TTS AAR: Venice Abroad versus Gauls
/With the 15mm To The Smallest tournament done and dusted, it was time to start thinking about the 28mm Britcon To The Strongest tournament, only two weeks away.
My first practice game was to be with my Venetians against John playing the Gauls. I won the scouting, and was pleased to see the Gauls set up in a tight formation based around their two camps. This let me place my knights on the wings and, as the game began, send the ones on the right flying forward to outflank.
Unfortunately my rapid advance on the right had been so rapid that the two Gallic warbands at that end of the enemy line had had time to turn to face my knights, particularly as I hadn’t yet had time to get into position to threaten the flank of any enemy unit that did precisely that.
At the same time as that, my Knights on the left charged forward to engage half the Gallic cavalry, and the two infantry lines moved to within crossbow range, a lucky shot taking out one of the Gallic infantry generals!
On the left, my knights initially made very heavy weather of the Gallic horse: the first unit to go in, the Veteran Knights, bounced off their Celtic opponents and had to retire to reform. Luckily I had the Later Knights handy to take over, and the other half of the Gallic horse were taking their time about joining in the fun.
The Later Knights were having a good day and dashed both units of Gallic cavalry in front of them off the table, leaving only some somewhat nervous Celtic lights in between them and the Gallic camp.
Meanwhile, the disordered Veteran Knights turned to take the rest of the Gallic cavalry in the flank.
As the cavalry were fighting it out on the wings, the enemy centre came forward against my infantry. A hail of crossbow bolts slowed them down and the initial contact went my way, with the Gallic infantry withdrawing slightly to regroup. I tried my luck by sending the Alabardiers forward to follow up this initial success, but they were cut down without effect and soon the two infantry lines paused and just stared at each other across the battlefield.
On the right flank, meanwhile, my Later Knights were still having extreme difficulty in breaking the Gallic warband in front of them. They got to the double disorder stage, but just couldn’t break them, not helped by the cards either!
Back to the left where, with some superb manoeuvring, John had managed to force my Veteran Knights to retreat again and (after initially ignoring them and hoping they would just go away!) to not only thwart my Later Knights in their attempt to take the Gallic camp, but also then get into a position to assault the left hand end of my infantry line.
At the same time, his warbands there came forward again and I was in real trouble!
Meanwhile, the position in the centre of the battlefield was very confused. I lost my Knights on the right, but then my infantry conducted a heroic defence against the main Gallic assault.
Back to the left, where my Veteran Knights took advantage of the fact that the Gallic cavalry that had been all over them had left to harrass my Later Knights theatening the enemy camp, and redeemed themselves by charging the Gallic warbands assaulting that end of the infantry line. At the same time, my Spearmen on this hill anchoring said line managed to hold off the other Gallic horse, and suddenly it was all to play for again.
Casualties had been high on both sides, and John and I each had only two coins left, which meant that the next loss of an ordered unit or general would decide the game.
It was John’s turn and a unit of pesky lights turned and assaulted the rear of the Later Knights who were still trying to finish off the warband on the right. The attack went in…a hit…but that bounced off the Later Knights’ armour…but their accompanying general wasn’t so lucky: he drew an Ace for his save so had been hit. This was bad: a 50% chance that he would die, losing his life and me the game!
The card was turned: a Four!
Phew! A light wound and I was still in the game.
The Celts tried to go in again, but drew an Ace themselves and the iniative passed back to the Venetians!
All I needed was one kill…which was delivered by the Later Knights on the other side of the table, who may have been prevented from taking the enemy camp, but then turned and happily rode down their attackers. Victory for Venice!
Well that had been a cracking game of To The Strongest, with mayhem, action and fortune swaying wildly over the whole battlefield. It had been the narrowest of wins for the Venetians: definitely a little too close for comfort!
