TTS AAR: Ancient Britons versus Early Imperial Romans

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My very first wargames, almost fifty years ago (aaargh!) were clashes between the Early Imperial Romans and the Ancient British…mainly because these were the only two armies we possessed.

In those days, my Brits were 1/72 scale Airfix figures mounted on bits of cardboard, with my friend Sam using beautifully painted Minifigs Romans. IIRC Sam used to paint them not with a brush but with a syringe needle!

Those Romans have survived all these years (including a thirty-five year period of imprisonment in my Mother’s attic) and would now see action again as friend Rob used them against my Victrix Celts.

The Brits won the scouting, and I immediately saw an opportunity: I could hurl my cavalry on the right forward, defeat the outnumbered Roman horse in front of them, and then sweep round onto the flank of the main Roman line.

All I had to do was to make sure that I didn’t close with the main Roman line (the mincing machine!) until the cavalry had won their fight, at which point I could use my infantry to pin the Roman line in place so that the cavalry could take advantage as planned.

Unfortunately I got a bit carried away with the infantry advance, and before I knew it I was exactly where I didn’t want to be: fully engaged across my entire line with narry an outflanking move in sight!

Worse than this, the reason Rob had so few horsemen on the field soon became apparent, as a Lost unit of Roman cavalry turned up right where I didn’t want them!

Fortunately the “10” stymied an immediate charge into my rear, but the threat thereof obviously unnerved my chariots and cavalry as the initial clash went very much “not necessarily in my favour”!

Not only that, but it wasn’t long before the Roman mincing machine had burst through my infantry line, forcing me into a general withdrawal, hotly pursued by annoyed Italians…and this was before the Lost Roman cavalry got involved!

Although there were a few local successes, the writing was very definitely on the wall for the brave Celts, and it wasn’t long before the Romans had polished them off for a pretty substantial drubbing!

So a great plan very poorly executed, leaving me gnashing my teeth over what might have been. The only way to fight Romans with deep warbands is to find some way to get an advantage, and here I threw away that possibility by being over-eager with my infantry…and paid the price!

Painting Challenge: mid-October Update

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Time for another update to this year’s Painting Challenge.

First up, we have Bill Pilon with some beautifully painted medievals: there’s some good looking heraldry depicted there.

Next we have Mr Cooper’s latest batch of all things fantasy. I’ve only got room to show a few of his models here, so I recommend visiting his gallery (accessible via the NavBar, above) to see them all.

Here’s a couple I really liked: a fantasy tower and (as it’s almost Halloween) a large pumpkin. Speaking of which, his gallery does contain a couple of adult-image models, so avoid if that’s not your thing!

Another large entry has been sent in by Andrew Helliwell. It’s a mix of 15’s, 28’s and about twelve feet of terrain so, as a change, here’s are some of his latest home-made hedges and fences. Makes me think that I should be making my own too!

Mark Luther had produced even more 6mm ‘planes, this time covering three different WW2 theatres: Khalkin Gol, the Continuation War and Burma.

Stumpy has also sent in multiple entries, including some rather nice Samurai for Test of Honour, and an ogre for Midguard.

Last, but not least, Zofficus has finished a rather large number of Parthians…which before long I shall doubtless be facing across the battlefield!

That’s all for now. Keep them coming!

Britcon 26: Game Five: Venetians vs Italo-Normans

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And so onto the last game at this year’s Britcon tournament: battered from losing game four so narrowly, my Venetians would now face friend Geoff’s Italo-Normans.

I won the scouting (first time all tournament) and was delighted to see Geoff deploy in a defensive formation centred on his camps. If that wasn’t an invitation to outflank, I don’t know what is!

Ed.’s Note: you can see how important winning the scouting is. Although the position is similar to the start position of the last game, the Venetians have managed a better terrain placement with steep hills defending their camp but not stopping them retreating if necessary; and the Italo-Normans have that wood and impassable terrain in the centre of their line, stopping an immediate advance there.

Also, and most importantly, the Venetians have the initiative: they can advance to outflank immediately rather than already having the enemy horse right upon them before they can even move.

Oh, and note how the Venetian knights are one command in rather than out on the left flank as normal. It will mean that they don’t have to move diagonally as well as forward to outflank the Norman formation.

Once the battle had begun, I pushed my knights on the left forward as hard and fast as I could, also moving the rest of my troops forward in line so as to pin the Italo-Normans in place. I left the crossbowmen and light crossbowmen behind, hoping for some long range missile fire once the enemy began to move.

A bit of luck with the cards had me in just the right position to hammer the Italo-Norman flank, but the knights on the enemy baseline went in with their lances and missed every single strike! That’s four misses trying for 6+ each time (standard attack, hero replay, lance attack, and flank attack) which was not very pleasing, to say the least!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, my other knights faced off against an equal number of Norman horse.

I was confident of success here as my later knights/knights combination was, on paper at least, superior to the three units of cavalry facing me (of which one was veteran, one standard and one raw) especially as the close terrain and my advance meant that they could only come at me with two of their number not all three. Even better, the veteran unit carried a Papal Banner, so if I could kill that unit and the attached general, that was six coins to me: one third of Geoff’s total and thus a very, very worthy target!

Ed’s Note: and he should know, as the Venetian later knights on that flank also carried an army standard so were worth multiple coins…and losing them had lost the canal-dwellers the last game!

Although my later knights refused to charge, my knights did the business, and it was soon two versus two with that Papal Banner beckoning me onwards!

The knights then dealt with the raw cavalry in front of them (as is meet and right!) as the Papal-Banner-holding, veteran Norman horse and the Venetians lights started knocking seven bells out of each other without much effect!

On the other side of the table, Geoff and the Normans prepared to fight back, with William and Co. turning to face the flank of the Venetian later knights coming in to support the other knights that had so miserably failed to score any hits before.

Ed.’s Note: worried about the plastic lances snapping if accidentally leant on, the miserable Venetian knights on the Norman baseline have been temporarily replaced by a base of dismounted knights who should, if necessary, prove more resilient!

The only problem for William, of course, was that the rest of my army was coming up fast, with the spearmen leading the way having an easy diagonal move (only 3+ needed) to get onto the Bastard’s flank and pin him in place.

The spearmen didn’t manage to put in an attack (the cards were kind, but not that kind!) but William was duly pinned.

Meanwhile, as things were going so well, I had a sudden rush of blood to the head, and embarked on what can only be called a very risky manouevre. What I should have done is use the miserable-knights to try and bash the Norman cavalry in front of them whilst turning my later knights to face the pinned William-led Norman horsemen.

Put it down to not sleeping well for two nights (the same car/building alarm waking me at 3am both days), or the strain of five games in a row, but what I actually did (as it seemed like a good idea at the time) was to use the later knights to flank charge the Norman cavalry on the baseline (which worked as they left the table in the face of a three-attack onslaught) and then to send the miserable-knights thundering into the narrow gap between the Norman camps and the first line of Norman troops.

Admittedly this was into the rear of some deep, raw archers (three coins worth), but it was really too early for that sort of insanity, and it didn’t work anyway as the miserable knights re-earned their title by failing to achieve anything except to put themselves in danger!

Ed.s Note: pay attention please! In the picture below, the miserable knights have been restored onto the tabletop and are now behind some archers in the center of the photo; with the just-victorious later knights temporarily replaced by dismounted knights for the same reason as before…although it’s not quite so obvious why, as the later knights have also now managed to pull back away from the danger of being caught in the flank by more raw archers on a hill inside the enemy camp. Confused? Try editing this battle report so that it makes sense!

The rest of my advancing infantry then turned to stop more Norman cavalry from charging my weak-in-melee crossbowmen…although, miracle de miracle, the crosbowmen had managed to disorder their threateners with missile fire: the first time they had managed anything quite so significant all tournament!

I was now ahead eight coins to nil, but I’d seen that sort of lead slip away before. It was therefore time to try again at securing that Papal Banner.

I had a big advantage as it was now two-on-one and I had a flank, but still not a foregone conclusion. Fortunately I avoided Aces when charging home, and the weight of three attacks was enough to break the disordered Norman cavalry, giving me my six coins.

Two to go, and I must admit that these fell fairly easily as my infantry overwhelmed the disordered Norman cavalry that had threatened my crossbowmen: not a surprise as I did have five units capable of shooting and/or attacking them.

That had been a stonking win with which to finish the tournament, and although I didn’t win overall, my four victories out of five gave me second place.

A fantastic fun event that everyone seemed to enjoy - I cannot but recommend the To The Strongest tournament circuit: it’s a series of great fun events played in the very best of spirits by the very best of people!

Here is the final results table and a piccy of all the players:

Finally, my thanks to Kevin and the rest of the BHGS team for putting on such a great event.

TTS will be back at Briton in 2027!

Britcon 26: Game Four: Venetians vs Gurjara-Pratiharans

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My fourth game at this year’s Britcon To The Strongest tournament was against Jon and his Gurjara-Pratiharan Indians: a formidable army featuring elite lance armed cavalry, lots of light cavalry with lance and bows, and camels, lots of camels!

Unsurprisingly Jon won the scouting, and immediately messed with my usual deployment by placing a large chunk of impassable terrain on my baseline. He then grouped his heavies on one side of the table, with his lights on the other.

This all looked very familiar to me - it’s a set up used very successfully by friend Peter in the countless times he has beaten me - and I immediately knew that I was in a bit of trouble!

The game began and Jon sent his veteran cavalry straight at the right side of my line, seeking to punch a hole where my troops were pressed back again the impassable terrain.

Things looked bad, but my Alabardiers and my lights performed brilliantly and, although disordered, managed to hold off the Indians and even kill one of their cavalry units.

Having fought Peter countless times from this situation, I knew that the only way to possibly turn the tables is to ignore the enemy lights on the left (or you devote valuable “save the battle” time and resources to uselessly chasing them round the board) and focus on getting your troops there across the table and into the flank of your attacking opponent.

This I did spectacularly, driving into the flank of the enemy cavalry harassing my Alabardiers and sending them routing from the table. Incidentally, the other knights that you can see top left in the left hand picture below had also turned and were heading for the camels you can see top left in the right hand picture below, hotly pursued by the enemy light lancers who seemed somewhat annoyed to be completely ignored as a threat! It’s a risk, but it’s what you pay the points for the knights for.

I really needed the enemy camels in the centre of the right hand picture below to break, which would have just about given me the game, but despite charges from the knights in front of and to the flank of them, they just wouldn’t rout. I don’t know if Jon was awarding medals to his troops, but they certainly deserved them: I know he said afterwards that before the saves he thought that the game was lost…but, as they say, never give up when you’re playing TTS!

Meanwhile, my knights on the right had driven back half of the enemy veteran cavalry there but, again, couldn’t break them, and I had also lost enough units myself for the situation still to be critical.

A swirling melee resolved itself into the situation you can see in the picture below:

The battle was on a knife-edge. I began my next turn and still couldn’t break the camels in the centre. More medals for them!

Now what you can’t see in the picture above is that in the bottom right hand corner of the battlefield, Jon’s other unit of veteran cavalry had turned towards the right flank of my remaining infantry there, threatening to charge them once my turn was finished. I had my light mounted crossbowmen on the flank of those veteran cavalry and now had a choice to make. Charge them, and risk them evading back up the table towards my later knights pursuing the enemy horse there, or attempt to re-arm and then shoot them.

The safer but less likely to succeed in killing the cavalry option was to try and rearm and shoot them, but I chose to go for the riskier but potentially more rewarding option and charged them. After all, I was down to four coins (I’d lost two generals for four coins and another two coins to rallying!) and needed to take seven of Jon’s to win.

Unfortunately, the enemy cavalry were having a good day, and managed to evade my lights three times in a row and, as my turn ended, now faced the rear of my later knights near Jon’s camp. Was this a mistake? Probably…but the situation was critical and I went for the win and did still have something up my sleeve in case of emergencies (see below).

Equally unfortunately, Jon now turned his fleeing knights towards their pursuers (who had sensibly turned to face the camels on their flank) and so had three units with which to attack my later knights.

I quickly corrected my potential mistake, above, by using the Someone has Blundered stratagem to turn the evading knights way from their target, so my later knights only now faced camels to the front and disordered knights to their flank. Veteran later knights are tough, saving on a 4+, so I felt I had a good chance of surviving .

But it was not to be. The cards fell for Jon, didn’t fall for me, and my later knights and army standard routed, costing me four coins and the game!

Well that had been a rip-roaring game of To The Strongest!

Jon almost had me at the beginning with his deployment and rapid attack, but I recovered well and then almost had him with my attack on the flanks of his camels. The battle then balanced on a knife-edge and, unfortunately, didn’t fall for the Venetians and they lost 7-13 or 54-148 points. Epic stuff!

Britcon 26: Game Three: Venetians vs Pergamene

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My third game at this year’s To The Strongest tournament at Britcon was against Sid’s Pergamene army: Galatian cavalry, javelinmen, lots of light infantry and an elephant.

As I’d lost the scouting, I set up in my traditional cavalry on the wings and infantry in the centre formation, and awaited the onslaught.

The one thing I knew was that man-for-man, my units were better than his: my knights should out-match the Galatians, I had more formed infantry, and although I had fewer lights, they did all have longer-ranged missile weapons.

My plan was therefore to beat the Pergamene cavalry with my knights, shoot down all his lights, and get stuck in with my formed infantry as soon as possible. I was nervous of his elephants hitting my horse, but there was only one unit of pachyderms…which I aimed to also shoot down before contact.

I was also determined not to send my horsemen into the gap between the edge of the table and the steep hill on the left: Sid tempted me into doing something similar when we played last year at Britcon, and I almost came a cropper doing so!

The game began with the Pergamene coming forward fast, and Sid had also pushed my Knights on the left back a square with the This Way Effendi strategy, which even took one unit off table.

Sticking to my plan (do not go into the gap between the edge of the table and the steep hill on the left: just don’t, even though Sid’s put some lovely vulnerable light cavalry there…once bitten etc!) I came forward fast as well, luckily getting my missing knights back onto the table without an issue.

The first clash actually took place on the right, where two units of my Knights took on two units of Galatian cavalry along with their associated lights.

After the last game’s shooting debacle, miracle de miracle, my mounted crossbowmen disposed of the enemy light cavalry with missile fire, but although I pushed both units of Galatian cavalry back, and one off the board, I hadn’t killed either, which meant that I tied my knights on the right up for the rest of the game for just a three coin advantage when really I’d needed them to quickly smash their opponents from the field and then sweep into the rest of the Pergamene from the flank.

Meanwhile my other knights on the left had unsuccessfully charged the rest of the Galatian cavalry and my first infantry attack hadn’t been very successful either.

I desperately needed time for my troops to pull back and reform and, luckily I got it: not through any great skill of my own, but with a bit of help from Sid’s cards.

This pause allowed me to both reorganise the Alabardiers and get some more of my infantry up in support, and this time I did have a bit of luck in that I managed to get a second attack in twice and effectively win the centre, although it would be another turn before it happened.

By this time I had been losing coins as well, so it was a relief when my veteran later knights on the left came back into the fray, even if Sid had finally got his elephants into my other cavalry.

Things got a bit hazy at this point, and I was obviously too busy to take photographs. All I know is that the Pergamene gave way first, leaving me with a very narrow 13-11 victory which translated into 133-85 tournament points.

So not a bad first day: one big win and two narrow victories. Two more games to go!

Britcon 26: Game Two: Venetians vs Macedonians

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After my escape against the Normans, my next opponents were Adrian’s Macedonians: pikemen, elite cavalry, and lights…very nasty indeed!

The tournament was using the rulebook terrain system, which delivered a very dense and unusual tabletop for this game as both of us tried to limit what the other’s core troops could do: a runway across the centre of the table bordered by rough ground and hills on either side.

My only clear path to the Macedonains was on my left, so one command of knights immediately went there. Adrian then cannily placed his pikemen opposite, effectively blocking off any knightly advance of mine.

Conversely, however, the rough ground on his left then forced him to deploy his cavalry behind his pike, giving me an opportunity to perhaps get onto his left flank, so I deployed in a line knowing that although this would mean that a lot of my army would start the game facing only light troops, I might then have the opportunity to do what I’d accidentally done to the Normans in my last game i.e. go through the enemy lights (despite the rough ground) and then turn and hit the flank of his main body as it came forward.

As the game began, both sides advanced rapidly towards each other. I sent a hail of missiles towards the Macedonians, but couldn’t hit a thing. In fact, this set the pattern for the entire game: despite expending almost all my ammunition, I don’t think I scored a single missile hit across the whole battle!

I was now feeling very nervous of my left flank: the Macedonian pike were just about on my knights and, good as they are, they wouldn’t last forever against an onslaught of men with long pointy sticks!

Desperate measures were called for. My knights on the other flank only had light troops in front of them. In a daring move reminiscent of von Bulow, I turned my knights inward and thundered into the runway between our two armies.

I thought I had covered my knights’ rear with their attached light mounted crossbowmen, but then it turned out that what I’d thought was a unit of light cavalry was actually a small unit of Prodromoi veteran lance-armed horsemen that, with a bit of luck from the cards, carved through my mounted crossbowmen and ended up in the rear of my daring knights (Adrian had been clear what the Prodmoroi were when he depoyed them: this was totally my mistake). Enemy actual-light troops also came forward to nip at their flanks and rear, and I was starting to feel very nervous of their survival: having the lights attacking was probably survivable, having formed cavalry up your bottom with lances was a very different kettle of fish!

Fortunately Adrian’s cards deserted him and he just couldn’t hit my brave Cuirassiers knights: I don’t think I actually had to make any saves despite multiple attacks!

With my knights on the left about to feel the pain of the enemy pike in front of them, the front unit of the knights on the runway charged the Companion cavalry led by Alexander himself (he’s the ginger one!) in front of them,

Using my lance, I scored two hits without even having to use my hero. The cards had still deserted Adrian, and the Companions not only failed to save either hit and routed, but Alexander was hit and killed as well: four coins to me.

At the same time, my other knights on the runway had turned and charged the Prodromoi that had tried to hit them from the rear. I would eventually kill these, but it did take several turns to do so.

Over to the Macedonians, who retreated the Hypaspist javelinmen (led by Phillip himself) back into the marshy ground behind them. They then tried to advance their three pike blocks forward into my left-hand knights and infantry, but an unlucky Ace meant that only one phalanx got to fight and all that happened was that my spearmen there were disordered.

The retreat of the Hypaspists meant that they (and Phillip!) were safe, but had left the way open for my knights to charge the flank of the phalanx that had fought last turn. It was already disordered (although I can’t remember how) and, hit from the side, vanished in a tangle of broken men.

The knights would go on to attack the next phalanx in turn, but only succeed in disordering them.

The writing was now on the wall for the Macedonians. The two remaining pike phalanxes retreated backwards chased by knights from both sides of the table, but it was only a matter of time before the already disordered one was destroyed. With the other casualties that the Macedonians had suffered, that was enough to give me the game: my gamble had paid off!

Well that had been an extraordinary game. I couldn’t hit anything with missile fire (I think I went through 20 rounds of ammunition without result) and Adrian couldn’t hit anything in melee or save a hit either. My von Bulow manoeuvre was a risk, but there was really nothing else I could do. I was lucky (or rather Adrian was unlucky) that it paid off for a big 12-1 coins (171-8 tournament points) for the Venetians.

Britcon 26: Game One: Venetians vs Normans

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My first game-proper at this year’s Britcon tournament was against Ian Ralph and his Normans. I hadn’t played Ian before, so was looking forward to our encounter. As the Normans are mostly cavalry, I loaded the table in front of my infantry with hills and tried to keep the wings open for my knights to try for his flanks: this worked on the right, but not the left.

My plan was to hold the centre with my infantry on the hills and to attack hard on the right, hoping that my heavier knights would smash through their Norman opposition and then be able to turn left and run riot. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do on the left: lots of shieldwall troops in front of my other knights and some difficult terrain as well.

The game began with the Norman horse coming forward hard, with poor cards on my part meaning that the hail of missile fire from my infantry that I thought might slow the enemy down a bit down doing nothing but use up a lot of ammunition for no effect!

At the same time, with the Norman infantry on my left showing no sign of advancing - only drifting further away from me to their left - I sent my knights forward to see what mischief they could get up to. I still had no clear idea what I was going to do with them, and poor cards soon saw the command split.

Meanwhile on the right, with my infantry doing nothing, my knights were now outnumbered tw0-to-one. No matter: my knights are tough, and this is what you pay the points for.

Unfortunately it was another cardboard armour day, with my veteran later knights, and army standard, being smashed from the field in the first charge!

This was not good, and my only consolation was the fact that three units of Norman horse then spent far too long trying to mop up my light troops on that flank: something they eventually mostly achieved, leaving me down a total of nine coins, but giving me time to try for a desperate counter-attack in the centre.

The Normans then got a bit overenthusiastic: attacking my infantry in the centre despite my troops’ defensive positions. The enemy cavalry bounced off my right hand infantry command and then withdrew to reorganise, hotly pursued by my troops who recognised a good opportunity to gain the initiative.

By this time, I was also managing to bring my other infantry command in from the left, followed by my other knights, as the Norman shieldwall infantry that could have blocked them had retreated back into their camp and let them go by. Admittedly the enemy infantry then came forward again to threaten the flanks of one unit of knights, but that was a problem for the following turn!

My later knights in the centre did a fantastic job of knocking out the retreating Norman horse top right in the picture above, running over some light infantry whilst doing so (both the lights and the Norman horse failed to evade), and ended up blocking the path of the other retreating Norman horse coming in from their right. This left them vulnerable to a flank charge from the other retreating Norman horse, but I hoped that my pursuing infantry would sort the situation.

Unfortunately, although my spearmen showed a remarkable turn of speed, the effort left them too exhausted to lift their weapons, and it all looked a bit unfortunate for my later knights. My Alabardiers next door hadn’t helped: they also failed to finish the Normans in front of them off: to my mind an easy task despite their disorder!

The disordered Norman horsemen in the centre of the field then had to make a fatal decision: charge my later knights in the flank or turn and face the spearmen behind them. As the disordered archers top right in the picture above had managed to turn to face my knights, they chose to about-face and try and run over my infantry.

This didn’t work and, next turn, my later knights crashed through the unfortunate archers giving me Ian’s last two coins and the game.

That had been a very close run game: 13-9 in terms of coins, although the tournament scoring system we use came out 140-69 in my favour. Ironically, I think it was the initial Norman success on my left that gave me the win: although I had one command completely wiped out, I was then able to contain and thencome in on the flank of the main Norman attack.

A close run thing for the Venetians, and my thanks to Ian for a great game!

Britcon 26: The Warm-Up Game: Gauls vs Parthians

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This year’s Britcon To The Smallest Tournament (five 140-point games over two days, with a practice session if you wanted on the Friday) was once again held at De Montfort University in Leicester.

Again the traffic was awful, so my expected two hour journey up actually took me more like 3½ hours, with the result that all the early birds had already started their practice games, leaving me no-one to play with. Fortunately Tim took pity on me and volunteered to play a second practice game, so it was time for my Gauls to face off against his Parthians.

Why the Gauls, you ask, as I was due to field my usualy Venetians? Well, I had organised for a reserve player to be there on the Saturday in case any of the main entrants had to drop out, and brought the Gauls up for them to use if necessary…and I didn’t want to have taken all the trouble to bring Asterix and friends up without using them, so using the Gauls in the practice game seemed like the thing to do!

Now the Parthians are nasty to fight - all thsoe cataphracts and horse archers - so I decided that the only way to win was to get right up in their faces and see how they liked a gross bit of melee with a load of deep warbands chock full of heroes.

I duly used my first turn to advance forward as fast as possible, with the only problem being on the left, where the Gallic horse pulled an Ace after the first unit had moved and so left a bit of a gap at the left end of my line.

This allowed the Parthians there to potentially get a two-on-one advantage on my left hand warband, but the cards were harsh to Tim, and the situation was soon remedied.

The two sides came together in the centre of the field with an almighty crash.

Usually I’d try to manoeuvre to get the first charge in, but that’s difficult to do when you’re foot versus mounted, so I didn’t, and suffered accordingly, taking casualties right across my line.

Not on the left, however, where my cavalry were having a particularly good day and effectively broke through the Parthian right flank.

Fortunes were, however, mixed elsewhere, as although some of my warbands pushed forward spectacularly, a fine use of the Someone had Blundered stratagem meant that one set of warriors, already double disordered, accidentally turned to their right and were duly splattered over the battlefield!

As an interlude, my massive push forward had left my camps vulnerable to marauding horse archers, but the javelinmen I had left behind in defence were able to see them off.

Back to the main action, where I was now desperately trying to get my cavalry properly onto the Parthian right flank or, failing that, capture an enemy camp or flank-kill one of their cavalry units before their cataphracts could slaughter enough of the warbands to break my army’s overall morale.

Unfortunately it was not to be. The cards fell Tim’s way and one of my battered warbands broke and took the rest of the Gallic army with them.

The narrowest 13-14 victory for the Parthians, but a great game nonetheless. It could really have gone either way at the end, and it was really just the cards that decided things.

Thanks to Tim for agreeing to play a second warm-up game: an excellent way to start Britcon even if I did lose!

Victrix Warriors of Carthage

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Now my Celts are just about complete, it was time to think about what my next army would be. Looking at the lists, the obvious crossover with the Celts is a Carthaginian army of some kind (Early, Middle or Later), as the Celts that I have just finished would provide all the heavy cavalry and around one third of the infantry needed for Hannibal’s boys.

A quick visit to the Victrix website saw me purchase the Warriors of Carthage pack: an excellent acquisition which, when painted, would provide three units of Libyan light infantry with javelins; one deep unit of mercenary Hoplites; and two units of African spearmen wearing captured Roman armour (“Hannibal’s Veterans”). That’s half the extra infantry I would need all for the princely sum of £35: a bargain at around 57p per figure.

First on the painting table were the Libyan light javelinmen: a very easy paint as they have minimum equipment, especially if you don’t give them shields! I used a 50/50 mix of Contrast Darkoath Flesh and Guilliman Flesh for their skin; and a dark red highlighted, washed and highlighted again for their tunics.

Having painted a few hundred 15mm Hoplites, I was not looking forward to doing the mercenary Greeks, but it turned out that they were almost as easy to do as the Libyan javelinmen. I undercoated in Grey Seer, then painted the panoplies in either white or a linen colour using different techniques to get variety: some were painted with acrylic white over Grey Seer, some with acrylic Wraithbone over Grey Seer, some with Contrast white then highlighted with acrylic white, and some with Contrast Skeleton Horde over Grey Seer. Then, on some of the panoplies, I outlined the seams in a variety of colours.

The flesh was painted as above, with the rest of the figure/equipment done as I would usually do so: Contrast Snakebite Leather for the leather, Wyldwood for the spear shafts etc. The aspis shields were painted on the sprue: undercoated in Grey Seer on the rear and Corax White on the front, then the backs were painted Contrast Wyldwood with the holding-cord picked out in an acrylic leather colour, and the fronts with decals from Little Big Man Studios via Victrix and then edged appropriately. I’m very happy with the result.

The two units of Carthaginian spearmen gave me a few more problems. As most of the figure is effectively chainmail (captured Roman armour) I decided to undercoat in black…which made the chainmail easy but meant that I could not use my belov’d Contrast paints for everything else…which meant painting everything else with the Holy Trinity of basecoat, layer and highlight or, in my case, basecoat and highlight as I always was a heathen…but once I’d got the hang of this retro painting system, building and painting the two units didn’t take too long at all.

The shields were as easy to do as always, but haven’t come out as well as the hoplite shields, above. Not sure why, perhaps it’s something to do with the shield designs or, more likely, something I did differently!

So that’s most of the Carthaginian infantry now done: just a couple of units of non-Roman-armour spearmen and the elephants to do now…and some Numidian cavalry…and all the command bases, casualties and heroes…and maybe some Celtiberians/Scutatoi…the list goes on!

TTS AAR: Venice Abroad versus Later Romans

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Another practice session for the forthcoming Britcon 2026 competition: this time it would be my Venetians versus friend Si’s Later Romans. Warning: this report contains one of those endings that encapsulates the highs and lows of playing To The Strongest, leaving one of us celebrating and the other ruefully shaking their head in disbelief!

As this was a practice game, and as the terrain set up had given me hills and what looked like a pretty secure right flank, I decided to try something different and play this game defensively. I therefore sat and waited as the Romans came towards me.

I did send me knights forward on the left, thinking to use their weight to smash the Roman horse from the field, but this didn’t work…and didn’t work in a big way. After a few turns of intense melee, my knights and their supporting mounted crossbowmen had been cleared from the field and my left flank was wide, wide open!

Meanwhile the Romans sent their infantry and cataphracts forward against the rest of my line, focusing their attentions on my right where I thought that the terrain had given me an advantage.

Much to my surprise, the Alabardiers quickly destroyed the eagle-bearing legionaries in front of them, ending up suddenly all on their own in the middle of the battlefield.

Then, this time much to my annoyance, more Roman infantry took advantage of my defensive stance to get up on the hill that was supposed to protect the right hand side of my line and refused to be budged. Worse, I thought I’d try a charge with my nearby spearmen across the top of the hill and succeeded only in disordering them, leaving them vulnerable to future attack.

Si took full advantage on the left, driving my infantry back with his cavalry and Auxilia, and the only thing that prevented an immediate collapse was the heroic defence mounted by my troops there. It was, however, only a matter of time before the whole lot went!

Worse, the other end of the line was about to collapse as well, as the Roman cataphracts easily dealt with the disordered spearmen then turned to casue havoc elsewhere. I couldn’t even console myself by getting my knights to charge his lights off the table!

Ed.’s Note: this is what happens when you play defensively!

The Venetians were facing annihilation…but I had one last Hail Mary that could, perhaps, save the day.

The Alabardiers were in a position to strike at the Roman camp, but it had taken them a bit of time to do so…time that had allowed Si to move his light infantry defenders into the right part of the camp to face them. One more coin would see my army crumble, and I needed to both kill the lights defending the camp and take not one, but two of the three Roman camps to win the game i.e. seven coins, which shows you how far behind I was.

First up, getting into the camp: a diagonal move into rough ground. I pulled a seven, easily enough for the Alarbardiers to get over the ramparts and threaten the lights.

Next, defeating the lights: I pulled an eight, which was a hit, and Si didn’t pull a big enough save despite the fact that his men were defending a fortified camp. That meant I had killed the lights and taken one camp, but I still needed to take the other to win.

The Alabardiers were on a seven, so to move again (+1), sideways (+1), over rough ground (+1), I would need a natural ten: nothing else would do…

Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!

Seven coins in one activation and the game!

To be fair to Si, he took it very well: I’m not sure that I would have been so phlegmatic!

IABSM AAR: Sicilian Weekend #17: South of Priolo

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Dan Albrecht and friends from the Vermont Historical Gamers Group spent a weekend recently playing scenario #17 from the Sicilian Weekend campaign pack.

Click on the picture below to see all…

TTS AAR: Gauls versus Later Romans

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Another practice game for this year’s To The Strongest at Britcon tournament: this time my Gauls would face friend Si’s Later Romans.

The Gauls lost the scouting phase, so deployed their six warbands, two of them veteran, across the centre of the table, with their cavalry on the right wing. My plan was to defeat any Roman cavalry on that wing and then swing my horsemen into the centre to take the enemy infantry in the flank. You can see the start position and initial moves below.

Unfortunately, my cavalry were taking a bit of time to properly get going: one immediately fell victim to the Roman cataphracts, the other three flailing around without actually achieving much.

I then used the Someone Has Blundered stratgem to about-face the cataphracts but didn’t manage to damage them despite sending in multiple attacks from the flank and rear. In the end, I had to use some of the infantry from the centre to prevent one unit of my horsemen from being squished between two lots of Roman cavalry, but things couldn’t be said to be going well!

Meanwhile, things had been going equally badly at the other end of the infantry line i.e. my left flank.

There, the Romans had managed to get some light troops around the end of my line, who then punished me appropriately. The only good news was that my infantry in the centre had managed to kill a unit of Legionaries (taking the Roman Eagle) and that one Roman general had died in the fighting.

Luckily I was able to bring one unit of Gallic cavalry across the back on the battlefield to reinforce the left of my line, but it arrived too late to save my left-hand warband and, unless a miracle happened elsewhere, I was about to be rolled up and destroyed from both flanks!

Below are pictures of either end of my line. The right hand picture is a repeat of one shown above, but it shows how the Romans are on the flank of one warband and at the rear of a cavalry unit to give the context for the previous paragraph.

Luckily - and it was pure luck - such a miracle was forthcoming.

The disordered Gallic cavalry unit on the flank of the disordered Roman cataphracts charged home and miracle des miracles scored two hits.

The cataphracts failed to save one of them, so died, taking their general with them as, under the new amendment, he couldn’t get to another friendly unit so went down with his men. That was four coins and the game to me!

Not my finest hour, as I was definitely in a losing position at that point, and it was only luck that stopped Si winning. Mind you, if you want to see a tryly outrageous piece of good fortune on my part, make sure you read the next TTS battle report that appears on this site: that one was even better!

Painting Challenge: Towards the End of September Update

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Plenty of entries coming in, so time for another update to this year’s Painting Challenge.

First up is Mervyn with a couple of submissions from different themes: some bystanders from the age of Capone, and some mounted Vikings:

Next up is Carole, with a couple of one-off figures straight from the painting table:

Continuing the two-submissions theme, here’s Steve with some more later medievals: Swiss pike and a motley crew from the time of Agincourt:

Mr Helliwell has been as busy as ever, sending in a vast entry comprising a mix of scales (15mm and 28mm) and a mix of eras (medievals and Napoleonics). The four pics below are only a fraction of what Andrew has submitted: please visit his gallery - accessible via the NavBar, above - to see everything sent in this time and, indeed, so far this year:

And last, but by no means least, here is a Samurai retainers set from Stumpy:

That’s all for this time: keep them coming!

TTS AAR: Venice Abroad versus Gauls

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With the 15mm To The Smallest tournament done and dusted, it was time to start thinking about the 28mm Britcon To The Strongest tournament, only two weeks away.

My first practice game was to be with my Venetians against John playing the Gauls. I won the scouting, and was pleased to see the Gauls set up in a tight formation based around their two camps. This let me place my knights on the wings and, as the game began, send the ones on the right flying forward to outflank.

Unfortunately my rapid advance on the right had been so rapid that the two Gallic warbands at that end of the enemy line had time to turn to face my knights, particularly as I hadn’t yet had time to get any troops forward in support.

At the same time as that, my Knights on the left charged forward to engage half the Gallic cavalry, and the two infantry lines moved to within crossbow range, a lucky shot taking out one of the Gallic infantry generals!

On the left, my knights initially made very heavy weather of the Gallic horse: the first unit to go in, the Veteran Knights, bounced off their Celtic opponents and had to retire to reform. Luckily I had the Later Knights handy to take over, and the other half of the Gallic horse were taking their time about joining in the fun.

The Later Knights were having a good day and dashed both units of Gallic cavalry in front of them off the table, leaving only some somewhat nervous Celtic lights in between them and the Gallic camp.

Meanwhile, the disordered Veteran Knights turned to take the rest of the Gallic cavalry in the flank.

As the cavalry were fighting it out on the wings, the enemy centre came forward against my infantry. A hail of crossbow bolts slowed them down and the initial contact went my way, with the Gallic infantry withdrawing slightly to regroup. I tried my luck by sending the Alabardiers forward to follow up this initial success, but the brave billmen were cut down without effect and soon the two infantry lines paused and just stared at each other across the battlefield.

On the right flank, meanwhile, my Later Knights were still having extreme difficulty in breaking the Gallic warband in front of them. They got to the double disorder stage, but just couldn’t break them, not helped by the cards either!

Back to the left where, with some superb manoeuvring, John had managed to force my Veteran Knights to retreat again and (after initially ignoring them and hoping they would just go away!) to not only thwart my Later Knights in their attempt to take the Gallic camp, but also then get into a position to assault the left hand end of my infantry line.

At the same time, his warbands there came forward again and I was in real trouble!

Meanwhile, the position in the centre of the battlefield was very confused. I lost my Knights on the right, but then my infantry conducted a heroic defence against the main Gallic assault.

Back to the left, where my Veteran Knights took advantage of the fact that the Gallic cavalry that had been all over them had left to harrass my Later Knights theatening the enemy camp, and redeemed themselves by charging the Gallic warbands assaulting that end of the infantry line. At the same time, my Spearmen on this hill anchoring said line managed to hold off the other Gallic horse, and suddenly it was all to play for again.

Casualties had been high on both sides, and John and I each had only two coins left, which meant that the next loss of an ordered unit or general would decide the game.

It was John’s turn and a unit of pesky lights turned and assaulted the rear of the Later Knights who were still trying to finish off the warband on the right. The attack went in…a hit…but that bounced off the Later Knights’ armour…but their accompanying general wasn’t so lucky: he drew an Ace for his save so had been hit. This was bad: a 50% chance that he would die, losing his life and me the game!

The card was turned: a Four!

Phew! A light wound and I was still in the fight.

The Celts tried to go in again, but drew an Ace themselves and the iniative passed back to the Venetians!

All I needed was one kill…which was delivered by the Later Knights on the other side of the table, who may have been prevented from taking the enemy camp, but then turned and happily rode down their attackers. Victory for Venice!

Well that had been a cracking game of To The Strongest, with mayhem, action and fortune swaying wildly over the whole battlefield. It had been the narrowest of wins for the Venetians: definitely a little too close for comfort!

FK&P AAR: Polish-Lithuanians versus Ottomans

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Friend Rob was coming over for a game, so as I’ve played a lot of To The Strongest recently, I set up something a little different: a game of Eastern-Front For King & Parliament using my own rule modifications featuring my Polish-Lithuanians versus Rob’s Ottomans.

The battle began with both sides advancing their cavalry on the wings. On the left hand side of the battlefield, three squadrons of Polish Winged Hussars, a squadron of Pancerni and some Tatar horse archers faced two units of the elite Ottoman Sipahi of the Guard with three more lesser Sipahi behind.

A massive cavalry melee took place almost immediately, and although the Ottoman guard cavalry won their clash with two units of Winged Hussars, they in turn were routed when, already battered, they strayed too close to a unit of Polish Dragoons sheltering in some nearby rough ground.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the field, the remaining Tatar horse were surprised by a squadron of Ottoman Deli (“the mad ones”) and fled temporarily off table to avoid destruction. The Deli were then routed by some Polish Petyhorsy, who threatened to wrap around the Ottoman flank.

Further in to the centre, more Sipahi and Winged Hussars slammed into each other, with the Sipahi managing a spectacular six misses on their attack before being driven from the field by the Hussars.

Back to the left hand side of the table, where the remaining cavalry from both sides went into battle again, with a swirling confused melee ending up with almost no-one left alive! The Polish Dragoons continued to stand firm against Ottoman attack, but otherwise no-one could get an advantage.

Back to the right again, and with the Polish Petyhorsy keeping the Ottoman Besli light horse occupied, the Tatars, now back on the table, were able to sweep round into the Ottoman left flank and destroy some more Sipahi.

This looked like the end for the Ottomans, but an unfortunate series of Aces paralysed the Tatar attack, supported by the Poles’ German infantry who were now engaged in a long-range firefight with the Ottoman Janisseries, and it came to nothing.

To add insult to injury, the rear unit of Janisseries, disorordered and being attack by Tatars from the flank, saved twice against an attack from Winged Hussars to the front, and then fought back with a couple of 10’s, meaning two hits, neither of which the Hussars saved, so were routed from the table!

From being in a position where victory for the Poles seemed inevitable, both sides were now down to their last coin. The Polish Petyhorsy looked to win the game by forcing the last unit of Besli light horse off the table, but before they could do so, the Ottomans fired a volley from their carbines, one ball of which killed the Polish cavalry general who was supervising that side of the table.

This was the final straw for the battered Poles, and they retreated from the field.

If ever there was a game that encapsulated the expression “to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory”, this was it! I had the Ottomans on the ropes with my cavalry around the flank of their infantry, but I just couldn’t finish them off!

A couple of pieces of Ottoman luck, and the game turned in their favour and they, on the other hand, had no problem in delivering the coup de grace!

If I did make a mistake, it was not getting my pike-armed infantry in amongst his musket-only Janisseries as soon as possible, but the pikemen kept getting disordered by the Ottoman artillery on their approach, so I stood off and exchanged volleys rather than closing to melee. This wouldn’t have mattered if my cavalry on the Ottoman flank had done their job…but they didn’t, leaving me wishing I’d sent the pike forward.

Such are the fortunes of war…but, nonetheless, a great game of FK&P.

To The Smallest: Game Four: Khurasanians vs Galatians

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My fourth and final game at this year's To The Smallest 15mm competition in Cardiff was due to be against Simon Miller, the author of the rules, whose Galatians had, presumably, also won their first three games.

Unfortunately Simon was on a time limit and had to leave the competition early to catch a train, but luckily fellow-player Mike was around to substitute in and lead the fanatical Celts into battle. As Mike later said on his blog: But, the laughter stopped for me as Sid called me forward in round four to face the hot favourite, Rob. My opponent was high in the rankings and Mr Miller remembered he had a train to catch. Against an opponent who actually read the scenarios and practised against numerous opponents; it wasn’t going to end well…

I was a bit concerned about facing Galatians: having played them myself at Ewelme this year, I knew that if they could get their warbands stuck into my troops, infantry or cavalry, it would be all over very quickly. I was therefore very pleased to see that we were going to play on the Issus battlefield i.e. the one with a (fordable) river running right across the middle of it. My plan wrote itself: shoot the Galatians, with their unwieldy deep warbands, full of arrows as they were trying to cross the river, then hit the disordered survivors fast and hard!

The terrain could not have been better for me: open ground with a barrier bisecting the table

The game began with the Galatians advancing to the river line. A group move attempt on my right was stymied by an early Ace and gave the enemy a chance to cross the river with three of their warbands.

This was not in the plan, but still meant that I could focus my attacks on the part of his force that was across the river (i.e. giving me a local advantage in numbers) and still bottle up the troops on Mike’s far left.

My ghilman cavalry duly charged forward and before long I had destroyed two of the Galatian warbands, which put me 40% towards an overall victory.

Meanwhile, on the far right, Galatian cavalry and a chariot had also finally managed to get across the stream. These were also engaged, this time by a combination of my lancers and some Turkoman horse archers, but although the enemy advance was checked, I just couldn’t seem to knock any of his units off the table.

Ed’s note: there is a difference between the two photos, below. In the right hand photo, the Galatian chariots have been disordered by bowfire from the horse-archers.

Meanwhile on the left, my infantry had been girding their loins for an expected Galatian all-out assault. This didn’t happen, so the infantry began to slide sideways towards the centre of the table: eyes open for a sudden Galatian surge forward.

Some of the more central units essayed across the river but soon changed their minds and retreated in the face of enemy aggression., although they did cause a few casualties, including the Galatian cavalry general.

Back to the centre and right hand side of the field. I finally dispatched the enemy horsemen in melee with the lancers, which left me very close to taking all Mike’s coins.

These I finally did acquire when the loan warband in the centre failed to pull back and was caught between two units of ghilman horse and annihilated along with their general.

So a massive 171-7 victory over the Galatians. To be fair to Mike, he was playing an army he’d literally just been given and thrown well and truly into the deep end with an anvil chained to his feet!

Once all the games had finished, the points were totted up. I was not the only player on four wins out of four - I think there were three of us - so it was a bit of a nerve-wracking wait. In the end, however, I had done enough to win the tournament overall, coming out just ahead of Matt and Si:

 

It had been a cracking day’s gaming, and not just because I had won. A terrific, well-organised event fought in very good humour by all, in a great venue and with some great people. If you play TTS, I highly recommend you try a competition or two: great fun!

To The Smallest: Game Three: Khurasanians vs Mongol

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With two wins already under my belt, it was time for game three at this year’s To The Smallest tournament. Each terrain set-up was based on an historical battlefield and finally I was on a table that suited the half of my army that were mounted troops…it was just a bit unfortunate that my Khurasanians were facing Mongols, surely the ultimate cavalry army especially as they were all veterans!

I lost the deployment and watched as Steve positioned his men on the “bowling green” so that a good third of my army were once again fighting thin air!

I had pulled the Take the High Ground stratagem, which means I could have advanced the command on the far left forward another two boxes after depoyment, but what I really wanted was to get the Mongols forward enough to be pinned by my main battle line before I swung right with the overlap: I could see that if I did use the stratagem, Steve might have been tempted to pull the right hand end of his line backwards, which would have left my overlap command both too far and left and too far forward as opposed to being just too far left.

At least that’s what I post-rationalised, as I think at the time I just forgot to play it!

Anyway, the left hand end of the Mongol line closed with mine, and I sent the left hand end of my line forward to try and outflank the enemy before nasty things happened elsewhere. My troops on the left quickly got into position and soon I was threatening the Mongol right flank.

On my right, a hail of Mongol arrows had damaged my troops and, with Genghist’s lancers following them in, it all looked very grim.

Unfortunately I don’t have any photographs of the next, vital phase of the battle, as things were so intense and convoluted that I didn’t have the time nor inclination to take any.

To summarise, what happened was that somehow I managed to co-ordinate the arrival of the heavy cavalry from the left with the advance of my spearmen infantry facing forward left of centre, forming a kind of L-shape in front of me.

Steve’s troops caught in the angle of the L-shape got a bit traffic-jammed, meaning that two of his light cavalry units that had been facing my troops to my left took a charge in the flank from a unit of my spearmen facing forward, and were unable to evade as, after consultation with the referee, it was discovered that they would have been unable to pass through some Mongol heavy cavalry that were next to and perpendicular to them…which is a complicated way of saying that they were caught between my spears and their own cavalry and disintegrated.

My victorious spearmen, their blood thoroughly up, then charged the cavalry that had blocked the evade - and another unit of Mongol lights that were sharing the same box - in the flank, driving them backwards right to the Mongol baseline.

The pictures below show (left) the aftermath of the first charge (my charging spearmen are the ones in white with the black flags) and (right) the battlefield a turn of so later where my flank attacking L-shape has become a full tidal wave rolling across the table like the walls of the trash compactor from Star Wars!

Meanwhile, on my right, the Mongols had had the advantage of numbers and were winning, but had then had to to weaken their line to face the threat coming in from their right flank, which meant that rather than collapsing, the right of my line could stabilise and keep holding out, waiting for my flank attack on the left to win the game.

Steve was now down to his last few coins, but somewhat retrieved the situation when the charging spearmen tried for a “bridge too far” near the enemy camp, got disordered by bowfire from amongst the Mongol tents, then routed, along with their general, leaving the enemy cavalry free to threaten the flank of my heavy horse that were now sweeping down on the rest of the Mongol battleline, which was still occupied with the right hand end of my line.

That went some way to evening up both the score and the situation, but Lady Luck was with me as we entered the final few turns.

One of my heavy cavalry units from the right hand end of my line had been disordered in the initial clash with the enemy. They had fallen back and, after various manoeuvres, had headed to the left, pursued by a unit of Mongol lancers.

My cavalry managed to get a bit of distance between them and their pursuers, rally, then turn to face the enemy. At the same time, a unit of infantry (another one in white with black flags: medals all round for those boys) managed to come up behind the had-been-pursuing Mongols, who were then caught between the Scylla and Charybdis and squished…giving me Steve’s last two coins and victory!

That had been an epic game: very close and very exciting. Steve’s initial deployment was superb, and if I hadn’t managed to get my flank attack in, I would have been easily defeated.

The swivel in the centre of the battlefield was gripping stuff, and the final action equally intense. A 137-71 victory for the Khurasanians and on to face Simon Miller’s (the author of the rules) Galatians in the final round.

To The Smallest: Game Two: Khurasanians vs Early Muslims

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Well would you Adam and Eve it: my second game at this year’s To The Smallest tournament was a refight of my Friday evening warm-up game against friend Richard’s Early Muslims.

That game had been fought on the battlefield of Towton (all the To The Smallest tables represent historical battlefields) a most unsuitable place for both our cavalry armies, so surely this encounter would take place on the proverbial bowling green?

Er, no, even worse: Hastings!

As you’ll see from the picture below, I chose to play on the “hill” side of the table, as I’d always rather fight down a hill than up even if my initial position would be “interesting”. As a key, the hills with the round bush markers on them are steep, the others are gentle…which meant that the only way for me to deploy was cavalry-infantry-cavalry-infantry, with the infantry command second from the left taking their positions on the crags!

The Muslims had massed their cavalry on their right and,a s the game began, sent them forward in a massive wave determined to use sheer weight of numbers to bounce me backwards.

The two sides’ cavalry came together with a mighty and somewhat inconclusive crash. Looking at the pictures, it looks as if I managed to get more disorders on this first charge than Richard did, but that was mainly, I think, because those troops who were not receiving the frontal assault could pour bowfire into the flanks of the advancing Jund cavalry and their following infantry.

I’d also seen a bit of an opportunity on the right flank, where two of my light infantry archer units snuck forward to threaten (if light infantry can properly threaten) the enemy left.

Although they only achieved one kill (a unit of enemy lights) what they did manage to do was to keep four coins-worth (as opposed to their two coins-worth) of enemy infantry occupied for the rest of the game: a sound investment if I say so myself!

Back to the main action, where although I couldn’t break the Jund cavalry on the left, I was able to hold, pour bowfire into and then burst through the Muslim centre: the combination of veteran Ghilman lancers supported by solid, spear-armed Arab infantry (some with extra bows) proving very effective at keeping the enemy at bay and then counter-attacking.

I don’t usually play so defensively, but a starting position on Senlac hill lends itself to that strategy!

Richard had been steadily losing coins as his troops crashed against my defensive line, and the end came quickly: in fact, just as soon as my Ghilmen on the left got their act together and finally routed the disordered enemy cavalry in front of them for an excellent 154-21 point victory.

So two battles and two decent wins, but it was Steve’s Mongols up next…not a fight I was looking forward to!

To The Smallest: Game One: Khurasanians vs Nikephorian Byzantines

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My first game proper at this year’s To The Smallest (15mm) tournament was against friend Geoff’s formidable Nikephorian Byzantines.

I lost the scouting and Geoff took full advantage: superbly deploying so that one third of my army was out on the left fighting “thin air”, my only consolation being that I had managed to stack all my veteran cavalry on the right facing off against the mass of Byzantine horse.

I could then only watch as Geoff took full advantage of the situation, sweeping a cavalry unit past the end of my line looking to curl it back in to take my troops in the rear.

This was not good but, fortunately, the initial clashes of the main line went very much my way: two units of his horsemen, including the veteran cataphracts, being disordered whilst mine remained unscathed.

Unfortunately for Geoff, that was to set the pattern for the battle as a whole: although I couldn’t hit anything with my bows (literally nothing all game!) it seemed my troops couldn’t miss in melee, carving through Byzantines like they were made of butter!

Back to the action. My right flank was still technically in all sorts of trouble, but Geoff was unwilling to risk his disordered unit there in another round of combat, so moved it past my main line and out of harm’s way.

Unfortunately for him, this then left my lancers on the far right free to about face and engage the Byzantine outflanking force, pulling the situation back from the brink.

The next crisis to deal with was also on the right flank, where more Byzantine horse (there was a lot of it!) had got into a position to charge the flank of my other lancers - the ones who had disordered the cataphracts - and it required a bit of fancy footwork (moving the lights then retreating the lancers) to get out of that one.

My other lancers had by now finished off the Byzantine cavalry that had been trying to outflank my line - as I said, I seemingly couldn’t miss in melee - and were now heading back into the centre to help.

Meanwhile, my Arab infantry had been unsuccessfully trying to get into the action. A somewhat amusing two-step developed, where the Byzantine foot would step to their left (i.e. moving towards their cavalry) followed by my infantry stepping to their right to conform, all the while trying to get into bow range. Finally I decided that enough was enough and just turned some of them to the right and marched them towards the action.

My infantry with bows (the lights and the ones in black) eventually got into range but, as previously mentioned, there was something wrong with their arrows and they couldn’t hit a thing!

Back to the centre, where the cavalry that had dealt with the outflanking force now arrived in the rear of the Byzantine horse that had threatened the flank of my more centrally placed lancers.

These crashed into the back of the enemy, knocking them and their general off the table for Geoff’s last four coins and victory was mine.

I felt very sorry for Geoff: his deployment and initial moves had been flawless and totally put me on the back foot, and it was only the fighting ability (luck with the cards in melee!) of the veteran Khurasanian lancers that saved the day.

My infantry did nothing except keep the Byzantine foot occupied (although there was a cheeky little sideshow of one of my light archer units going off on its own to “threaten” the flank of the enemy infantry) and I counted myself very fortunate to have achieved a 154-43 points victory.

Next up: it’s Richard and his Early Muslims again!

To The Smallest: The Warm Up Game (Khurasanians vs Early Muslim)

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Off to Cardiff for the annual To The Strongest 15mm tournament, To The Smallest.

I arrived at the venue, the excellent Firestorm Games, already exhausted: I can usually do Cardiff in about 2½ hours, but the journey this time took me a good 4½ hours. I shot through until I reached the M5 interchange and then did the next 40 miles at 15mph. No accidents, no roadworks: just sheer weight of traffic. It was apparently bad all day: although I left home at about 1.30pm, someone else had left near me at 10.30am and someone else at 3pm and it was just as awful. Remind me never to travel to Wales on the first Friday of the school holidays!

One consolation was that quite a few people had arrived before me, and I was greeted by a wonderfully warm welcome. The TTS competition crowd really are a lovely bunch, and it was great to catch up with everyone. Better still, Firestorm has an excellent café, and a restorative combination of coffee, ice cream and cake left me feeling ready to tackle a warm-up game ahead of the main event the following day.

My opponents were friend Richard’s Early Muslim army: very similar to the Khurasanians I was fielding, the only real difference being that my heavy cavalry carried lance and bow rather than just lance.

There was one table already set-up and available, so we used that even though it was a representation of the battlefield for Towton (29 March 1461: the largest and bloodiest battle of the Wars of the Roses, ending in a decisive Yorkist victory that secured the English throne for Edward IV over the Lancastrian forces of Henry VI - all the games at To The Smallest are played on representations of historical battlefields) which suited neither of us as no-one had enough light troops to risk a trip over Cock Beck on one side of the table. That meant we both had to squeeze our armies into two thirds of the usual available space, which didn’t leave a lot of room for manouevring!

Richard also made the fatal mistake of letting me choose which side of the table to fight on, which meant he spent the whole game with the sun firmly in his eyes (even when the staff put down the shutters) and, in consequence, had to dress like Felix Leiter!

Apologies for the quality of the photographs: it was a very sunny day!

As the Muslims had more cavalry than I did, I stacked all my horsemen on the right in order to get as much parity as possible, and then got hit by the This Way Effendi stratagem which sent my furthermost Ghilman veterans almost off the table!

Fortunately I was able to recover the situation quickly, getting my horsemen back into a line of battle before a bit of luck with the cards enabled me to get the first charge advantage as the two mounted forces came within range. My Ghilmen thundered down the hill on the left, sweeping one enemy cavalry unit clean off the table and leaving another disordered, all for the cost of taking just a single disorder marker themselves.

I was, however, still outnumbered 5:4 in terms of heavy horse, and the enemy Jund cavalry struck back quickly, sending one of my units flying from the field. It was now 5:3.

This action on the right would continue for the rest of the game: the only thing saving my cavalry from being overwhelmed was the narrowness of the available space and my Turkomen horse archers, who both kept the enemy light horse at bay and distracted their heavies.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the field, I had decided to essay an outflanking manoeuvre with some of my infantry, but this was easily countered by some Muslim skirmishers firing from the cover of the trees, and my men were forced to retreat.

That left a big infantry on infantry battle in the centre of the field, and both sides marched into bow range and let fly. Fortunately my Khurasanians got the best of the initial volley and resultant melees, aided by more Turkoman horse archers and a couple of unfortunate (for Richard!) Aces.

Both sides were now down to their last coins, and it was very much a ‘sudden death’ situation. The battle could therefore have gone either way but, as luck would have it, the cards fell for the Khurasanians with a Muslim mounted unit routed by a cavalry charge and the day was mine…just!

How close was the game? I had one coin left myself, so won 14-13 for the very narrowest of victories! A great game fought in the very best of good humour on both sides, and a great way to warm-up for the next day’s tournament proper.