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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TTS AAR: Aghlabids versus Italo-Normans

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two the Strongest Game Three: Northern Dynasties Chinese versus Polybian Romans & New Kingdom Egyptians

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Our third game at the Doubles was against Geoff and Nate using Polybian Romans and New Kingdom Egyptians respectively. This was a crucial game as the way in which the points system worked meant that three pairings were still in with a very good chance of winning the tournament overall: not only, therefore, did we have to beat Geoff and Nate, but also beat them by more than Si and Dave beat their opponents. Exciting stuff!

I have a New Kingdom Egyptian army myself, so I know something of its strengths and weaknesses. My plan was therefore very simple: charge forward with my heavies and steamroller the enemy before they had a chance to use their superior shooting to pincushion me to death!

So that’s what I did: straight forward and to hell with the consequences!

Crude tactics, but they worked like a charm. The Egyptians crumpled under the onslaught of my heavy cavalry and were dismissed from the field after only the second turn!

This was very unfortunate for Geoff, who now found himself facing Peter’s army from the front and my army from the flank.

This turned out to be no foregone conclusion, as the Polybian quincunx proved incredibly difficult to break.

Peter did manage to get his cavalry past the main Roman line and capture the enemy camp, but then had to spend his time trying to keep the camp (and the three coins it represented) and trying not be killed by superior numbers of Roman cavalry, all the while watching the three quincunxes marching inexhorably forward.

Time was also ticking on, and in the very last turn of the game I finally managed to get enough of my own heavy horse across and into the flank of the Romans to finish them off, but it was a near run thing and the Latin infantry resisted charge after charge before finally giving way. A tremendous, if untimately unsuccessful, defence of a very difficult position by Geoff!

All that was left was to wait for the final scores to be added up…Peter and I were overall winners again, but only by the very narrowest of margins: 102 points versus Si and Dave on 99 points!

My thanks to Nate and colleagues for organising, to all my opponents and, of course, to my doubles partner, Peter. Perhaps I can have a rest now before next year’s competition!

Two the Strongest Game Two: Northern Dynasties Chinese versus Principate Romans & Armenians

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The second game that Peter and I fought at last year’s Doubles (actually held in January this year due to scheduling problems) was against the powerful combination of Principate Romans and Armenians, ably generalled by Matt and Tim respectively.

The Chinese won the scouting and we both immediately advanced strongly against our opponents.

On my side of the table, things went wrong very quickly, with two units of my heavy cavalry disordered in the first charge, and my lights on the wing, who were supposed to be outflanking the enemy line, driven backwards and right off the table!

The Armenian cavalry who had driven my lights back then turned around and headed towards the rear of my horse, who were still very much under pressure from the enemy in front of them.

This had disaster written all over it, but somehow my cavalry threatened by the Armenians in the rear survived the next couple of turns: once because Tim drew Aces and failed to charge them, and then because they managed to make their saves when hit from behind.

A very narrow escape!

And, in fact, a narrow escape that allowed me to charge and disorder an Armenian unit further into the centre of the battlefield, and then assault it with more lights, finally doing enough damage to break them and give me enough coins to win the game.

This was very lucky, as I only had two coins left myslf, and Tim’s other cavalry were about to hit the rear of my other horse again!

So that was my side of the battlefield, what of what Peter was doing on his. Here’s his report:

Peter writes

My CinC , Mulan (of Disney fame), led some brave but nervous LC facing the veteran Lance and javelin armed heavy Roman cavalry. Mulan advanced and sure enough the Romans took the bait and galloped forwards to kill or capture the apparently weak and defenceless girl. But of course she withdrew.

Meanwhile the solid line of Lorica segmenta clad legionaries trundled forward with no gaps across six boxes!

But this was a trap! My nearby command of cavalry and supporting light cav on the other side of the river shot forward. My veteran cav Lance bow, blocked the advancing legions and started shooting although scoring no hits. They then sat there with lowered lance, threatening to countercharge any further advance by the Romans.

Meanwhile, the bow armed cavalry surprised my opponent Mat by turning and offering their flank to the pilum armed pesky praetorians! Why? Because They then charged across the deadly river, at the Ford smashing into the flank of the Roman cavalry! Missing once and hitting the second, which Mat failed to save! The supporting light cavalry followed and again missed and then hit but frutatingly the vet cavalry saved!

So it was up to Mulans squadron of bow armed light cav to pour 6 volleys into the same unit and on the last arrow they failed to save and died!

This left just one unit of Roman cav facing a swarm of formed Chinese cav and Mulans light cav and they very wisely began withdrawing back to their base edge.

Meanwhile my veteran heavy Lance armed cav blocking the menacing Roman mincing machine, activated - and withdrew! This surprised Mat but also delighted him as he wanted to advance to take my camp.

So he blew his cornicens and the whole line of locked red scuta came forward in a rush.

But again this was a cunning trap!

By now the Final Roman cavalry unit had been pursued to their base edge and shot to pieces by the swarm.

This allowed Mulan and one unit of LC to turn and charge across the same Ford that the heavy cavalry had charged across the other way just two turns previoulsy.

You can see the moment in the photo above, where, just like in the AI video based on this very figure that I posted yesterday, the koi carp leapt into the air as Mulans tiger splashed through the water in Hollywood slow motion, before smashing into the flank of the already disordered legion!

The first card missed, the second card hit and the legion, obviously completely surprised by this unexpected attack across what it had assumed was a protective turbulent river, drew a 4 and failed its save!

These were the last two medals that the entire double army had left and the remaining Romans turned tail and ran!

I couldn’t have choreographed such a Hollywood moment any better…

  • A turbulent and deadly river.

  • One surprise charge across the Ford with heavy cav to take out Roman vet cav to close one trap.

  • Then another charge the other way to close the Second trap led by Mulan and her tiger to destroy a legion.

  • Winning the final medals for a total wipeout victory!

So another big win and on to the final game…

Two the Strongest Game One: Northern Dynasties Chinese versus Middle Sassanids

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Peter’s and my first game of the 2025 Two the Strongest Doubles Competition (actually taking place at the end of January 2026 due to scheduling problems) was against the formidable pairing of Simon Miller (writer of To the Strongest) and Ian Notter (who does the photography for the rulebooks), commanding a force of Middle Sassanids.

The tournament took place at the Seven Dials club in central London: a very cool venue for a wargaming competition!

Peter and I won the scouting and, with some very lucky cards, I managed to get one of my commands down onto the baseline behind Ian’s left flank.

Things went from bad to worse for Ian, who soon found himself fighting on two fronts—and before long, very much due to the fact that his cards had it in for him (I don’t think he made a single save all game), I had taken enough victory medals to drive his entire army off the table.

Simon, meanwhile, was doing his best to close with Peter’s troops, sensibly trying to stay as far away from my men, who were now heading over towards his side of the table, as fast as possible.

Most worrying for Peter was the unit of Savaran that almost managed to take the Chinese camp (gallery below: top right) something only avoided by the fact that I just managed to get some light infantry into the camp (to join the light cavalry there) in time.

There was also a general melee in the far left corner of the table (gallery below, bottom right) where various units of cavalry from both sides clashed over the small stream there.

All this fighting had weakened Simon’s army, especially as he was now fighting both of us at once, and eventually his force also collapsed, the coup de grace being delivered by more of our heavy cavalry, led by Mulan herself!

A great start to our campaign with a 16-5 victory.

TTS AAR: Burgundian Ordnance vs Sassanid Persians - Take Two

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With the first game over so quickly, Neil and I had time for another…so we kept the sides the same and started again.

As you’ll see from the pictures below, I decided to weight all my forces onto one flank in an attempt to win there before turning to wipe out the enemy elsewhere.

The Sassanids, wise to the tactic, came forward as fast as they could, and prepared to counterattack from the other flank:

My troops duly charged in but, shock, horror, failed to do more than just push the Sassanid foot backwards.

Things just weren’t happening fast enough, especially as the Sassanid heavy cavalry was almost in a position to counterattack: good moves by Neil!

It was all over very quickly!

My stacked troops on the left still failed to inflict the death blow on the Sassanids in front of them, which meant that Neil was free to launch a massive counter-attack of his own.

Yes, the unit of Burgundian Knights guarding my right flank did dispose of some of the Sassanids, but not enough to make a difference.

In the end, it was actually the troops on the Sassanid left, the one’s I was supposed to be overwhelming at the start of the game, who won the battle: taking full advantage of the ‘distraction’ posed by the Sassanid counterattack:

A disappointing loss for the Burgundians!

I worked out afterwards that the problem was that I didn’t commit enough to the main thrust on the left: I kept too much back defending my camp and in the centre protecting the thrust. That meant that Neil, keeping an excellently cool head, was able to absorb my main hit and then calmly counterattack with his overwhelming numbers of horse…but it was the troops that were hit by my main thrust that won the game even before those horse properly arrived!

A great game.

TTS AAR: Welsh Open Game Four: Venice Abroad versus WOTR Yorkists

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My fourth and last game at the Welsh Open To The Strongest tournament was against Steve’s Wars of the Roses Yorkists: a difficult army to face, packed full of longbows and with infantry armed with two-handed cutting weapons!

Attacking an enemy like that with a frontal advance is suicide: you walk right into a hail of longbow fire. The only way to do it is to attack its flanks and/or wings. I therefore sent the Knights forward, with the infantry pausing just outside longbow range, waiting for their own opportunity to go in.

Unfortunately, on the right, my Knights were wearing their ceremonial cardboard armour, and were soon fleeing the field. The intervention of my Light Mounted Crossbowmen, who had started the game off table and Lost, didn’t achieve anything and, despite huge opportunities for success on that flank, my attack petered out into nothing, with Steve able to bring the infantry that had disposed of my Knights back to counter the strength of my Later Knights.

I did have an opportunity to take the Yorkist camp there, but chose to try and improve the situation overall by sending the Lights into the rear of a Yorkist unit, but that didn’t work, leaving me to regret a potential three coins squandered.

Meanwhile, on the left, my Knights had broken onto the enemy flank, but the units they wer facing were veteran and proving very tough to actually evict from the tabletop, and I had to content myself with killing their general. I also just couldn’t quite get my Knights into the enemy camp: the cards weren’t quite falling for me.

I was now slightly ahead in terms of coins captured, but I needed an outright victory if I was going to make up for the crashing defeat I’d suffered against Peter in the last game. I therefore then made my second mistake of the battle: with the wings tied up but with the potential for my cavalry on either to head in to the centre, I sent my infantry forward to pin the Yorkist troops in place.

This was a mistake, as my poor spearmen and even the Alabardiers promply got cut to pieces by enemy Billmen!

This gave Steve enough coins to draw level and, with the game absolutely in the balance, astutely break through my line with his foot and attack my weakest line unit, the crossbowmen, sending them and my last two coins fleeing from the table for a 10-12 close fought loss!

A great game of To The Strongest despite the result, and very well played by Steve.

Overall, I was surprised to end up in 5th place, a good deal better than I was expecting and probably down to the size of my first two wins. Steve ended up second…which is presumably where I would have been if I’d beaten him!

Cracking tournament: my thanks to Ty for organising and for all four of my opponents on the day.

It’s now on to the delayed 2025 Doubles next weekend…

TTS AAR: Welsh Open Game Three: Venice Abroad versus Pradithra Indians

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With two big wins under my belt it, it was inevitable that my next game was against Peter and his Pradithran Indians: lots of heavy cavalry, lance and bow, supported by horse archers…sounds very familar…

I lost the scouting and, despite my best efforts, managed to deploy with half my army facing thin air. It’s a familiar story when playing Peter, and one that usually ends in disaster!

Turn one and forward came the Indians, their pooping camels straight down into the corner!

I counter-advanced whilst frantically rushing my troops over to the right.

The Indian cavalry charged my veteran Later Knights (saving on 4+) and disaster struck: I drew five Aces in the first eight cards and promptly lost the Later Knights and therefore my army standard!

No matter: these things happen and I had more Knights that I could use to recover on the left whilst still trying to shift my army over to the right.

Then disaster struck again: I pulled three consecutive Aces and lost both those Knights and some Handgunners that were in the area!

Words fail me! I had drawn eight Aces in about thirteen cards. At this point even Peter was telling me that he had never seen such appalling luck!

With my left flank now vaporised and my back firmly against the wall, I fought on, desperate to recover the situation.

As you’ll also see in the right hand picture, above, I managed to get my troops that has started the game on the left over into the centre, and began an heroic defence of my position, managing to stretch the game out (playing normally, I hasten to add: no long pauses to deliberate!) until there was only five minutes to go.

At this point I was still on something like six coins, so a losing draw would have been okay. Keen to keep hopes of a good placing alive, I did get a bit gamey (translation: act like an arse!) and tried to claim that we had no time to play another turn - in competition, the organiser can’t afford to let the time spent on a round go too much over the allocated time or you could end up giving out the prizes in the Donmar Warehouse (if you know, you know!) - but Ty consulted the competition pack and declared that even though there were only minutes to go, and any resultant turn could take the game considerably over the limit, the rules said that if a player wanted to start a new turn they could do.

Unsurprisingly, Peter did…and, with some very skillful manoeuvring, managed to infiltrate some light cavalry through the gaping holes in my left flank (which I had denuded to prop up the centre) and take two of my three camps. Game over and a 2-12 loss to the master!

So another shoe-ing from Peter…but I could take some comfort from the fact that this one was down much more to the cards - eight pooping Aces in thirteen pooping cards - than to lack of skill or error on my part.

On to the last game…

TTS AAR: Welsh Open Game Two: Venice Abroad versus Later Romans

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After dispatching Colin’s Ikko-Ikki in Game One, my opponent in Game Two was friend Si and his Later Romans: in effect, a repeat of my third battle at last year’s Warfare tournament. I’d won that one (beating Si for the first time in competition ever) so settled down to try and do so again.

Things didn’t start very well, as I lost the scouting and had to watch as significant numbers of Roman heavy cavalry thundered towards my left wing!

At this point I managed to muck up the settings on my camera, so some of the photos are weirdly focused: which is absolutely gutting as this was the key moment of the battle!

I advanced my Knights towards the Roman horse and managed to get the first charge in. Incredibly, a fortuitous run of the cards saw me knock out one of the Roman cavalry units along with their General, with their accompanying lights also fleeing the field in shock. That’s five coins won (about half the Roman total) in one hit!

It was now very much the case of not throwing away this advantage, so I calmed myself down (no easy feat after that bit of good luck) and took stock. A plan quickly evolved: the Knights to finish off his Roman cavalry on the left then advance on his camp; send everything else in against the so-far-untouched Romans on the right.

Romans are really hard to kill, especially when commanded by an experienced general like Si. I threw everything I had available at the enemy on the right, and despite having a considerable numerical advantage and Knights, at the end of the game I still hadn’t fully broken them there!

So it would all be down to what happened on the left.

First task was to polish off the rest of the Roman cavalry…

Again, this took much longer than it should have done, particularly once some Roman infantry got involved…but eventually the last enemy cavalryman fled the field and it was time to break the foot.

Stubborn? That word doesn’t properly encompass how difficult it was to finish them off!

In particular, the Roman legionaries on the hill at the back survived charge after charge in the rear from my light horse, and weren’t even much bothered by my Knights coming in from the front, disordering them the first time they tried it!

In the end, however, the Later Knights managed to break the infantry unit caught out in the open, and the game was mine.

This was another big win (12-2) but, I emphasise, solely down to the luck I had in the first turn in knocking five coins worth of veteran Roman cavalry and their general off the table with my first charge. Without that bit of extreme good fortune, things would have been very different indeed!

TTS AAR: Welsh Open Game One: Venice Abroad versus Ikko-Ikki

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My first game proper at this year’s Welsh Open (held at the ever-excellent Firestorm Games in Cardiff) was against Colin’s beautifully-painted Ikko-Ikki.

This is an unusual army consisting of a mix of raw and veteran fanatics wielding naginatas and other polearms, supported by a small contingent of fanatical cavalry and the odd unit of bowmen and handgunners.

I won the scouting, and was pleased to see Colin set up in one corner of the table, ripe for some kind of outflanking manouevre with my Knights on the left!

I knew the Ikko-Ikki would come straight at me - that’s what fanatical monks with big choppers do - but I also knew that they would all be very vulnerable to missile fire. I therefore determined to get forward into missile range, then wait for them to come to me as I pelted them with crossbow bolts and fire from my handgunners.

There was also the matter of their cavalry on my right: that was job for my other command of Knights!

The shooting was also going very well on the right, with a couple of units of raw fanatics neutralised, so I thought it was safe to send the infantry forward to distract Colin’s main line whilst I developed my flank attack on the left.

This worked surprisingly well: with last of the Ikko-Ikki disposed of by the Knights on the right, an attack by Lancieri Spearmen on the side of one unit that had swivelled to face my flank attack was enough to knock their target off the table and give me a 14-2 victory without my left-hand flank attack even going in.

All in all, a succesful start to the tournament. It has to be said that Colin was unlucky with his saves against my missile fire and, as you can probably deduce from the pictures above, did manage to kill my one unit of Later Knights on the right.

Facing a solid wall of polearm-wielding, fanatical infantry and cavalry is terrifying, by the way, and I was pleased I never had to properly close with them throughout!

Welsh Warm-Up: Venice Abroad vs Graeco-Bactrians

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It’s late afternoon the Friday before the Welsh Open To The Strongest tournament at Firestorm Games in Cardiff. There’s beer to be drunk and a curry to be eaten later, but now there’s just time for a warm-up game between my Venetians and Mike’s Graeco-Bactrian (GB) successors.

[Mike had obviously heard that I was a VIP player as he had taken the trouble to dress very formally for the occasion. Although not featured in many of the photographs (it’s all about the figures, man) you may note his very natty suit and tie in the background of some of them. My thanks to him for making the effort: much appreciated!]

As the GB’s two pike blocks made the centre of their line a pretty dangerous place to be, my plan was to hold back my infantry there but attack strongly on both wings.

However, as the two armies advanced towards each other, it seemed as if the GB pikemen had decided to do the same thing: his wings advanced towards me whilst his centre stayed put.

This suited me down to the ground and, moments later, my left wing knights were charging into the GB veteran ‘Companion’ cavalry, ably supported by handgunners and the Alabardiers - free to intervene here as the enemy pike were still stationery.

Likewise on the right…although, as now seems customary, the later knights there seemed to have put on their ceremonial cardboard armour rather than the real thing!

My lights were meanwhile clearing the other GB troops from the field with missile fire (Mike was being very unlucky with his cards) and although of the left the knights were now making heavy weather of things, on the right they had recovered and were driving forward nicely.

As for the GBs, they had started to bring their pike forward…gulp!

My veteran later knights on the left (my best unit) were able to rout the companion types in front of them and then, with a glorious charge, sweep sideways and take one of the GB pike phalanxes in the flank, double-disordering them in one go: I told you Mike was being very unlucky with his cards!

At the same time, the advance of the other GB pike block and the fact that missile fire had stripped them of their accompanying/protecting lights meant that it’s flank was vulnerable as well: proving to be a very lovely target for my other unit of later knights, now dressed in proper metal armour rather than the nonsense they had started the game with.

It was all going a bit horribly wrong for the brave (but doomed) GBs, and it wasn’t long before one of the pike blocks gave way giving me Mike’s last three coins and the game!

So a big win for the Venetians in their warm-up game: my thanks to Mike for being such a fun sparring partner even in the face of some appalling cards.

Onwards and outwards for the promised beer and curry, and then the tournament proper tomorrow…

Postscript

Michael Lane reminded me of another incident in the game:

In the practice game that Douglas Baldwin and his Bactrians fought with Robert Avery’s Venetians Abroad on the Friday evening before Godendag, Mike (Douglas - don’t ask!) had the Patroclus Stratagem and he too forgot to use it when his General was turned into a pin cushion by Rob’s Crossbowmen. He didn’t even have the chance to save another General unlike me! It was Rob who reminded him of the lost opportunity when the game ended!

Practice for 2TS: Game Three

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This was the third game in Peter and I’s practice game for the forthcoming 2TS Doubles tournament (already past by the time this post gets published).

Preparations had been intense: morning fitness sessions; a strict dietary regime; classroom sessions on strategy, tactics and the rules; and, of course, a series of practice games of which this one was the third. Again, I would take the Northern Dynasties Chinese, and Peter would field Later Romans.

I won the scouting and, again, forced the Romans to deploy across the table to protect their flanks.

I then advanced forward with my main strength on the right and centre, intending to overwhelm him there and then turn and roll up the Roman line from that direction. Left to right, the situation before the two lines closed was now as follows:

Keen to avoid the consequences of my cunning plan, the Romans pulled back on the right. In the centre, a hail of arrows hit their steadily advancing infantry, with light cavalry harassing their flanks.

All was reasonably going to plan, and the Romans were slowly getting battered…but then disaster struck as their cavalry finally arrived from the left, heading straight for my lightly defended camps!

A ferocious melee broke out around the left side of my camp, but somehow my cavalry, armed only with bows, and a unit of horse-archers held back the veteran Roman lancers.

But this couldn’t last, and I now needed to win the battle quickly, sending everything forward into battle in the centre and on the right!

And still my two cavalry units, somewhat incredibly, held the camp!

Fortunately, the strength I had been able to deploy at the beginning of the battle, when the Roman heavy cavalry were occupied by a couple of light units off to the right, began to take effect. Often tactically outnumbered, and weakened by the constant bow fire and flank attacks, even the veteran Roman legionaries and auxilia began to waver…and, perhaps fittingly, a unit of raw Chinese spearmen, striking from the rear, finally inflicted the coup de grace: taking the final Roman coins and giving me victory!

As incredible as the stand of my cavalry around the camps was the fact that this was the third time I had beaten Peter in a row. As I write this, the Fimbulwinter (three consecutive, brutal winters with no summer) is upon us, there is moral decay leading to brother killing brother everywhere (well, Minnesota), the sun and moon are being devoured by the wolves Skoll and Hati, and I swear I can hear the breaking of chains holding monsters like Fenrir!!!

Practice for 2TS: Game One

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With the TwoTheStrongest (2TS) competition fast approaching, it was time for Peter and I to get in some practice games. Our armies this year would be Northern Dynasties Chinese and, as a first trial, Peter would take the Chinese whilst I would field a late Roman force.

The Romans found themselves immediately on the end of a powerful flanking attack coming in from the left hand side: an attack that would eventually just about wipe out my cavalry command there. If I hadn’t kept the Roman Cataphracts in reserve, then things would have been over a lot earlier!

Meanwhile, however, my centre and right flank had been concentrating their efforts against the center and left flank of the Chinese army.

As you can see from the first photo, my right hand cavalry force started the battle facing nothing but air as the Chinese concentrated their attack on the other end of my line, but I managed to get them back into the action quite quickly - mainly by merit of ignoring the enemy light cavalry in front of me (designed to temp me to chase them into obscurity) - and they were soon supporting my main infantry attack: something that pushed forward nicely with my legionaries and auxilia doing what they do best!

So, after the first phase of the battle, the Chinese had destroyed the left side of my army, and I had destroyed the left side of their army: in effect the game now swivelled through 180 degrees as the victorious flanks of each force turned to face the other.

The first action was around the Chinese camp, where two legionary units faced two units of raw Chinese spearmen: surely an easy target for their gladiii, despite the fact the Chinese were defending camps. Unfortunately not: and the game ended with the Romans still trying to break into the enemy camps: a testament to the fortitude shown by the raw Chinese!

Each side was now so battered that it was very much a case of “sudden death”: with the next unit to fall deciding the fate of the army it belonged to.

The Romans had a narrow escape in the centre, where a unit of equites alares managed to avoid being overwhelmed by Chinese cataphracts accompanied by heavy and light cavalry.

So it all came down to a fight on the Roman baseline between more Chinese cavalry and more equites alares, this time supported by auxilia.

The melee swayed backwards and forwards, with extreme bad luck on either side playing its part, but eventually the Roman horse prevailed, the Chinese horse fled, and the battlefield belonged to Rome!

So the narrowest of victories for the Romans, and some vital lessons learnt on both sides.

TTS AAR: Burgundian Ordnance vs Sassanid Persians

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Time for a quick game of To The Strongest, with my Burgundians facing Neil’s Sassanids.

Unusually, the Burgundians won the scouting, so I positioned by Knights to face one command of Persian heavy cavalry on my left, with a couple of units of mounted crossbowmen aiming to sneak around that flank as well; and my veteran spear/archer units in front of the other command of Sassanid heavies: I was pretty sure than the combination of longbow fire and spears would keep them at bay.

All this meant that I had to weaken my right, so I used the This Way Effendi! strategem card to push back his infantry and horse-archers there, and placed the Ducal Household Infantry supported by handgunners and an organ gun to cover them.

To tell the story of that right flank first, although the Sassanid elephants, horse-archers and Daylami javelinmen advanced forward, they did so comparatively slowly and, when they did get close to my line, were stopped by missile fire: the organ guns being unusually effective against the Daylami. The battle ended with that flank still very secure.

The action kicked off very quickly, with the Sassanid heavies charging my line as soon as possible.

The Persian attack on the far left was enough to force back my Knights there, but at the cost of the Sassanid general of that command. Any gloating on my part was, however, immediately cut short as the Sassanid attack on my other Knights in the left-centre, although largely unsuccessful, killed Charles the Bold. Turn one and both sides had lost a general!

Centre-right then saw the Persian Cataphracts charging my main infantry command:

Attacking undamaged veteran spear/bowmen with horse, even cataphracts and veteran heavies, is never going to go well, and soon two Sassanid cavalry units had been sent fleeing from the field, another Persian general dying in the process.

On the left, I then stupidly lost a unit of mounted crossbowmen by allowing them to be squished between two Savaran units, but this actually opened up the opportunity to hit the squishers in the flank with the unit of Gendarmes that I had been forced to pull back to rally.

Victory here gave me the game: the Sassanids had lost two generals, one infantry unit to organ-gun fire, and three units of heavy cavalry

Not a game with a huge amount of tactics in it: the Burgundian missile-fire was exceptional throughout right across the army, which meant I was generally charging disordered units when it came to melee…and there’s nothing a Gendarme likes better than riding over disordered troops!

Here’s a couple of shots of the rest of the field at my moment of triumph:

The good news was that as that game was over so quickly, we had time for a re-match, but more of that later…

TTS AAR: Anglo-Normans vs Fanatical Berber

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It was now my turn to play the Anglo-Normans versus the Fanatical Berbers.

My plan was simple: load all my veteran Knights onto the right flank, opposite his heavier cavalry unit, and utterly refuse my left flank. The Knights would then go in and crush all opposition before swinging in behind the enemy line in time to win the day before I was overwhelmed from the left. Simples!

As the game began, my Knights thundered forward, with their Spearmen following, with the Anglo-Saxons hanging back as much as possible.

The right hand unit of Knights forced some Berber light horse back, but the left hand command was temprarily halted as the opposing Jund cavalry proved tougher than expected.

Meanwhile, the Berbers had sent more light cavalry forward on the left at the gallop. This developed into a standoff between a single unit of Fyrd supported bt light archers and two units of enemy light cavalry.

More Berber light cavalry ignored the Fyrd and headed into the centre, threatening the flanks of my advancing line (left hand photo below) but the good news was that the left hand Knights had finally managed to disperse the Knights in front of them, leaving them clear to turn towards the enemy centre (right hand photo below).

The Berber light cavalry were too mobile to be pinned by the Fyrd/lights for long: one unit sneaking through the gap on the Anglo-Norman left.

This pesky unit then made its way down to the flank of the Anglo-Norman camp and (with a bit of help from the cards) charged in, dispersing the defenders and costing me three coins. What had looked a promising situation was now back in the balance!

Worse, the Berber infantry that had been so far excluded from the action out on their left flank had by now managed to move sideways and began to engage the rest of the now-outnumbered Fyrd (left hand picture below).

The Norman Knights needed to win the battle soon, or the left would be overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers. Fortunately, they were now in a position to turn sideways onto the left flank of the Berbers, and quickly advanced forward to charge position whilst the Norman infantry pinned the oppositino from the front (right hand picture below).

Things quickly became a bit critical on the left: even the Fyrd suffer when faced with over two-to-one odds.

Fortunately the Normans on the right were now in the perfect position to hammer the rest of the Berber infantry.

Although the Berbers turned to face the Knights coming in from the flank - and even Knights don’t like charging formed Spearmen - this allowed the Norman Sergeants to attack their flank, disorder them and make them vulnerable to a charge from the front: the perfect combined arms attack (the top two photos below).

The Knights thundered forward and smashed the disordered Berber Spearmen from the field. So horrible was the carnage that the Berber lights guarding their camp routed from sheer fright!

This obviously left the berber camp unguarded, allowing the other unit of Knights to calmly take possession, taking John’s last three victory medals!

A great game in which my cunning plan to weight the right and refuse the left worked…but only just!

If my final attacks coming in from the right hadn’t succeeded when they did, then I was in real danger of losing the game due to losses on my left, including the fall of my camp. I was very glad of the resilience of the Fyrd even if a lot of Saxons perished whilst the Normans won the battle!

TTS AAR: Fanatical Berber vs Anglo-Normans

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Time for another game of To The Strongest: with the Fanatical Berbers played by me versus John’s Anglo-Normans.

The large numbers of Berber light cavalry meant that I won the scouting and, seeing that the Anglo-Normans had deployed in a compact mass in the centre of the field with Knights on either flank, I decided to shake things up a bit and placed all my cavalry, light and heavy, on my left flank, intending to overwhelm the Knights there and then swing in to take the rest of his army in the side and rear.

As the game began, my horsemen thundered forward, and quickly got behind the Anglo-Norman line.

A unit of Berber light horse charged into the flank of the massed Norman Knights and, with the cards helping me out, sent one fleeing from the field.

With the Arab Jund cavalry and a unit of mercenary Christian Knights on the way into the action on that flank, the situation was only really saved for the Normans by the intervention of the Knights from the other side of the battlefield (along with Bishop Odo and a piece of the True Cross) who had quickly re-deployed across the width of the table.

This meant, however, that the Anglo-Norman left flank was left unguarded and, although a bit slow off the mark, the Berber Black Guard was soon forward and threatening there.

With the Berbers curling in from both sides, the Anglo-Normans desperately sent the Fyrd forward to try and cut through the main enemy line, but although they fought bravely, Berber light horse were all over their right flank/rear and the Norman spearmen who might have turned the battle in their favour were busy trying to hold off the Black Guard on the left.

It all proved too much for the Anglo-Saxon infantry, who were finally broken by more Berber light horse coming in from the rear. The main Anglo-Norman infantry line collapsed and the day was to the Fanatical Berbers!

A cracking game which actually felt a lot closer than the report, above, would suggest. Unit for unit, the Berbers were weaker than the Anglo-Normans, but there were more of them, and once the initial flank manoeuvre on the left had been successful, the Anglo-Normans were very much on the back foot.

Getting the Knights across to defend the right was genius, but that in turn allowed the more numerous Berbers to outflank on the other flank as well, and suddenly the Anglo-Normans were fighting in three directions as once. A gap was bound to appear somewhere, which allowed the Berber light horse to dart into a position where they could attack the rear of the heavily-engaged main Anglo-Norman battle line and that, as they say, was that.

Next game will reverse the sides and we’ll see how that goes…

TTS AAR: Venice Abroad versus Northern Dynasties Chinese

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Time for a pre-Christmas game of To The Strongest: my Venetians Abroad versus Peter’s Northern Dynasties Chinese.

The Venetians are not know for their scouting, so I was unsurprised when I lost that phase of the game. After deployment, the reltive postions were as follows:

Those of you who have played Peter in the past will know what is going to happen next!

Forced to deploy on a wide frontage to prevent myself being outflanked, Peter has concentrated his army against the left side of my army, meaning that all his force will effectively fight half of mine!

The game began with the Chinese advancing forward and putting their plan into action. The picture below shows exactly what this entails: you’ll see that they have managed to concentrate against my left wing and, with a bit of luck with the cards, even start to outflank me there.

I’ve played against Peter before, however, and so was expecting exactly these tactics. I therefore moved the Venetian (well, mercenary “broken lances”) to match the Chinese veteran heavy cavalry, and my mounted crossbowmen to block the outflanking force.

I now needed to get my right flank force across the table as soon as possible. With luck, I might even be able to hit the flank of the Chinese advance before it has time to deploy its extra numbers.

Unfortunately, the cards weren’t with me, and the right flank force spent two (yes, two!) turns refusing to follow orders!

The toher thing that needs to happen to defend against Peter’s favourite tactics is for the Knighst facing the main thrust to hold their ground as, if they go, the successful Chinese cavalry units will flood sideways into the flank of my main line.

On paper, the Knights should have been able to do exactly what was needed: one unit of veteran knights and one unit of later knights are not insignificant when it comes to melee! Again, unfortunately, the cards punished me for some imagined previous infraction, and the veteran knights were smashed from the table by the first Chinese charge, releasing hordes of enemy cavalry to swing sideways.

All was not lost, however.

The right hand knights finally got moving, and the infantry Alabardiers, with the aid of the handgunners, cut through some enemy lancers to dominate the centre of the field.

The Later Knights on the left were, however, now isolated and were unable to stand up to an assault by three Chinese heavy cavalry units supported by lights.

It was now a race to see whether the Chinese cavalry coming in from the left could kill enough of the Venetian infantry defending their camps before the Venetians in the centre (i.e. coming in from the right) could kill enough Chinese there to take the day.

Unfortunately, it was the Chinese who had the initiative and managed to win the game but, after a shaky start, the Venetians almost managed to snatch back victory: if their knights on the right hadn’t delayed getting across for two turns right at the beginning of the game, then things might have been very different.

But they didn’t…and things weren’t…but I was a lot closer to surviving Peter’s “weight one side” tactic than before!

TTS AAR: Hittites versus New Kingdom Egyptians

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As Rob had defeated me quite quickly in our game of FK&P, we had time for a quick bout of To The Strongest. Rob wanted to play New Kingdom Egyptians so, after a brief flirtation with fielding an Ancient British army, I decided to get as contemporaneous as possible and play the Hittites.

The New Kingdon Egyptian (NKE)’s main strength is in the devastating amount of arrow fire they can deliver from their massed light chariots, many of them veteran. The Hittite chariots, on the other hand, pack a much better punch in melee, so my plan was to match my chariots commands directly against the NKE chariots, aiming to get into combat as soon as possible.

Does that sound familiar? Was it, in fact, a re-run of my plan for the Polish-Lithuanians to fight the Transylvanians that had cost me so dearly in the last game? Errr…

As battle commenced, therefore, I sent my chariots hurtling forward on the left. It was my two commands of ‘impact’ chariots versus two commands of ‘missile’ chariots, with my Syrian lights trying to get through the Egyptian line on the far left.

I managed to get within charge distance very quickly, and duly thundered forward ready to get amongst the light chariots as soon as I could. Unfortunately, being lights, they evaded easily, meaning that although I was driving them back towards their baseline, I wasn’t closing to melee, and all the time wave upon wave of arrows were heading my way.

Meanwhile, as you can see, the Egyptian infantry was grinding forward, heading for my own infantry contingent, held back guarding the Hittite camps. Worse, the Egyptians had found some more chariots from somewhere, led by Pharoah himself…just what I needed: decent infantry to the front, marauding lights on the flank!

The Hittite chariots were still driving the NKE lights backwards, but the relentless bow fire was having an effect, and I couldn’t bring the full weight of my chariots to bear as some more Egyptian infantry had moved to threaten my chariots’ inner flank.

Still my chariots ground forward, and still the NKE evaded backwards right up until they had nowhere left to go. Yes, I now had them pinned up against the table’s edge, but the enemy infantry coming in from the inner flank were now starting to cause me real problems.

If I could just force those chariots off the table, all would be well…but what was happening back at the Hittite camp?

Unfortunately, I had underestimated the manoeuvrability of the Pharoah-led Egyptian chariots there, and thrown away the Hittite Royal Guard by leaving them vulnerable to a flank attack.

This let the chariots hit the flank of my camps whilst the main Egyptian infantry contingent assaulted the front, and although my men fought bravely and did some damage to the enemy, it wasn’t very long before my camp and my last few victory medals fell!

I’d like to say that the day had very nearly been mine…that the Egyptian chariotry was about to crumble leaving my own chariotry free to rampage through the enemy camps before driving into the rear of the infantry assaulting my camps, but that really wasn’t the case! The Hittite chariots might well have beaten their light Egyptian counterparts, but the effort had exhausted them, and they were in no fit state to intervene elsewhere on the field.

Not only that, but the Egyptians had infantry protecting their centre, infantry that were also preventing any spare chariots I had from intervening in the fight for my camps.

Could I have held my camps if I hadn’t thrown the Royal Guard away? Perhaps: it would have been four Egyptian infantry units versus three Hittite infantry units plus some lights…but the NKEs were in the ascendant at that point and even a one-for-one exchange of units would have seen an Egyptian victory. All in all, very well played by Rob, and Egypt continues to rule the Delta!

TTS AAR: Warfare Game Four: Venetians Abroad versus Timurids

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My fourth and final game of To The Strongest at the 2025 Warfare tournament was against Peter and his Timurids.

This was one of those frustrating games when I could see exactly what was going to happen…and it did!

Unsurpringly, the Timurids won the scouting, forcing me to deploy in a line to protect my flanks whilst they, as you can see in the picture above, could concentrate their efforts on one side of the battlefield.

With the first move advantage as well, that meant that Peter could get his light cavalry down my right flank before I had a chance to move to counter the manoeuvre: very frustrating and next time we meet under similar circumstances, I think I will ignore his set up and deploy in a block on one side of the field as well, and see what happens!

The first couple of turns were spent with me rushing my troops on the left over to the right, and the Timurids thundering forward, especially down my right flank.

The fighting on the centre-right got intense very quickly as I tried to stop Peter overwhelming my troops there before my reinforcements could arrive from the left.

I lost my veteran later knights and army standard, but managed to take out a unit of Timurid heavy cavalry in return, but by this stage the Timurids had managed to properly get around my right flank and the writing was on the wall!

Meanwhile, although some of the troops from my left had made it over to the centre to bolster my defence there, far too many of them were forced into action to deal with the threat from Peter’s “throwaway” troops: flaming camels, kharash driven slaves etc.

I did manage to get some mounted light crossbowmen out and around Peter’s right flank, but this was too little too late, and eventually my last coins went as the Timurids managed to get some light cavalry into one of my camps.

I rather miserable 2-12 loss to finish off my 2025 competition season, with a 9th place achieved overall at Warfare.

Still, a great day overall, with some goodies bought for future armies, plenty of great chats with people and, of course, fun games of TTS as well. On to 2026 now!

TTS AAR: Warfare Game Three: Venetians Abroad versus Later Romans

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My third game at this year’s To The Strongest tournament at Warfare was against Si and his Later Romans.

This was not an encounter I was particularly looking forward to: not because Si isn’t a nice chap, quite the opposite, but because, as he was happy to remind me, although I’d beaten him a few times in friendlies, I’d never beaten him in competition, with these Later Romans often proving my Nemesis!

Looking at the table after deployment, I decided that, as with the last game, my plan had to be to take the fight to the enemy.

Two reasons for this: the first was that the Romans had deployed an isolated command of two legionary and one light units on the right who looked ripe for overwhelming with a combination of Knights and lights of my own; and second that I had to make sure that under no circumstances could I allow his veteran cavalry facing my left, including some lights that had proved very pesky in the past, through to threaten my flanks and rear.

As the game began, I therefore attempted to advance forward strongly on each wing: successfully on the left, less so on the right.

To continue the story of the right flank, I did indeed eventually engage and overwhelm the two enemy legionary units there with my Knights and lights, but the resilience of the Romans meant that even though I eventually knocked out both units, I effectively tied up just about the same amount of points to do so. Plenty of coins in due course: but a lot of time and some of my best troops used to get them!

Back to the rest of the table, where the wide gap I had left between my advancing-quickly left flank and my advancing-slowly centre had given Si an opportunity to shift troops from his centre to threaten the right flank of my left flank force (if you see what I mean!).

This was quite a crisis, only just averted my managing to get my centre forward to ZOC the Romans’ ally-cataphracts.

I then withdrew the Knights on the left flank, pulling them back two squares: something that seemed to surprise Si, presumably because he felt that two units of Knights were sufficient to take on anything he had there, and that I was therefore ceding ground unnecessarily.

Well, yes, technically perhaps so…but I had good reasons for doing so.

Firstly, I knew that I currently had an advantage in the centre and on the right, so I wanted to win those battles, reaping as many coins as possible to set me up nicely for a climactic fight on the left from a position of power.

Secondly, Si is a canny player, and I was a bit overexposed on the left (hence the cataphract crisis), with three of my units facing six of his. I’ve been caught by that before: seemingly winning the battle to suddenly find one of my flanks collapsing and losing the game before I quite realised what was going on!

Finally, I was ceding ground for time - time for my right to wipe out the legionaries there and perhaps get back into the centre to smash the Romans from the right (didn’t happen, as we’ve seen above) - and forcing the situation where, for a short time at any rate, six of his units faced empty air whilst my withdrawing Knights would hopefully contribute to the fight in the centre.

And boy, was I right to do so!

Si slammed his right-centre (facing my left) forward, and I was soon facing a major assault across my left-centre that I only managed to withstand with the help of the Knights from the left that, had I not withdrawn them, would have been stuck embroiled with Si’s veteran light cavalry somewhere up on the far left side of the table.

Luckily, by this stage, my right flank force had eventually beaten the legionaries they had chased back to the Roman baseline, giving me six coins (two units, one general) and bringing me to the edge of victory.

I must confess that I can’t remember what gave me the final coins I needed to win, but I must have broken one more of Si’s units which, combined with coins from Si successfully rallying on an even card (the boot, or rather caligulae, were on the other feet in this game: one of the reasons for my defeat in our last encounter was me losing four coins to rallying…Si lost at least two the same way this game) and the odd light killed gave me the victory.

And, when it came down to it, it was a good victory: 12-2 in my favour but, as you can see from the photos above, it was actually much more of a close-run thing than the result would suggest…at the end here I am effectively fighting with my back against the wall, enough units already disordered that my whole position could have collapsed at any moment.

So an epic game (at least from my point of view!) and one that set me right back into the running for a decent placing in the tournament as a whole.