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.

TTS AAR: Khurasanians versus Siamese (Thai)

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Time to give the Khurasanians another test, this time against Rob’s Thai army with all its anti-cavalry elephants.

The Khurasanians won the scouting, and set up in a position to sweep down and around the Thai’s left flank. There were a lot of those elephants in the centre of the battlefield, but as just about every Khurasanian carries a bow, I was confident that I could shoot them all down before we got into contact.

As soon as the battle began, I therefore shot forward along the right hand side of the battlefield, hanging back on the left where I was aided by some extreme hesitation by the Thai infantry there.

My Turkomen horse-archers were soon within range, and a volley of arrows towards the lumbering Nellies, but all to no effect.

I had got around the Thai left flank with one command of cavalry, but their infantry there had turned to face my lancers to force a stalemate that I would usually have broken by hitting their other flank from the centre…but unfortunately my horse-archers were still trying to deal with the elephants there, who remained impervious to arrow-fire.

Worse, the rest of the Thai infantry had got moving and, although mostly not very good troops, quantity has its own quality and there were an awful lot of them!

By using the elephants to hold the centre, Rob had now managed to carry out his plan, which was to swing the battlefield around so we were fighting lengthways up and down the table rather than across.

His troops on his right executed a neat 90° turn and suddenly it was me fighting to protect my flanks not him…and his elephants in the centre were still shrugging off arrows like they were made of rubber!

Although my infantry were holding up the flank attack coming in from the left, there seemed to be nothing I could do to stop the Nellies advancing forward. More arrows headed their way: still no kills. Incidentally, after the battle ended, we calculated that the elephants had been shot at 24 times and just kept on advancing like big, grey, wrinkly space invaders, rather than the 3.6 kills (i.e. all of them) probability would suggest would happen.

The elephants got in amongst my heavy cavalry, and suddenly my centre began to collapse! Worse, my left flank also gave way under sheer weight of numbers, and Rob was even able to drop an elephant unit back to help defeat my flanking attack, which rapidly ran out of steam as even more arrows bounced off the Nellies.

Unbelievably, I was still only down six of my fourteen coins: it was the situation on the battlefield not casualties that was the problem.

The end can come very quickly in some games of To The Strongest, and it did so here. Rob took full advantage of his positional superiority and moved in quickly for the kill. Fittingly, it was the elphants that delivered the coup de grace: taking out two units of Ghilman veteran cavalry and their officer for a loss of six coins in one melee.

So a catastrophic 14-0 loss for the Khurasanians that I am firmly blaming on those pooping elephants!

How three one-hit units saving on 6+ can survive so many attempts to cut them down with bowfire I do not know. It was up to Rob to celebrate his victory by providing a fitting image to finish off this battle report…

TTS AAR: Khurasanians versus Marian Romans

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More practice for To The Smallest: this time my Khurasanians would take on Si’s Marian Romans

Unsurprisingly, the Khurasanians won the scouting, so I deployed in order to hold the Roman legionaries in the centre of the field whilst my much superior cavalry smashed their hodge podge of Gallic, Roman and Persian cavalry from the field on the right, and swept round to outflank them on the left.

As the battle began, my horsemen swept forward as planned, and soon the game was split into three distinct sectors: the left, the centre and the right.

On the left hand side, my cavalry shot past the Roman right flank and then turned to do battle. Unfortunately, the Marians have very manoeuvrable infantry, and rather than face the rear of the Roman line, they faced some fierce-looking legionaries determined to protect their comrades’ open side.

Si then conducted a textbook demonstration of how to counter cavalry with infantry as, for the rest of the battle, the forces on my left fought each other to a standstill, with neither side gaining the upper hand. My only consolation was that this action tied up half the Roman legionaries (the bits of his army I was afraid of) for half of my cavalry, leaving all my infantry and half my cavalry to deal with half his infantry (the veteran half, unfortunately) and his hodge-podge cavalry.

On the right flank, my cavalry swept forward confident of victory.

This, of course, proved to mean “over-confident of victory” and, for a moment, it looked as if I was going to be beaten back on this flank.

Fortunately my Ghilman lancers proved why I pay so many points for them, and although I was definitely losing this flank, the position at the end of the battle was an 'honours-even draw.

That left the centre to decide things, where five units of veteran Roman legionaries faced six units of Arab spearmen, half of them with extra bows.

Fortunately for me, the initial Roman attack was piecemeal, as some of his infantry had turned to help his cavalry out in their battle on the right flank against my horsemen. This allowed me to pepper his line with arrows, killing two enemy cohorts (one base’s worth) and increasing my advantage from 6:5 to 6:4.

This numerical advantage allowed me to get some of my infantry onto the flank of the Roman line, and from there it was just a matter of time before the legionaries gave way. I was helped by the cards a little bit, especially when the Roman eagle-bearer was killed, and victory was mine with the demise of three of the five veteran legionary units.

Somewhat wierdly, the infantry fight in the centre of the table that would eventually decide the game seemed very much as sideshow, as both Si and I spent most of our time concentrating on the action on the flanks. It took a bit of time for the veteran legionaries to get moving in the centre: something that definitely played out to my foot-archers’ advantage.

A great game of TTS.

TTS AAR: Khurasanians versus Western Han Chinese

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Another practice game for To The Smallest: I would use the Khurasanians I’m using for the competition, John would use my newly painted Han Chinese army, and had even chosen a t-shirt to match their colour scheme!

As the Chinese had no cavalry on their open left, my first move was to send a command of Ghilman cavalry down that side of the table in an attempt to outflank the enemy’s main line. Despite having the right cards and manoeuvring into the perfect position, the attack itself was underwhelming, inflicting only a single disorder. Still, I had turned the Chinese flank and was well placed to build on the position.

On the opposite flank, I had managed to get my other cavalry command tangled up in the woods bordering the stream. Although they outmatched the Chinese in both numbers and quality, the rough terrain kept them tied down for the rest of the battle. The enemy units they eliminated were welcome additions to my coin tally, but the price was that my cavalry never made it back to the centre to influence the decisive fighting there.

Meanwhile, in the centre, John had sent the rest of his infantry, both regular and his tribal levies, forward to try and break my main line.

With some of his troops still having to react to my flank manouevre, I was able to contain the Chinese foot soldiers…but only just, especially after their heavy chariots (Assyrian proxies!) joined in the fun.

But it was back to the flanking attack to finish John off, despite an unfortunate encounter with the Someone has Blundered stratagem, especially as some success in the centre had freed up a couple of infantry units to help.

The coup de grace came from these infantry units: the Chinese camp falling to their advance:

A workmanlike win for the Khurasanians but, more importantly, lessons learnt in preparation for To The Smallest.

TTS AAR: First Outing for the Han Chinese

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More practice for the To The Smallest competition: this time my newly painted Han Chinese (so newly painted that I still had a couple of proxies in there: half an Arab camp, an Assyrian four-horse chariot, and some 19th Century Boxers) versus Si’s Sassanid Persians.

As the battle opened, the Sassanids advanced rapidly, particularly on my left flank. I wasn't overly concerned, as I had deployed my infantry two ranks deep in that sector, both to protect my camp and because I simply had too many foot units to fit into a single line. My greater concern was the right flank, where my relatively weak cavalry was positioned. Fortunately for me, the cards worked in my favour, and the Persian forces on that side were slow to press their attack.

Massed mounted bowfire against my left did cause me some initial problems, particularly as Persian lancers then targeted my melee-weak crossbowmen, but the hail of quarrels that I sent back evened things out.

On my right, my mounted crossbowmen were quickly dispatched, but the Sassanid horsemen still hung back a bit, hopefully giving me enough breathing room to break his army elsewhere before they brurst through and curled in towards the flank of my main line.

Up until this point, my attention had been firmly on my flanks, but then disaster struck in the centre!

A “Lost” (via a stratagem) Persian unit of horse archers burst into the rear of my Pagoda camp, costing me three coins immediately, and more Persian lancers got through my first infantry line to threaten the crossbowmen of the second line right in front of my other camp.

Fortunately my infantry on the far left had now managed to beat the Sassanids in front of them, so whilst some of my troops kept pressing forwards, I was able to bring others back to help re-take one camp and help defnd the other.

A fierce battle for the camps developed, and although I eventually managed to shoot the enemy horse archers in the left hand camp down, it was only the heroic defence put up by the crossbowmen in front of the right hand camp that allowed me to stabilise the situation.

There were more Chinese heroics on the right flank, where the horse archers kept a command of Sassanids occupied rather than letting them turn and attack my right flank.

To summarise the situation: the left flank was won, but I had nothing left there that could contribute to the rest of the battle. The right was lost, but the enemy there were tied up pursuing my slowly retreating horse archers. The camps in the centre were retaken/held, but the forces I had there were busy mopping up the last of the Sassanid central attackers. The coin count to date was in my favour, but I only had three or four coins left, so couldn’t really afford to lose more. The only place where I could properly win the game was in the centre, where my command of tribal foot and a single heavy chariot (the Assyrians!) faced more bow-armed Persian lancers.

There was nothing for it but to send the Tribesmen and Chariot forward and see what they could do!

The Sassanid lancers were just as keen to engage. They needed to kill one of my units there to win the game before the rest of my troops killed anything else of theirs elsewhere on the table: something that was quite likely in the areas off to the left and around my camps.

It was an epic clash: thousands of tribal warriors and some heavy chariots charging and being charged by Sassanid lance-armed cavalry. The advantage swayed backwards and forwards but eventually the tribal warriots prevailed (admittedly helped by some regular infantry coming in from the left!) and the last Persian coin was mine!

Victory for the Han Chinese…but there was barely anything left on the table that could celebrate. An epic battle that came right down to the wire!

Bulk of the Han Chinese now finished

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With the Celts now converted from Galatians to Gauls, it was time to settle down and finish off my nascent Han Chinese.

I’d already completed the dagger-axe men and the spearmen, so first on the painting table were the other mainstay of the army: the foot crossbowmen. These are again Lurkio cast metal figures with 3D printed Song Chinese command figures from Ten Kingdoms via MicksBits on Etsy: three units of formed crossbowmen and two units of lights (which can convert to six and four for a 10cm grid).

As with all the Lurkio figures, I found half the poses were absolutely cracking and half were shop window mannequins: the one with the crossbow at their shoulder about to fire or slung over one arm for transport being the worst examples of the latter.

I now needed a rest from painting infantry, so switched to the Han Chinese’s rather limited cavalry contingent. Here I used only Lurkio figures (available from Gripping Beast) and completed one unit of “lancers” (cavalry with dagger-axe), two units of mounted crossbowmen, and three units of horse archers that I painted in blue rather than red to represent the fact they are Xiongnu tribesmen recruited from the Chinese’s main opposition to the north.

Now onto some fun: the officers and a camp.

The officers are all from Ten Kingdoms’ Song Chinese range sourced, as always, from the excellent MicksBits on Etsy: fast service, great prints, and Mick will willingly print “off menu” for any specials you need.

These figures specifically represent three characters from the Water Margin stories that I first encountered in the 70’s through the Japanese TV series shown on BBC2 with the narration by Burt Kwok (“Do not despise the snake for having no horns, for who is to say it will not become a dragon?”) and dubbing by Mariam Margolyes and a host of others. Not historically accurate for my Han Chinese, but a must-have none-the-less!

From left to right:

  • Gongsun Sheng: a Taoist priest turned grand strategist

  • Lin Chong "Panther Head": sought redemption by helping the Song dynasty fight the Khitan-Liao but betrayed (by the evil Gao Qiu) after the war had finished

  • Li Kui: trusted bodyguard of bandit leader Song Jiang, the story’s archetypal reckless but loyal brute.

These are lovely models that print and paint up really well. Highly recommended.

Finally for today’s post, a camp:

This might look as if I have learnt to build model pagodas, but the building is a one-piece object from Aliexpress, appropriately produced and delivered from China itself. It’s part of a large range of similar products that would allow you to build the whole of the Forbidden City if you so wished! It only cost about a fiver including postage so is highly, highly recommended.

The figures outside the pagoda are from Lurkio: the “camp” pack. As you can see, you get two chaps chopping wood, two chaps cooking (includes pot, fireplace and the two racks), a straw Jong for practicing sword work and an archery target. I added the wood to be chopped (matches cut to size) and the swordsman (a Ten Kingdoms Song Chinese swordsman). I love this sort of thing, and I hope you agree that, combined with the pagoda, it makes a fine camp scene.

Just the chariots, more command and the heroes to go now…

TTS AAR: Khurasanians versus Sassanid Persians

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With the annual To The Smallest 15mm tournament only a couple of weeks away, it was time to get in some practice games, especially as ‘Smallest uses a 10cm grid rather than the more usual 15cm one, meaning a larger playing area, bigger armies (160 vs 130-140 points) and some specific rule changes.

Sid, the tournament organiser, had already published diagrams of the intended table set ups (each representing a different historical battlefield) so for this game we elected to fight over Beneventum in southern Italy, the last battle of the Pyrrhic War fought between the forces of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus in Greece, and the Romans, led by consul Manius Curius Dentatus (the result was a strategic Roman victory and Pyrrhus was forced to return to Tarentum, and later to Epirus).

I was going to use a Khurasanian army (a mix of two commands of Arabic infantry and two commands of Turkic cavalry) and would, for this first practice game, face Si’s Sassanid Persians.

I didn’t want to risk my cavalry getting entangled in the woods to my left, so controversially deployed (L to R) a command of infantry, a command of cavalry, a command of infantry, and a command of cavalry. All my plans were then promptly kicked into touch as Si played the This Way Effendi strategum on me, meaning my troops on the left were pushed back three boxes leaving a hole at that end of the line!

Initial deployment seen from behind the Persian lines

“Don’t listen to him, with his effendis and all that: the battlefield is this way!”

Fortunately I had won the scouting, so I was able to restablish my line before the Sassanids could take advantage, but the delay meant that I could only watch as the Persian horsemen thundered towards me.

Unfortunately for Si, the luck was really with me and had seriously deserted him for this game: I couldn’t fail an activation, miss with a bow, or flunk a melee hit and the Sassanids couldn’t save a thing.

My initial volley of arrows disordered three of four of his units, and when my Ghilman horsemen followed up, they cut through the enemy like a lance through butter! Things were so good that I even sent my infantry forward on the attack, not something you often see when spearmen face heavy cavalry!

The Persian right flank was forced to withdraw, my lancers burst through the Persian centre, and the Sassanid left was reduced to a couple of units of horse archers trying to hold up the Khurasanian high tide!

The climax came quickly: all the holes in the Sassanid line meant that my light Turkoman light cavalry could find the flanks of the heavier Persian horse, and it was soon all over for an emphatic 14-0 victory for the Khurasanians.

Much as I would love to chalk this up to my brilliant strategy and tactics, it was one of those games where everything went my way. On to the next one…

TTS AAR: Alexander vs Darius (again)

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Neil and I had already played Alexander’s Macedonians versus Darius’ Persians twice, with honours even, so a final, decider was warranted.

It wouldn’t be an exact replay, as we didn’t have quite as much table as usual to play with, so we removed a command from each side meaning that we’d play through with about 200 points per list rather than our previous 240.

The MaccyD’s lost the deployment so set up as traditional dictated: heavy infantry in the centre, cavalry on the wings. I was very worried about my left flank where four units of generally poor quality cavalry faced six units of decent Persian horsemen, so what I needed was for Alex to punch through quickly on the other win whilst the pikemen advanced in the centre. Annoyingly, Neil picked the This Way Effendi strategy chit and used it to push the left hand infantry command back a square: something that would have huge significance later in the game.

As battle commenced, I pushed forward across the line except for the left hand cavalry command which largely sat and waited for the Persians to come to them. You can see in the picture below how the left hand infantry command is still one square behind their colleagues on the right.

The first action was on the right flank, where Alexander and his Companions looked set to crash into the Persian cavalry led by Darius. Annoyingly, the Companions were disordered by bow fire on their final approach, so rather than dashing all before them, the combat degenerated into a grinding stalemate with neither side able to get an advantage.

I sought to break the deadlock by having one of my right-hand pike units attack some Persian cavalry on the diagonal, which sort-of worked, but combined with another pike block being disordered by missile fire and stubbornly refusing to rally, I now had my two most powerful commands distracted from the main task of punching through to the enemy camp and the six coins it represented. I can’t even blame the heat for this tactical lapse (we were gaming during one of the recent record-breaking heatwaves) as Neil’s wargaming shed was delightfully air-conditioned!

Meanwhile the Persian cavalry on the other wing had managed to get their act together (Neil did draw a lot of Aces for activation throughout the battle) and come forward.

The Macedonian non-elites facing them put up a very brave fight, but six decent versus four poor is a fairly foregone conclusion, and things were soon looking very bloody for my horsemen: the only good thing being that Neil seemed to want to finish them all off rather than heading into the centre to threaten the flanks of the infantry there.

I now rather belatedly woke up to the fact that as my flanks were both crumbling, I really needed my heavy infantry to stop messing around and get forward and get stuck in, especially as I had been well ahead on coins through clearing off a load of Persian lights but was now, with the collapse of my cavalry commands, just about back to parity.

This is where the significance of that This Way Effendi strategem comes into play. With my right hand infantry command still trying to re-orientate the axis of its attack back onto the enemy camp, I needed my left hand infantry command to quickly wipe out the Persian mobs and lesser troops in front of them: not a problem provided you are far enough up the table to get at them!

In short, Neil was now holding the troops facing my left hand infantry command back and retreating those now facing my right hand infantry command, meaning that although my pikemen would win every melee they fought, they just couldn’t fight enough of them to deal the Persians a mortal blow…and I was rapidly running out of coins as my two cavalry commands crumbled!

It was now the climax of the battle. From the vast number of victory coins we had started with, we both both down to our final few. Alexander had been forced off the table as the Companions he commanded were routed and, under the new Even Stronger amends, he was too far from any other Macedonian unit to transfer, but all I needed to do was to take out one more Persian unit or take the Persian camp to win, and the initiative was mine.

Could I do it?

No, I couldn’t, and could only watch as Neil finally managed to kill the last unit in my left hand cavalry command (which had been hanging on for dear life) and take my last four coins. Victory for the Persians!

So why did the Macedonians lose despite their initial success in clearing away all the Persian light?

Partly due to Alexander’s strong cavalry command having a very bad day, but mostly because I failed to get my heavy infantry stuck in early enough for them to win the day…and that was partly because I allowed myself to take my eyes off the main prize and partly due to Neil’s use of This Way Effendi at the start of the game and then his retreats in the centre as I pushed fowards in the battle’s final moments.

An excellent game of TTS!

TTS AAR: Gauls versus Early Imperial Romans

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A second battle using my newly finished Gauls: this time against a formidable Early Imperial Roman army consisting of five units of veteran legionaries (red shields) supported by a couple of units of standard legionaries, auxilia and cavalry. History would suggest that this was going to be a big ask of my troops!

Despite winning the scouting, Peter managed to play his usual trick of weighting his men onto one flank (my left) in an attempt to fight only a portion of my army with all of his. Not a problem on this occasion, however, as I used my initiative to start moving warbands left whilst holding back my main line.

After an initial slow start, the Romans got moving pretty rapidly, and it looked as if it was going to be a race between his veterans attacking my left flank and the main body of my troops trying to punch through his centre.

Battle was joined right the way across the left hand side of my line, with my Gauls taking the worst of it in the initial clash but, showing a fine bit of resilience, surviving to start giving as good as they were getting.

A big turning point was Peter replaying a natural “10” only to draw an Ace whilst attempting to turn a legionary unit onto the flank of my cavalry…

…and soon the centre-left was looking decidedly bare of troops with the action in that part of the field now fully focused on the bottom left hand corner of the table. It’s worth noting that at this point Peter had lost two Roman generals and was feeling the pain of that “+1 for out of command” penalty.

The schwerepunkt now switched to the area just in front of the Roman castrum, where units from my central command, backed up by those I’d switched from the right flank, were now threatening hard. Once again, it was a unit of slingers adding their weight of fire at the critical moment that made the difference (pictures top and bottom right in the gallery, below) and I was also being helped by the cards allowing my somewhat unwieldy warbands to manouevre just how I wanted.

Kudos also now to the troops in the bottom left hand corner of the field, where the Gallic cavalry managed to disorder their legionary opponents, with the warband next to them going one better to defeat the Romans in the woods in front of them!

The battle was now reaching its climax, with both sides nearing exhaustion. The Gauls survivied a final push from the Romans…

…and then, with a mighty roar, broke into the enemy camp to take three coins and the win!

(Looks easy, but start with a base 2+, add two for moving diagonally makes 4+, add two for the rough ground of the camp makes 6+, add two for crossing fortifications makes 8+, and I drew an ‘8’. Oh, and you have to ignore the lights defending the parapet right in front of you!)

To show you how close it was, I had lost 11 coins by this stage, so if one more warband had broken, victory would have gone to the Romans.

As it was, a very satisfactory result, with the Gauls proving both manoeuvrable and resilient right the way through the army from the warriors to the cavalry to the lights. Another cracking game!

TTS AAR: Fanatical Berbers versus Early Feudal Spanish

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Time for another game of To The Strongest in 2mm: I would play the Fanatical Berbers against Neil’s Early Feudal Spanish.

I lost the scouting and could only watch in horror as Neil deployed the vast majority of his army in a schwerepunkt against my right flank.

Not only that but, as the action began, the command he had left behind on my left turned and headed right to join their comrades…who were advancing rapidly towards me as fast as their horses could carry them.

Fortunately for me, Neil’s attempt to consolidate his commands on my right meant that the light cavalry I had deployed on my left could sweep forward and flank charge the Spanish troops moving sideways.

Although the latest Even Stronger now prevents light cavalry charging through other light cavalry, I was fortunate enough to have the time and space to hit the unfortunate sideways-movers from flank and rear, rapidly wiping out one formed unit, one light unit and a general for an immediate five coin advantage, and even threaten the final unit of lights as well.

Meanwhile, on the right, my counter-advance had brought the two sides within easy charge distance and a messy and extremely savage series of melees broke out with neither side particularly gaining the advantage.

If it helps when looking at the photos below, I’m using green disordered markers and Neil is using white skulls. It’s also worth noting that all the luck in the cards seemed to be with me: I was saving hits like there was no tomorrow and Neil, er, wasn’t!

Given that we each lost at least one unit in the kesselschlacht shown above, I was now feeling fairly confident of victory. I mean I was something like seven or eight coins to three ahead with thirteen getting the win, and my lights on the left were in a perfect position to sweep down onto the largely undefended Spanish camps.

My hubris was, of course, immediately punished by Lady Luck: my next two turns neatly preventing my lights from doing anything remotely ressembling sweeping, and the tide turning against me on the right, with even the elite Black Guard suffering the effects of my current run of misfortune.

Neil, meanwhile, had been battling away, refusing to give up. His cavalry on the right had taken full advantage of my troops’ card-enforced pause in doing anything and had effectively won the fight there, and the ‘scores on the doors’ were now showing that the coin count was just about even.

I now had two coins left, Neil had one, so whoever broke the next unit would win the game, and it looked as if I was about to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!

The rest of that turn was very frustrating: all my possibilties being nerfed by the cards again.

In Neil’s next turn, he managed to drive my light cavalry (bottom-right in the picture, above) off the table, meaning that we were now even on coins and into what was effectively a sudden death match!

Fortunately, lights from the left came to my rescue: their general ordering them to throw their javelins at the enemy lights in the nearest camp. I scored a hit, and Neil (despite the advantages of being in a fortified camp) pulled just one pip lower than he needed: the lights were routed and I had won the game - just!

An absolutely cracking game of TTS that played out in only just over 90 minutes. It was the sit-down I needed afterwards that took the time!

TTS AAR: Gauls versus Vikings

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Time to get the Celts back on the tabletop. Up until now they’ve manifested as Galatians, but I’d now had a chance to paint enough missile-armed light infantry to field them as Gauls…so today’s encounter would be Gauls against Vikings using To The Strongest.

The Gauls outscouted, and I managed to get all my cavalry onto the Vikings’ open wing on the right. The Scandies had, however, put their six units of veteran Huscarls (armed with big choppers) on their right, so I faced them with my two veteran warbands and hoped they could hold out until the cavalry had done its job.

Note that the Viking longship represents a three-square fortified camp: something that would prove highly significant in the battle that followed.

Things began with me advancing forward strongly on the right, with my cavalry aiming to outflank as my infantry pinned the enemy in place. As planned, I kept my left wing back and was lucky in that my opponent, Peter, drew poor cards and couldn’t, initially get his lethal Huscarls moving.

As battle was joined in the centre, my cavalry swept in from the flank…but to little or no effect: Peter had manoeuvred into an echelon formation anchored on his fortified camp which protected the flanks of nearly all his infantry, and those footsoldiers that I could get at stubbornly resisted my attempts to run them down.

Nothing I did with the cavalry seemed to work, and my “brilliant manouevre” looked like being nothing more than an inconvenience for the Vikings, even when the cards did decide to help me out a little. It was only the intervention of some slingers that actually managed to break one of his infantry units, even with my multiple flank attacks.

Meanwhile the infantry melee in the centre had drawn just about everyone else into one big scrap, and my poor Gauls were getting the worst of it.

Fortunately, I now managed to bring the warbands on the right into play: crashing them into the centre anyhow just to take the pressure off the rest of my troops.

Every surviving unit on both sides was now engaged either in the mass melee in the centre or on the right where my cavalry were still trying to win the game for the Gauls. Both sides were hemorrhaging coins, and the result was totally in the balance.

Ultimately, however, it was the Gauls who broke first: one of my veteran warbands (who’d already lost their general) finally giving up the ghost when assailed from front and flank. A victory for the Vikings!

It had been a very close and exciting game. I still can’t quite work out why my cavalry didn’t sweep all before them but, looking through the pictures above, it was probably down to a combination of brilliant manouevring on Peter’s part backed up by some very lucky “save” cards. If the cavalry had been able to break even just one of the Viking units they had spent most of the game attacking from the flank, then I think it would have been the Gauls celebrating rather than the Scandies!

An excellent game of To The Strongest!

TTS AAR: Classical Indians versus Siamese (Thai)

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Plenty of time left for a second battle before vanishing off the the Vanquish show. Rob would use his Siamese/Thai again, but I switched to a Classical Indian army, but a Republican version with few elephants, only two-horse chariots, and loads of raw troops.

I lost the deployment but as Rob chose to concentrate his troops on the right side of the battlefield, I could still look to outflank his line on the left with my chariots, the elephants lumbering slowly after them.

I was a bit worried about the block of cavalry and elephants heading down towards the right hand end of my line: it was very much going to be a case of holding them off until the chariots could pounce!

Unlike the last game, my outflanking manouevre arrived in position with almost perfect timing: the chariots could attack the flank of his infantry on the hill while my longbow and javelin men kept the enemy pinned in place from the front.

Unfortunately, Rob’s troops proved quite manouevrable themselves, so I had to abandon the idea of outflanking the troops on the hill, just pinning them in place with javelin-throwing chariots, and concentrate on the other enemy infantry at the bottom of the hill. Here I got into exactly the position I wanted and prepared to wreak havoc!

Meanwhile, however, Rob’s big block of cavalry and elephants had been sweeping forward towards my right flank: defended only by a couple of useful units of javelinmen (in blue), a single unit of chariots, and a couple of units of raw horsemen (in yellow).

Worse, Rob’s other infantry brigade had managed to get away from the centre and had joined his “big push” to the right.

Fortunately for me, Rob’s initial cavalry attack on the far right hand side got bottlenecked by the trees and the edge of the table so that he couldn’t apply his numbers and, even better, one unit of my raw cavalry got the bit between their teeth (see what I did there!) and actually managed to win a combat against their Thai opponents.

An incredibly hard-fought melee broke out all along the line in this sector of the battlefield, with my troops, despite being outclassed, holding their own until the Thai elephants came lumbering out of the forest and smashed them from the field!

But, you ask, what about your outflanking force: surely your troops have by now run over the Thai infantry near the hill and are heading back towards the action to save the day?

Er, no.

An unfortunate double Ace countered my initial advantage, and another hard-fought melee broke out around the hill.

Meanwhile, becasue the combat in the bottom right hand corner was going well for Rob, he was able to divert some of his infantry near their to turn and attack the flank of my line of raw longbowmen (in green) who were still trying to get forward to support the flanking attack.

This looked bad but, with a bit of luck with the cards, the raw longbowmen held firm even if they were all disordered.

I was now starting to win the combat around the hill, largely due to outnumbering the Thai 5:2 in terms of units and had the occasional flank attack advantage, but it was all happening very slowly and, as we have seen, the rest of the Thai were winning in the bottom right hand corner…

Let’s go back to the right where I was now down to only two victory coins remaining…so it was all over if one set of Thai elephants got into my camp, or the other defeated my raw cavalry. This was all very much too close to call!

Luckily, the Thai elephants had obviously exhausted themselves traipsing across the battlefield and slaughtering my troops, so neither managed their allocated tasks.

Two match points saved!

Which, as Rob was also down to his last victory coin, gave me the opportunity to block some enemy Lights from evading and then run over them with my own elephants charging in from the flank.

If you click on the left hand picture below, you can see that the elephants are in position to charge the flank of the Lights in front of them, but the Lights could evade through their infantry on the hill into the empty square on the other side. In the right hand picture, however, you can see that I have moved my javelinmen first (in blue, with the 9 next to them) to block that square. Now when the Nellies charge forward, the Lights have nowhere to evade to and get squashed!

The squishing of the Lights by the Nellies gave me Rob’s last victory coin and a win, but only by the merest scrape of the skin of my teeth!

It had been a magnificent game where my outflanking manouevre had been countered by Rob’s mass assault on my right, where the Thai elephants had wreaked havoc once they had cleared the forest.

A close run and most enjoyable game!

TTS AAR: Timurids versus Siamese (Thai)

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Time for my Timurids to take the field again, bolstered by my latest spot of painting: some “flaming oxen” courtesy of Ten Kingdoms prints from Micks Bits via Etsy. Their opponents would be the Siamese (Thai) army of good friend Rob.

Unsurprisingly, the Timurids won the scouting, and I used the opportunity to stack most of my cavalry on the left flank, looking to advance quickly, turn and then roll up the enemy line. My main worries were the Thai elephants lurking opposite my cavalry on the right flank - I’d have to keep well away from them - and the massed infantry facing my largely empty centre: if my flank attacks didn’t go in as planned, I could see my camps overrun for a hefty loss of coin.

Once the game began, I advanced quickly across my entire front, and was happy to see at least some of my left-hand flanking force get into position before an unfortunate Ace stopped the rest from following.

On the other flank, I send my Turkoman light cavalry in to harrass the advancing Thai horse, but no arrows found their mark. No worries: all I wanted to do here was to pin the enemy in place whilst my flank attack went in.

But where was the flank attack?

Yes, I now had four units of cavalry behind the right flank of the advancing Thais, but they seemed to have disappeared from view: the rapid Thai advance leaving my outflanking horsemen too far from the action to immediately intervene.

And that rapid Thai advance was now causing me some problems: more elephants pushed some of my lancers backwards; the “flaming cattle” were sent flying from the field without achieving a thing as his infantry pushed forward; and even my right flank was now fully engaged and foundering!

Finally my flanking force appeared but, again, the rapid advance of the Thais meant that had, so far, little effect.

The main melee across the centre of the field continued with the Timurds, despite being somewhat on the back foot, proving that they still had teeth…particularly on my right, where the enemy elephants had been shot down and more lancers had won a duel with their Thai equivalents and returned to smash into the enemy flank.

My flanking force still hadn’t intervened, but my third cavalry command (the one that had started just to the right of the flanking force) finally dealt with the threat of the Thai cavalry and elephants in front of them, turned, and managed to crash into the flank of the still-advancing Thai infantry.

You can see them in the bottom half of the picture below…and, yes, that’s the flanking force above them, still desperately trying to get into position to have some effect on the battle!

Their intervention meant the end of the left-hand Thai infantry command, and my flanking force finally got into contact, hitting the rear of the other Thai infantry command and causing one measely disorder!

The writing was now on the wall for the Thai, but their guard infantry still managed to dispose of the last of the Kharash (driven slaves) and then crash into one of the Timurid camps.

This was, however, too little too late: the lead unit from the outflanking force finally got its act together and crashed into the back of some unfortunate Thai archers sending them, and Rob’s last three coins, reeling from the field.

So, a commanding 14–3 victory for the Timurids in the end, despite how long it took for the flanking attack to make any meaningful impact on the battle. Credit also to Rob: the scoreline hardly reflects just how close he came to turning defeat into victory. His decision to drive his battle line forward so aggressively very nearly neutralised my flank attack altogether, and the single camp he captured could easily have become three — especially if the Kharash hadn’t held out for as long as they did.

Ewelme '26 Game Four: Galatians versus (a different lot of) Palmyrans

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With one loss and two wins already under my belt, it was on to the final game at this year’s Ewelme tournament. I’d be fighting Palmyrans again, but this time under Dillon’s able generalship.

As I’d beaten them in the last game by putting all my cavalry on one flank and refusing the other, I decided that that’s what I’d try again. I mean, it had worked last time, so what could possibly go wrong?

As the game began, my horsemen shot forward and immediately engaged the enemy. This worked well, as I routed one unit of Palmyran cataphracts and my cavalry penetrated deep up the right flank, preparing to turn and roll up the enemy line.

Things were not, however, going so well on the left and in the centre. In the last game, the Palmyrans had initially held back a bit, giving me a chance to develop my outflanking manoeuvre on the right. Not so in this game: the enemy shot foward and my warbands were soon under some pressure, particularly on the far left.

No matter: the plan was still viable, and I could now turn my cavalry and drive into the Palmyran left flank.

Well that’s what should have happened, but Lady Luck intervened and decided that my troops deserved a hefty kick in the fork!

Now I know that some people think that I blame the cards for every one of my defeats, but I would maintain that my luck in TTS competitions is, at best, erratic. It’s not always bad (those of you who have been paying attention will remember that in the last game I drew a 4/5/6/7 for consecutive activations giving me three flank attacks against an unwitting enemy unit) but on this occasion it was not just bad…it was the pits, man!

Ready to turn my cavalry and send them into the Palmyran flank, I drew seven cards in a row with none higher than a 2. Let me say that again: seven cards in a row, none higher than a two.

Don’t believe me? Here’s the evidence:

A quick reminder of the stats. That’s a probability of:

P = 16/80 ​× 15/79 ​×14/78 ​× 13/77 x 12/76 ​× 11/75 ​× 10/74​

Which works out to approximately: 0.00000536

So the odds are about:

  • 0.000536%

  • or roughly 1 in 186,000

This pause in the action gave the Palmyrans time to recover from my right flank assault, consolidate, then capitalise on their success against my left and centre, and before long one of my cmaps was taken and I suffered a 69-165 defeat!

So kudos to Dillon for riding out my initial assualt and focusing on what was important: knocking my three-coin warbands and/or camps off the table. A well-taken victory for him.

Disappointing, but my two big victories in games two and three still meant that I finished in fourth place overall in the tournament. Here are the full results:

 

One consolation, though: my army did win the prize for the Best Presented Army, even if I did have to vote for them myself!

Thanks to Peter for organising (and congrats on another big win) and to all my opponents throughout the event. I highly recommend the TTS tournament circuit to everyone: lots of fun games in a competitive but very friendly environment. Here are the rest of the year’s fixtures:

  • To The Smallest (15mm): July, Cardiff

  • British Open at Britcon: August, Leicester

  • TTS at Colours: September, Newbury

  • TTS Open at Warfare: November, Farnborough

  • Two the Strongest (Doubles): December, London (TBC)

Ewelme '26 Game Three: Galatians versus Palmyrans

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My third game at this year’s Ewelme To The Strongest tournament was against Adrian’s Palmyrans: legionaries and cataphracts, gulp!

Learning from my previous games and a discussion on tactics from Mr Butler, I massed my cavalry on one wing, intending to blast through any enemy there whilst my warbands held up any advance against my centre and left.

As I’d lost the scouting, the game began with the Palmyrans advancing aggressively. As planned, I sent my horsemen forward on the right flank, and they soon secured an excellent position from which to roll up the enemy’s main battleline.

Adrian had, meanwhile, been a bit unlucky with his activations on the other side of the table: his nasty superheavy cavalry and mincing-machine legionaries not yet in a position to cause me any trouble on the left.

Even better, my warbands in the centre had taken full advantage of the need for the Palmyrans to deal with my cavalry coming in from the right, with one (led by their general) bursting through the main enemy line.

Adrian diverted some of his heavy infantry to deal with this warband, but an amazing run of cards meant that the usually cumbersome deep unit pivoted neatly in place and charged the flank of some Palmyran heavies not once, not twice but three times in the same turn!

More decent cards also saw my cavalry properly curling in from the right to achieve total domination of that sector of the tabletop.

This was too much for the Palmyrans to take: the loss of the heavy infantry being the final nail in their coffin with my Galatians winning a massive 186-21 victory!

So a cracking win due, in part, to the cards…but I’ll take that as I’ve so often been on the other end of Lady Luck’s tender ministrations!

More Celts and the first Chinese

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I needed a few bits and pieces to finish off my Celts.

First up were the casualty figures: unfortunately important the way I play! These are 3D prints from 3D Breed’s March or Die range printed by Bunker Miniatures.

These are great figures. I especially like the chaps with the spear sticking up out of them, and the mailed warrior with a sword but without his head! I even managed to use up the last few cloaks I had lying around and, yes, the figure underneath is fully painted.

Next up are some light infantry with slings: a troop type I will need when I field the Celts as Ancient British. I very much like the way the 3D Breed designs have translated into 28mm: very chunky figures, almost cubist in nature. They paint up very easily and are nicely posed. One slight issue: I always thought of the Celtic slingers as Iouantoues (youths) and these are definitely not that…I mean, check out the balding figure in the red and white stripes!

These size reasonably well with the Victrix figures that make up most of my army: only very slightly shorter even if they are quite a bit chunkier.

Finally we have one of the 3D Breed’s specials: one of the two druids that they offer. The other is more of a generic holy man with knife figure, so I’ve saved him for another use. The chap below is another antler-wearing ‘Herne the Hatstand’ so fits well with the general theme of my Celts. Lovely figure: paints up easily.

All the above are painted with Contrast paints on a Grey Seer undercoat, with any highlights etc done using standard acrylics. The cloaks are highly recommended and are from Weave of War.

Finally in today’s bulletin, we have the first bits of a 15mm Han Chinese army: three units of Billmen armed with the dagger-axe, and four units of Spearmen armed with, er, spears. These are Lurkio figures from the range now being made available again from Gripping Beast, with the command and standard anachronistically coming from Ten Kingdom’s Song Chinese range via Micks Bits on Etsy.

It was a bit odd painting relatively old school 15mm metal figures again after spending so much time on plastic and 3D printed 28mm figures, but I think they have turned out okay.

I will say that this project very much demonstrated the difference between metal casts and 3D prints: the 3D prints have much more animation in them, looking better overall even if the extra detail sometimes makes them more difficult to paint. I would have gone 3D printed Song all the way, but wanted an earlier Chinese army that can pass for Spring, Warring States, Han, Three Kingdoms etc. Once the Han are finished, I’ll probably eventually end up doing enough Song units to convert the army into a later Chinese army anyway!

Note that these are based ten to a 75mm frontage base (FK&P2 from Big Red Bat), which means I can now field three units of Billmen/Spearmen on a 15cms grid (two bases together) or six units of Billmen/Spearmen on a 10cm grid (one base). The standards are coloured in pairs (green, yellow, blue, red) to make pairing them easy.

Next up are three units of Crossbowmen, so another 60 figures in total. I think I might need some more red paint!

Ewelme '26 Game Two: Galatians versus Principate Romans

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Still reeling after my devastating loss to the Tuaregs in game one, my fourth loss in a row with the Galatians, my lads now faced a powerful Principate (Early Imperial) Roman army. I was not looking forward to this: the Roman mincing machine was built to defeat Celts!

The only area where I did enjoy superiority was in terms of cavalry, so I opted to deploy all my horsemen on one wing, hoping to overwhelm their Roman equivalents as fast as possible then turn into the centre.

The battle began with the Roman army moving forward like space invaders.

In reply, to conform to my plan, I hung back on the left, but advanced forward on the right, my cavalry in particular shooting forward in a card-induced raggedy fashion, eager to bring their opponents to battle!

The two cavalry forces met in a thunderous clash. Despite their ragged advance, my men held firm against the initial charge before steadily driving the outnumbered Romans backwards. Yet this was no easy victory; the Roman veterans fought with grim determination and proved exceptionally difficult to break.

Meanwhile, back in the centre, a bit of luck with the cards (well, a bit of unluck for Dave) had seen the Roman line effectively break into two parts, each of which I could hopefully destroy before closing in on the rest.

On the left, where my objective was really only to pin the enemy in place, a brutal grinding melee erupted. Much to my surprise, my warriors initially gained the upper hand, driving back a Roman Cohort and wiping out a unit of Auxilia.

The Romans fought back hard, however, and honours were very much even by the time things were decided elsewhere on the field, although some Sagittarii were now threatening the Lights guarding the camp.

On the right, my superior numbers did indeed start to come into play, with the victorious cavalry then joining the infantry to drive back a mix of Roman Legionaries and Lights.

Again my infantry proved very successful in combat, one warband bursting through the enemy line and heading straight for their camp.

And it was this warband that won the game for the Galatians: taking the enemy camp and the Romans’ last few coins for a 168-79 victory.

So a first victory for the Galatians: a hard-fought affair as you would expect facing such a powerful opponent.

On to game three, where I would need another big win to salvage my hopes of a respectable finish!

Ewelme '26 Game One: Galatians versus Tuareg

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The theme for this year’s Ewelme tournament was Africa and the Middle-East. I could have fielded my usual Venetians Abroad, but as I now had just enough of my new Celts to make up a Galatian army, that was what I decided to field. I even finished them in time to have three practice games prior to the event, but as I lost all three battles (and two of them badly!) I wasn’t feeling too confident of success.

My first game was against Steve’s Tuaregs: an army comprised mostly of lance-armed camelry. I lost the scouting, deployed, and watched as the Arabs came forward.

It’s always bad to surrender the initiative to the enemy, and so it proved here as Steve’s first action of the game was to neatly pick off the Galatian cavalry on the far left of my line with a unit of his camels: their bonus in defence against my horsemen being irrelevant as my chaps were immediately blasted off the table without any chance to fight back.

This set an unfortunate pattern for the game as, certainly for the first few turns, Steve couldn’t miss a hit and I couldn’t save a thing!

The Tuaregs also came forward on my other wing, where my other cavalry there were also soon under huge pressure.

There was a glimmer of hope when my flank march arrived shortly after this, but the Tuareg had so many units that they could spare a couple to bottle up my horsemen, and all that happened was that I eventually lost a few more coins, although we were both quite surprised at how long the Galatian horse ended up lasting!

Steve’s tactics were now obvious: avoid my fanatical warbands and win the game by destroying my vulnerable-to-camels cavalry. This worked very well for the Tuareg, especially given the cards we were pulling, and with both commands of Galatian horse defeated and off the table, I was soon down twelve of my fourteen victory medals.

I did have a little success with my infantry, but nothing to write home about, and it wasn’t long before I was handing over my last two medals for a heavy 31-150 defeat!

Well I have to say that that was a brilliantly executed, textbook victory for Steve, with my only consolation being that I had plenty of time to look at the other games being played!

One game down and three to go, and it looked like being dark clouds over Ewelme for the Galatians!

TTS AAR: Galatians versus the Scandanavian Leidang

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With the Ewelme tournament coming up fast (Ed’s note: by the time this report gets published, it will have been and gone. Doubtless a trophy is now adorning my mantlepiece…) I needed some more practice with the Galatians I was intending to use, especially as their first two outings had resulting in a couple of stuffings of epic proportions! I therefore persuaded friend John to bring his Scandanavian Leidang types over to my place for a game.

Once deployed, the Galatians still looked very impressive, and I was very much hoping that this goregeousness would translate into military success, especially as it looked as if I could overlap the quasi-Vikings on the right. I duly advanced forward strongly…

The Scandies turned some of their troops towards my flanking force, and I was thinking that I could attack their left from two sides but, somehow, my coordinated assault failed to go in at the right time and I ended up losing my flanking cavalry to, of all things, some Viking light infantry archers! I’m still not sure how I let this opportunity slip through my hands!

My cavalry on the other flank weren’t having a very good time either. I think I’m used to having my Venetians Abroad knights on the wings, and thus being able to largely ignore missile fire, so have suffered bady when trying to use mere cavalry in the same way!

Looking back at the photos, I am also struck by how ragged my line looks compared to the solid mass of the enemy. This is obviously something I will have to watch out for in future!

Back to the action.

On the left, I sorted out my battered battle line, and advanced forward to take the wood that looked to be key to the Leidang position. Unfortunately, three Galatian warbands failed to dislodge the one unit of Huscarls occupying said wood, and that was that opportunity gone as the Vikings reinforced and I failed to make any further progress…

…so it was on the right where the battle would be decided.

Both sides had by now taken large amounts of casualties, and we were rapidly approaching a sudden death situation, where the next side to lose a significant unit would lose the battle. I still had a bit of an advantage, and had the potential to take the enemy camp, but somehow I just couldn’t get the cards I needed and the initiative swung to the Vikings.

Now when my deep units had tried to manoeuvre around the battlefield, I hadn’t managed to pull the cards I needed. Not so John, who neatly pivoted a deep unit of Bondi onto the flank of one of my warbands, hitting twice and polishing them, and my last three medals off!

So another loss for the Galatians: making three in a row! Let’s hope it goes better on the day.

(Ed’s note: I won’t bother to clear a space in the trophy cabinet then…)

Well they looked good advancing forward!