TTS AAR: Reconquista Action!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Painting Challenge: First April Update

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Plenty of entries pouring in for this year’s Painting Challenge. Here’s a batch for the first and mid-April update.

Let’s start with Andrew Helliwell, and a selection of 15mm Napoleonic and 28mm Medieval figures, plus some scrath built trees.

Next up is Carole, again with a combination of Napoleonics and Medievals, but this time all in 28mm.

Next up we have Mr Luther and Mr Douglas, both sending in entries involving multiple small aircraft. On the left is Mark, with some WW2 aircraft for the Far East: Spitfires and a Japanese recce flight. On the right is Mervyn, with some WW1 machines.

Dex has now managed to add some support to his WW2 French infantry platoon in 15mm:

And last, but by no means least, Stumpy continues his Test of Honour journey with a most impressive 28mm dojo and some more character figures:

Let’s keep them coming!

TTS AAR: Early Crusader versus Arab Conquest

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another great game of TTS!

More Celts

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With the decision made to create a core Celtic force, it was now just a question of following up on the first warband by creating the other two warbands that could be fashioned out of a single bag of Victrix figures.

These actually took a lot less time to complete than the original warband: mainly, I think, because I sort of knew what I was doing now!

I used the same combination of Victrix plastics for the figures, LittleBigManStudios (now part of Victrix) for the shield transfers, and Weave of War for the cloaks. Full details can be found in the original post about my first warband: https://www.vislardica.com/blog/2026/3/4/first-of-the-celts

The only pain was the command figures: technically the 48-figure Victrix pack contains enough for two units and I was producing three, but I managed to bodge together a suitable leader, standard bearer and musician for each of the second two even if one of the two leaders isn’t wearing armour, one of the musicians has a horn not a carnyx, and one of the standard bearers has a shoulder built out of green stuff and an extra hand on the bottom of his pole!

So that was one bag of figures done…and I almost went straight into the second…but then I thought “well, I’ve got the Celtic infantry I need for a Carthaginian army: why I don’t I paint the Celtic cavalry I need for both a Celtic army and a Carthaginian army…and that way I don’t need to absolutely commit to one or the other for another four units”.

And that’s what I did. Here’s the first unit of Celtic horse:

I’m really pleased that the Weave of War cloaks fit nicely onto the cavalrymen as well as the infantrymen, although I think that for the next unit I’ll have the cloaks streaming out behind…like the horses’ tails!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unfortunately it was not to be.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On to the last game of the day…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A great game of To The Strongest.

Another Lust Playtest: Swedes versus Habsburg/Imperialists

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WW2 Belgian Armour in 15mm: various Artillery Tractors

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My final sets of 3D printed, 15mm Belgian WW2 models from bayonetsandbrushes.co.uk are some of the artillery tractors and the glorious trike troop-transporters!

First up, the Ford V8-97Y Marmon-Herrington Mle.1928 Light Artillery Tractor.

From their website:

The Ford V8-97Y Marmon-Herrington was an American-designed 4×4 artillery tractor, featuring a robust V8 petrol engine delivering approximately 85 horsepower. With a top speed near 65 km/h on roads and solid off-road capability thanks to its four-wheel drive and reinforced suspension, it was well suited for towing light artillery pieces and hauling supplies over Belgium’s mixed terrain. Its relatively compact size allowed it to manoeuvre easily in narrow lanes and rough country tracks.

Belgium acquired the Ford V8-97Y primarily to replace older, less capable artillery tractors. They were distributed to artillery regiments and mechanised units, valued for their speed and towing capacity. During the 1940 campaign, they performed admirably in moving guns and supplies, frequently operating under fire and over difficult terrain. Crews appreciated the tractor’s reliability, which rarely let them down despite the rigours of retreat.

Next up is the Vickers Carden-Lloyd Utility Tractor - Type B (Infantry).

This insanely small and top-heavy-looking tractor was a British-designed, licence-built tracked vehicle produced under contract in Belgium. Powered by a modest petrol engine, it was a simple, slow, but tough little tractor designed primarily for towing artillery pieces, supply trailers, and carrying infantry equipment across difficult terrain. It was lightly armoured, mostly against small arms and shrapnel, with a maximum speed of around 30 km/h.

If you want to see just how small this is, then watch the following episode of Does The Chieftain Fit Into...:

https://youtu.be/CjYxmlVk81I?si=XUpmv5Xu1AU7IAGr

Finally we have the excellent Tricycle FN Tricar T3 Light Troop Transports, my favourite piece of 3D printing ever: the intricacy and detail captured is superb, even if the vehicle itself is Heath Robinson in the extreme!

Again from the bayonetsandbrushes.co.uk website:

The FN Tricar T3 was a three-wheeled motorcycle truck built by Fabrique Nationale, designed for reconnaissance, liaison, and light transport duties. Powered by a modest single-cylinder engine producing around 7 horsepower, it was not built for speed—maxing out around 45 km/h—but its light weight and nimble three-wheel layout gave it excellent off-road agility and the ability to dart down narrow paths and rough fields.

The T3 featured a small cargo bed behind the driver’s seat capable of carrying a few hundred kilograms of supplies or equipment. Its frame was simple and lightweight, with a utilitarian open cockpit and minimal weather protection. The three-wheel design allowed it to negotiate tight turns and uneven terrain better than many four-wheeled vehicles, though it was prone to tipping if handled too aggressively (Ed’s note: you think?!)

Belgium deployed the Tricar T3 widely for courier and reconnaissance missions, particularly where speed and stealth were more important than firepower. The vehicle excelled in liaison roles, delivering messages, transporting small loads, or scouting ahead of main formations. Its small size made it popular with reconnaissance platoons and rear-area units needing quick and reliable transport.

So that’s it with the 15mm Belgian WW2 kit from bayonetsandbrushes.co.uk: superb stuff, very highly recommended!

Painting Challenge: Final March Update

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Just time to pop in a quick March update for this year’s Painting Challenge.

First up is Sapper, with some rather nice Romans of the Republican sort and a host of figures for the Wars of the Roses:

Next we have our regular submission from Mr Helliwell: all 15mm this time, and mostly Napoleonics with a smattering of AWI thrown in for good measure. Shown are only some of his entries; do please visit his gallery (accessible via the top navigation bar) to see all:

Zofficus has been busy this month: some Assyrian chariots and a rather large Swedish camp.

Here’s two more entries from Steve Burt: some Swiss and a Scots commander:

Mr Luther continues to add to his vast collection of 6mm aeroplanes, with another twenty-two models for the air way over China in 1944-5.

And finally last, but by no means least, Dex has painted up a platoon of early war French infantry:

Keep them coming!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WW2 Belgian Armour in 15mm: the T-13 Tank Destroyer

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More excellent 15mm 3D printed models from bayonetsandbrushes.co.uk: this time it’s the range of T-13 tank destroyers, the mainstay of the Belgian anti-tank arsenal.

These are lovely little models that I cannot wait to get onto the battlefield. They were painted by a sprayed undercoat of Vallejo English Uniform, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade, then drybrushed and highlighted with Vallejo Khaki Grey.

The T-13 B1

The first variant of the T-13, the B1, mounted a FRC Herstal built 47 mm Model 1931 anti-tank gun and a FN-built M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (a Belgian license-built Browning BAR machine gun in 7.65x53mm "Belgian Mauser" calibre instead of the American .30) in a turret on a Vickers Carden Loyd 1934 artillery tractor.

T-13 B1

Because of the general lay-out of the Vickers artillery tractor, the decision was taken to simply install the gun and its man-powered turret backwards on the vehicle so as to keep enough space for its three crew and ammunition. Armour was light, and would have protected the crew only from shell splinters and indirect blast, and the vehicle had no radio fitted.

About 32 B1s were delivered, and were used with the Frontier and covering forces; units in the Ardennes sector; and with early divisional anti-tank detachments.

The T-13 B2

The T-13 B2 really differed from the B1 only in the fact that it had a lower-profile turret arrangement with an improved gun mounting.

All 21 (23 according to some sources) T-13 B2s were apparently converted from the VCL artillery tractors of the Chasseurs Ardennais mountain troops and were mainly used to support them in the Ardennes sector.

T-13 B2

The T-13 B3

Despite the fact that the only change in designation was B2 to B3, the T-13 B3 was a significant re-design, with the base vehicle changed to the Vickers-Carden-Lloyd Light Dragon Mk. IIB that also formed the basis of the Belgian T-15 light tank. Also, rather than being imported, the basic chassis were produced under license by the Belgian Familleheureux company.

The larger, more powerful chassis meant that the turret could be pointed forward and had full traverse, and the four-man crew benefited from slightly better armour (13mm at the front, 7mm at the sides, rear was open). No radios were fitted.

T-13 B3

About 250 B3 had been built by May 1940, but up to about 50 were still at the factory or had no trained crew by the time the Germans invaded. They were issued to Infantry Division anti-tank companies; Cavalry Division reconnaissance and screening forces; and Fortified sector mobile reserves.

Operational History

A total of around sixteen T-13 companies with 12 vehicles each were fielded, together with a number of single vehicles and squads, making the T-13 the most numerous Belgian tracked vehicle of the war.

These T-13 companies were mostly added to some of the existing infantry divisions: the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 18th infantry division all had a single T-13 company on 10 May 1940. Only the 'Chasseurs Ardennais' 1st mountain division and the two cavalry divisions had two or three companies each.

In combat, they proved underpowered, prone to breakdown (especially the B1 and B2) and underarmoured. Lack of radios didn’t help. Their 47mm gun did, however, pack a significant punch, knocking out several German tanks in the various actions they fought in.

T-13 B3

TTS AAR: Aghlabids versus Gauls

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s an overview of the position so far:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WW2 Belgian Armour in 15mm: the Vickers T-15 and Carden-Lloyd Mk. VI

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More Belgian armour 3D printed by the excellent bayonetsandbrushes.co.uk

First up is the Vickers T-15 light tank.

These are teeny-tiny two-man tanks armed only with a Hotchkiss 13.2mm machine gun and with only 7-9mm of armour. It’s only advantage was its speed - it could reach 40mph - but lack of anything remotely ressembling a stabilisation system meant that that didn’t mean much anyway, and it was very prone to breakdown.

Only 42 T-15s were built and issued, and these were used mainly by cavalry divisions and the Chasseurs Ardennais: roughly 16 per cavalry division, plus small detachments (3 each) to several Ardennes Chasseur regiments, and one for training.

The T-15s entered combat almost immediately after the German invasion began, serving through the critical opening days of 10–13 May. Belgian cavalry formations employed them for reconnaissance and screening duties, probing advancing German columns and conducting delaying actions to slow the enemy’s momentum.

A notable engagement occurred on 12 May 1940 near Hannut, where a mixed Belgian cavalry detachment—equipped with both T-15 light tanks and T-13 tank destroyers—clashed with German armoured forces. Although the Belgians lost two of their own vehicles, they succeeded in knocking out two German tanks.

In late May 1940, a Belgian counterattack using T-13 and T-15 vehicles temporarily retook Knesselare, capturing about 150 German prisoners, but were then forced to withdraw when threatened by encirclement.

Next up is one of my favourite “wacky” vehicles of the early war period: the Carden-Lloyd Mk VI tankette with an FRC 47mm L30 Mod. 1931 anti-tank gun mounted on top.

These were experimental vehicles that quite frankly didn’t work. The recoil was too much for the chassis; the crew had very little protection; and adding the gun removed all the tankette’s already obsolete mobility!

Six of these were built before the design was abandonned, originally serving with the Chasseurs Ardennais then ending up with the Border Guards and actually firing at the Germans on the Meuse on 10th May 1040.

I only bought two of them, and am determined to get them onto the tabletop in the very near future!

Both sets of models were painted by a sprayed undercoat of Vallejo English Uniform, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade, then drybrushed and highlighted with Vallejo Khaki Grey.

TTS AAR: Aghlabids versus Italo-Normans - The Return Match

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With the Italo-Normans victorious in our first game, there was still plenty of time for the Aghlabids to have a go at evening up the score before I had to collect Mother from her event and start the four-hour return leg of my trip to Huddersfield.

Deployment was similar to the last game, but the Italo-Normans put even more of their cavalry facing my left flank.

The Italo-Normans moved first, and almost immediately I was in big trouble again as the enemy heavy cavalry shot down towards my flank and forced my light horse back into the camp.

Fortunately, my heavy cavalry were able to partially recover the position, but it was all looking rather cramped in that corner!

Sticking with the action here in the corner, things got worse again when the Italo-Norman horse broke the rear unit of Arab lancers and, further up the table, managed to get a two-to-one advantage on my other cavalry unit. The situation was only partially rescued by deploying my reserve infantry (purple flag, behind the rock) to support my beleaguered troops.

My light horse, in prime position to charge the corner unit’s flank managed to fail to do any damage whatsoever, and I watched with huge misgivings as Geoff pulled a card to turn his cavalry to face my lights. Fortunately, luck was with me, and I was able to use Someone has Blundered to force the enemy heavies into facing the wrong direction.

My lights then remembered which end of the javelin goes in the enemy, and sent the Italo-Normans flying from the table with a hail of javelin-fire (they can’t evade that!) including, again, killing the enemy general.

Elsewhere on the table, my infantry had formed two lines, hoping to shoot the deep enemy spearman units to pieces before contact was made. There was also some action on the far right, where more of my Arab lancers had squared off against more Italo-Norman heavy cavalry.

Geoff also had a unit off-table carrying out a flank march. He now drew a card to get it onto the table and succeeded. I checked the diagram in the rulebook and confidently told him that he could bring it on anywhere in the central sector of my right flank.

This was wrong: it could come on anywhere on the right hand table edge…and my only pitiful excuse is that a quick glance at the diagram does seem to have just the central sector highlighted…but if you look properly, it’s the central sector and the single strip along the right hand edge of the tabletop. Mea culpa and all that, and we’ll count the Arabs as having lost again as a heavy cavalry unit in my right rear could have been very unpleasant indeed.

As it happens, I did get it wrong, and his cavalry entered the table just behind the melee that was already going on (it’s the unit with the Nine of Spades next to it).

This, of course, left the newly-arrived Italo-Norman horse in a prime position to be charged by my black-flag lancers, provided my lancers could get through the other Italo-Norman cavalry (the disordered unit)…needing only a 3+ to get their charge in.

Well, I had two turns to try and make the charge, and failed both times: the cards obviously aware that I had made a mistake with the table-entering position!

Which meant that it was on the other side of the table that the battle would be decided, as the two infantry lines had still not made contact.

In the end, the Italo-Normans lost their last couple of coins when their last remaining cavalry on the left was overwhelmed by numbers: the use of my reserve infantry meaning that I had three units versus one. Hit in the rear after evading, that was that!

So another closely fought battle, with the Arabs coming away with a victory overturned on a you-got-the-rules-wrong technicality. I also think Geoff captured more medals over the two battles combined than I did.

My thanks to Geoff for being such a great opponent, and to Gemini Games for their hospitality. I look forward to hitting Huddersfield again some time in the future.

WW2 Belgian Armour in 15mm: the Berliet VUDB

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More models from the excellent bayonetsandbrushes.co.uk range of 3D printed 15mm WW2 Belgian armour: this time the Berliet VUDB armoured cars. From their website:

The Berliet VUDB (Véhicule Utilitaire de Dépôt Blindé) was an armoured personnel carrier of French design, adapted from a pre-war colonial troop transport. Developed in the early 1930s by Berliet of Lyon, this peculiar machine featured a fully enclosed body mounted atop a 4×2 commercial truck chassis. Armour thickness was modest at best—around 9mm at its thickest, enough to protect against small arms and the occasional Gaulish kipper slap—but not much else. It had a petrol engine producing roughly 55 horsepower, making it about as zippy as a hungover snail on cobblestones. Top speed was approximately 45 km/h on roads—though “road” is a generously enthusiastic term for Belgium in May 1940.

These were painted by a sprayed undercoat of Vallejo English Uniform, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade, then drybrushed and highlighted with Vallejo Khaki Grey.

When the German invasion began in May 1940, the Belgians had about twelve VUDBs, but they were never concentrated into one unit: most of them served in small detachments with the Gendarmerie and ad-hoc army reconnaissance groups.

Here’s what ChapGPT and I have managed to piece together:

Frontier screening around Liège (10–11 May)

A small group of VUDBs attached to frontier security forces operated east of Liège on the first day of the invasion. They carried out reconnaissance along the Meuse crossings and road axes toward Verviers and Tongeren. One vehicle was reported as damaged and abandoned after an encounter with German advance scouts supported by light anti-tank fire.

Albert Canal – Diest / Aarschot line (12–13 May)

As Belgian forces pulled back from the Albert Canal, at least one VUDB section covered the retreat near Diest and Aarschot. These cars acted as mobile machine-gun posts, delaying German reconnaissance units attempting to seize bridges intact. Belgian accounts describe one vehicle knocked out by a 3.7 cm anti-tank gun, and another scuttled by its crew after being immobilised.

Leuven road network and Dyle position (13–14 May)

During the Allied deployment on the Dyle line, a few VUDBs were used as liaison and traffic-control vehicles around Leuven. When German pressure increased and the line began to give way, they were drawn into short firefights with German motorcycle troops and armoured cars. At least one VUDB was left behind intact in a roadside ditch after an air attack, later falling into German hands.

Rearguard fighting west of Brussels (15–16 May)

There were now very few VUDBs still available, and these were used as rearguard escorts for retreating columns moving west of Brussels toward the Scheldt. Belgian reports mention armoured cars covering demolitions and roadblocks, sometimes engaging German advance parties at close range. Several were destroyed or burned by their crews when they ran out of fuel during these withdrawals.

Final actions toward Ghent–Scheldt sector (17–18 May)

The last operational VUDBs appear in scattered references during the withdrawal toward Ghent and the Scheldt defensive line. They were used mainly for column protection and anti-parachutist/security patrols, with some lost in minor skirmishes with German infantry and others were abandoned intact due to breakdown or encirclement.

TTS AAR: Aghlabids versus Italo-Normans

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I had to take Mother to Huddersfield (well, she’d managed to find her way back from Nottingham…) and faced the prospect of a long day with nothing to do whilst I waited for her event to finish. Luckily, in a post-match chat after the recent Doubles, fellow TTS-player, Geoff, mentioned that Huddersfield was his neck of the woods and, moments later, a game was arranged.

I liked Huddersfield: from Greggs on the main drag at six-thirty in the morning for a ‘sausage and bacon bap with red’ right through to Travelodge late at night, everyone was very pleasant. Lots of places to charge your car as well. Geoff and I met at Cafe Valencia, just around the corner from Gemini Games, the venue for our battle, where they bring you a proper pot of tea, with an egg-timer to make sure you let it mash for long enough.

Geoff wanted to get his Anglo-Normans onto the tabletop, which suited me just fine as I could then field the Aghlabid version of the Early Muslim, North Africa and Sicily army list, meaning that what I would transport to Huddersfield was a 15mm 3D printed resin army rather than a ton-weighing metal one. This proved to be a good decision, as the nearest carpark to Gemini Games was closed for repairs, which meant parking on the other side of town and using the Roman Baggage Train (my camping trolley) to wheel the Aghlabids to where the action was.

Gemini Games were very accomodating: providing a large table at the back of the shop’s gaming area free of charge, even though their main business seemed to be collectable/strategy card games such as Magic: the Gathering.

I won the scouting, and weighted my army on the left, intending to quickly wipe out the three units of horse in front of me using a four-formed-plus-two-lights verses three-formed advantage in numbers, with a couple more infantry units in reserve if needed. The rest of the army sat back and waited for the Anglo-Normans to advance, confident that they could bow them to death as they did so.

Unfortunately, that plan didn’t quite work out as I had intended.

On the left, Geoff’s three cavalry units made mincemeat of my more numerous Arabs, and I soon found myself down half my coins and very much unable to contemplate any kind of outflanking manoeuvre there.

Worse, on the right, the Anglo-Norman horse managed to burst through the end of my line, and proceed to do to me exactly what I had been hoping to do to them!

Some of the Italo-Norman cavalry that had broken through then kept pursuing my light horse, curling around towards my camp in another threatening manouevre.

I needed to stabilise my line, but only had a unit of disordered Bowmen to do so. They did have a good position on the flank of enemy cavalry, but their attack failed, with the Italo-Norman horse then turning to face them.

This was not good, but I did have a moment of hope when the enemy horse faltered for a second and I used my Someone Has Blundered stratagem, but unfortunately the enemy cavalry didn’t succumb to this attack either - very unsporting of them - and they soon turned back again and disposed of the unfortunate archers.

The death of the bowmen let the enemy cavalry through onto my flank and, despite the fact that the Black Guard had some success to their front, it was only a matter of time before I lost my last few coins and the battle…helped by the cards letting Geoff’s final attack go in.

It had been an excellent game, full of successes and reverses for both sides (I had killed one of Geoff’s generals on the left flank in just about the first combat). A significant victory for the Italo-Norman cavalry, with their infantry hardly involved at all!