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.

IABSM AT Hurricon 2026

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John Paul Hancock recently ran his Seelow Heights scenario at Hurricon 2026 using I Ain’t Been Shot Mum. Thankfully it went better than the playtests at home: having more players and ones with different tactics, made for an exciting game.

Click on the picture below to read/see all…

TTS AAR: Akkadian Empire versus Sassanid Persians

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I wanted to give Si’s Sassanids a run at an infantry-based army, so broke out the Akkadians: two units of Royal Guard, six units of spearmen with pavises and a command of veteran battle-cars.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the Akkadians lost the scouting, so deployed in a long line in the centre of the battlefield, the only outliers being the battle-carts, who were massed on my right flank and used the Take the High Ground strategy to push further towards the Persians.

My plan was simple: hold the left flank against an expected Sassanid outflanking manouevre; advance the centre in order to temp the Persians into charging my spearmen whilst soaking up their bowfire with my pavises; slam the battle-carts forward to crush and then turn the enemy left flank.

As anticipated, the Persians swept past my left flank and then turned and curled back into the centre. All that stood between them and the rear of my main battle line was a single unit of Spearmen, who quickly formed Orbis (marked on the tabletop by the hedgehog that it ressembles) and would hold out against a storm of arrows and the occasional charge for the rest of the game.

Meanwhile, on the right flank, the battle-cars were involved in a bitter war of attrition with the Persian cavalry facing them. In the end, two of three battle-carts would survive the melee and turn in towards the Sassanid centre.

As that was happening. the Royal Guard stepped forward in the centre of the field and proceeded to demonstrate how unwise it is to rely on chocolate-box soldiers as they (a) couldn’t hit the proverbial barn door with their bows and (b) weren’t sure which way up to hold their spears. On top of that, the officer of the infantry command on their right was quickly shot down by Persian arrows and things started looking a bit grim!

Back to the right where the battle-carts had finally swung in to take the Persians in the flank, but unfortunately their lack of manouevrability meant that they just couldn’t get into contact as they needed to.

The Akkadians then had a brief moment of success when a unit of Elamite light archers charged and killed a squadron of Persian heavy cavalry by charging it from the flank, pulling two 10’s to do so.

This was then countered by the loss of the Royal Guard’s officer - shot down by Persian bowfire - and I found myself, without quite knowing how, down to my last few coins. Looking at it with hindsight, I had lost two officers (four coins), one of the battle-carts (two coins), one infantry unit (also to bowfire, two coins), and a couple of coins to either losing lights or rallying. No matter, I thought, the Persians are only slightly better off: if I can last the rest of this turn then I can use the battle-carts’ flanking position to finish them off.

Unfortunately, this was not to be!

Realising that their position was as fragile as mine, the Persians threw everything into one final attack. A Sassanid cavalry unit charged the Akkadian Royal Guard who had just lost their officer (the unit with the face down playing card behind it in the photo above) and ran right over them despite the Guard’s veteran status. This loss caused the light archers in the square behind them to flee the table and I was suddenly down three coins and the game!

So a narrow loss for the Akkadians, mainly down to the poor performance of the Royal Guard and less so to the unmanouevrability of the battle-carts. One of those games that are so close that all the “if only’s” haunt you…well, at least until the next battle!

Painting Challenge: First of the Month Update

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August has been a fairly quiet time for the Challenge (the super-hot weather must have been drying out the paint pots!) but here’s a round-up of the entries for the month.

First up is Mr Luther, with four separate entries involving everything from foliage to flyers across a number of different scales. Here’s a taster: you can find all Mark’s submissions in his gallery, along with all the other entrants’ galleries, accessed via the NavBar at the top of this page.

Andrew Helliwell sends in his usual cornucopia: this month his entry has a distinctly medieval theme.

Mervyn has also been busy: a couple of aeroplanes of his own, and a large amount of infantry for the American Civil War.

Dex has completed a Sikh platoon for his Burma 1944/45 collection for CoC2:

Mr Burt has gone Burgundian, with a rather nice breech-loading bombard:

And last, but by no means least, Bill has sent in an entry comprising some WW2 microarmour, and some very nicely painted American GIs for the same period.

Keep them coming!

TTS AAR: Early Muslims versus Sassanid Persians

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This was (yet) another practice game for To The Smallest, this time featuring my Early Muslims against Si’s Sassanid Persians.

As battle opened, both sides advanced towards the other: the Muslims charging forward rapidly, the Sassanids more cautiously.

On the Sassanid left there was a patch of impassable terrain bordered by a wood, right next to the Persian camp. It looked like the perfect opportunity to take a chance, so I decided it was worth risking a coin's worth of Light Cavalry to see if I could sneak them through the rough ground and cause some mischief.

As it turned out, it worked even better than I'd hoped. The light horse managed to get behind the left-hand end of the Persian line. The camp itself looked a bit too tough a nut to crack—a fortified camp on a hill defended by light bowmen—so instead I wheeled them round and sent them charging into the rear of the Persian cavalry.

That opened the door nicely. I brought up some of the Jund cavalry to pile into the melee and, before long, a couple of enemy units had routed.

The troops in the camp did then make life awkward for my cavalry, but by that stage the Sassanid battle plan was in tatters. What had started as a speculative gamble with a single light cavalry unit had ended up somewhat disrupting their left flank.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the battlefield, the two sides had advanced towards each other, with the Muslims being much more aggressive following their success on the right.

Up in the top left hand corner of the battlefield, the two cavalry forces came together with a crash, with honours even the result.

The key difference was that after the initial clash, the Muslim cavalry were in a better position to turn and charge the rest of the Persian line, and although this attack from the flank didn’t achieve a great deal in terms of casualties, it did stop the more mobile Sassanid horse running rings around my infantry in the centre.

This was a good thing, and meant that the Muslims could bring their foot forward and force the Sassanids to charge straight onto their spears rather than having to sit there and wait to either be killed by archery or overwhelmed from the flanks.

The battle had now broken up into a whirling series of individual melees with units turning this way and that and charging anything they could see. As an example, although my attack on the right near the enemy camp had petered out (some skilful manoeuvring from Si to get out of that one!), one of my Jund horse units retiring disordered from that went almost straight into action against the flank of an enemy cavalry unit who, in turn, were threatening the flank of one of my infantry units who, in turn, were in a position to flank charge other Persian horse!

A combat of such intensity couldn’t last: someone had to give and, as luck would have it, it was the Sassanids who collapsed first, one of their cavalry units eventually failing to evade some Berber Spearmen and giving me the last two coins I needed for the win.

A hard-fought, narrow victory for the Muslims, and a great game of To The Strongest.

6DW AAR: Breakthrough at Khan Yunis Crossroads

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A chance to get some of my Arab-Israeli toys onto the table as friend John and I fight an encounter from the 1967 Six Day War.

Click on the picture below to see all:

TTS AAR: Han Chinese versus Spartan

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Another opportunity to get the Han Chinese onto the table—this time without any proxies (aside from the delightfully anachronistic Boxers standing in for the Tribal Infantry). They faced what promised to be a stern test: a formidable Hoplite Greek army led by a contingent of veteran Spartans.

We deployed opposite one another, but before the first moves were made, friend Steve revealed he'd drawn the Take the High Ground stratagem. He advanced his Spartiates command another two boxes closer to my battle line and suddenly Leonidas and chums were right on top of me, and it looked as though this was going to be a very short—and extremely brutal—battle.

Steve’s plan soon became obvious: hit me hard on my right with the Spartans whilst the rest of his line protected their flanks by advancing in echelon, with the added bonus that the echelon formation would keep his men mostly out of range of my crossbows until the Spartans had finished their initial attack.

My plan, on the other hand, had been to attack his raw troops on my right flank (the ones with a yellow meeple on them in the pictures) and then to shoot crossbows at the rest of the Greeks until they’d had enough, but that had now been superseded by the situation (no plan survives first contact with the Spartans) and I’d now need to think of some other way of stopping the Lacedaemonian space invaders!

I had an overlap on the left, so decided to try and exploit that by getting around the enemy line there, and otherwise to hold the Spartiates with the Tribal Infantry (with three hits, it might take them long enough to be killed for my curl-around to happen) and otherwise to target all his single hit units - lights and a couple of “small” units of Hoplites - on the grounds that he had a lot of them and killing enough of them woudl therefore cost him a major number of coins.

One unit of Tribal Infantry therefore charged diagonally across the unit next to them and managed to kill the small unit of Hoplites at the front of the Spartan spearhead.

My lance-armed cavalry also charged forward diagonally, along with some spearmen and some very confused fighting and manoeuvring broke out.

Initially, the Spartiates and a Hoplite unit tried to take advantage of the supposed lack of manoeuvrability of my Tribal Infantry, who promptly confounded all expectations and danced forward and diagonally to threaten an attack on the unshielded side of the Hoplites. The other Tribal Infantry unit fell back disordered at the same time as my successful cavalry followed up forward, and eventually the situation ended up as shown in the final picture in the gallery below, with my cavalry heading off God knows where and the right hand units of my main infantry line coming in on the Spartiate right flank.

How were they able to do this, I hear you ask: well, my extra numbers on my left, facing Steve’s refused flank, had proved very successful in containing the Greeks, meaning that my infantry in the centre had been free to shoot down the enemy in front of them with their crossbows. This meant that my infantry in the centre were then free to execute a smart right turn and, as we saw above, threaten the flanks of the Spartiate command.

Inceidentally, the coffee stirrers in the pictures below delineate the two separate infantry brigades.

Meanwhile, my attempts to kill the raw command on the Spartiate left had failed miserably but, if you look at the picture below, you’ll see that the enemy troops in the raw command haven’t got anyone to fight, so are effectively wasting space, and although the Tribal Infantry are under some pressure from the Spartans themselves, they and the raw command are almost all the Greeks have left whereas my army is scattered but largely intact.

The end was nigh for the Greeks, and their final coin was lost when some of my crossbowmen, again coming in from the left, opened fire and shot down the Spartans’ mercenary Cretan archers.

I must confess that I’m still not sure quite how I won the game, but I think it boils down to me keeping the elite Spartiates occupied with the Tribal infantry whilst the rest of my army dealt with the rest of the Greeks. Oh, and keeping the raw command of Hoplites occupied by threatening them with a single Chinese heavy chariot (now deceased).

Lots of lessons learnt: which was a good thing as the To The Smallest tournament itself was approaching fast.

IABSM AAR: The Gates of Berlin

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Here’s another quick battle report from John Paul Hancock: a second playtest of the scenario he’s running at HMGS South Hurricon 2026.

Click on the picture below to see all:

TTS AAR: Han Chinese versus Siamese (Thai)

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I was keen to get my Han Chinese back onto the table, so when Rob had time for another game after his Siamese had thrashed my Khurasanians, we decided to see how they would fare against the Han.

I was keen to keep my meagre cavalry command away from the enemy elephants, so deployed them on the other side of the stream on the left hand side of the table. This was all well and good, but the Thai’s also deployed their horsemen there, meaning that four formed units of Thai horse now faced of against my two formed and two light Han units, meaning that I was out-matched melee-strength-wise even if three of my units had bow or crossbows.

I was therefore very pleased when the Thai cavalry failed to activate in turn one, meaning that I now had a chance of getting my main battle-line into position where I could use the low hill in the centre of the field. I was less keen on having my less-manoeuvrable tribal infantry in a secondary battle-line, but that was better than having them facing ‘thin air’ on the right flank.

Unfortunately, Rob’s cavalry would then prove very nimble (the rest at the start of the game obviously did them good!) and would come forward and beat my horsemen back: my only consolation was that Rob had more points tied up on the other side of the stream even if it looked as if I might end up losing all of mine!

Meanwhile, the rest of the Thai army was coming forward fast, undeterred by the ineffective volleys of crossbow bolts heading their way.

The first proper clash occured around the central hill, with my crossbowmen there forced back off the crest in exchange for disordering three Thai javelin units.

If I could convert those disorders into kills, then that would leave a sizable hole in the enemy centre, so I ordered my heavy chariots in the centre (Assyrian proxies!) around the back of the hill and onto the Thai left flank. I was expecting their re-positioning to take some time, but a crazy run of cards had them almost where I wanted them almost immediately.

Meanwhile the main Thai elephant strike force had impacted on the left side of my main battleline, which bowed but did not break, especially when I used the Someone Has Blundered stratagem to sow confusion into advancing Nellies.

I thought I was doing pretty well at this point, but then the Thais facing my troops on the hill surged forward again, killing my general there and sending two infantry units fleeing from the field.

Meanwhile, a good run of cards enabled the Thai cavalry to overwhelm my horsemen at the stream sooner than I had anticipated…and that left me out of coins and handing Rob the victory!

Well that had been a bit of a surprise defeat, my second in a row that day! All credit to Rob for getting his cavalry moving forward fast after their initial lethargy, and for getting his mass of infantry stuck in to my line. As he pointed out afterwards, that was the Thai’s first two wins after a string of five defeats: good for him, and just the sort of reality check I needed in the run up to To The Smallest rather than in it!

Celtic Chariots from Victrix

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With enough figures painted and based to make a 28mm Galatian or Gallic army, it was time for the final conversion work to begin: adding an Ancient British option. This entailed adding chariots and light cavalry to my existing collection. First up were the chariots.

I went for the Victrix plastic chariots firstly as the style would match what I already had, and secondly for cost reasons: although three 3D printed chariots will cost you about the same as the Victrix three-chariot pack (around £30), metal chariots can cost you £18 each!

The Victrix pack also comes with a host of options: yes, you can only build three chariots, but they provide enough parts for 20 individual figures (well, more accurately 6 x Drivers; 8 x Armoured fighting crew; 3 x Boudiceas and 3 x Druids) and all sorts of extra bits you can customise with (severed heads, ribbons etc). You can also buy a set of transfers that give you colourful side panels on the chariots, patterns for the crew shields, horse-chest-straps, main axle and wheel rims. All in all an excellent offering from Victrix.

I was, however, warned (by friends - and Victrix themselves in the instructions) that the chariots were a bit tricky to put together…but let me dispel that myth immediately. Yes, the chariots were more difficult to do than, say, standard Victrix infantry, but they weren’t that hard and I reckon the average modeller, if they follow the instructions carefully, won’t have a problem. Put it this way: if I can make them, then anyone can!

Construction Hints from Me

  1. Follow the instructions exactly except where I say don’t, below.

  2. Before gluing, re-drill all the holes with a pin drill. Not strictly necessary, but makes live easier.

  3. I painted everything before assembly i.e. I painted the following separately: the chariot body with yoke attached, each wheel, the driver, the warrior, the driver’s hands/reins and the mini front reins. Don’t attach the wheels before painting, as it makes it hard to paint the chariot body properly, and hard to use the transfers on the side-of-chariot-panels. Finally, and this is perhaps crucial: paint the mini front reins on the sprue…as you will need to be able to identify them individually (they are numbered on the sprue) in order to fit them properly.

  4. Once everything was painted, and the chariot panel transfers applied, I then stuck the wheels on and stuck the now-wheeled chariot onto a base with the horses. Note that the horses go long horse one side, short horse the other. You now have horses and chariot painted and mounted on a base and are ready for the more difficult bit: the driver and the reins.

  5. For steps 5-7 in the instructions, I found it (much) easier to do it this way. Once you have painted the driver and the driver’s hands/reins, stick the driver’s hands/reins to the driver (before you glue the driver in place) and let dry. Then put a blob of glue into each of the holes for the reins on the yoke, and onto the feet of the driver. The model is so accurately designed that you can now slot all four reins into the holes on the yokes and then put the driver into the chariot wherever he fits best. Much to my surprise, as it looks hard, I had no difficulty with this bit at all on any of the three I built.

  6. For step 11, you need to make sure that the mini front reins go on the correct horse in the correct place. The horses are different lengths (one is at a stretch, one is gathered) and therefore the distance between the yoke and the bit is different lengths, and each mini front rein is made to fit each side of each horse’s head individually. Just look at the diagram given in step 11 and build the chariot to match.

Basing the Chariots

I had to have a bit of a think about how to base the chariots. My 15mm chariots are on bases with a 30mm frontage and 60mm depth i.e. the horses are running straight at the enemy. That works in 15mm and for the models I have, but I really need 3-4 chariots per unit to match the 15cm grid I use for To The Strongest. Even on a 10cm competition grid, I’d need 2-3 chariots per unit…all of which adds up to needing an awful lot of chariots.

In 28mm however, I use a standard TTS base which is about 15cm frontage but, and it’s a crucial but, isn’t deep enough to take a Victrix chariot running straight at the enemy. I could put the chariots at a very slight angle, but that didn’t look right. I therefore took the decision to base my chariots running across the base i.e. with their sides towards the enemy. I justify this by saying that (a) it looks much better and (b) it represents the fast-moving chariots sweeping backwards and forwards across the battlefield as described by Caesar himself.

I also made the decision that the warrior would be in the chariot if he was carrying a javelin and dismounted if carrying a sword…which follows my belief that:

  1. It would be very hard to throw a javelin past the driver if you’re driving straight at the enemy, so you’re more likely to throw your javelin forwards at an angle as you are driven by the enemy. It’s the same principle as battleships fighting better in line abreast!

  2. Using a sword from a chariot, whilst carrying a large shield, would also be difficult. You need to swipe to the sides anyway as you have the driver in the way in front, you can’t grip your mount like a cavalryman so balance is a problem, and you’ve got the wheels to watch out for as well. Far easier to be brought into melee in your chariot, leap down and hack into the individual you’ve fastened your attention on foot, and then either charge the next chap or remount. Great if you’re fighting other Celts, not so good if you’re facing serried ranks of legionaries…which is presumably (along with the rise of the size/strength of horses) why use of the chariot died out: the usual Roman bad practice of refusing to fight man-to-man like a proper warrior!

The chariots do look good based like that but, just as a quick word of caution, in the first game of TTS I played with them, my opponent did say that at one stage he was confused as to which way they were pointing…but it was only a brief confusion early in the game so not enough to make me regret what I’d done.

Painting the Chariots

Everything was painted using Contrast paints, with shield transfers and chariot panels from Little Big Man Studios (available via Victrix) and all with cloaks from Weave of War.

I used Aggaros Dunes for the wickerwork on the chariots, then Gore Grunta Fur for the wood on the chariot body and yoke. The wheels were done using Wyldwood. The reins and other horse furniture were painted in Cygor Brown then highlighted using acyrlic Mournfang Brown. Finally I used an acrylic Bronze to highlight where bronze would have been used.

A Quick Summary

I am loving the three Victrix chariots I now have in my Ancient British army. They are mildly challenging to build, but that challenge is all focused around the reins, so if you follow my suggestions, it should be very much lessened.

There are so many options available in how you build, base and paint your chariots. I’ve chosen a lengthways mounting with dismounted swordsmen, but how you field them is really up to you.

In all, highly recommended.