TTS AAR: Colours Game Three: Early Imperial Romans versus Scots/Irish

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My third and final game at the Colours tournament this year was against Rob’s Scots/Irish: a huge army of barbarian infantry that just about stretched in one unbroken line from one end of the table to the other!

I lost the scouting, but still entertained a small of hope of being able to use my superior cavalry to get around an enemy flank, but that hope died a death once the Scots/Irish had made their first move: charging forward determined to overwhelm the Romans through sheer weight of numbers.

Although they don’t necessarily look it, all the scots/irish units were deep

At this point in the day, neither Rob nor I were much interested in tactics: and it wasn’t long before the two battle lines came together with a mighty crash, literally lining up unit-on-unit from one side of the table to the other.

It soon became obvious that the Romans were in the fight of their lives: the Scots/Irish were taking hit after hit but, having three lives each, just staying on the table to inflict damage of their own, especially as some of them were fanatics so ignored any penalties from disorder.

That unbroken line of melee rapidly fragmented as successful units on either side pushed forward against retreating opposition, and soon the game consisted of a series of vicious little fights that neither side could afford to lose: getting a unit free to start hitting the flanks of the enemy line would be a game winner for either side.

On the left, although one unit of Roman cavalry broke through the Scots/Irish line, their colleagues were forced to retreat in order to rally, and the situation became very dicey indeed!

Meanwhile, in the centre and centre/right, the Romans, although inflicting terrible casualties on the Scots/Irish, were pushed right back until they were literally fighting from inside the wall of their castrum (or rather castra as I had three camps - thank you, Mr Mackenzie, for making sure I never forgot how to decline bellum!).

It was now a matter of whether the Romans could take the last few Scots/Irish coins before collapsing themselves.

Fortunately, a unit of veteran Legionaries knew their duty, and cut down a final unit of Scots/Irish fanatics, giving me Rob’s last three coins and victory.

It had been a short, sharp and brutal clash that the Romans only managed to win because of the quality of their troops. For once I managed to rally the units I needed to rally without losing too many coins to the rally-on-evens rule…but even with that, if I hadn’t had a fortified camp to fall back on, it could easily have been a very different story indeed.

A great game, though: very exciting and with Rob and I enjoying every moment!

So that had been the inaugral To The Strongest tournament at Colours. With two losses and one win under my belt I think I came 5th or 6th, so better than expected but still pretty unfortunate coming off the back of my win at Britcon.

The Romans will now slip back into their retirement as I continue my quest for a new 28mm tournament army - in between, of course, adding to my main 15mm collection!

TTS AAR: Colours Game Two: Early Imperial Romans versus Samnites

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My second game at this year’s inaugral To The Strongest tournament at the Colours wargaming show was against Sid’s beautifully presented Samnite army.

This would be an interesting encounter: my men were generally better than Sid’s, man for man, but there were more of the Samnites. All I needed to do was to watch my flanks and get all my troops into the battle in one go, and then hopefully watch the Roman mincing machine go to work.

The game began with the Roman cavalry advancing forwards strongly on the left. In retrospect I can see that Sid played this brilliantly: luring my horsemen forwards into the narrow pass between two steep hills and then hitting them with a unit of Lights played from the Ambush strategem card.

I fell right into this trap, with the result that I never really managed to take advantage of the mobility of the veteran Roman cavalry, and ended up tied up in a stalemate that favoured the Samnites for the rest of the game.

On the right flank, a command of Legionaries advanced confidently towards the Samnites, sureof both their superiority and that they had another command of Legionaries to back them up.

Unfortunately, both these confidences were misplaced. These were veteran Samnite troops they were facing and, due to pulling an Ace for a group move three times in succession, the Legionaries that were supposed to be supporting them stayed languishing at the rear of the field, presumably polishing their armour or suchlike.

The advancing legionaries got themselves into a bit of trouble, hit from front and flanks, and it was only with some difficulty that the situation was at least partly rescued.

I was now in a bit of trouble. My cavalry were tied up on the left, my infantry on the right were under some pressure and needed reinforcing…which meant that a large hole was rapidly developing in the centre of my position i.e. right in front of my camps.

Now Sid is a man who is never one to let a large hole remain unfilled, and the Samnites poured into the gap. I had the Praetorian veteran legionaries positioned there to stop the tide, but they were obviously outnumbered and were hit from all sides. This might not have been too much of a problem, as the Praetorians are saving on a very decent 5+, but the cards decided they’d had enough of this game and I was hit twice and failed the save twice…losing the Praetorians (2 coins), their General (2 coins) and the army standard (1 coin) for a total of five very painful coins!

My Lanciarii moved across to intervene, but Horatius was unfortunately not present that day, and before long Sid had taken my camp and the game: a classic “draw the enemy troops off to the flanks then punch straight through the middle” ploy that had worked immaculately.

A beautifully engineered victory for Sid, admittedly helped by some poor activation cards on my part early in the game, but the cards weren’t responsible for me tying up my cavalry on the left! Yes, the Praetorians were unlucky to go down so soon, but the writing was very firmly on the wall by then.

Two games in and two defeats: things were not looking good for the Romans so far!

Back to this game and here’s Sid’s version of events: fortunately close enough to mine to avoid accusations of propaganda rather than reportage!

After the narrow escape of the first game against my nemesis, quality cavalry with lance, the next game was going to be less stressful. I would be facing a familiar opponent in both ways. The Samnites against the old enemy Rome and me against Robert Avery.

It seems that in most tournaments we are inevitably drawn to each other, almost like a gaming version of Tinder. Until BRITCON, I was Rob’s kryptonite and no matter what he did, it always went wrong for him. At BRITCON he managed to break that streak. That time I unfairly blamed my defeat on the fact I forgot to use my stratagem, but to be fair to Rob he played a blinder.

Spookily enough, the stratagems played a massive part in this game.

Being an Ancients only tournament, Rob was reduced to dragging out his Principate Romans, the figures were from his school days, so from the silver age of the hobby and contemporaneous with Donald Featherstone. Most of Rob’s gaming has recently been with his Venetians so we were both using armies we hadn’t fielded in years.

The terrain fell not as I wanted, but the massive hills on my flanks disappeared, leaving only a few steep hills scattered about; not a great start. Rob had some quality cavalry and certainly more than me, even a lance armed unit. However, there was a single hill on my far right and just inside my half of the table. I drew the AMBUSH strategy so thought I could hide a LI unit from my cavalry command there. The plan was to put my cavalry on that right flank but hold back to draw him into the ambush. My elite Linen legion troops would be on my left and my camp and raw command also on my left. I had one of my two strong commands in the centre looking to go where any gaps appeared.

Rob had a quality but expensive command, so I hoped to hold his cavalry with the ambush. On my left push hard to draw his troops that way, then hopefully gaps would appear in the centre to enable me to slip units into his large triple camp. The Romans, unlike the Venetians Rob usually used had no crossbows or any other long ranged troops to make a killing zone near the camp and limit my movements. If he held his camp in strength, then I might overwhelm the troops outside his camp. I’m not saying it was a good plan, but it was an actual plan.

Rob deployed more or less as expected with his cavalry on his left and a lot of legions stretched across the table, although there was a gap to his right. His veteran legions were in his centre, with that horrible 5+ save. His camp had a single LI unit, so it looks like he was coming for me.

The game started well with my left advancing and my right holding back. Rob pushed his left forward but his centre command of elite legions did the double ace and stalled. In fact that command stalled for the first three turns much to Robs chagrin and my uncharitable amusement. This gave my left the chance to push forward and I managed to disorder some of his right flank legion and threaten to encircle them. His Praetorians (with the army standard) did push forward in the centre, but their support lagged behind, somewhat isolating them.

Meanwhile on my right the plan actually succeeded, Rob pushed forward against my rubbish cavalry to be surprised by the LI ambush appearing on their flank. My other javelin LI managed to disorder his cavalry closest to the centre. Which means that when one of my javelin units charged them, they bottled it and evaded. This game of ‘catch me, catch me’ went on all game taking both units out of the battle. This was fine by me, as I limited his cavalry threat and opened up a gap between his left and centre.

On my left, although I disordered his legions they managed to fall back to rally and avoid encirclement. To make things worse, I lost my general charging a disordered Roman unit. But I did take out a legion. The threat here meant that Rob was forced to commit his centre command of veteran legions to support his right flank.

All this manoeuvring did mean that I had managed to create gaps between both flanks and the centre with only the Praetorians left to hold the line. If you look at picture number 8, you can see the isolated Praetorians who were forced to turn to stop my units doing a camp run. This unfortunately meant their flank was exposed to one of my units with both a general and a hero. This unit managed to double hit the Praetorians who failed both saves of 5+ losing Rob the points for the unit, the general and the army standard, 6 coins in one fell swoop. This also removed the last obstacle between the hordes of Samnite raw javelinmen and that large juicy camp. It was terrible luck for Rob but that’s what makes TTS so dramatic, anything could happen. It happens to me and makes the game even more exciting for it. In all fairness there were so many units breaking into the centre, it was just a matter of time.

A great game and the ‘quantity has a quality of its own’ aspect of this army worked well for me. Infantry struggle to kill quickly and elite infantry armies can struggle to win frontally before they are flanked and infiltrated.

The yokes were again set up and the Romans forced to pass below them, but not Rob as he has a bad back.

All set up for the final game against the organiser Rob Hilary using an off the wall Nubian army.

TTS AAR: Colours Game One: Early Imperial Romans vs Late Romans

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This year saw the inaugral to The Strongest competition at the Colours wargames show at Newbury Racecourse. Well done to Mr Hilary for organising!

Amazing what you can generate with AI these days!

As the competition was Ancients lists only, I had to rest my Venetians and bring my Early Imperial Romans out of retirement. This army consists of figures that a friend of mine, Fred, painted when we were still at school together, so are well over 40 years old; and figures inherited when a SOGS friend of mine, Trevor, sadly passed away.

Coincidentally, my first opponent on the day was Si, another SOGS member and a regular foe. As Si is always keen to point out, although I’ve beaten him plenty of times, I’ve never actually beaten him in competition: so it was obviously time to put that right!

The view from behind the Late Romans lines at the start of the game

Both sides advanced their infantry on the left and centre forward strongly at the beginning of the game, but on the right the cards decided that I would refuse my cavalry despite their veteran status.

I managed to get a tactical advantage in the first clash - having a few 2:1 melees - but my troops were having a bit of an off day and apart from one push back on the far left, all that happened was that I lost a general!

Once my cavalry did get involved, however, the resultant melee went my way. The problem, now, was how to take advantage given that it had happened a long way away from the main action.

That, incidentally, was not going very well, with the enemy Romans managing to lap around my left flank. This meant that I had to retreat my line to rally and reorganise, unfortunately giving up three coins to the “lose a coin if you rally on an even number rule”…those three coins representing 25% of my total coinage!

My cavalry pushed forward, with some of them then turning left to successfully take the Roman line in the flank, but that initial success was then tempered by the difficulties in getting across the crowded battlefield to attack the rest of the enemy.

I had definitely “won” on the right, and was pushing back into the centre and left, but by this time I had lost another general, so out of my starting thirteen coins I had now lost all but two: four to losing units (acceptable given that I had killed more of his troops) but then seven to the two generals I had lost (annoying) and the three I lost rallying (utterly unacceptable!).

Only having two coins left leaves you very vulnerable and, sure enough, although I stopped Si winning the game by getting his infantry into my camp, and was in a superior tactical position, I only had to lose one more unit to lose the game, which I did and therefore did!

A very frustrating 69-140 loss and leaves Si’s 100% record against me in competition intact!

It was a game that I could so easily have won had I been able to continue: the seven coins lost to the death of the two generals and rallying really hitting me hard. But well done to Si for playing a great game: I might have had some tactical advantages at some stages of the game, but he never let me turn them into a win!

Next up was Sid and his Samnites…

TTS AAR: Britcon Game Three: Venice Abroad versus Later Carthaginians

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My final game of day one of this year’s Britcon To The Strongest tournament was against Howard and his Later Carthaginians.

I’d faced these lads before, and they have always been a tough nut to crack, especially with Howard’s propensity to put loads of steep hills onto the tabletop and then hide his light infantry on them: very difficult to winkle out!

I lost the scouting again, so set up in a tight formation weighted towards my left flank, but a slow Carthaginian start gave me the time to readjust for their deployment and establish a more central position as the game began. My plan was to defeat the Carthaginians on the left with most of my army, before turning right to finish off the remainder.

The action duly began on my left flank, where I had rapidly advanced my Knights in an attempt to knock out the Carthaginian and Numidian cavalty there before heading into the centre behind the enemy line.

My first charges were very successful: knocking the Numidians and a unit of cavalry off the table. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to exploit this initial success, and the Carthaginians were able to bring across reinforcements and stabilise the situation.

This pattern then repeated itself as again my Knights successfully charged forward only to fail to finish the job and let the Carthaginians back into the game…so much so that it looked as if I was about to lose that flank entirely.

Fortunately I managed to bring some reinforcements of my own across and, by the end of the game, the left flank was very much in a tied position, both sides too exhausted to do much more than glare at each other!

Note that that initial unit of veteran Carthaginian legionaries was still standing, as were my Knights on that side: some units prove just impossible to kill!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, fearsome amounts of Carthaginians were heading towards my lone command there.

Very quickly, the Carthagians managed to get their cavalry right down onto my baseline, and I now faced the classic problem of trying to defend both front and flank at the same time.

The Venetian Knights are, however, very tough (when, that is, they remember not to put on their cardboard armour!) and that initial flanking position was defended successfully and all seemed to be stabilised on the right, especially as the main body of Carthaginian infantry (nasty veteran javelinmen types) hung back in relative safety on the steep hills that scattered that side of the table.

This couldn’t last for long and, as Howard realised that his right wasn’t going to win the battle on its own, he send the infantry forward, and the situation on my left suddenly got a whole lot more critical.

Althoug helped by a bit of bad luck on Howard’s part, my troops on the right soon found themselves pushed right back to my camp and under extreme potentially game-losing pressure!

All was not lost, however: fighting from behind the walls of my fortified camps (the rather infamous barbed wire!) gives you a major advantage, and my camps remained inviolate.

Both sides were now on their last legs, but the cards were smiling on me for a change and, as both Howard and I ruefully checked how many coins we each had left, my veteran Later Knights (with two heroes from the Tonight We Dine In Hell card I’d played earlier) swung into action and, with a cry of “Venice Forever, whilst they keep paying my wages” they charged forward against the two units of Carthaginian cavalry in front of them.

It’s the Knights on the right that you need to be looking at!

It was, quite frankly, glorious: with both enemy units being dashed from the table along with their accompanying general to give me victory!

These ones!

Well that had been a very close run thing!

If the Knights hadn’t charged when they did, and if my cards hadn’t been good and Howard’s bad, then I doubt that I could have held my camp for that much longer. But they did, and they were, so the game was mine - just!

All my games with Howard were good, but this was particularly so, and a great way of finishing day one of the tournament.

Figures packed away, we headed out to sample the delights of Leicester’s nightlife…

TTS AAR: Britcon Game Two: Venice Abroad versus Imperial Macedonian

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My second game at this year’s Britcon tournament was against Adrian’s Imperial Macedonians: not the ideal army for me to face as I didn’t have much that could beat the pikes head-on, and those Companion cavalry are very nasty!

As is now becoming usual, I lost the scouting, so set up traditionally with my knights on the wings and my infantry in the centre.

Looking at the Macedonian deployment, it looked very weighted towards my left flank, so I determined to refuse my troops there and try and hit the left end of his line (i.e. on my right) as hard and fast as possible, hoping to get around the side of his Pike and Hoplites before they connected with my Spearmen in the centre.

That meant wending my way Knights through the rough ground in front of my right whilst I kept his Companions (already in wedge formation) at bay in the centre.

The cards really helped me out here, as Adrian’s men advanced forward then stopped dead, letting me take the initiative. The Companions also failed to make any real headway against the Venetian Spearmen they had charged, allowing the infantry to retreat back to the comparative safety of the hill in front of their camp.

This let my Knights on the right charge home secure in the knowledge that the line behind them was secure, sending some veteran Macedonian infantry fleeing from the field before turning to face the enemy flank.

It has to be said that Adrian was suffering from the same sort of luck that I usually enjoy: he couldn’t pull an activation or save card to, er, save his life!

Back to the action…in the centre, the Macedonian Pike had finally got moving again, only to be disordered by handgun fire from my Armati di schioppo and then double-disordered as the Alabardieri (halberdiers) joined in the fun.

Meanwhile, on my left, my other Knights had calmly been waiting for the right moment to get stuck into the battle. This came as the Macedonian right flank finally got its act together and advanced forward.

Before the Macedonian right could properly make their presence felt, however, a series of good activation cards for me and poor saves for Adrian saw the Macedonian left flank collapse: large amounts of coins lost as the Venetian Knights and Alabardiers really got stuck in to the cavalry and pikemen in front of them.

The end came quickly after that. My outflanking Knights chased the last bit of Macedonian cavalry across the field before riding them down as they turned to fight and, at the same time, more Knights finished off some Hoplites from the flank, despite being disordered themselves.

It had been a glorious victory for the Venetians: I had only lost two coins (both units of mounted light crossbowmen) so scored a great 14-2 win. As mentioned above, however, Adrian suffered from the most appalling luck throughout the game, so I’m not sure that much of my triumph was down to superior tactics or suchlike on my part!

On to game three…

Reinforcements for the Venetians

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Friend Nigel often fields some kind of Condotta army at the tournaments we both attend, and one troop type that usually causes his opponents all sorts of annoyance are the Rotularii or “sword & buckler men”.

I’ve faced these a couple of times, and can attest to their effectiveness, so I thought it was about time I reinforced my 28mm Venetians with some Rotularii of my own.

Now I finished the Venetians as a project some time ago so, aside from wanting to make a couple of coolio camps (canals, piazzas, gondoliers or something like that!), up to now I’ve had no intention of adding more units…which meant that if I wanted to field some more infantry, they were going to have to come from the bits box as I wasn’t going to buy any new figures just to get four light infantry types onto the table.

Not sure how historically accurate they are, and they are a real Frankinstein collection of odd bits and pieces (knights, foot soldiers, even light cavalry) but they look suitably ferocious to me!

And talking of finishing projects, here’s the last of the Arabs that I’m planning to add to the collection: a couple of units of Javelinmen just in case the ground is very rough!

These are 3D Breed sculpts of 15mm Moorish Warriors printed by Geek Villain. They are very nicely detailed figures that take the paint very well.

Again, however, there were some problems in getting the models to stand up without support: not as bad as the Moorish cavalry from the same source, but not as good as the Red Copper prints I’ve been using previously.

I particularly like the way the shields have turned out.

So that’s hopefully the last of the Arabs I’ll need to paint: a quick look at the my Painting Challenge gallery for 2025 shows that Arabs are almost all that I’ve painted this year. Not sure what’s next, but they won’t be wearing mostly white!

TTS AAR: Britcon Game One: Venice Abroad versus Bretons

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My first game proper at this year’s Britcon tournament was against Chris’ Bretons i.e. lots of cavalry and light cavalry!

Unsurprisingly, I lost the scouting, so set up in a largely defensive position in the centre of the table. I did have one unit of Knights off-table to begin with: they were carrying out a flank march on the right and were designed to be my battle-winning trump card, arriving just in time to roll up the Breton flank!

Unfortunately, Chris got some pretty decent cards on his first turn and, almost before I knew what was going on, the Bretons were all over me, especially on my left flank, the one that was weakened by the absence of the flanking Knights.

Worse, the Later Knights who were on that side of the table seemed to have put their ceremonial cardboard armour on that morning, so that rather than runnng rough-shod over the opposition, any initial success that they had was soon wiped out as the Bretons in front of them evaded and those to the side flank-charged them off the table!

That’s what happens when you pull six Aces in one turn, two of them doubles!

In a tournament as well!

I was now pretty beleagured on the left side of my camps, and it looked as if the game could be over very quickly.

Fortunately, my off-table flanking force chose that moment to arrive, and did exactly what they were supposed to do: driving into the left flank of the Bretons and starting to roll them up.

At the same time, the troops on the left of my line suddenly remembered how to fight, and the situation around that end of my camps stabilised.

The game could now go either way. We each had eight coins remaining, but whilst I had begun on 14 coins, Chris had begun on 11, so all I needed to do to win the game was to take out 1½ of his units…and I could see two clear opportunities to do so.

Unfortunately, both these opportunities slipped through my fingers - a combination of more poor cards and some excellently slippery tactics from Chris - and the initiative passed to the Bretons without me having been able to firmly put them to bed!

Chris, too, could see an opportunity to take the last of my coins and, without hesitation, he swept a unit of light cavalry into two of my now undefended camps (we were busy trying to stabilise the other end!) taking the last six of my coins and the game for a 14-8 victory!

Excellently played by Chris, but highly annoying for the Venetians. If you look at the picture above, you can see a unit of light infantry handgunners on the flank of some Breton horse. If those handgunners had managed to step back into the camp (anything but an Ace!) then Chris would only have been able to take one camp and I’d have had another chance to win myself.

So that was two defeats in a row for the Venetians (the warm up game and game one) and with a result that somewhat belied the actual situation on the tabletop. All credit to Chris for taking full advantage of the opportunity on my left and his super evading tactics (which made it very difficult to kill the Bretons as they retreated and were then recycled back into the action) and I had better pull my finger out for the next four games if I was to have any chance of holding on to my title!

TTS AAR: Britcon Warm-Up Game: Venice Abroad versus Later Achaemenid Persians

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Friday late afternoon at this year’s Britcon saw an opportunity for a warm-up game where my Venetians (Abroad) would flex their muscles against Richard’s Later Achaemenid Persians.

The Venetians lost the scouting, with the Persians taking full advantage to load their cavalry onto my open right flank whilst countering the Knights on my left with their mercenary Hoplites.

A Potentially Unfortunate Deployment for the Venetians

As the game began, I advanced forward rapidly on the flanks, determined to use my Knights to smash through his first line of cavalry on the right whilst attempting to slip around the Hoplite flank on the left.

On the left, my plan initially succeeded, with one unit of Knights getting well behind the enemy line, poised to turn and go crashing into the rear of the enemy infantry. Unfortunately, the Knights then decided that what they had achieved was quite enough, thank you, and decided to stop for lunch: refusing to turn and charge the Hoplite rear for a couple of turns.

This then allowed some Persian javelinmen to get into the rough ground anchoring the Achaemenid flank and, for some reason (probably incompetance) I allowed myself to get tangled up in dealing with them rather than focussing on smashing the Greek heavy infantry. You’ll also see, in the photos below, how my other unit of Knights has got itself trapped on the sideline: more stupidity on my part!

As the very promising situation on the left now looked like a pile of poop, it was time to focus on the right!

Here my Knights had sallied forth determined to kick some Achaemenid butt: we might be outnumbered at the moment, but smash a couple of units from the field with your first charge and the numbers start to make sense!

Unfortunately, although I disordered both units of veteran enemy cavalry on first contact, I didn’t break them, meaning that they had the opportunity to pull back and rally.

This also allowed the rest of the Persian cavalry to break off from that melee and hit my units in the centre: the result, combined with some devilish missile fire from some Persian Lights, being the loss of two units (the militia spearmen and the crossbowmen) and a hole the size of the Blackwall Tunnel right in the middle of my line and, more worryingly, in front of my camps!

The Persians promptly poured some light infantry and their “spare” cavalry into the gap, and suddenly what had looked like a great position on both flanks now looked like Armageddon in the centre!

I desperately needed to free up my units stuck on the left, but an unwise decision not to lead with the Knights bit me firmly on the derriere when my Balestrieri montati (mounted crossbowmen) failed to activate on an Ace and so condemned their entire command to sit there doing nothing for another turn.

All was not lost, however: all I needed was the Alabardieri (halberdiers) to charge back into my camp, disperse the enemy Lights there, and thus rescue three coins and the battle from disaster.

All I needed…

Now the initiative passed to the Richard and the Persians, who clinically finished me off by hitting a unit of Venetian Knights in the flank and front with the cavalry whom I’d failed to destroy in the first melee of the game. He didn’t even need his Lights in the camp to move sideways and take another three coins!

It had been a great game that had started so well for the Venetians. Just a pity that it ended so badly!

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!

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…

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!

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!

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!

TTS AAR: To The Smallest Game 2: Arab Conquest vs Later Achaemenid Persian

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My second game at this year’s To The Smallest was a repeat of the warm-up game I’d had on Friday evening: my Arab Conquest army versus Adrian’s Later Achaemenid Persians. I’d won that game, so that had to be a good omen for this one…didn’t it?

Looking at the Persian deployment, they seemed very strong on my left, so I determined to hold back that flank and sent the rest of my army forward as soon as possible, helped by the fact that my infantry was all mounted.

The idea was that I used most of my army - all except a covering force on the left - to beat half of his army, then turned to fight the rest of his troops from a position of being in the lead coins-wise and having a attacking-the-front-and-flank advantage.

Things started reasonably well. My green flag Jund cavalry began pushing his horsemen back, the Daylami veteran javelinmen managed to disorder the mercenary Greek Hoplites and kill their general, and Adrian still hadn’t committed his troops on the right, meaning I was tying up more points than I had committed there.

Unfortunately, disaster then struck!

If you are pushing forward hard on one side of the battlefield, you need to make sure that you watch out for enemy troops from the flank turning through 90 degrees and then hitting your advancing units in the flank.

My two non-fanatic units of Warriors had got a square forward of the main battle line, showing Darius’ veteran lancers (plus army standard) a little too much of their flank. I had my covering force on the left ready to intervene should the lancers turn, but really needed to pull the left hand Warrior unit back one square to be safe.

Two goes (I had a general present) to get 4+ on the cards and I failed both. There’s only a 9% chance of that happening!

Adrian took full advantage, and smashed his veteran cavalry into the flank of the stuck-in-the-mud Warriors, smashing them from the field. Their General died too, meaning that I gave up five of my sixteen coins in one loss!

Worse, there was the second unit of Warriors also with their flank exposed. Adrian hit that too, doubly disordering it with other enemy troops sending it from the field shortly afterwards. For those keeping count, that’s eight or half my coins gone!

But I wasn’t giving up yet. As planned, I’d smashed Adrian’s left flank (i.e. on my right) and was within Ames Ace of taking his camp there too. I had taken seven of his coins so far, so although I was losing, it was not by a huge margin, especially as Adrian’s right flank, now committed as he could see victory in front of him, hadn’t achieved very much.

Unfortunately, again, Darius and his pooping veteran cavalry weren’t finished yet!

They carried on their rampage across the field and hit one of my Fanatical Warrior units in the flank. They rapidly lost their devotion to the cause and fled the field, taking another General with them along with my lst few coins!

Although a disappointing result, it had been a great game of To The Strongest.

I must confess that the early manoeuvres had left me thinking that, after a grind, I could probably win the game…but Adrian spotting the slightly too advanced warband, me failing to move it backwards, and then Adrian superbly taking full advantage not once, not twice but three times in a row rightfully gave the win to the Persians.

It just goes to show how one event can decide the course of a battle, and it’s perhaps fitting that the unit that won Adrian the game (and then some!) was the one I had destroyed to win the warm-up game, Darius getting his revenge!

TTS AAR: To The Smallest Game 1: Arab Conquest vs Later Lithuanians

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My first game proper at this year’s To The Smallest 15mm TTS tournament in Cardiff was against John’s Later Lithuanians: light cavalry, more light cavalry…and even more light cavalry!

My main concern was getting outflanked and enveloped by the Lithuanian horde, so I took full advantage of my mounted infantry to deploy as close to the enemy as possible.

I should also note at this point that this was actually our second deployment: a mix up regarding what the terrain actually represented meant that I had severely compromised my set up but, once we both understood what was Impassable and, more importantly, what was not, John was very happy for me to adjust my positioning…a generous example of great sportsmanship on his part.

As expected, the Lithuanians’ first move was to advance quickly against my flanks. I was okay on the right, where my outnumbered troops were helped by the marshy terrain, but things were not looking so good on the left, where the beginnings of an overlap were already beginning to show.

Things went from bad to worse on the left as I desperately, and ultimately unsuccessfully, tried to stem the tide of the Lithuanian horde. The left was lost: I would have to win the battle elsewhere.

John’s army might have been large and manoeuvrable, but it was fragile: if I could connect with a unit, even one of his massed lights, then I could probably kill it. It was the connecting bit that would be difficult, as his horsemen could evade away from infantry charges with comparative ease and my cavalry were tied up on the wings.

That was, however, the only thing I could do, so I set about relentlessly charging every light horse unit I could with my infantry. This shot, taken after a couple of turns of this, shows how fragmented the action had become: rather than two battle line clashing in the centre of the table, the game broke down into a myriad of minor actions scattered across the field.

There were several epic chases as my foot soldiers desperately tried to close with the Lithuanian light horse. A unit of veteran Daylami javelinmen chased down some enemy cavalry until the horsemen crashed into a wood on the edge of the table and were forced to fight…and then die!

A unit of fanatical warriors chased some Lithuanians right to their baseline, even taking one of their camps as they did so.

I even managed to bring one of the cavalry units from the right wing back into the action and use them to squish some Lithuanian light horse up against the back of another of my warrior units. I was doign everything I could to whack-a-mole the enemy!

Finally the Lithuanians had had enough: their last victory medal was taken as the survivors fled the field. That had been a 13-9 victory to the Arabs and one hell of a game!

I was just pleased we had been fighting on a simulation of the field of Thermopylae, with the fighting area of the tabletop narrowed by plentiful terrain on the flanks. I might have won this time, but a more open table would, I think, have led to me being enveloped by the Lithuanians even with me trying to chase them down.

A good start to the day!

TTS AAR: To The Smallest Warm-Up Game

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This year’s To The Smallest 15mm tournament for To The Strongest was again held at Firestorm Games in Cardiff: an excellent venue for what is proving to be an excellent event, ably organised by Sid.

I would be using my relatively new Arab Conquest army, figures from Red Copper 3D printing sculpts printed for me by Baueda in Italy before they were sold to the UK.

I got to Cardiff in late afternoon on the Friday and checked into my hotel “room” before heading down to Firestorm to see if anyone fancied a warm-up game.

I say “room” because I was staying in the Cardiff Premier Inn Zip hotel: a pod hotel which only cost me £32 for the night. I highly recommend it for those in a similar “just need somewhere to stay” situation: cheap, plenty of parking, very clean, food & drink available until 3am, and a power shower to die for! Yes, the pod is not very big, but it more than fitted me and my ego!

Then it was down to Firestorm Games to see who was already there and, more importantly, who fancied a game. Mark, Howard and Adrian were all present and correct, so Adrian and I settled dwon to play whilst the other two watched and made helpful comments and suggestions!

The big innovation with To The Smallest is that the figures are based on a 10cm frontage and play is on a 12x18 grid that gives plenty of room for manouevre.

Adrian had brought Later Achaemenid Persians with him, and we scattered a bit of random terrain on the table and prepared to set to: my mounted infantry meaning that the two sides started the game a little closer together than the norm.

My plan, such as it was, was just to close with the enemy as soon as possible. I seemed to have a bit of an advantage of numbers on the left, so that’s where I began my advance.

The Persians chose not to mix it with the Jund cavalry and their light camelry support, evading away and shooting their bows instead.

Meanwhile, on the right, it was my turn to be cautious, as the terrain was quite dense and the Persians had managed to move some of their troops over to outnumber me. The two sides clashed but without much of a resolution, although the tactical picture looked better for the enemy.

I had chosen not to advance in the centre for the time being, letting the Persians come to me. This let Darius and his deep lancers punch through my centre, chasing some lights right the way back to my fortified camp only to stop there without attempting to take it.

The game had now broken down into a sprawling series of individual melees with no coordination or battle lines evident. It looked as if it was going to be the cumulative effect of all these isolated fights that would decide the game.

On the right, the two sides kept knocking seven bells out of each other until there was literally no-one left alive in that area of the battlefield!

In the centre, some of my Warriors took on the mercenary Greek Hoplites, slogging it out with both sides disordered to no great conclusion.

On the right, my outnumbered troops had fought a rather decent rearguard action, keeping his superior number occupied whilst I tried to win the battle elsewhere.

So where was the battle decided?

Well, if you remember, Darius and his deep cavalry had punched through the middle of my line and had been molesting my light infantry. This left the Persian horsemen a bit isolated on my side of the table…where I had some veteran Daylami tribesmen just itching to take them on.

A flank charge later, the Persians were disordered, and evaded away with the Daylami in hot pursuit.

The Daylami chased them across the tabletop, over hills, eventually coming to grips with the Persians again as they were forced to fight or run the risk of ending up fighting my javelinmen in woods.

Some decent cards later and the Persians were toast: three medals for the unit and a medal for the army standard being enough to give me the game.

That had been a wild and fragmented encounter that could have gone either way.

In the end I had been comparatively lucky to win enough of the individual fights to give me the win but, as you can see in the photo below, neither side had much of their army left at all!

A great way to start the weekend, and my thanks to Adrian for a good game.