrian forces. What began as a near-defeat ultimately turned into a decisive Prussian victory.

Our Game

Rather than the snow enjoyed by the original participants, our game began with sunlight streaming onto the table from behind the Prussian positions.

Taken from just behind the Austrian line. Note the massed Austrian cavalry in the foreground.

As one of the Prussian commanders, I was obviously very concerned about the superior Austrian cavalry, particularly as, in command of the right wing and first line of infantry, I was facing them!

The battle, however, began on the left wing, where the Prussian cavalry there was fairly quickly overwhelmed by more Austrian horsemen. This necessitated moving some of our infantry from the second line across the cover that flank, leaving me wondering how we were going survive once we lost our first line to the main body of enemy cavalry!

I needn’t have worried, however, as the main body of Austrian cavalry were having a bad day - a very bad day - getting thoroughly trounced by the combination of Prussian infantry and cavalry that faced them.

While the Prussians were still digesting the fact that they hadn’t been overrun on the right, the Austrian left-centre forces launched an attack to support their success on the Prussian left, and the next phase of the battle really consisted of dealing with that and sorting out the traffic jam of Prussian units now eager to get forward and into action on the right and right-centre.

That left the situation overall as shown in the pictures below. The Prussian left was still under some pressure (Mark was having a very bad day) but the centre and right were steady, re-organised and ready to steamroller the remaining Austrians.

We called the battle at this point: a decisive Prussian victory as although the left flank was currently still looking a bit shaky, there were reserves that could block that off, and the centre and right were now just about a foregone conclusion.

A great game, with the rules really starting to flow. Mark’s beautifully painted figures looked amazing and all in all it was a great morning’s gaming. I can’t wait for the final version of the rules to be published.

TTS AAR: Arab Conquest vs Scandanavian Leidang

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I’ve been trying to get friend John to try his Vikings using the new non-deep options in the lists, and finally managed to get him to test them out using my 15mm figures. At the same time, I wanted to get my early Arabs onto the table again…as I didn’t spend all that time painting deep units just to let gather dust in storage! The result: a To The Strongest spectacular featuring an Aran Conquest army versus the Scandanavian Leidang (effectively Vikings on their home territory).

The Arab cavalry won the scouting and immediately set off on a quest to outscout the hairies on both flanks.

This worked well on the left, but the Scandies quickly moved a couple of units over to block the Arab advance on the right. Meanwhile, the main body of Vikings thundered forward, axes at the ready!

The Vikings managed to get the initiative in the centre, but suddenly found that they couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag!

The Arabs, however, were not…and one Scandie warband was soon sent fleeing from the field by a combination of fanatical infantry and their Daylami mountain-men allies.

Meanwhile, both Viking flanks were now suffering at the hands of the Arab cavalry…

Back to the centre, where the second line of Viking warriors were proving much harder to break for the Arabs, and it was only the intervention of the Jund cavalry that had been harrassing the Scandie left that made the difference.

This was a much-needed intervention, as the Viking wings had rallied and were proving impossible for the Arabs to crack!

The by-n0w-much-reduced Vikings continued their success by breaking the right of the Arab line…

…but it was too little too late as the last Scandie coins disappeared as the rest of their centre collapsed. The victorious Vikings heading for the Arab camp, along with the rest of the surviving invaders, slunk off the table, leaving the Arabs to claim the win!

A great game which I hope, despite the result, has given John a renewed enthusiasm for his own Vikings hordes. As a final note, it has to be said that he had the worst luck possible throughout the game, but especially at those critical moments that can decide who wins!

FK&P AAR: Cossacks versus Muscovites

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Time for a game of For King & Parliament - Eastern Front variant with my Cossacks taking on Dave’s Muscovites.

Ukrainians versus Russians? Nah, would never happen these days!

Unsurprisingly, the Cossacks lost the deployment, so I set up my tabor (wagons) in a long line in the middle of the battlefield, and squashed the rest of my troops in on the flanks!

Muscovites on the left, Cossacks on the right

This turned out to be a bit of a mistake, as Dave promptly ignored most of my troops, instead launching a massive attack with his elite cavalry on the right of my position.

My deployment error was compounded by the fact that, in a moment of madness, I had thought that I might get a Cossack infantry command out from behind the tabor to the left…meaning that as the axis of Dave’s attack unfolded, I also had half my infantry marching away from the schwerpunkt!

On the right, my outnumbered and outclassed Cossack cavalry was very soon swept away by the Muscovite hordes, and I found myself contemplating the possibility that I would be pinned in place, outflanked and rolled up like a winter cloak on the steppe!

[and you wonder why I don’t use AI for my battle reports: that metaphor is courtesy of ChatGPT]

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, my Tatar allies were enthusiastically murdering the Muscovites’ ally Tatars and some traitorous Cossacks…but I had a horrible feeling that this would prove a success too little, too late.

And so it proved!

Although my infantrymen fought bravely, and I managed to get some of the fools who had initially headed left back into the fray, the result at this stage was a foregone conclusion.

Here’s a gallery of the textbook destruction of my main battle line!

In the end, and as a suitable example of how total was my defeat, Dave’s Muscovites took my last coin by taking my artillery with some foreign-trained troops - presumably North Koreans!

A geat game, despite the result, and kudos to Dave for a strategy and then execution that proved to be such an…well, execution!

TTS AAR: Dead Cid Rides Again!

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Time for the re-match, with the Al Andalus forces smarting from their defeat last game and the Early Feudal Spanish busy tying dead El Cid’s body* to his horse!

As Arab commander, having learnt my lesson last time, I deployed my men in a much tighter line: stacking my cavalry on one side rather than splitting them between the flanks.

*he’d been killed in the last game!

Advancing forward strongly, I thought I saw the chance for an overlap on the left, but the Spanish moved quickly to counter and, in a decidedly unsporting move, manoeuvred to actually outflank me there themselves!

Meanwhile, in the centre, I had sent the light horse forward to generally harrass the advancing Spanish infantry, hoping to soften them up a bit before the main melee began.

Back to the left, where the Spanish had now managed to turn my flank, forcing me to try and pull back my infantry to avoid my line being rolled up.

Despite my best efforts, I had to leave a unit of the Black Guard vulnerable to a flank charge, and could only watch with horror as the Spanish cabelleros, led by El Cid himself, took the corks off the tips of their lances and charged in.

Unfortunately for the Spanish, they had forgotten that El Cid was actually now dead, merely a corpse tied to his horse, and the move into charge distance and then the charge itself didn’t make contact with the very relieved Guard!

This enabled me to stabilise the situation, my spearmen ready to hold the Spanish horse at bay.

One weak point, however, was the green-pennant unit of Arab infantry, who had been disordered previously. In went another unit of Spanish cavalry, again led by Dead Cid. This time they actually made contact, but gloriously failed to do any damage even with Dead Cid’s extra replays.

Do the Spanish still not realise he’s dead? Leave the man to rest in peace!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, some of my light cavalry had a narrow escape after failing to do any damage to some Spanish shieldwall.

At risk of being pushed off table, they watched with glee as the hapless Spaniards foundered around in the rough ground: eventually even managing to kill the Spanish general and disorder the unit.

As the flanks weren’t working for them, the Spanish then sent everything they had left forward in the centre.

This was another decidely worrying development for the Al Andalus, as there were far too many lights holding my line, with my formed cavalry (including the mercenary christian knights that you can see bottom-centre in the pic below) not really in that much of a position to help.

Fortunately, it turned out that the money I’d invested in the mercenary unbelievers was money very well spent.

In an extraordinary series of events, they charged over the hill in front of them to smash the end unit of cabelleros from the table…

They then turned and did the same thing to the next lot of enemy horse: hitting them in the flank to devastating effect!

With Rob’s men pinned in place by my infantry line, it was Rob’s turn to look on in horror as a flank charge went in…but fortune smiled on him as the mercenaries paused to renegotiate their fee:

Fee safely doubled, however, they went in again…this time securing the Al Andalus the last two coins they needed for victory!

So a glorious victory for Al Andalusia helped, it must be said, by cards that were decidely in my favour for once: the poor Spanish learning that you can’t rely on a dead body for inspiration and that gold sometimes means more than faith!

TTS AAR: Reconquista Action!

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Rob and I really fancied some Reconquista action, so played a game featuring Rob leading the Early Feudal Spanish (with El Cid in command) and me playing an Al Andalus army.

Losing the scouting, I formed my men into one long line: confident that my superior numbers would overwhelm the upstart Spaniards!

My cavalry on the left could see the Christian knights stacked against them and were therefore not quite so sure of the outcome and initially refused to advance. Opposite me, El Cid found he had the same problem, even with his superior Great Leader command ability!

Despite these teething troubles, battle was soon well and truly joined on the left, with superior numbers of Christian horse generally mullering the Arabs until almost half my coins had gone and I was forced to bring infantry over from the centre to help.

Meanwhile, on the right, I was hoping that the gold I had spent hiring some mercenary Christian knights would prove a wise investment, but they got stuck dealing with some pesky light infantry and would take no significant part in the battle!

Back to the mass Christian assault on the left, where my troops were fighting on bravely…even if the writing was now firmly on the wall!

I had a moment of hope when El Cid himself was killed (just like the film!) but, in the end and despite a card-induced temporary reprieve (the photo, bottom left, above), my last coin went and the Christians were victorious!

A great game which, I think, I lost in the deployment phase: Rob stacking his knights against one end of my line was a genius strategy that paid off in Spades!

Now on to the re-match…presumably with Dead El Cid now tied to his horse!

TTS AAR: Early Crusader versus Arab Conquest

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More To The Strongest action in 2mm: this time I would play an Early Crusader army against Neil’s Arab Conquest force.

I lost scouting so, wary of being outflanked, I set up my camps in one corner of the battlefield, put my infantry in front of them, and then placed my two commands of Crusader Knights on the right. The Arabs responded by placing all their light cavalry opposite my camp, their large contingent of mobs in the centre, and all their cavalry opposite my right.

A plan emerged: my infantry would cover the left flank, with my crossbowmen aiming to shoot down any enemy lights that came within range. My religeous-order knights on right would attempt to contain the enemy cavalry, using the patches of rough ground to try and fight one line at a time rather than being swamped by Arab horse. Finally, my other knights would wait until the Arab army was sufficiently battered, and then attempt to win the game by targeting the raw Arab mobs, looking to take batches of three coins of poor quality troops off the table at a time.

As the game began, the enemy lights swept forward towards my camp, the Arab cavalry on the right cantered towards the gap in the rough ground and, excellently, the Arab mobs resolutely stayed where they were: consecutive Aces for a group move pinning them in place. Phew! My plan might just work!

On the right, the Arab horse came forward and, misere de misere, smashed one of my religeous-order knight units right off the table! This was definitely not in the plan but, as the mobs had remained pinned to the Arab baseline, I was able to redeploy some of my normal knights to plug the gap.

The cards then helped me out again, refusing to let Neil’s Arab cavalry turn to face my knights…but although I charged in successfully, the nimble Arab horse evaded and would eventually leave the table.

That Ace also stopped the rest of the Arab horse coming forward, which was a bit lucky as the mobs had now finally got moving…

Meanwhile, on the left, my foot had done an excellent job in containing the Arab light horse, killing half of them and their general for no loss.

This meant that I could move some Crusader spearmen over to the centre to help the knights face the mobs, hopefully preventing them from getting overwhelmed by sheer numbers as the raggedy crowd closed for combat.

What was really worring me was all the Arab horse on the right. Yes, I’d knocked one unit off the table, but if the rest got moving before I could kill some mobs, it was actually here that the overwhelming might actually happen as I was effectively outnumbered five to three.

Fortunately, the cards came to my aid again, keeping the enemy from moving forward. Once they did get moving, however, my Crusaders were soon under huge pressure as, having retreated to avoid being outflanked, they just couldn’t seem to win a melee once contact had been made.

One unit did push forward but, again, soon found itself a bit isolated and at risk of being overwhelmed.

By now I’d taken a tidy pile of Arab coins, so it was time to see if I could break some mobs and take the rest. If I didn’t, I hasten to add, I could see my knights being beaten on the right and then waves of Arab horse sweeping round to roll me up!

Fortunately raw mobs don’t save for toffee, and soon my knights had sent one lot screaming for their baseline!

This was good, but my religeous order knights on the right were now in some trouble: another unit being destroyed and the third disordered.

To their rescue came some normal Crusader knights: the same ones who had dealt with the Arab cavalry that had initially smashed through my line.

This unit (the blue ones) were definitely the men of the match as they quickly polished off two units of Arabs - one with a flank charge, one just head on! - giving me four more coins and the game!

Exciting stuff and a glorious victory…but it has to be said that Neil didn’t have much luck throughout the game, particularly in terms of movement at key points in the battle. My religeous-order knights might not have been able to fight their way out of a wet paper bag (and it’s hard to find one of those in the desert!) but too often Arab units just stood there doing nothing when they desperately needed to move forward.

Another great game of TTS!

To The World's Strongest, Game 4: Venice Abroad vs Normans

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My final game at this year’s world championships was against old friend Matt’s Normans.

Matt won the scouting, and deployed his massed cavalry in two chunks facing my wings:

The game began,, and I was almost immediaely in trouble on not one but both wings: my Knights having dressed, as is often the case, in their ceremonial cardboard armour instead of the proper metal kit!

Let’s start on the right, where I then repidly lost the Later Knights and was forced to withdraw right to the table’s edge to regroup and send infantry over from the centre to help.

Although the Knights on the right rallied and pushed forward, I was now facing a roll up from the right as the Norman cavalry pivoted through 90 degrees and headed for the centre.

The infantry I had redeployed to stabilise the situation succumbed to attacks from their flank and rear, and it was only by throwing in the Alabardiers and some desperate fighting from the Crossbowmen and Lights that I managed to stave off disaster.

Meanwhile, on the left, I had managed to rally the Later Knights and push forward to drive the Norman cavalry back, but had had the Knights become disordered and was threatened by enemy infantry lapping around the flank.

At this point we were starting to run out of time. My first thought was that this was a relief, as I had really felt that I was only just holding on throughout the game so far.

Then I looked at the table again and thought, hang on, I’ve killed everything threatening me on the right and am actually now chasing disordered Norman units to finish them off…and actually the same is true on the left. With each of us down to our last few coins - helped by the fact that I had killed two of Matt’s generals - I could actually win this game despite the fact that I had nearly crumbled into defeat in turn two!

Unfortunately it was not to be.

On the right, in the last turn of the game, my Knights and Alabardier units, each led by their command’s generals, failed to break units of already-disordered enemy cavalry…

And on the left, a desperate melee involving three already-disordered Norman units also failed to result in any coins heading my way.

Time was called, and we had both taken nine of our opponent’s coins, so a technical win for the Venetians so something like 90-82 points in my favour…and what a game!

I honestly thought the game would end after about three turns as my Knights crumbled and the Norman army lapped around both my flanks, but a great fight back ensued until the Venetians were within Ames Ace of victory: just failing to secure a win mainly due to some outrageous saving cards from Matt, probably deserved as his officers had fallen like flies earlier in the game.

So what did all this mean for the competition as a whole?

Well, I came eighth overall—a considerable improvement on the 19th place I managed last year, when I had a real mare! - with two outright wins and two winning draws…but if you look at the results table below, you can see just how close the competition was. Not so much for first place (with four wins out of four, Peter was well ahead of everyone else), but for the other top spots: the extra 25 points from one more outright win, rather than a winning draw, would have given any of the next eight players second place—including me!

A cracking tournament all round, and I really would encourage people to enter the To The Strongest competitions that are run just about throughout the year: great fun, great sportsmanship, great gameplay…just great!

To The World's Strongest, Game 3: Venice Abroad vs Eastern Latins

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My third game at this year’s To The World’s Strongest tournament was against Andrew and his Eastern Latins: a ferocious army with lots of good quality cavalry.

The terrain placement had been kind to me, with Impassable ground narrowing the battlefield in my deployment zone, especially on my right. I therefore determined to hold the right back along with most of my infantry, and send the Knights and some of my Spearmen forward to win on the left.

As the game began, a bit of luck came my way, with my mounted crossbowmen on the left disposing of some enemy Lights and perhaps leaving a path for an outflanking manouevre. Andrew wasn’t falling for that one, however, and soon a mass of enemy cavalry had moved to block my advance.

Latin Cavalry took out my mounted crossbowmen, but fortunately some of my just-successful Knights were in a position to turn back to counter their threat. The Byzantine horse didn’t fancy mixing it with my Knights, so evaded away in some disorder, ending up on the edge of the table pursued by the Knights and some lights that I had brought up from the camp.

Elsewhere on the left, my other Knights and their supporting Spearmen had pushed the Latin cavalry back and killed the cavalry’s commander, but that flank was now at a bit of a stalemate, with the Venetians having just tipped the strategic balance in their favour five coins to one and with the Byzantine horse very vulnerable.

Meanwhile, I had sat waiting for the rest of the Latins to come forward into crossbow range…although I had moved more of my Knights forward on the right to see if they could snatch a cheeky victory against some enemy cavalry who fancied a go.

Latin missile fire gradually stripped my Lights from the table, but in the end, I managed to fight his cavalry on the right with my Knights, knocking both units and their commander off table.

That gave me eleven of the twelve coins I needed, and I think it was then the Byzantines being pushed off table on the left that gave me the final one to give the Venetians a 12-5 victory (all my losses were Lights), but it might have been killing another Latin general that did it - Andrew was very unlucky with his officers!

A good game against an interesting army that I haven’t encountered before. All that cavalry on my left did worry me quite a bit at the beginning, and I was pleased that Andrew never managed to combine them and his infantry in a more general assault.

On to the last game of the day…

To The World's Strongest, Game 2: Venice Abroad vs Early Imperial Romans

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Game two at the World’s, and it’s another Roman army: Principate or Early Imperial commanded by friend Dave.

I have an EIR army myself, and I know that one potential weakness is the fact that you only really have enough cavalry for one command…so assuming that would be on one flank, my plan was to smash it off the table with one command of my Knights and then loop back into the centre. The rest of my army would pin his heavy infantry in place.

I duly advanced forward and, before long was in range to charge.

For once my Knights had their metal as opposed to cardboard armour on, and soon the enemy cavalry was beaten back and I could turn to face the Roman flank.

Unfortunately, poor follow-up cards and Roman manoeuvrability meant that it took me a bit of time to actually finish off the enemy horse, by which time I was facing a wall of Legionary steel that wouldn’t be easy to break through.

Meanwhile, on the right hand side of the table, both Dave and I deployed our stratagems: Flank March for me, Lost Unit for Dave.

My flank marching light cavalry failed to dent the Roman infantry they appeared behind, and were then shot down by the Saggittarrii archers: disappointing in the extreme.

Dave’s Lost Unit however, ended up arriving right in one of my camps: highly annoying, and although I did manage to evict them fairly easily, they went on to threaten the flank of my other Knights, meaning I had to spend some time and sacrifice some territory to redeem the situation!

Back to the left, and I was still trying to bash my way through the Roman troops on that flank, but nothing I did seemed to work. Dave made excellent use of the terrain and the ease with which his Legionaries could manoeuvre: add to that a run of poor attack cards for me and great saving cards for him, and I was making little if any headway at all!

Then a crisis developed in the centre. My now-disordered Alabardiers were forced to retreat back to the camp, and those pooping light cavalry were back: sneaking through my lines to add to my problems.

Fortunately, the Alabardiers were made of stern stuff and resisted all attempts to break them and, as you can see in the picture above, I had reinforcements available to sort the situation.

I was also now in a position to essay an attempt on the Roman infantry on the right: a bit of manoeuvring would be required, but I ought to be able to get a decent flank charge in somewhere!

Unfortunately at this stage we ran out of time. The first morning session had overrun, and combine that with all the time spent failing to break the Roman left flank (despite multiple flank charges) and then dealing with the situation in the centre and on the right, and Time’s Winged Chariot was upon us and the game was over! A technical 8-6 victory to me, but not the Total Victory I was looking for.

Very frustrating after the initial success on the left. I only needed to break one more Roman unit (maybe take a Light as well) and the game would have been properly mine, but congrats to Dave for managing to stabilise the left and then come right back at me elsewhere.

A great game of To The Strongest.

Another Lust Playtest: Swedes versus Habsburg/Imperialists

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Another chance to playtest the latest iteration of the forthcoming Lust for Glory rules for wargaming the late 17th/early eighteenth century period. Today’s encounter would just about fall into that bracket, with a Thirty Years’ War clash between the Swedes and the Habsburg/Imperialists.

Playing the Swedes, I saw I had an overlap on the left flank, so my plan would be to send a combined force of cavalry and infantry forward to defeat anything they encountered there (I assumed it would be only the enemy horse that would initially advance) whilst holding my line elsewhere.

My assumption proved to be correct, and soon my shock cavalry, supported by an infantry command, were facing off against John’s lighter, “shooting” horse. This was just what I wanted, and I was sure that soon my cavalry would just ride over the effete Imperialist donkey-wallopers, leaving them and my infantry in prime position to roll up the enemy flank.

Meanwhile, on the right, the enemy horse had come forward: some rather tasty looking cuirassier types, but leavened with some dragoons and lights. My artillery had scored a lucky hit on one of the cuirassier units, so I reckoned my shock cavalry could successfully have a go there as well…but as a secondary, distraction effort.

Back to the left where, unfortunately, I was discovering that the cards I had borrowed from Si were not happy about being so casually passed around, and decided to punish me accordingly: my brilliant plan, designed to pit five lethal fighting units against three units of horse with pistols, foundered on one of the worst runs of cards I’ve ever seen.

With a gradually unfolding disaster occuring on the left, I really needed a huge success on the right to balance the books…but that didn’t happen either!

Those tasty looking cuirassier types proved to be exceedingly tasty indeed - celebrity chef levels of taste in fact - and soon I was facing defeat there as well: including the Imperialists managing to sneak their light horse around my flank and into the Swedish camp!

This proved too much for the Swedes to bear, and my army promptly turned tail and fled: a brilliantly executed strategy (if I say so myself) ruined by the fact that my troops proved (with the help of the cards) unable to fight their way out of a wet, nay soaking, paper bag!

As a footnote, one of the reasons for playing this particular encounter (barely in the earliest period of Lust territory) was to see how it differed from playing the same game but using the more contemporary For King & Parliament - Eastern Front variant rules.

Well first impressions are that using FK&P would have been more dynamic to play. Lust seems to substitute playing vast numbers of attack cards (in some instances in FK&P, you can be playing ten attack cards in one combat!) with a duller, more serious adjustment of “to hit” factors that have to be considered (“up one for disorder, down two if using dash” etc). This is not necessarily a bad thing but, by golly, it’s quite fun to smash down ten consecutive cards eagerly looking for those Eights or Nines. I was going to make a comparison between ‘buckets of dice’ and a simple 2D6 roll, but then I’ve never found throwing buckets of dice much fun, whereas throwing down multiple cards I do find very amusing!

A great game, despite the result, but my conclusion so far is that Lust looks like being a more restrained, serious game than the madness that is often FK&P. This is not necessarily a bad thing - warfare in the Age of Reason and all that - but it looks like being an important differentiator between the two systems.

To The World's Strongest, Game 1: Venice Abroad vs Later Western Romans

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My first game at this year’s To The World’s Strongest tournament (held in Blewberry on 28th February) was against Chris and his Later Western Romans.

Although terrain placement had been in my favour, I had lost the scouting, so was quite pleased to see Chris open the game by advancing his cavalry forward on my left flank: my plan, you see, was to smash his horse from the field there with my superior Knights and then roll him up whilst the rest of my troops pinned his line in place.

Unfortunately, my Knights seemed, as is so often the case, to be wearing their ceremonial cardboard armour rather than the real McCoy, and I was soon having to pull back and consolidate before heading back into the fight.

Net gain: three coins from killing a unit of light cavalry and, more importantly, the Roman cavalry General…despite the fact that a glorious flank charge from the balestrieri montati failed to even scratch the armour of one of the Roman squadrons, followed by a narrow escape when they turned and tried to charge me back!

Meanwhile, on the right flank, two units of Roman Infantry (Legionaries have red/yellow shields, auxilia have blue or yellow shields) faced off against my other command of Knights: neither side willing to risk a frontal clash.

A hail of missiles followed from both sides (the Romans had archers and some chaps with plumbatae - darts - mixed in to their heavies) with one unit of Roman lights killed as a result.

A bit of action in the centre followed, as the Romans sent their light infantry there forward, only to have one shot down by the Venetian’s mercenary crossbowmen, and the other impaled on the spears of some lancieri. That was another two coins, which made nine when added to the two that I had won on the left by finally killing one of the Roman cavalry units there (the cataphracts I believe) and another for Chris rallying a unit on an even number: two more to go!

The Romans, now realising that they needed to get their infantry into action if they were to save the game, advanced one unit of Legionaries forward, but the Venetian Alabardiers met them in the middle and disordered them with their halberds.

The disordered Legionaries retreated back into their line in order to rally, but this was the opportunity I had been waiting for: a disordered infantry unit in range of my right hand lancers.

Sliding the left side unit of Knights across with a ‘4’ put me needing a ‘6’ or more to charge diagonally forward and then in. I drew a ‘6’ (phew!) slamming into the disordered Legionaries with a mighty crash.

First attack card was an Ace, but then I used a Hero to convert that to a ‘7’ then drew a ‘10’ for my lance: two hits, at least one of which the Romans failed to save…and that was Chris’ last two coins and game!

This was quite lucky, as in the meantime the last unit of Roman light cavalry had killed my right hand mounted crossbowmen and snuck through my lines to threaten my camp…bottom right in the picture below.

Anyhoo, a good start to the day with a 12-2 victory and, more importantly, a fun game with a very congenial opponent!

TTS AAR: Aghlabids versus Gauls

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Time for some more To The Strongest, and a clash between my Aghlabids and friend John’s Gauls: not exactly an historical match-up, but would hopefully give a good game!

As the Gallic horde was quite infantry heavy, my plan was to use my superior numbers of mounted troops on the right to smash the enemy horse from the table before turning and rolling the Celts up from that flank. This was helped by the Take the High Ground stratagem that I had drawn.

A good opening card saw my troops get into the perfect position to charge, but then the Card Gods punished me for hubris and my attack stopped dead. This gave the initiative to the Gauls, but it seemed that John had earned the CG’s wrath as well, as he forgot Trevor’s Law - “Always start with the General” - and also failed to charge home.

With my move on the right stymied, I tried the same thing on the left, with almost exactly the same result!

With the flanks getting nowhere, I move my infantry up to try and weaken the Gallic warbands with bowfire.

Back to the right flank, where my Arab cavalry finally charged home. An initial success was followed by multiple turns of frustration as the disordered Gallic horse in front of me just wouldn’t break, John saving time and time again.

Here’s an overview of the position so far:

Things continued to go wrong for me on the flanks. On the right, the Gallic chariots managed to send my other unit of Arab cavalry flying from the field…leaving me with a tactical advantage but not the crushingly dominant position I had hoped for!

And on the left I lost my Arab lancers and would spend the rest of the game with my two units of lights dancing around trying not to be killed as they harried the flanks of more Gallic cavalry and chariots!

The Gallic infantry warbands now started to move forward in the centre. I sent volley after volley of bowfire into them from my infantry, but John was saving and/or rallying like a demon, and although I did earn four coins from the Gauls drawing even cards for the latter, the writing was now firmly on the wall for the Arabs.

A last attempt on the right to save the day failed to deliver:

And although the Gallic chariots failed to take my camp, left unguarded courtesy of another Ace…

…the relentless wave of Gallic warriors (half veterans, half fanatics, all big and scary!) eventually smashed enough of my infantry from the field to capture my last few coins.

Despite the loss, this was a brilliant game of To The Strongest, full of action and Aces!

John played the Gauls masterfully: absorbing my early cavalry attacks and then advancing his warbands inexorably up the field to drive my infantry back and then off. Good fun and, hopefully, this will have used up all my Aces prior to the Worlds next weekend!