One of the things I look forward to every year are the I Ain’t Been Shot Mum games put on by fellow Lardy, Phil Turner, and friends.
Here’s a pictorial report of a playtest of their latest offering, due to make it’s debut in a few weeks time: the Monmouths at Mouen.
Click on the picture below to see all:
Time for a quick game of To The Strongest, with my Burgundians facing Neil’s Sassanids.
Unusually, the Burgundians won the scouting, so I positioned by Knights to face one command of Persian heavy cavalry on my left, with a couple of units of mounted crossbowmen aiming to sneak around that flank as well; and my veteran spear/archer units in front of the other command of Sassanid heavies: I was pretty sure than the combination of longbow fire and spears would keep them at bay.
All this meant that I had to weaken my right, so I used the This Way Effendi! strategem card to push back his infantry and horse-archers there, and placed the Ducal Household Infantry supported by handgunners and an organ gun to cover them.
To tell the story of that right flank first, although the Sassanid elephants, horse-archers and Daylami javelinmen advanced forward, they did so comparatively slowly and, when they did get close to my line, were stopped by missile fire: the organ guns being unusually effective against the Daylami. The battle ended with that flank still very secure.
The action kicked off very quickly, with the Sassanid heavies charging my line as soon as possible.
The Persian attack on the far left was enough to force back my Knights there, but at the cost of the Sassanid general of that command. Any gloating on my part was, however, immediately cut short as the Sassanid attack on my other Knights in the left-centre, although largely unsuccessful, killed Charles the Bold. Turn one and both sides had lost a general!
Centre-right then saw the Persian Cataphracts charging my main infantry command:
Attacking undamaged veteran spear/bowmen with horse, even cataphracts and veteran heavies, is never going to go well, and soon two Sassanid cavalry units had been sent fleeing from the field, another Persian general dying in the process.
On the left, I then stupidly lost a unit of mounted crossbowmen by allowing them to be squished between two Savaran units, but this actually opened up the opportunity to hit the squishers in the flank with the unit of Gendarmes that I had been forced to pull back to rally.
Victory here gave me the game: the Sassanids had lost two generals, one infantry unit to organ-gun fire, and three units of heavy cavalry
Not a game with a huge amount of tactics in it: the Burgundian missile-fire was exceptional throughout right across the army, which meant I was generally charging disordered units when it came to melee…and there’s nothing a Gendarme likes better than riding over disordered troops!
Here’s a couple of shots of the rest of the field at my moment of triumph:
The good news was that as that game was over so quickly, we had time for a re-match, but more of that later…
Lust for Glory (or Lust for short) is the latest set of rules due from Big Red Bat publishing. Chronologically it covers the period 1650+ to around 1760, so could be said to follow on directly from For King & Parliament.
We playtested the rules with a clash between the Polish-Lithuanians and Ottomans with a quite large 200 points a side game.
The pre-game activity was a little more involved than with TTS or FK&P, including both the usual Scouting phase and an interesting Bombardment phase when you get to try and soften the enemy up with your artillery before the action proper begins.
I played the Polish-Lithuanians and, nervous of the hordes of Turkish cavalry in front of me, forced all the horse onto one side of the battlefield, with the infantry lurking along in their wake on the other.
With two sets of shock cavalry desperate to stick their lances into each other, it was not long before the mounted troops met approximately in the middle of the table, with the appropriate and evenly matched amount of carnage ensuing.
Meanwhile, my German infantry on the left attempted to outflank the Ottoman Azabs, with the Haiduks also advancing to bring the Janisseries under fire.
Although the main cavalry clash was still continuing, the good news was that in the centre some Winged Hussars had smashed through a unit of Janisseries, and was now in a threatening position just about behind the Ottoman line.
At this point I had to abandon my command, but handed over the baton to friend Mark with instructions not to throw away the obviously hugely advantageous position I was gifting him!
Fortunately, Mark was able to complete my work successfully, although I was informed that the infantry action proved a stalemate, and winning the game became a very close run thing, with the Polish-Lithuanians having only two coins remaining when the Ottomans finally fled the field.
Anyhoo…a great game, and what looks like a great set of rules on its way.
It was now my turn to play the Anglo-Normans versus the Fanatical Berbers.
My plan was simple: load all my veteran Knights onto the right flank, opposite his heavier cavalry unit, and utterly refuse my left flank. The Knights would then go in and crush all opposition before swinging in behind the enemy line in time to win the day before I was overwhelmed from the left. Simples!
As the game began, my Knights thundered forward, with their Spearmen following, with the Anglo-Saxons hanging back as much as possible.
The right hand unit of Knights forced some Berber light horse back, but the left hand command was temprarily halted as the opposing Jund cavalry proved tougher than expected.
Meanwhile, the Berbers had sent more light cavalry forward on the left at the gallop. This developed into a standoff between a single unit of Fyrd supported bt light archers and two units of enemy light cavalry.
More Berber light cavalry ignored the Fyrd and headed into the centre, threatening the flanks of my advancing line (left hand photo below) but the good news was that the left hand Knights had finally managed to disperse the Knights in front of them, leaving them clear to turn towards the enemy centre (right hand photo below).
The Berber light cavalry were too mobile to be pinned by the Fyrd/lights for long: one unit sneaking through the gap on the Anglo-Norman left.
This pesky unit then made its way down to the flank of the Anglo-Norman camp and (with a bit of help from the cards) charged in, dispersing the defenders and costing me three coins. What had looked a promising situation was now back in the balance!
Worse, the Berber infantry that had been so far excluded from the action out on their left flank had by now managed to move sideways and began to engage the rest of the now-outnumbered Fyrd (left hand picture below).
The Norman Knights needed to win the battle soon, or the left would be overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers. Fortunately, they were now in a position to turn sideways onto the left flank of the Berbers, and quickly advanced forward to charge position whilst the Norman infantry pinned the oppositino from the front (right hand picture below).
Things quickly became a bit critical on the left: even the Fyrd suffer when faced with over two-to-one odds.
Fortunately the Normans on the right were now in the perfect position to hammer the rest of the Berber infantry.
Although the Berbers turned to face the Knights coming in from the flank - and even Knights don’t like charging formed Spearmen - this allowed the Norman Sergeants to attack their flank, disorder them and make them vulnerable to a charge from the front: the perfect combined arms attack (the top two photos below).
The Knights thundered forward and smashed the disordered Berber Spearmen from the field. So horrible was the carnage that the Berber lights guarding their camp routed from sheer fright!
This obviously left the berber camp unguarded, allowing the other unit of Knights to calmly take possession, taking John’s last three victory medals!
A great game in which my cunning plan to weight the right and refuse the left worked…but only just!
If my final attacks coming in from the right hadn’t succeeded when they did, then I was in real danger of losing the game due to losses on my left, including the fall of my camp. I was very glad of the resilience of the Fyrd even if a lot of Saxons perished whilst the Normans won the battle!
Time for another game of To The Strongest: with the Fanatical Berbers played by me versus John’s Anglo-Normans.
The large numbers of Berber light cavalry meant that I won the scouting and, seeing that the Anglo-Normans had deployed in a compact mass in the centre of the field with Knights on either flank, I decided to shake things up a bit and placed all my cavalry, light and heavy, on my left flank, intending to overwhelm the Knights there and then swing in to take the rest of his army in the side and rear.
As the game began, my horsemen thundered forward, and quickly got behind the Anglo-Norman line.
A unit of Berber light horse charged into the flank of the massed Norman Knights and, with the cards helping me out, sent one fleeing from the field.
With the Arab Jund cavalry and a unit of mercenary Christian Knights on the way into the action on that flank, the situation was only really saved for the Normans by the intervention of the Knights from the other side of the battlefield (along with Bishop Odo and a piece of the True Cross) who had quickly re-deployed across the width of the table.
This meant, however, that the Anglo-Norman left flank was left unguarded and, although a bit slow off the mark, the Berber Black Guard was soon forward and threatening there.
With the Berbers curling in from both sides, the Anglo-Normans desperately sent the Fyrd forward to try and cut through the main enemy line, but although they fought bravely, Berber light horse were all over their right flank/rear and the Norman spearmen who might have turned the battle in their favour were busy trying to hold off the Black Guard on the left.
It all proved too much for the Anglo-Saxon infantry, who were finally broken by more Berber light horse coming in from the rear. The main Anglo-Norman infantry line collapsed and the day was to the Fanatical Berbers!
A cracking game which actually felt a lot closer than the report, above, would suggest. Unit for unit, the Berbers were weaker than the Anglo-Normans, but there were more of them, and once the initial flank manoeuvre on the left had been successful, the Anglo-Normans were very much on the back foot.
Getting the Knights across to defend the right was genius, but that in turn allowed the more numerous Berbers to outflank on the other flank as well, and suddenly the Anglo-Normans were fighting in three directions as once. A gap was bound to appear somewhere, which allowed the Berber light horse to dart into a position where they could attack the rear of the heavily-engaged main Anglo-Norman battle line and that, as they say, was that.
Next game will reverse the sides and we’ll see how that goes…
Time for the annual round-up!
Overall, it’s been a good year for playing games and not such a good year for painting figures.
Another record-breaking year, with 78 games played, six more than last year’s previous record total.
By far the most games have been Ancients/Medieval at 61 games, followed by Pike & Shot on ten games, and then a smattering of WW2 (4), Napoleonic (2) and 19th Century (1).
A Magnificent Table for the “Storming the Starmerskaya” Game At This Year’s Operation Market Larden Games Day
As with last year, one of the reasons for the huge number of games played was playing on the To The Strongest tournament circuit - about half the Ancients/Medievals games played were in tournaments - and it tended to be at shows that I played other periods.
One of my resolutions for 2026 will be to play more games from other periods.
I played in eight of the nine “official” To The Strongest tournaments in 2025: all great fun and the usual mixed bag of results.
The only result I was unhappy with was the 19th position at the World’s in February, but my poor Romans had an absolute ‘mare: losing five Legionary units in one turn against the Dacians; and then being up ten coins against the Persians and then suddenly collapsing!
Obviously I was very happy to retain my title at Britcon for the second year in a row: it was hard fought tournament that, after four games, all came down to the fifth and final clash.
Facing the Hoplites in the final, deciding battle at Britcon
Many thanks to all the organisers and my various opponents: all the games I had were played in the very best of spirits, with none of the unpleasantness I’ve sometimes seen at other events. I do remember laughing a lot when playing, always a good sign.
My thanks also to all my opponents throughout the year. Just looking through the AARs has made me realise again how much I enjoyed all the competitions I entered this year, and I would highly recommend the To The Strongest competition circuit to those who fancy a bit of “competitive gaming without numpties”.
2025 was not a good year for painting: only the second time I have scored under 1,000 points since the Challenge began.
Nearly all my painting time was taken up with creating the various Arabic armies of medieaval times: from the Arab Conquest to Ayyubids to Fanatical Berbers. The vast majority of the figures used were 3D prints from Red Copper and 3D Breed: beautiful figures that paint up really well. Overall I painted 618 Arabic infantry, 122 mounted troops and three camps.
Other than the Arabs, all I painted was a smattering of troops to bulk up existing armies: a few Hittites, some Polish/Lithuanian types and even some more Venetians.
New Year’s resolution number two is to do more painting in 2026.
A light showing on the show front in 2025, and even those were mostly connected to tournament play. I missed out on Salute and both Partisan shows, but did manage Roll Call, Overlord, Warfare, Colours and Vanquish.
All the shows I went to had an incredibly high standard of demonstration games that really motivated me in a year when I was very busy with work and other real life issues.
I think NYR #3 must therefore be to do more shows in 2026.
So that was 2025: a good year for games (the best ever so far) but a bit light on the other aspects of wargaming.
Thanks for your continued support to Vis Lardica - over 100 posts in 2026 - and a special thanks to those who have Bought Me A Coffee of two: very much appreciated and you can be sure the money went on more wargaming kit!
I’m very much looking forward to 2026, and hope to see you on the other side of a tabletop sometime in the next twelve months!
All the best
R
Time for a pre-Christmas game of To The Strongest: my Venetians Abroad versus Peter’s Northern Dynasties Chinese.
The Venetians are not know for their scouting, so I was unsurprised when I lost that phase of the game. After deployment, the reltive postions were as follows:
Those of you who have played Peter in the past will know what is going to happen next!
Forced to deploy on a wide frontage to prevent myself being outflanked, Peter has concentrated his army against the left side of my army, meaning that all his force will effectively fight half of mine!
The game began with the Chinese advancing forward and putting their plan into action. The picture below shows exactly what this entails: you’ll see that they have managed to concentrate against my left wing and, with a bit of luck with the cards, even start to outflank me there.
I’ve played against Peter before, however, and so was expecting exactly these tactics. I therefore moved the Venetian (well, mercenary “broken lances”) to match the Chinese veteran heavy cavalry, and my mounted crossbowmen to block the outflanking force.
I now needed to get my right flank force across the table as soon as possible. With luck, I might even be able to hit the flank of the Chinese advance before it has time to deploy its extra numbers.
Unfortunately, the cards weren’t with me, and the right flank force spent two (yes, two!) turns refusing to follow orders!
The toher thing that needs to happen to defend against Peter’s favourite tactics is for the Knighst facing the main thrust to hold their ground as, if they go, the successful Chinese cavalry units will flood sideways into the flank of my main line.
On paper, the Knights should have been able to do exactly what was needed: one unit of veteran knights and one unit of later knights are not insignificant when it comes to melee! Again, unfortunately, the cards punished me for some imagined previous infraction, and the veteran knights were smashed from the table by the first Chinese charge, releasing hordes of enemy cavalry to swing sideways.
All was not lost, however.
The right hand knights finally got moving, and the infantry Alabardiers, with the aid of the handgunners, cut through some enemy lancers to dominate the centre of the field.
The Later Knights on the left were, however, now isolated and were unable to stand up to an assault by three Chinese heavy cavalry units supported by lights.
It was now a race to see whether the Chinese cavalry coming in from the left could kill enough of the Venetian infantry defending their camps before the Venetians in the centre (i.e. coming in from the right) could kill enough Chinese there to take the day.
Unfortunately, it was the Chinese who had the initiative and managed to win the game but, after a shaky start, the Venetians almost managed to snatch back victory: if their knights on the right hadn’t delayed getting across for two turns right at the beginning of the game, then things might have been very different.
But they didn’t…and things weren’t…but I was a lot closer to surviving Peter’s “weight one side” tactic than before!
As Rob had defeated me quite quickly in our game of FK&P, we had time for a quick bout of To The Strongest. Rob wanted to play New Kingdom Egyptians so, after a brief flirtation with fielding an Ancient British army, I decided to get as contemporaneous as possible and play the Hittites.
The New Kingdon Egyptian (NKE)’s main strength is in the devastating amount of arrow fire they can deliver from their massed light chariots, many of them veteran. The Hittite chariots, on the other hand, pack a much better punch in melee, so my plan was to match my chariots commands directly against the NKE chariots, aiming to get into combat as soon as possible.
Does that sound familiar? Was it, in fact, a re-run of my plan for the Polish-Lithuanians to fight the Transylvanians that had cost me so dearly in the last game? Errr…
As battle commenced, therefore, I sent my chariots hurtling forward on the left. It was my two commands of ‘impact’ chariots versus two commands of ‘missile’ chariots, with my Syrian lights trying to get through the Egyptian line on the far left.
I managed to get within charge distance very quickly, and duly thundered forward ready to get amongst the light chariots as soon as I could. Unfortunately, being lights, they evaded easily, meaning that although I was driving them back towards their baseline, I wasn’t closing to melee, and all the time wave upon wave of arrows were heading my way.
Meanwhile, as you can see, the Egyptian infantry was grinding forward, heading for my own infantry contingent, held back guarding the Hittite camps. Worse, the Egyptians had found some more chariots from somewhere, led by Pharoah himself…just what I needed: decent infantry to the front, marauding lights on the flank!
The Hittite chariots were still driving the NKE lights backwards, but the relentless bow fire was having an effect, and I couldn’t bring the full weight of my chariots to bear as some more Egyptian infantry had moved to threaten my chariots’ inner flank.
Still my chariots ground forward, and still the NKE evaded backwards right up until they had nowhere left to go. Yes, I now had them pinned up against the table’s edge, but the enemy infantry coming in from the inner flank were now starting to cause me real problems.
If I could just force those chariots off the table, all would be well…but what was happening back at the Hittite camp?
Unfortunately, I had underestimated the manoeuvrability of the Pharoah-led Egyptian chariots there, and thrown away the Hittite Royal Guard by leaving them vulnerable to a flank attack.
This let the chariots hit the flank of my camps whilst the main Egyptian infantry contingent assaulted the front, and although my men fought bravely and did some damage to the enemy, it wasn’t very long before my camp and my last few victory medals fell!
I’d like to say that the day had very nearly been mine…that the Egyptian chariotry was about to crumble leaving my own chariotry free to rampage through the enemy camps before driving into the rear of the infantry assaulting my camps, but that really wasn’t the case! The Hittite chariots might well have beaten their light Egyptian counterparts, but the effort had exhausted them, and they were in no fit state to intervene elsewhere on the field.
Not only that, but the Egyptians had infantry protecting their centre, infantry that were also preventing any spare chariots I had from intervening in the fight for my camps.
Could I have held my camps if I hadn’t thrown the Royal Guard away? Perhaps: it would have been four Egyptian infantry units versus three Hittite infantry units plus some lights…but the NKEs were in the ascendant at that point and even a one-for-one exchange of units would have seen an Egyptian victory. All in all, very well played by Rob, and Egypt continues to rule the Delta!
Time to get my new Winged Hussars onto the table for the first time. I would command the Polish-Lithuanians versus other-Rob’s Transylvanians.
My plan was simple: as I reckoned that my troops were better than his man-for-man, I would advance into contact and defeat each individual enemy unit that my men encountered. There was a little bit of detail involved: I would try and get my German infantry with their pikes into contact with the Transylvanian infantry without pikes; and I would try and loop one command of Hussars around the Transylvanian light cavalry on the far right of my line. Otherwise, it was just forward at the double!
My deployment was not strong, however, and my first few turns were spent trying to sort out my troops and get them where I wanted them. In the picture, below, you’ll see that although my German foot are where I want them, the Hussars are still deploying into a line as huge mass of Transylvanian cavalry head towards them.
Forward at the double!
The two lines came together with an almight crash: toe-to-toe literally right across the battlefield.
My German infantry exchanged a couple of volleys with the various Transylvanian types on the other side, then charged in with their pikes. Unfortunately, despite my strong belief that they should have swept all before them, the Germans soon got bogged down in a protracted melee-come-firefight where neither side could get the advantage.
German foot making no headway!
Likewise with the cavalry. Despite their technical superiority, the Winged Hussars failed to smash straight through the opposition, and a swirling melee broke out, with the Transylvanian Household Cavalry proving their equally elite status to be a match for the Poles.
As for curving round the pesky lights at the end of the line, they evaded backwards from the Hussars’ charge, effectively tying up two of my best units for the rest of the game.
Hussars failing to break through!
Meanwhile, on the left, my Tatar allies, backed up by some Polish Dragoons, were keeping some more Transylvanian lights occupied.
Tatars hold the left
So the Poles were now fully engaged right across the line, not bursting through as I had hoped but perhaps now gaining a slight advantage. What, however, was somewhat worrying was that there seemed to be another line of enemy cavalry and infantry behind the first one, ready to take me on even if I did achieve initial success.
Why do the transylvanians have another line of both infantry and cavalry in reserve!!
Finally the Hussars just right of centre managed to break through the first line of enemy cavalry, but they were quickly engaged by the second line of Transylvanian horse…and apprently taken off guard as they evaporated under attack!
Not only this, but the Hussars driving back the Transylvanian light horse on the far right were now in danger of getting swamped by the nimble lights, who were making the most of their superior numbers!
Meanwhile, on the left, although the Tatars had managed to dispose of the majority of the Transylvanian light horse in front of them, they then had to retreat as the enemy brought up his reserve infantry. This freed the remainder of the enemy light cavalry to hit the Germans in the flank, turning what had been a bloodily inconclusive fight in the center of the field into a rout!
Fortunately I had reserves of my own I could deploy: a squadron of Petyhorsy and a squadron of Pancerni.
These I sent in to support the crumbling Hussars, but unfortunately their initial success was then wiped out by the last uncommitted unit of Transylvanian Household Cavalry, which charged the Petyhorsy at their moment of victory, sending them and any hope I had of victory flying from the table!
So a pretty horrible defeat for the Poles, mainly due to the fact that Rob, my opponent, had a good plan and executed it brilliantly, and I didn’t have any sort of decent plan and even executed that badly as well!
My fourth and final game of To The Strongest at the 2025 Warfare tournament was against Peter and his Timurids.
This was one of those frustrating games when I could see exactly what was going to happen…and it did!
Unsurpringly, the Timurids won the scouting, forcing me to deploy in a line to protect my flanks whilst they, as you can see in the picture above, could concentrate their efforts on one side of the battlefield.
With the first move advantage as well, that meant that Peter could get his light cavalry down my right flank before I had a chance to move to counter the manoeuvre: very frustrating and next time we meet under similar circumstances, I think I will ignore his set up and deploy in a block on one side of the field as well, and see what happens!
The first couple of turns were spent with me rushing my troops on the left over to the right, and the Timurids thundering forward, especially down my right flank.
The fighting on the centre-right got intense very quickly as I tried to stop Peter overwhelming my troops there before my reinforcements could arrive from the left.
I lost my veteran later knights and army standard, but managed to take out a unit of Timurid heavy cavalry in return, but by this stage the Timurids had managed to properly get around my right flank and the writing was on the wall!
Meanwhile, although some of the troops from my left had made it over to the centre to bolster my defence there, far too many of them were forced into action to deal with the threat from Peter’s “throwaway” troops: flaming camels, kharash driven slaves etc.
I did manage to get some mounted light crossbowmen out and around Peter’s right flank, but this was too little too late, and eventually my last coins went as the Timurids managed to get some light cavalry into one of my camps.
I rather miserable 2-12 loss to finish off my 2025 competition season, with a 9th place achieved overall at Warfare.
Still, a great day overall, with some goodies bought for future armies, plenty of great chats with people and, of course, fun games of TTS as well. On to 2026 now!
My third game at this year’s To The Strongest tournament at Warfare was against Si and his Later Romans.
This was not an encounter I was particularly looking forward to: not because Si isn’t a nice chap, quite the opposite, but because, as he was happy to remind me, although I’d beaten him a few times in friendlies, I’d never beaten him in competition, with these Later Romans often proving my Nemesis!
Looking at the table after deployment, I decided that, as with the last game, my plan had to be to take the fight to the enemy.
Two reasons for this: the first was that the Romans had deployed an isolated command of two legionary and one light units on the right who looked ripe for overwhelming with a combination of Knights and lights of my own; and second that I had to make sure that under no circumstances could I allow his veteran cavalry facing my left, including some lights that had proved very pesky in the past, through to threaten my flanks and rear.
As the game began, I therefore attempted to advance forward strongly on each wing: successfully on the left, less so on the right.
To continue the story of the right flank, I did indeed eventually engage and overwhelm the two enemy legionary units there with my Knights and lights, but the resilience of the Romans meant that even though I eventually knocked out both units, I effectively tied up just about the same amount of points to do so. Plenty of coins in due course: but a lot of time and some of my best troops used to get them!
Back to the rest of the table, where the wide gap I had left between my advancing-quickly left flank and my advancing-slowly centre had given Si an opportunity to shift troops from his centre to threaten the right flank of my left flank force (if you see what I mean!).
This was quite a crisis, only just averted my managing to get my centre forward to ZOC the Romans’ ally-cataphracts.
I then withdrew the Knights on the left flank, pulling them back two squares: something that seemed to surprise Si, presumably because he felt that two units of Knights were sufficient to take on anything he had there, and that I was therefore ceding ground unnecessarily.
Well, yes, technically perhaps so…but I had good reasons for doing so.
Firstly, I knew that I currently had an advantage in the centre and on the right, so I wanted to win those battles, reaping as many coins as possible to set me up nicely for a climactic fight on the left from a position of power.
Secondly, Si is a canny player, and I was a bit overexposed on the left (hence the cataphract crisis), with three of my units facing six of his. I’ve been caught by that before: seemingly winning the battle to suddenly find one of my flanks collapsing and losing the game before I quite realised what was going on!
Finally, I was ceding ground for time - time for my right to wipe out the legionaries there and perhaps get back into the centre to smash the Romans from the right (didn’t happen, as we’ve seen above) - and forcing the situation where, for a short time at any rate, six of his units faced empty air whilst my withdrawing Knights would hopefully contribute to the fight in the centre.
And boy, was I right to do so!
Si slammed his right-centre (facing my left) forward, and I was soon facing a major assault across my left-centre that I only managed to withstand with the help of the Knights from the left that, had I not withdrawn them, would have been stuck embroiled with Si’s veteran light cavalry somewhere up on the far left side of the table.
Luckily, by this stage, my right flank force had eventually beaten the legionaries they had chased back to the Roman baseline, giving me six coins (two units, one general) and bringing me to the edge of victory.
I must confess that I can’t remember what gave me the final coins I needed to win, but I must have broken one more of Si’s units which, combined with coins from Si successfully rallying on an even card (the boot, or rather caligulae, were on the other feet in this game: one of the reasons for my defeat in our last encounter was me losing four coins to rallying…Si lost at least two the same way this game) and the odd light killed gave me the victory.
And, when it came down to it, it was a good victory: 12-2 in my favour but, as you can see from the photos above, it was actually much more of a close-run thing than the result would suggest…at the end here I am effectively fighting with my back against the wall, enough units already disordered that my whole position could have collapsed at any moment.
So an epic game (at least from my point of view!) and one that set me right back into the running for a decent placing in the tournament as a whole.
My second game at this year’s Warfare tournament was against Nick and his Thematic Byzantines.
Chatting before we began, Nick mentioned that although he himself was a novice at To The Strongest (this being only his eighth ever game of TTS) his figures were about forty years old and veterans of many a tabletop encounter dating back to the days of WRG 5th or 6th. This made me wish that I’d been using my Early Imperials, also about forty years old, and reflect on all the changes there have been to this hobby of ours since I first started playing as a child, particularly as the Venetians are multi-part plastics less than three years old.
Anyhow, on to the game…
Quite unusually, I won the scouting, so decided to take the fight to the Byzantines, advancing forward strongly right across the battlefield.
My plan was to use my Knights, supported by infantry, to overwhelm the Byzantine cavalry on the left and right whilst avoiding the scutatoi in the centre.
On the right, my initial charge was the usual mix of positive and negative: one unit of Knights doing its job and disordering the enemy, the other getting disordered themselves and needing to be pulled back to recover. What was slightly different about this game, though, was the fact that I had brought my infantry right up with the Knights, so the foot could intervene and make up for the faltering unit of Knights.
On the left, the Knights did exactly what they were supposed to do: smashing a Byzantine cavalry unit from the table and giving me the opportunity to get my lights around behind the Byzantine line.
With the right flank locked into a combat that seemed to be going nowhere, I decided to now focus on the left, where my initial success was beginning to overstretch the Byzantine line, leaving a gap that I could perhaps exploit.
I had a “spare” unit of Knights on the left which I then sent back into the centre, right into the gap that I mentioned above. This worked very nicely, as I had also brought up my crossbow-armed infantry and was peppering the skutatoi with bolts.
With the skutatoi pinned in place, my Knights were able to turn onto their flank: setting the scene for what promised to be a very painful episode for the Byzantine infantry.
Before that could happen, however, the Byzantine right suddenly gave way, leaving the Venetians victorius!
So a 12-2 win that neatly cancelled out my 2-12 loss in the first round. On to game three…
My first game at this year’s Warfare To The Strongest tournament was against Tim’s Parthians.
The action began on the right flank, when two units of my Knights advanced forward to take on a couple of Parthian Cataphracts. Mixed results for this initial clash, with one disorder inflicted and one disorder received despite having the first charge advantage.
I then made a devastatingly stupid decision to ignore “Trevor’s Rule” and decided to try and activate some mounted crossbowmen for a cheeky shot before the main action.
I was duly punished by the cards for my temerity but, in my defence, if the ballistieri had managed to knock out the disordered cataphracts, my veteran Knights would have been able to intervene to help the disordered Later Knights to their left, and there’s only a 10% chance of an Ace appearing…
But a post match analysis does show this to be an incredibly stupid thing to do and, no lie, this probably lost me the game, as you just can’t afford to make a mistake like this against a player of Tim’s calibre: on his next turn he finished off the Later Knights with a unit led by a general (no similar error on his part!), which meant all I could do was try and retreat my veteran Knights before they also were annihilated…
Okay, so that one was down to the cards…but it was still my initial error that caused the situation to arise in the first place!
Meanwhile, on the left hand side of the battlefield, more of my Knights had advanced against similar numbers of enemy cataphracts. Unfortunately, one of those units was a camelry unit that, try as I might, I just couldn’t shift from the field: the smell of these curious beasts making the steeds my Knights rode reluctant to close to melee properly.
I did eventually gain some advantage here, but only by committing my Alabardiers unit in support, and not to a battle-winning degree.
Which meant, of course, that things would be finally decided in the centre.
Here, the defeat of my Knights on the right had freed up a couple of Parthian heavy horse units to attack my Crossbowmen: hardly the best unit to withstand charging cavalry, especially when pulling an Ace to activate the turn before!
Withstand the charge they did, however, and I was even able to slide a unit of spearmen sideways to protect them from future depredations: slightly gamey, I know, but allowed within the rules.
More enemy Cataphracts were on the way in, however, and I was still drawing Aces to activate any defensive shooting!
The Venetians weren’t beaten yet, however, and managed to not only defend their camps against the furious Parthian frontal assault, but even drive their cavalry backwards.
The Venetians might even have knocked a couple of enemy units off the table as well…but the cards intervened again…
Now those of you who have been paying attention will remember that I said that my decision to lead with the mounted crossbowmen on the right, drawing an Ace for activation and thus ending my turn instead of having a possible replay if I had opened the batting with the general-led Knights, had lost me the game…well that moment was now upon us and the chickens firmly came home to roost as unopposed Parthian horse, heavy and light, swarmed down the right flank and hit my camps - the camps that had just repelled a frontal assault - in the flank.
The militia spearmen there just didn’t have the time to turn to face this new threat and, despite the barbed wire (okay, fortifications) protecting them, gave way, costing me five victory medals and the game!
A great performance from Tim and the Parthians, a less than stellar piece of decision-making on my part, and I was the loser 2 points to 12!
So let that be a salutory lesson for all you TTS players out there: obey Trevor’s Rule and always lead with your general’s unit!
Neil was keen to have another go at a massive Macedonians vs Persians game using his 2mm blocks: Darius wanted his revenge and had reconfigured his army list accordingly!
Macedonians advance forward quickly, keen to get to grips with the enemy
As always when playing the Macedonians, my plan was for Alex and the Companions to punch through the enemy cavalry on one flank, and then turn and hit the rest of the Persian army in the flank as it was pinned in place by my advancing infantry.
Alexander and the Companions prepare to make their move
In our last game, Alex and Co. had done exactly that, but only in the nick of time as they had had to chew through deep units of Persian cavalry. This time I therefore positioned Alex opposite the smaller but better quality units of enemy horse, thinking that they wouldn’t take so long to win and break free.
The first part of the plan worked: Alexander and Co. charged forward and drove the enemy cavalry back…but unfortunately it still took a long time to actually break them (well, they were better quality) and, worse, the fighting moved away to the left: further from where Alexander would be needed to smash into the back of the enemy infantry.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, each sides’ poorer quality cavalry had closed to contact. This didn’t go too well for the out-numbered Macedonian ally-cavalry, and they were slowly driven backwards towards their baseline.
And in the centre, the Macedonian infantry grind forward…but much too slowly, especially as the Persian foot retreat backwards to avoid contact!
Persians pull back to avoid contact with the pikemen and ally-hoplites
So, to summarise the situation to date: on the left, Alexander and Co. have won the cavalry battle there but been drawn off further from the centre; on the right, the Persian cavalry are winning nd have pushed the Macedonian’s Ally-Cavalry back; and in the centre, the Macedonian infantry have advanced towards the retreating Persian infantry but not yet made significant contact.
What does this all mean?
Well, a gap had now opened up on the right of the advancing Macedonian infantry and the Persians, vastly superior in terms of overall numbers, were able to send their scythed chariots and mercenary/traitorous Hoplites into the space offered and assault the flank of main Macedonian infantry line.
Uh-oh!
With Alexander and Co. effectively out of the picture, it now became a race to see whether the Macedonian infantry could destroy the Persians in front of them, including taking the Persian camp, which which would then give them enough victory medals to win the game, before being mullered by the Persian flank charges coming in from the front!
Two units of Macedonian Ally-Hoplites had burst through the Persian line in front of their camp, and now needed to assault the place in order to win the game:
Unfortunately, Tyche was not with the Macedonians that day and, try as they might, the Ally-Hoplites just couldn’t get into the Persian camp…which meant that the Persians coming in from the right were able to overwhelm the right end of the Macedonian line doing enough damage to mean the Macedonians had to retreat, sarissas between their legs!
So a very close run thing, but a revenge win for the Persians, setting the scene for the deciding battle, to be held in a few weeks time!
The end of the year sees the annual Two The Strongest (2TS) double tournament for To The Strongest.
As friend Peter and I have entered this year competition (going for out hat trick!) we thought we’d better have a bit of a practice, choosing a couple of armies from Peter’s collection: one was one of the later Roman/Bysantine armies, the other was a cataphract/horse-archer army, with Tibetans proxieing in.
I would take the Roman-Byzantine types, Peter the Tibetan types. Each side consisted of two allied armies, each of 100 points.
Unsurprisingly, Peter’s cataphract-types (I’ll call them Tibetans from now on) won the scouting, forcing me to deploy in a long line in order not to be outflanked on either side. This gave Peter the opportunity to try and use one of his favourite tactics (one that I have adopted myself) which is to try and concentrate all your force on one half of an enemy army at a time.
Accordingly, once the game had begun, the enemy facing my right flank turned to their right and sped over to the other side of the table, leaving a lot of my troops apparently facing air! I had, however, been ready for this and, using the Romans’ famed mobility, soon had most of my right hand troops facing left and ‘marching to the sound of the guns’.
The action began with a decent bit of fighting from the Romans: one legionary unit threw its pila like javelins against an enemy heavy cavalry unit, disordering it then moving in with the gladius (or perhaps by now the spatha) to finish them off. This left the legionaries surrounded on three sides, so they sent promptly marched backwards to resume their original position. Now that’s how Romans ought to fight all the time!
By this time, my Romans from the right were beginning to arrive to reinforce my left, and the fighting there became intense.
Fighting of this intensity couldn’t last long and, sure enough, some veteran Roman cavalry managed to destroy the proxie-Tibetans on the far left which, combined with my success elsewhere, took the last victory medals from Peter’s right-hand army. Under the rules of 2TS, this meant that the whole of that army then dispersed, leaving me master of that side of the field.
Well…almost. If you look at the second picture in the gallery below (top right of the four) you’ll see that there are still some Tibetan troops on that side of the field. Peter had managed to find a gap in my line to sneak them through and, in consequence, was able to charge them into the rear of my victorious cavalry (the unit with the ‘ten of spades’ behind it).
This was enough to break them, taking my last victory medal away, so I then lost all my remaining troops from my left hand army leaving, as you can see in the final picture (bottom, left) a very empty left hand side of the table.
A couple of things to note at this point.
Firstly, my Romans had effectively beaten ¾ of the Tibetans with only ½ of their force: a decent achievement especially against such a seasoned player as Peter.
Secondly, because Peter was using proxie figures from several collections mashed together and hadn’t had the time to mark them up properly, when he moved his left hand army to the right, the various commands got very intermingled…to the extent that for this phase of the battle neither of us were sure which of his units belonged to which command, having to guess what belonged where…which is why you’ll see the Tibetan bases now carrying coloured meeples in that final picture: the meeples marking which command each base was from. That meant that although we’re pretty sure we got it right, it’s entirely possible that the units that took my left-hand army off the table should actually have disappeared when his right hand army dispersed…
Anyhoo, on with the action…which took place between the remnants of each sides’ right hand armies.
Both Peter and I had left cavalry on the right hand side of the table, with the Tibetans having an advantage as they had hordes of lights versus much smaller numbers of Roman heavies, and a very open table in which to deploy them.
Unfortunately my luck also turned at this point, and a valiant attempt to take one of the enemy camps and so finish the game in my favour, ended up with my cavalry taking unexpectedly severe damage from the Tibetan lights so losing me my last victory medals on that side just before my infantry could intervene.
So an overall defeat, but a close run thing…and good practice for 2TS for its new date in January.
Friend Neil was very keen to get all his 2mm Macedonian and Persian figures onto the tabletop, so we put together a massive 240-points-a-side game of To The Strongest and prepared for war!
I would take the part of Alexander (gloriously handsome God-King: it was made for me) and Neil would play Darius (“everywhere I go, I hear men laugh at your armies and whisper your generals’ names like excuses”).
The Macedonians won the scouting and carefully deployed with their Companions on the right (a bit of historical accuracy always goes a long way), the rest of their cavalry on the left, and all their heavy infantry lined up in the centre. As I had the advantage of seeing where the Persians deployed before I had to commit, I made sure that my mercenary Hoplites were facing the Persian rabble, with the Macedonian pike lining up against the traitorous mercenary Hoplites fighting for Darius: a TTS version of rock-paper-scissors as Hoplites should beat Mobs and Pike should beat Hoplites. I also used the Take The High Ground stratagem to push my mercenary Hoplites forward two squares: I wanted to get in amongst those Mobs as soon as I could.
a big battle
The Macedonians opened proceedings: intending to advance into contact with the enemy as soon as possible. Poor activation cards, however, meant that the advance was not quite as speedy as I’d hoped.
In return, the Persians largely hung back: the only exception being a strong advance on their right (i.e. opposite my weaker cavalry wing) obviously intending to overwhelm me there before swinging round my left flank.
The two wings were where the first fighting broke out. On my left wing, the superior Persian cavalry sent a hail of arrows my way, taking out two light units, and then advanced to contact with some Greek cavalry who were rapidly regretting their decision to accompany Alexander on his travels.
Meanwhile the Companions on the right had charged home and were slowly chewing their way through the deep Persian cavalry they faced. Average cards meant that rather than smashing them from the field at first contact, the Macedonian horse knocked the enemy backwards, but then got bogged down finishing the job!
Meanwhile the Macedonian infantry were still trudging forward towards the traitor-Hoplites and Tribal Levies in front of them.
It seemed to take an awfully long time to actually get into melee, particularly as the aforementioned traitor-Hoplites, rather than standing fast to be skewered, retreated back to the edge of the table, unwilling to go toe-to-toe with my sarissas.
Message from Alexander to the pike: will you hurry up please!
Worse, my ally-Hoplites, who had managed to get into the contact with the enemy Mobs, were getting the worse of the melee that followed: the Tribal Levies dishing out Disorder markers like there was no tomorrow. Perhaps it was because, given Darius’ nature, they knew that if they lost there would be no tomorrow, whether they survived the battle or not!
Oh come on: they are only mobs!
So that’s the left flank lost; the pike left of centre still striving to make a proper impact; the Hoplites centre-right not winning; and the Companions on the right stuck chewing through dense masses of horseflesh.
Not exactly where I wanted things to be at this stage of the battle!
What I was most nervous of was the left flank: Neil had at least two spare light cavalry units that could sweep around and either go for my camp or, more likely, crash into the back of my pikemen…and I’d be in even more trouble (or rather Trouble, with a capital T) if his veteran horse with Darius at their heads could dispose of the levy Greek cavalry they were currently fighting.
On top of that, he had managed to get some cavalry onto the flank of one block of pike who had ‘bravely been volunteered’ to act as a roadblock to the advancing enemy horse.
The Persians right: two spare light cavalry units (top leftish), elite cavalry attacking Greek levies (bottom centre), and flanking the pikeman road block (centre, slight right)
It was therefore with some relief that I realised that the potentially-flanking light cavalry seemed paralysed into inactivity, and the actually-flanking cavalry failed to contact the left-hand pike unit in the side, allowing the pikemen to turn and present them with a wall of spikes!
Even better, the raw Levy Greek Cavalry found some grit from somewhere and managed to (a) kill Darius himself and (b) disorder the Persian elite horse: for once a bit of luck going my way.
LOL
With the left now safe for the moment, it was time to win the battle elsewhere…and my thoughts, along with those of every Macedonian infantryman, were: where are the bl*@dy Companions?
Well they were finally here: on the right, behind the Persian lines, exactly where they were supposed to be.
Having disposed of the deep horse in front of them, the Companions, Alexander at their head, executed a neat left pivot and moved to first threaten, then smash from the field the Persian Mobs that had been causing the Hoplites so much trouble.
And done!
That was the last of the Persians coins gone, but it had not been an easy battle for the Macedonians: look at the pile of my lost victory medals next to the Persian camp in the picture above: had the Companions not finally got their act together, or if Neil had got his right flank moving as I feared, then things could have been very different indeed.
But they did and he didn’t, so a win for the MaccyD’s: although I have now been challenged to a re-match, so we shall have to see how that goes…
Another stunning photo-aar from Mercian Miniatures and Michael Curtis taken from the IABSM Facebook group.
This was another practice game in preparation for a Seelowe Nord demonstration game: well worth a look!
Click on the picture below to see all…
Plenty of time for another game, so as friend Rob wanted another go with the Timurids, I re-packed the victorious Fanatic Berbers and broke out the Hittites…I wanted to get my new unit of archers and the Gasgan chariots onto the tabletop for the first time.
In order to avoid getting shot to death by all the Timurid mounted archers, my plan was to weight the right flank with my fighting chariots, then win there as I held back my centre and left before turning the successful chariots to take the rest of the Timurids in the flank and rear. Simples!
The battle began with a disaster of epic proportions. Rob used the This Way Effendi stratagem card to drive the Gasgan chariots, a general and a unit of Syrian light chariots back one square and therefore off the table.
No problem, I thought, I’ll just get them back on, needing a 4+, but of course I drew an Ace. Now drawing an Ace when re-entering the table means you lose the units in question, so that meant I was five coins down before we’d even properly started the game!
Since then, however, there has been a discussion on the To The Strongest Facebook group, and it seems that the consensus of opinion is that as the This Way Effendi card affects your troops before they have actually entered the table (it’s all about being led the wrong way before arriving at the battlefield) so the Ace-lose-the-units rule doesn’t actually apply.
That makes sense, and will doubtless be clarified in a later edition of Even Stronger amendments…but it was too late for this game so we went on with the game with the Hittites being down half a command and a third of their coins!
The rest of my plan then unfolded as, er, planned, with the Hittite chariots winning on the right hand side of the field.
Meanwhile, the somewhat reduced Hittites on the left and in the centre were fighting hard to survive until the right hand force could turn and roll up the Timurids.
This proved quite tough, but we did get one moment of success when a unit of Hittite spearmen managed to flank charge and destroy some of the Timurid heavy cavalry.
It was now time for the Hittite chariots on the right and crash into the left flank of the Timurid line…but although I managed the turn okay, I then found myself confronted with obstacles to my path in the form of a unit of Khadesh, a unit of escorted elephants, and rough ground, plus lights in the enemy camp ready to assault the flank of any chariots passing by!
Meanwhile, every Timurid on the other side of the field was closing in on the Hittite camp!
In the end, of course, I just couldn’t get my chariots through the obstacles in time to prevent the Timurids taking my camp, my last three coins and the victory.
Oh, how I missed having the command that had been led astray at the beginning of the game!
But it had been a great game of TTS played in the bet possible spirits, and I have taken a note to check the Facebook group for information on the interpretation of new Even Stronger rules before playing rather than after!
Oh look, the missing gasgan chariots have finally arrived…
Here are two sets of pictures showing 1st Corps’ I Ain’t Been Shot Mum demonstration game at this year’s The Other Partisan show.
Beautifully presented, it’s a stunning simulation of the battle of Kamenewo, October 1941, where Soviet T-34s halted the Germans’ advance on Moscow.
Click on the photo below: highly recommended.
Time for another session of To The Strongest against friend Rob. He wanted to use the Timurids, and I chose to get some of my new Arab figures onto the table with a Fanatic Berber army.
I lost the deployment and, as you’ll see in the left-hand picture below, set up with my Arab cavalry (supported by some mercenary Christian knights) on the right, my infantry in the centre, and a weak left flank comprising only of a horde of Berber light horse.
The Timurids deployed weak on their right (which suited me just fine), their infantry to the right of centre, and their main striking force on the left.
First off, I used the This Way Effendi strategem to push Rob’s left back a square, meaning that the heavy cavalry you can see on the right of the right-hand picture below started the game off-table, and Rob was very lucky not to lose them altogether as the first card he drew to activate the lights in that same command was an Ace: had he chosen to try and get his heavies on table before activating the lights, the Ace would have been theirs and they would never have returned!
The refusal of his left hand command to advance meant that Rob couldn’t really take advantage of the initiative winning the scouting had given him, meaning that my Arabs could advance off their start positions before the Timurids could dominate the centre of the table, meaning that I could dictate a strong advance with my right whilst refusing my weak left.
The Timurids, however, quickly got their act together, and soon the right hand axis of the battlefield was crowded with units all desperately trying to break through the enemy line and outflank.
I felt this initial clash went quite well for the Berbers, as I managed to clear away some of the Timurid horse-archers, and although one unit of Arab cavalry was pushed back, disordered, the Black Guard managed to move across to protect them whilst the mercenary Christian Knights broke through and thundered down the right hand side of the table.
Meanwhile, on the left, a combination of infantry bowfire and the javelins of the Berber light horse had driven off more Timurid horse-archers and, as the Timurid heavies hadn’t really moved forward at all, meant that that flank was still nicely secure.
Things seemed to be going rather well for the Berbers. I was something like five coins ahead from killing horse-archers, the left was safe, I was very strong in the centre as the Timurids hadn’t attacked there yet, and the right looked good too.
All this was, however, an illusion.
Yes, I had killed some horse-archers, but the Timurids had lots of them so losing a few wasn’t really a concern, especially as their fresh, veteran heavy cavalry armed with lance, bow, kitchen sink etc now moved forward and attacked my right with a vengeance…even having enough troops to send some back to deal with the now-isolated mercenary Christian knights.
The fighting was fierce, and soon I found myself pushed back into a defensive formation as the Timurid horse (both heavy and more lights…where on earth do they get them from!) started to stream around my flank.
I obviously needed to do something fast, so threw caution to the wind and sent the Berber light horse forward on the left (if they could get past the Timurid heavies there then they could wreak havoc from behind the enemy battle line) and the infantry forward in the centre.
Interestingly, the Timurid centre was held by a couple of units of Kharash slave-driven infantry: raw mobs with three hits each. Killing them wouldn’t give me any victory medals, but I couldn’t apply my superior strength in infantry to kill units that would give me victory medals until I’d dealt with the Kharash: a pain as I now needed to win the game (by taking victory medals) before my right collapsed.
The Berber light horse did a superb job: sneaking past the Timurid heavies on the left and doing what they do best and assault enemy units from the flanks and rear. The Berber infantry did well as well: the combination of the two driving Timurid units from the field.
And not before time, as the Timurids had now managed to get around my right flank, and managed to get some horse-archers (yes, more of them) through to attack my camps. Fortunately Lady Luck chose that moment to intervene on the side of the Arabs, but I really needed to win the game quickly now or I would risk snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!
I’d battered the Timurids down to their last victory medal. One more push and they were done. Luckily, a unit of Black Guard was in just the right spot to charge a bunch of Timurid horse-archers (God knows where they came from: I thought I’d killed them all by now). The charge sent them sprinting off the table, netting me the final medal and the win.
That had been a very close run thing.
It had been a real surprise when, in the middle of the game, I suddenly realised that my apparently superior position was an illusion as I’d been spending a lot of time and effort doing not much at all and suddenly had four units of veteran heavy lancers backed up by horse-archers hitting my now-weakened right. If my Berber light cavalry on the left hadn’t managed to sneak past the Timurids guarding the other flank, and my infantry hadn’t proved so steady, and my camp had fallen…well, it wouldn’t have been the Berbers celebrating the win!
A great game really showcasing why I love To The Strongest so much.
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)
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