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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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