TTS AAR: Thai (Siamese) versus Ancient British

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Not the first AAR from Britcon, but a catch-up AAR of a game played a couple of weeks ago: the Thai (Siamese) commanded by me versus Rob using the Ancient Britons. This was another big game: 160 points per side.

Both sides advanced quickly towards each othere, although one of the Ancient British cavalry commands dawdled behind, obviously pausing to finish their “full English”!

The action began on the right flank, where the two veteran and one fanatical British warbands smashed into the Thai Royal Guard, some Spearmen and an elephant unit.

The Thai had the initiative by threw it away through a couple of unfortunate Aces but, surviving this, went on to disorder the Celtic line. Even better, the elephants on the far right smashed the Gaeseti fanatics (with accompanying Druids and obelisk!) from the field!

Meanwhile, on the left, the rest of the Thai army prepared to take on the massed chariots and light cavalry.

Thw two sides came together with an almighty smash, and a colossal melee broke out. Things swayed backwards and forwards until the advantage slowly began to turn the Thai’s way despite the intervention of some more Ancient British infantry that came across from the centre.

Back to the right, where the Thai’s were slowly pushing the British back. More (this time raw) British warbands joined the fight, necessitating deploying the Thai cooks and bottlewashers to stop the Brits getting into the Thai camp.

Then, suddenly, the tide began to turn on the right flank. The veteran British warbands pulled back and rallied, with some of them even managing to flank the elephants that had mullered the Gaeseti.

Things were also sliding for the Thai’s on the left flank. From a commanding position where it looks as if the end was nigh for the Ancient British, the Thai’s suddenly found their opponents had managed to extricate themselves from the fight, rally, and were now threatening all sorts of mayhem. In fact, the Thai’s were very lucky that some of the British chariots pulled an Ace when preparing to flank charge some Thai infantry!

Fortunately, despite these late set backs, the Thai Royal Guard were able to finish off a raw Warband, giving me the coins I needed to win the game.

That had actually been a much closer battle than the above report suggests. The Ancient British had suffered quite bad initial reverses, but all credit to Rob for managing to pull them back from danger of immediate destruction, rally those that he could, and then come straight back at the Thais. As I said, I went from being quietly confident to thinking I could very well lose the game!

A terrific game of To The Strongest and the first win for the Thai/Siamese!

To The Strongest at Britcon 2025

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This bank holiday weekend featured the only two-day To the Strongest! competition, taking place at the annual Britcon show.

This year’s event took place at the De Montfort University: an excellent venue just on the outskirts of Leicester city centre. There were about 400 gamers there, ten of whom were present to take part in the TTS tournament. There were also plenty of traders present, with a very popular Bring & Buy as well.

For those of you unfamiliar with the TTS-at-Britcon format, most people get there late on Friday afternoon, when there’s an opportunity for a practice game and then an outing to Wagamama’s for dinner.

CARTHAGINIAN RECRUITMENT DRIVE

Saturday sees three games of TTS, with plenty of time for the action to reach a definitive conclusion. In fact, the third game plays until a finish as the hall is open until late - some of you may recall Howard and Simon’s infamous five-hour marathon from a couple of years ago - followed, again, by dinner out somewhere, usually an Indian restaurant local to the venue.

Finally, Sunday sees another two games, again with the second one playing to a definitive conclusion, and then the prize-giving, with everything wrapped up by about 4pm.

The tournament was played at 140 points a side, with any armies from the Ancients or Medieval lists allowed. My thanks to Tim: who couldn’t play but did check and verify all the lists. The terrain system used was the one from the rulebook, which really seemed to encourage a wider choice of armies than usual. There were some really interesting set-ups generated as well: from Greek valleys full of steep hills right the way through to bowling green-like manicured fields.

The To The Strongest competition was, as usual, fought in the very best of spirits: we certainly seemed to be having more fun than anyone else!

The tournament works on a random draw for the first round (although you can ask not to play a regular opponent) followed by a Swiss system for the next four i.e. each round, the top two players fight, then the next two, then the next two etc, but with no-one fighting the same person twice.

Points are awarded for coins taken from your opponent plus coins you have remaining, with a bonus if you achieve an outright victory. This last had been halved for this tournament, something tnhat everyone seemed to think worked very well.

ACTION FROM ROUND THREE

It was an incredibly tight result: going into the last game there were four people who could have won the event with, serendipitously, those four playing each other in the final round. Not only that, but when one of those two games had finished, the result meant that the player who won the other game could still have won overall. It truly was a nail-biting finish when drawing that Ace two games back would mean the difference between 1st to 4th place!

The Results

Here are the round by round match-ups and results:

Round One

Jon White (Ikko Ikki) beat Adrian Downey (Imperial Macedonian)

Chris Cornwell (Bretons) beat Robert Avery (Venice Abroad)

Howard Litton (Later Carthaginian) beat Nigel Phillips (Early Italian Condotta)

Mark Freeth (Middle Carthaginian) beat Ian Ralph (Viking)

Sid Bennet (Early Hoplites) beat Richard Lawrence (Late Achaemenid Persian)

Round Two

Sid Bennet (Early Hoplites) beat Howard Litton (Later Carthaginian)

Robert Avery (Venice Abroad) beat Adrian Downey (Imperial Macedonian)

Richard Lawrence (Late Achaemenid Persian) beat Nigel Phillips (Early Italian Condotta)

Mark Freeth (Middle Carthaginian) beat Chris Cornwell (Bretons)

Jon White (Ikko Ikki) beat Ian Ralph (Viking)

Round Three

Sid Bennet (Early Hoplites) beat Jon White (Ikko Ikki)

Robert Avery (Venice Abroad) beat Howard Litton (Later Carthaginian)

Adrian Downey (Imperial Macedonian) beat Mark Freeth (Middle Carthaginian)

Chris Cornwell (Bretons) beat Richard Lawrence (Late Achaemenid Persian)

Nigel Phillips (Early Italian Condotta) beat Ian Ralph (Viking)

Round Four

Chris Cornwell (Bretons) beat Sid Bennet (Early Hoplites)

Robert Avery (Venice Abroad) beat Mark Freeth (Middle Carthaginian)

Howard Litton (Later Carthaginian) beat Jon White (Ikko Ikki)

Ian Ralph (Viking) beat Richard Lawrence (Late Achaemenid Persian)

Nigel Phillips (Early Italian Condotta) beat Adrian Downey (Imperial Macedonian)

Final Round

Chris Cornwell (Bretons) beat Howard Litton (Later Carthaginian)

Robert Avery (Venice Abroad) beat Sid Bennet (Early Hoplites)

Jon White (Ikko Ikki) beat Richard Lawrence (Late Achaemenid Persian)

Nigel Phillips (Early Italian Condotta) beat Mark Freeth (Middle Carthaginian)

Adrian Downey (Imperial Macedonian) beat Ian Ralph (Viking)

Overall Results

  1. Robert Avery (Venice Abroad) 694

  2. Chris Cornwall (Breton) 682

  3. Sid Bennet (Early Hoplites) 531

  4. Howard Litton (Later Carthaginian) 511

  5. Jon White (Ikko Ikki) 502

  6. Nigel Phillips (Early Italian Condotta) 471

  7. Adrian Downey (Imperial Macedonian) 447

  8. Richard Lawrence (Late Achaemenid Persian) 421

  9. Mark Freeth (Middle Carthaginian) 335

  10. Ian Ralph (Viking) 294

To give you an idea of how close the final result was, the 12 points difference between the top two players represents only about three coins across the five games: the equivalent of only one deep unit. Even the 20 points between positions three and four are only the equivalent of about 2-3 standard units.

Conclusion

The TTS-at-Britcon tournament was a great event that everyone seemed to really enjoy.

I know Briton can be an expensive weekend, but it is well worth it not just for the games themselves but also for the socialising that goes along with them.

And if Britcon still doesn’t appeal, then I highly recommend entering other TTS events: they are all fought in a great spirit of friendliness and fun! Remaining this year we have Colours (6th September); Warfare (15th November) and the Two The Strongest Doubles (29th November). Next year begins with the Welsh Open in January and then the Worlds in February.

FK&P AAR: Cossacks versus Ottomans

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Rob and I fancied a game of For King & Parliament - Eastern Front variant. I wanted to get my newly-painted Azabs onto the table, so Rob would play the Ottomans, and I took the Zaporogian Cossacks as (a) they hadn’t been on the tabletop for some time and (b) they would be a historical match-up for the Turks.

This could also be an interesting game as, rather than being cavalry versus cavalry like many of our recent games, this would be cavalry versus war wagons! It would also be fairly epic, as we were playing at 160 points per side: a large game even for FK&P.

The Ottomans had committed the majority of their cavalry to the left flank, facing the rather motley Cossack horse and their Tatar allies. I wasn’t going to win this clash, so my horsemen sallied forward aiming to do as much damage as they could before dying gloriously!

One unit of Tatar lancers, four bow-armed lights, and two units of raw Cossack horse versus the pride of the ottoman empire!

Now if you’re going to go, you might as well go in style, so one unit of Cossack horse charged the Ottoman guns that had, perhaps unwisely, strayed too close to the front line.

Much to my surprise, the Cossacks ran right over the unfortunate Turkish artillerymen and announced their intention to charge the Janisseries behind them…before realising how stupid that would be and skidding to an abrupt, Ace-inspired halt!

This did leave the Cossacks a little exposed, but the Sultan’s elite Sipahi’s of the Guard were so stunned by the action that they just stood there watching as their motley opponents charged by!

Meanwhile, the other Sipahis had been clearing the Tatar light cavalry from the table, the unfortunate horse-archers’ attempts to evade failing dismally.

The Tatars weren’t done yet, however: forward went their single unit of noble lancers and, although disordered by the process, they smashed one of the remaining Turkish Sipahi units from the table.

Even better, after pursuing the survivors for a bit, the Tatar nobles then spotted the Ottoman camp, pulled themselves together and, executing a smart right turn, went on to do what Tatars do best and sacked the camp, stopping only to gather in the spoils!

Back to the Cossack horsemen…who’s blood was obviously up!

Those of you who know the history of my Cossack army will know that I bought the box-set in ignorance thinking Taras Bulba like waves of elite light horse riding down all in front of them, only to be somewhat surprised that the army was almost all foot, and foot in wagons no less, with the only cavalry available being little and raw!

Well, no-one had told the Cossack horse that they were little and raw. The so-far-unengaged unit leapt forward and ran over a unit of Janisseries, only to be followed by the other unit, still disordered from running over the guns, then crashing into the Janisseries that they had pulled up to avoid, and sending them flying from the field too, despite the disadvantage of their disorder!

Meanwhile, the Cossack tabor (war wagons) had been slowly advancing forward in the centre of the field, looking for the right spot to stop and form an impenetrable wall of wood from behind which to fight the advancing Ottomans…except that the Ottomans weren’t advancing!

Although a couple of their cavalry units had bashed through the Tatar light horse and were ready to turn inwards and attack the Cossack left flank, the rest of their cavalry and half the Janisseries had either been destroyed or were worrying about the Cossack horse who had got through behind them.

The tabor were therefore bunched together firing sideways at the enemy cavalry that had beaten the Tatar lights, with some Cossack moloitsy (literally “lads”) moving to protect the rear left flank.

And what of the Azabs, the reason for the Ottoman presence?

They had been kept back on the Ottoman left along with a couple of units of light horse. They finally got moving forward as the Turks became a bit desperate, having been hemorrhaging coins for most of the battle so far.

The Cossack right, however, was ready for them: three units of infantry (admittedly two more Raw “lads” units) would be enough to hold them up at least until the battle was won elsewhere.

The end of the battle came not with a “huzzah” but with a bit of a damp squib.

The tabor opened up of whatever they could see, and one of the casualties caused was a Turkish officer, which was enough to remove the final Ottoman victory coin. Defeated, the invaders slunk off the field back to Istanbul, leaving the victorious Cossacks to both celebrate and to wonder what the Cossack horsemen had been drinking!

It had been a cracking battle from the Cossack point of view: some very good cards meaning that their raw Cossack horse had rather surprisingly swept all before them rather than acting merely as speedbumps as anticipated.

Add in the Tatar noble cavalry doing what they were supposed to, and some lucky sniping from the tabor, and everything had gone rather extraordinarily well!

I just hope I haven’t used up all my good luck: I’ve got Britcon next weekend!

TTS AAR: Alex on the Rampage...Again

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With Neil having beaten my Achaemenids with the Alexandrian Macedonians, it was time to swap sides and give thinsg another go.

As you can see from the picture, above, deployment was interesting. On the far right, my three Companion units faced the entire mass of Persian cavalry, whilst on my left, the rest of the Macedonian horse (a motley crew of Greek allies) had nothing in front of them and would hopefully have the chance to loop around the Persian right flank.

As the battle opened, therefore, I sent my left flank cavalry full steam ahead, held back the Companions, and advanced my pikemen and hoplites strongly forward in the centre, confident that my infantry were more than a match for their lighter Persian equivalents.

My initial advance was, however, a bit stymied by the appalling performance of my troops: with a unit of ally Hoplites left-centre being mullered by more Hoplites allied to the Persians (traitors!) and, more worringly, my lead pike block being double-disordered from, of all things, missile fire!

The pikemen were, however, safely pulled back and protected by some handy lights.

More important tactically, the pike block to the right of the wounded Foot Companions had burst through the enemy line, and the mounted Companions had moved across and engaged the left hand units of Persian cavalry (actually Indian allies), meaning that the majority of the veteran Persian horse were now fighting thin air!

Unfortunately, the Persians had light infantry that were able to get in front of the injured pike block and dispatch it with javelins: Alexander’s finest foot troops removed from the field all from missile fire!

Things looked a little dicey for the Macedonians, but they were saved by the actions of the right hand pike block: the one that had broken through the enemy line. This ignored the temptation of the left flank of the Persian infantry line and turned right towards the Persian cavalry. Then with two 10’s in a row, the pikemen gloriously dispatched the unit of Indian cavalry that were pinning the left hand Companions (actually Thessalians) in place!

This freed up the Thessalians to turn smartly to their left and, after a problematic first attempt, crush two units if Persian light infantry against the Macedonians left hand pike block: all exciting and highly amusing stuff!

Meanwhile, over on the left, my glorious outflanking manoeuvre had, as last game, achieved absolutely nothing: their initial flank charge being thrown off by, of all things, a unit of raw Persian Levies!

Things were, however, looking up just to their right. Those of you who are paying attention will recall that Hoplites in Persian service (traitors!) had punched through the left end of my infantry line. Hoplites in Alexander’s service (loyal heroes!) had, however, turned to face them and were in the process of driving them from the field.

The loyal Hoplites are the ones without the double-disorder marker in the picture below!

The Persians were now getting a bit desperate, so launched an all out attack against Alexander himself on the right wing. If, the Persians thought, we can kill the God-King himself, perhaps the Macedonian army will disintegrate.

If…

Despite being attacked on all sides, and hit with an Infamy stratagem (another traitor trying to stab Alex in the back when no-one was looking), the Companions with Alexander at their head remained strong, shrugging off five attacks with ease.

This was too much for Darius to bear (his opponent obviously proven to be at least part divine) and he ordered a retreat.

These had been two big battles (160 points a side) fought to a conclusion in just four hours.

They had been two excellent games with plenty of excitement and glorious ten’s, and very few dismal Aces. My thanks to Neil for his hospitality and producing the two armies: I think he’s doing Crusaders and Ayyubids next, so something very much to look forward to!

More Caliphate Arabs

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…or rather Berbers!

The main difference between the early “Arabic” armies and those from Caliphate times is the composition of the main body of troops, with North African Berbers becoming the dominant constituents.

Havign painted 160 Arab infantry, then 160 Berber spearmen, it was time to add the other troops I’d need for a fully rounded force.

First up were the mainstay of many Berber armies: the javelin-armed light cavalry:

These are actually Moorish medium cavalry from 3D Breed, printed for me by Geek Villain. I couldn’t find any 3D printed Berber light cavalry, and the 3D Breed Moorish archers had proxied very well for Berber light infantry, so I thought I’d give these guys a go.

They are very nice figures that take the paint very well. The only problem is that they come without bases and, unlike every other 3D printed models I’ve bought (including the Moorish light infantry from the same range) I couldn’t get these b*ggers to stand up unaided.

This meant that I had to use Superglue to attach them to their permanent bases and paint them in two’s like that rather than use the lolly-stick temporary mounts that I would usually use. Not a catastrophe, but certainly a pain in the backside as, obviously, lolly-stick pounted figures are based to make them easy to paint and permanently based troops are not!

This was very disappointing as I have loved the other 3D Breed miniatures that I have bought without reservation. Still, they are done now, and look very good.

Next were some Berber archers:

These were Red Copper 3D prints: the last of those printed for me by Baueda Italy before they were sold to the UK. Nice figures with plenty of animation and very easy to paint.

All the above were painted in the same way as the other Berbers: undercoat in Grey Seer, then splash on a base coat on Contrast White paint. Leave to dry. Then dry brush a bright acrylic White over the Contrast White to give you the folds in the robes. Then paint the faces, eye slits and hands in a dark flesh Contrast paint. After that, the sash and headdress in a Contrast colour of your choice: here I used Stormfiend Blue.

Then it’s just a matter of finishing the figures. The Spear shafts are in Wyldwood, the pennants in a variety of Contrast colours. The shields are Wyldwood (painted at the same time as the spears) then drybrushed in bronze then washed with Agrax Earthshade.

Just some javelinmen to go now and then the Arabs/Berbers are finished…or as finished as any army can be!!

TTS AAR: Alex on the Rampage

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Off to Neil’s house for some more 2mm To The Strongest action. Today we would fight a 160 point clash between the Later Achaemenid Persians and the Alexandrian Macedonians, with me taking the Persians and Neil the Macedonians.

An unusual battlefield with no terrain features at all, but apparently Darius had had the surface cleared and flattened for his sxcythed chariots!

Once we were both deployed, I immediately noticed that I had achieved an overlap with my cavalry on the right, and was facing three unsupported pike blocks. This looked like a good opportunity to me, so I sent my cavalry forward down the open flank, bringing up my infantry in support.

Unfortunately, the pikemen proved surprisingly manoeuvrable despite their depth, and some good cards for the Maccys and poor cards for the Persians meant that, try as I might, I never managed to exploit my initial advantage.

In fact, things went from bad to worse on that flank. The General commanding the infantry coming up in support was killed in the first clash, meaning they couldn’t keep the pikemen pinned in place, and those pikemen remained eerily manoeuvrable: I never managed any flank or rear charges and, in fact, soon found my cavalry pushed back against and then off the edge of the table.

As the final cherry on the cake, I then got caught with the new Even Stronger v13 rule (only a week old at time of playing) that kills a unit that draws an Ace when trying to return to the table.

So that was the right flank well and truly lost after what looked like a great initial advantage: I would have to win the battle elsewhere.

Neil had placed his Companions on the far right of his line, but some deft use of my deep units of cavalry kept the elite lancers bottled up against the right-hand edge of the battlefield, whilst I tried to manoeuvre my single unit of elephants into a position where they could disrupt the Macedonian cavalry.

Meanwhile, left-centre, my Allied Hoplites and Mobs of unwilling infantry moved forward and engaged the rest of the enemy line.

This latter figth developed into a grinding melee where neither side seemed to be able to get the advantage.

Back to the left, where the ebb and flow of the battle had finally let a unit of Companions out of their cul de sac: success with my Indian horse leaving them vulnerable to a charge in the rear from the lance-armed veterans.

For once, however, the cards were well and truly with me: the Companions, headed by Alexander himself, had armed themselves with lances made from spaghetti rather then wood!

Relief was, however, only temporary. More Macedonians flooded into the combat, and the brave Indian horsemen were destroyed: the five medals that cost me (deep unit plus commander) also costing me the game.

An interesting encounter where I don’t remember doing much wrong but still lost the battle!

My cavalry, most of it veteran, should have ridden down at least one of the pike blocks, and I still don’t quite understand how I never managed to get even one flank charge in.

Bottling up the Companions so that they took no part in the first half of the battle was also a tactical success, but led nowhere as I couldn’t seem to find a way forward elsewhere on the field.

And my scythed chariots - the reason for the lack of terrain? Shot down by archers in the first turn!

Time to play the battle the other way around, but that is a story for another day…

Weave of War: the End of Painting Tartan

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Ask any miniature painter what the most difficult thing to paint is and “tartan” will always appear near the top of the list. I’ve certainly struggled with getting kilts ands cloaks to look good whether I’m painting 19th Century Highland infantry, Highlanders to support my 17th Century Covenantors, or just looking to add a bit of variety to Celtic types.

A new company, Weave of War, now has the solution: they sell little 28mm “Campaign Cloaks” that simply wrap around your miniatures.

This is an absolutely brilliant idea that has me reaching for the lists to plan a new army of some kind of Highland infantry just so I can use them!

There are currently eight varieties of tartan with, according to the website, more planned. A pack contains eight cloaks and there’s currently a launch offer giving you two packs for £11.

Here are the eight varieties:

And there’s even a YouTube video that shows you the best way to fit the cloaks

What a good idea…now all I have to do is persuade them to produce them in 15mm!

Painting Challenge: Early August Update

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It’s beena couple of weeks since the last Painting Challenge update, so let’s have a quick run through the latest submissions…

First up is Nick with his usual collection of fantasy figures. I particularly like the six thieves, bottom left.

Dex has also been busy, this time with a German WW2 Volksgrenadier platoon with a section of Jugend in support.

Dex also sent in some rather neat sci-fi figures as well: check out his gallery (accessible via the top NavBar) to see them.

Let’s get the third large submission out of the way as well now: Mr Helliwell with a rather lovely set of American War of Independence figures (well, it was July when they were actually painted) mainly from Peter Pig’s excllent range.

Stumpy is up next, with a few odds and ends sorted. Here are his Roman cavalry and a few British WW2 Home Guard.

And last, but by no means least, is Mervyn with some trolls of the non-Internet variety:

Keep them coming! I’m off to finish my Berber horsemen…

FK&P AAR: Muscovites vs Ottomans

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One of the great things about the To The Strongest system is that you can fight a decent sized battle in a couple of hours and still get a definitive result.

Thus it was that after our game featuring Ayyubids and Crusaders, Rob and I still had time for a game of For King & Parliament/Eastern Front variation. Rob would take the Ottomans, I would play the Muscovite.

The game began with strong advances on both sides, in particular with the Turkish horse seeking to break through on the Muscovite right flank.

The fighting opened on the left flank, with a massive cavalry clash between ten units of cavalry: five Turkish, five Russian.

The Muscovites had managed to get a tactical advantage: getting into position to be able to charge into the flank of the Ottoman line. Unfortunately, the Turkish horse proved extraordinarily resilient, failing to take any damage even when attacked from front and flank!

Not a bad set of saves!

Despite this resilience, the initial clash went to the Muscovites, who now still had five units of cavalry versus the three remaining to the Turks.

This advantage was, however, an illusion: the Muscovite horse had been badly disordered in the initial clash and, as the two lines closed again, it was the Ottomans who burst through the Russian line, evening up the scores to three remaining cavalry units each.

Meanwhile, on the right flank, the Ottomans were definitely dominating the situation after the Muscovite Cossack and Tatar allies had suffered a ‘mare on first contact, leaving the Turks utterly dominant in that sector of the battlefield.

Meanwhile, in the centre, the Ottoman Janisseries watched the action, unmoved…

Back to the left flank, and the Turks saw an opportunity to wipe another Muscovite cavalry unit off the field with a flank charge stymied by the cards.

This gave me the opportunity to move their targets to safety, but in one of those quirks of fate that makes FK&P so exciting, the Sons of Boyars decided that they would rather be flank-charged after all!

The Turks were keen to oblige, de-Boyarising the table with ease. At the same time, the rest of the Ottoman cavalry on that flank charged forwards and that, combined with the losses on the right flank, was enough to send the remainder of the Russian army fleeing back towards Moscow!

Well that had been an epic game, well won by the Ottomans: their cavalry had proved unstoppable even by the usually super tough Muscovites!

Another great game!

TTS AAR: Ayyubid Egyptian vs Early Crusader

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Having painted up all my Berber spearmen, it was time to get them onto the tabletop where, as part of an Ayyubid Egyptian army, they would face the Early Crusaders.

As I watched the Crusaders deploy, I began to evolve a plan: I placed all my cavalry on my right flank intending to overwhelm the Christian Knights in front of me whilst the rest of my army held back.

The two cavalry forces quickly got to grips on the right flank but try, as I might and even with the advantage of numbers, I just couldn’t break the enemy Knights: even when outflanked by my lights they just shrugged off any damage and carrried on.

At the same time as my plan was being thwarted on the right, the Crusaders were trying to outflank me on the left. Fortunately, I had an infantry command ready to cover that flank and, just as the enemy Knights on the right, they were able to hold their ground against everything thrown against them.

In fact, the troops on the hill were so successful at repelling Crusader Knights and Arriere Bans that they were able to begin pushing forward.

That was both wings tied up, but what of the centre?

With one of my infantry commands tied up protecting the left flank, that left three units of Berber Spearmen (one the veteran Black Guard) facing all the Crusader foot. Fortunately, their deployment meant that I wouldn’t necessarily have to face them all at once: the pilgrim contingent on the right of the Crusader line would initially be fighting thin air!

The two sides closed quickly.

My troops on the right of the line were victorious, sending a unit of Crusader infantry fleeing the field. To their left, however, the Arab Spearmen were pushed back, but managed to retreat to a safe distance to reform.

The rest of the Crusader infantry then finally got into a position where they could join the fun, and the melee neatly pivoted through 90 degrees.

Meanwhile the battle between my cavalry and the Crusader knights on my right flank was still very much in the balance: try as I might, my Jund cavalry, even supported by all those lights nipping at the Crusader flanks, just couldn’t break the veteran Norman horsemen.

Sidenote: I can’t help feeling that if I had been facing my Venetian Knights, the Arabs would have wiped them out in one turn! Why can’t my Knights ever survive attack after attack in the same way?

Some Crusader infantry came to help the Knights, and a cunning use of the Cry Havoc! stratagem card (caltrops!) almost derailed my attack entirely, but the Arab horse survived and the fight went on.

Things were also starting to look a bit dicey on the left, where the Crusader Knights there were having a bit of a resurgence…

…but in the centre a lucky run of cards knocked the enemy Arriere-Bans off the table, and I only needed a couple more coins to win.

In the end the battle was decided on the right, as the cavalry unit that had retreated back from the enemy caltrops managed to catch a unit of Crusader infantry in the flank as they moved to intervene in the big battle on the right. Already disordered, the Crusader foot crumbled under the onslaught of the Jund, and the game was mine!

That had been an epic battle, with thrills and spills throughout.

All kudos to the two units of veteran Crusader Knights facing my right flank, who at one stage were keeping four units of cavalry and four units of light cavalry occupied, and it was really only a bit of luck in the middle of the field that would eventually give me the game.

TTS AAR: Venice Abroad versus Marian Romans - Take 2

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After my narrow defeat at the hands of Peter’s Marian Romans, there was time for another game, so we cleared everything from the table and started again.

Peter immediately saw an opportunity to overwhelm me on my right hand flank: sending his men forward as fast as they could go.

In response, I retreated my infantry on that side back into my fortified camp, hoping to lure him forward even further to expose his right flank to my Knights.

The Romans are very manoeuvrable, however, and, with my infantry temporarily not a threat, Peter now snapped them around to present a solid frontage to the marauding Venetian horse.

My Knights turned to pin the Romans in place, and out of my camp came my infantry again, looking for those elusive Roman flanks!

I needed some form of strike now, whilst the Romans were still somewhat off-balance trying to fight in two different directions at once.

The oportunity came with my Someone Has Blundered stratagem card: one of the Roman legionary units replayed an activation card with their General, and I converted their move into a smart about turn, exposing their rear to the ternder ministrations of my Later Knights.

This did expose my Knights to a counter-charge from a small unit of Legionaries on their flank, but I thought the risk worthwhile to knock a full unit of Legionaries off the table and force lots of other Romans to make a Rally check.

I was now in a cracking position: on the advance with one command of Knights, the other poised to attack, and with infantry threatening the Roman flank. Surely it would now just be a matter of rolling up the Latins and sending them scurrying from the field!

Unfortunately not!

The Romans are a tough bunch, Peter a canny commander, and those two factors combined with a poor run of cards knocked the Venetians for six!

First up, the light infantry in the woods twice failed to charge the Roman flank, also ending that command’s activation before it could really get started.

Secondly, my Later Knights proved once again to be wearing cardboard armour, and just evaporated from the field. Note that, in the second picture, Peter has also drawn a ten over a nine to be able to continue his charge!

My dreams of victory over the Master had turned into nightmares and, at this point, I very maturely threw all my toys out of the pram and threatened to resign the game and go home in a huff!!!

I eventually calmed down, however, and got back to the business of trying to retrieve the situation. Here’s an overview shot showing what’s what. As you can see, it’s not quite as bad as it could have been for the Venetians: the forces remaining and tactical positions are about even.

On the far right of the field, the Roman cavalry had been trying to get around my flank, but had been stymied by a unit of Venetian Spearmen. These then chased the Roman horsemen right back to their camp, but wouldn’t quite get in to finish them off before the end of the game.

Meanwhile, a confused melee broke out in the centre of the field, with the remaining units on both sides fighting for the game.

First up, the Venetian Alabardiers had outflanked a Roman Legionary unit, but just couldn’t manage to break the veterans, only managing to drive them back into the Roman camp.

Next, my remaining units of Knights charged forward. One managed to break another unit of Legionaries, but was thenkilled by light cavalry coming at it from the flanks and rear.

The other also broke a unit of Legionaries, leaving the game poised on an absolute knife edge: next kill would win the victory!

All I needed to do was to let Peter’s current turn end, then I had a couple of chances to win the game. Unfortunately, I never got that chance: Peter’s last activation was to send just about his last unit of Legionarirs into the flank of my Knights. They had two chances to hit, only hit once, and all I needed was a 6+ to save. Naturally I failed, lost four coins (their General had nowhere to go), and that was that!

Well that had been a very bloody game of To The Strongest and a very frustrating one for the Venetians.

They had defintiely had the advantage after the initial deployment and early stages of the game; then had many chances to do some serious damage to the Romans in the middle of the game before the Aces hit; and even in the game’s second half seemed to have done enough to win.

But that’s the way it goes sometimes: and all credit to Peter for rescuing what seemed like a doomed situation at least twice.

I’ll get him eventually!

TFL Painting Challenge: Late July Update

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Here’s the latest batch of entries for this year’s Painting Challenge.

First up, Dex has had a very productive few days producing both a Hungarian platoon and a Japanese Special Naval landing Force in 15mm:

There are more figures in his gallery, accessible from the top NavBar, and I’d always recommend looking at people’s full galelries rather than the selection I post here on the updates.

Next up, Mark Luther who has replaced all his telephone poles (66 of them) and found time to add a few more aircraft to his collection as well:

Melvin has been busy too: working towards finishing a Norse and a Congo project. I’m not quite sure what he means by this word “finished” but it’s probably an excuse to buy more figures!

Along the same lines, Mr Burt uses the words “final batch” in his e-mail to me. Well, I know what a “batch” is, but I think we all know that the word “final” is, shall we say, flexible in wargaming collection terms…

And last, but by no means least, here is Mr Helliwell with his usual mass entry. Lots of Napoleonics and Medievals for us to enjoy.

Keep them coming!

TTS AAR: Venice Abroad versus Marian Romans

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Here’s an After Action Report of a game of To The Strongest played as a practice session for this year’s Briton competition: my Venetians versus Peter’s Marian Romans.

I have Marian Romans, so I know how manoeuvrable they are, so it was no surprise when Peter set up with all his troops in one quarter of the battlefield with a command of light cavalry on the other flank: his intention being to either fight his whole army against only part of mine, or have the light cavalry get around my flank with disastrous results, or use the Romans’ manouevrability to react to whatever I did, or a combination of all three!

My plan was to send my knights forward into the Roman half of the battlefield, and then turn to the right and hopefully hammer the Romans from front and flank as my infantry came forward.

First, however, I needed to make sure that I kept an idea on that enemy light cavalry. This was a job for my mounted crossbowmen, who quickly shot down the veteran Numidians, removing one threat to my left flank.

Meanwhile, the Romans had expanded out of their initial tight formation, and were manouevring into a position where they could fight to both front and flank.

I did see an opportunity to kill another of the light cavalry units by squishing them between two unit of Knights, but unfortunately the cards were having none of it and the moment quickly passed.

Despite this minor setback, my plan unfolded nicely, and when contact was properly made with the Romans, it was generally with my troops having the advantage either from flank charges or being able to get two units onto one enemy one.

Unfortunately, although the cards I’d had for moving around the battlefield were decent enough, that good fortune didn’t extend to the actual combats themselves, and the initial clash left the Venetians down a unit of Knights and Spearmen having destroyed only one small unit of legionaries.

Meanwhile, on the right, the Venetian Alabardiers drove the Roman cavalry back towards their camp. For a moment I had visions of killing the enemy horse and taking the Roman camp, but forcing Peter withdrew a Legionary unit from the front line to combat this threat, and soon my right flank was empty of all Venetian troops except a couple of units of handgunner lights!

The battle was definitely not going my way: the manoeuvrability of the Romans combined with their veteran status making them very hard to kill.

I did, however, still have some Knights out of the left flank and, in a glorious charge back into the centre of the field, the “Broken Lances” rode down and destroyed an entire Legionary unit in one legendary thump from the flank!

That put me right back in the game, especially as the Roman formation had now got slightly extended, with the game breaking up into a series of individual combats.

So all I needed was one more turn where my flank charges went in and my shooting was effective and I could still win the game.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. At this crucial moment my veteran Knights (technically saving on a five, but obviously wearing their cardboard armour) were knocked off the table by a unit of Legionaries pulling a ten and then a decent melee card to get one final successful attack before Peter’s turn ended.

That was a very frustrating end to what had been a great game: and the closest I have come to beating Mr Riding for some time…but I was at least pleased that I had dealt with the initial Roman deployment and first phase of the battle well, even if the actual fighting bits hadn’t gone my way. Previously I would have let the enemy light cavalry harrass me from the flank and ended up with my Knights fighting air whilst the rest of the Romans mashed through my infantry to give Peter an easy victory…so an improvement of sorts at least!

Adding to the Caliphate

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With my 15mm Arab Conquest army now veterans of several tabletop encounters, I am now in the process of adding units in order to expand it into one of the later caliphate armies such as the Umayyads who invaded the Iberian peninsular.

First up are the infantry, who transitioned from largely Arabic warbands to units of Berber spearmen sometimes incorporating archers. This was actually a real pain: having painted 160 Arab warriors, I now had to paint another 160 Berber spearmen!

The Black Guard veterans and a couple of the units had already been done (see post from 20th May) so it was now just a question of slogging through the rest. These are all Red Copper sculpts printed by Baueda in Italy before they were sold back to the UK.

Luckily the Berbers are easy to paint: or at least they are the way that I paint them!

Undercoat in Grey Seer, then splash on a base coat on Contrast White paint. Leave to dry. Then dry brush a bright acrylic White over the Contrast White to give you the folds in the robes. Then paint the faces, eye slits and hands in a dark flesh Contrast paint. After that, the sash and headdress in a Contrast colour of your choice: here I have used Stormfiend Blue.

After that, it’s just a matter of finishing the figures. The Spear shafts are in Wyldwood, the pennants in a variety of Contrast colours. The shields are Wyldwood (painted at the same time as the spears) then drybrushed in bronze then washed with Agrax Earthshade.

Easy and quick to do: about three hours per unit.

FK&P AAR: Ottomans versus Habsburgs

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I wanted to get my Ottomans onto the table again, and who better for them to fight than a largely-proxied Habsburg army to represent an encounter from the Habsburg-Ottoman War of 1663-4 (aka the fourth Austro-Turkish War).

I would play the Ottomans and, as you’ll see from the picture above, deployed with my household cavalry on the right, facing the Habsburg cavalry; the Janissery foot in the centre; and three more units of horse (including the fanatical Deli) on the left. My plan was to win the game with my cavalry, as I didn’t fancy facing the Habsburg pikemen with my Janisseries.

Accordingly, I sent my horse forward on both wings but, on the right, held back my elites ready to exploit any success.

A massive cavalry melee broke out as my Sipahis charged into the Habsburg cuirassiers, with neither side particularly getting an advantage.

The Habsburgs then committed their infantry, trying to shoot my horsemen down from the flank.

This was, of course, the moment I had been waiting for: sending my elite Sipahis of the Guard crashing into the flank of the Habsburg infantry as it turned to bring fire.

In a glorious charge, the elite horsemen punched a hole right through the Habsburg line, sending their infantry fleeing from the field.

Note the fact that I have also now brought up the Janisseries: with the enemy pikemen distracted (to say the least) now was the time to pour their disciplined fire into the Habsburg infantry.

This was too much for the Habsburgs to bear, especially as the Deli and more Sipahi were now working their way around the other flank: their army retreated in as good an order as they could.

This relatively quick win left us time for another game.

This time, I set up in much the same way as before but, noticing that the Habsburgs had what looked like a very weak left wing, determined that that would be the point of my attack: the plan being to smash through there and then loop around into the rear of the main Habsburg line.

To conceal my intentions, I initially hung back on the right, and advnaced strongly in the centre, seeking to pin the Habsburgs in place whilst my plan unfolded.

With the cards being helpful for a change, my plan worked to perfection, with the Sipahis breaking through the enemy Croat light horsemen, opening the way for the rest of my cavalry to pour through the gap.

Seeing their position turned, the Habsburgs again chose to retreat from the field: aiming to fight another day rather than stand and potentially be slaughtered.

A couple of great games of For King & Parliament - Eastern Front, with the Habsburgs left wondering just how they could beat the marauding Ottoman horse!

IABSM AAR: Taking the Starmaskaya Bridge

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Regular visitors will have seen the two recent reports featuring the excellent Starmaskaya table put on by legendary IABSM duo Phil and Jenny: one from a preview game and one my own report from this year’s Operation Market Larden event.

Here now is a third report using the same terrain layout, but an earlier, playtest battle with a report from the excellent Bleaseworld blog: highly recommended as a regular site to visit.

Click on the picture below to see all:

TTS AAR: To The Smallest Game 4: Arab Conquest vs Later Carthaginians

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My final game at this year’s To The Smallest competition was an absolutely bonkers affair against other-Rob’s Later Carthaginians.

I say ‘absolutely bonkers’ as I’ve never played a game of To The Strongest quite like it. Seven of the eight Generals that started the game died; I was pulling 10’s out of the pack like there were no lower cards present; victory could have gone to either side in the final stages of the battle ; and the whole 160 point game was over in 45 minutes!

So what actually happened…

First up, Arab mounted infantry and the Take the High Ground” strategem card meant that the two sides started the game really close together:

The first action was on the far left, where Rob had been trying to sneak a unit of massed light cavalry around my flank. Not wanting this to happen, I sent some light camelry in that direction, thinking to intercept the Numidians in a turn or so.

The cards, however, were with me, and pulling a couple of tens in a row meant that I hit the lights in the flank right when they were on the edge of the field.

Although the camels didn’t manage to destroy the Numidians, they did disorder them, and for the rest of the game the two sides knocked seven bells out of each other without either side actually managing to finish off their opponent.

Meanwhile, on the other flank, some more Numidian cavalry had managed to get onto my flank, and despite the fact that they were raw massed lights, eventually managed to wipe out the cavalry command I had stationed there!

This was a bit unfortunate, but the cavalry had managed to take some of the enemy with them, so not a total loss.

Back to the centre, which had neatly divided into two halves as the two battle lines moved together.

Left-of-centre, I had a couple of units of Jund cavalry facing vast numbers of Celtic types - these Carthaginians are a mixed bunch! - but the Jund were on form smashing one warband from the field and moving up to engage the others. My cards had been very good here: lots of tens!

Generals had been dying in droves at this point: Rob had already lost three, and I had lost two, and at two Victory Medals apiece, that can really cut into your cache!

Right of centre, the action developed into a massive infantry melee as deep units of Hoplites and Spearmen smashed into my Warriors (half of them Fanatics).

Disorder markers rained down on the units involved, with the advantage slightly with me as my Fanatics ignored the associated penalty on combat ability.

The luck, however, stayed with me, and a final flurry of ten’s from my infantry (in defence as well as attack) and the death of the last remaining Carthaginians general gave me another five coins and the game.

I had won 16-9, but that didn’t really represent how close the game was. I had taken the last of Rob’s coins with a deep unit and a general going i.e. five coins, so before that, we had been on 11-9 in my favour. If my fanatics had gone (I’d already lost their general!) then the score would have been 11-12 in Rob’s favour with all to play for.

It had been a great game, played at a rapid rate of knots, full of action and much hilarity, especially as one general after another bit the dust. A great way to end the tournament. In the end, I came 6th overall, not bad for two wins and two losses…and it’s always a pleasure to game at Firestorm and to see the TTS crowd again.

TTS AAR: To The Smallest Game 3: Arab Conquest vs Ayyubid Egyptian

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My third game at this year’s To The Smallest 15mm To The Strongest competition was against Richard’s very nicely painted Ayyubid Egyptians.

The Ayyubids had a lot of cavalry available on the flanks, so my plan was once again to hold back on the wings whilst getting my infantry in the centre stuck in as soon as possible.

This I duly did, but without any great success. For some reason the cards had decided that they’d had enough of helping me out, and every single clash resulted in my troops going disordered!

Things continued that way for the rest of the game.

On the right flank, my cavalry moved up into a position where I could get a two to one advantage on one of the enemy units facing me, but the initial clash didn’t go my way to the extent that I ended up losing my cavalry general on that flank.

Now outnumbered, I needed to retreat to consolidate, but an unlucky Ace left me vulnerable. Unbelievably, however, the Egyptian cavalry failed to follow up, giving me time to get away, but the writing was on the wall and, a few turns later, that flank was definitively lost.

Things were not quite so bad on the left flank, where both sides had held back their troops to see what was happening elsewhere on the field.

When the clash did eventually occur, so did mutual self-destruction, with only one of my cavalry units surviving the melee.

So the game would be decided in the centre where, if you remember, the initial clash had not gone my way.

Things broke down into their usual (when using the Arabs) fragmented melee, but with my warbands suffering the effects of that initial clash.

Valiant efforts by the Daylami mountain tribesmen stemmed the tide of enemy troops flooding in from the right flank for a moment, but the loss of both of my foot generals meant that the writing was now on the walls!

The end of the game was very much a damp squib, with me just running out of coins as the attrition of the central melee combined with my losses on the wings took effect.

I had lost 11-16 (including three of my four generals) which showed that my men had been fighting hard if not successfully. A very frustrating game during which even Richard, my opponent, said that I had suffered the most appalling cards: not so much the usual surfeit of Aces, but more my men just not hitting or failing their saves during the general course of play.

But it was a game played in great spirits, and I look forward to a re-match some time in the future!

TFL Painting Challenge: Early July Update

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A quick interuption of the flow of AARs from the To The Smallest competition to update the Painting Challenge.

First up, we have a new entrant, Dex, who has sent in some very nice WW2 miniatures, including a Phillipino force. Welcome, and we’re all looking forward to seeing more of your work:

It wiuldn’t be a Painting Challenge update without an entry from Mr Helliwell, so here’s a selection of the usual vast amount of figures that he’s sent in:

A bit late, so added after this post first went live, is Sapper, with some very nice 28mm figures from across the ages:

Steve Burt and Stumpy get to share a spot with their entries this time around: more Traitors Gate from Steve and some Italian Napoleonics from Stumpy.

And finally here’s some re-basing (always a horrible task) from Mervyn for the Congo game from Tomahawk Studios:

So just a quick update this time, with the last two AARs from To The Smallest following shortly!