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.

TTS AAR: The Arab Conquest of Siam!

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A practice game for the forthcoming To The Smallest tournament saw my Arab Conquest army taking on Rob’s Siamese.

With at least half of my troops being mounted infantry, things were going to move fast in this game!

Looking at the picture above, you’ll see that Rob has deployed all his elephants (and they were legion!) in one command on my right flank. Now Nellies, as anyone who plays TTS knows, are anaethema to cavalry, and I had a brigade of cavalry facing them, so the first thing to do was to effect ‘the ol’ switcheroo’ and move that brigade to the other side of the field as soon as possible.

This proved a good move, as my left flank cavalry brigade had failed to smash through the enemy cavalry there, so needed reinforcement: ably provided by the switched cavaly who helped in to punch through the enemy line.

Meanwhile, the two main lines had clashed, and a fierce but initially inconclusive melee broke out:

A slight distraction was caused by my Arab lance-armed camelry, who manged to sneak through the Siamese battle line and take one of the Thai camps.

This forced Rob to drop back some of his men to defend the camps (the initial Aces causing much hilarity!) and the Arabs were soon evicted and sent fleeing. Although only a fleeting success, this did cause Rob to hold back some of his men to deal with the camelry, so taking some of the pressure off my line.

This was a very relevant factor, as the elephants on my right had pushed the fanatical Arab infantry back…but their mahouts were having difficulty then turning the beasts into the centre towards the rest of my troops, and some light infantry to exploit the situation could have really helped the Thai cause, especially this also meant I had the freedom to move another unit of Arab fanatics forward onto the flank of the advancing pachyderms without having to worry about turnign my flank towards the enemy.

Meanwhile, and after a bit of effort, the Jund cavalry on the other side of the table had finally managed to deal with most of the Siamese horse and had now manoeuvered into a position to roll up the enemy line.

Four times the “blue” unit of Jund cavalry you can see in the right hand picture above tried to charge the Siamese flank: and four times they either failed to move at all, or failed to break the raw archers they had already disordered: a disgraceful performance that almost cost the Arabs the victory!

Things were now cricical for both sides as the advantage in the combat in the main battle lines swung backwards and forwards. Despite my initial successes, the game was very much still in the balance.

Finally, however, the Arab infantry on the right hand side of the field managed to break first one then another enemy unit of elephants, undoubtedly helped by the fact that the units were both deep and fanatical.

This, combined with the initial success of the cavalry on the left, and the one-for-one losses in the centre (which should have been a devastating roll up for the blue unit of Jund cavalry!) gave me the coins I needed to break the Siamese morale, and victory was mine!

Well that had been a very close run thing indeed!

What had looked like a battle-winning success on the left petered out into nothing as the Arab lights were ejected from the camp that they had taken and the Jund cavalry failed to roll up the enemy line as expected. The centre proved a hard fight, with veteran infantry on both sides going at it hammer and tongs, and it was only the fact that the deep fanatics on the right were so hard to kill that gave me the win.

Another great game of TTS!

TTS AAR: Ewelme 25 Game 4: Venice Abroad vs Hussites

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My fourth and final game at the Ewelme tournament this year was against the Hussites: a controversial army featuring a large amount of fortified war wagons.

Why controversial, you ask? Well, in a tournament setting that super-rewards an outright victory, it’s hard to achieve a conclusive result when one party sits at the back of the battlefield and just waits for his opponent to attack.

Personally I don’t agree. It’s a competition, it’s a legitimate army list…learn how to beat it in a timely fashion rather than just complaining!

Anyhoo: on to the game. First up, a bit of psychological warfare. I announced to Neil, commanding the Hussites, that I had enough points to rank in the top four or five so didn’t need to risk losing the game, so my Venetians would also stay at the back of the battlefield and not move!

This seemed to somewhat annoy him (which was, after all, the whole idea) so after stretching things out for a bit (as a good joke deserves a bit of time to mature!) I knuckled down and got to work.

The Hussites had set up in their usual formation: a long line of wagons backed by infantry with impassable terrain at either end.

Now I used to play a lot of 19th Century Colonial wargaming, and the one thing that commanding the Mahdists or the Zulus taught me (apart from not fighting a modern war with medieval weapons!) was that it was the corners of a square that were vulnerable i.e. don’t charge straight at it where the whole of one side can target you, go for the corners where only some of the enemy can shoot you.

My tactics therefore were to concentrate my missile troops on the left front corner of the Hussite line, also getting around their flank and shooting over the impassable terrain, whilst I advanced my dismounted later knights up to attack once the fire from the missile troops had started to have an effect.

Yes, I dismounted my later knights (who dismount with two-handed choppers!) but kept my standard knights on horseback in case I needed a quick reaction force for something.

This worked very nicely indeed, and I had soon killed one war wagon and one unit of supporting infantry for the loss of three quarters of my ammunition, and had my later knights ready to go in.

Unfortunately, the later knights were having one of their off days, and didn’t carve through the oppositio n like they should have done, but things werre progressing nicely, and it was only a matter of time before that end of the Hussite line collapsed.

At this point Neil realised that he had to do something different, so opened up the other end of his line of wagons and let his cavalry (decent lancers and light cavalry) out with the intention of marauding around my right flank.

This was, of course, utterly anticipated, and my knights (still on their horses) moved forward to counter the threat.

The initial clash wasn’t as successful as I had hoped - as I said, for some reason my knights were all having an off day - but with the infantry helping the enemy cavalry were soon on the run.

Particularly pleasing was squishing his light cavalry up against one of his own war wagons now positioned in front of some impassable terrain:

Unfortunately, time had been ticking away, and although I only needed a few more coins to win outright, I only had one last turn to get them.

My later knights didn’t manage it, so the only other chance was my Alabardiers charging into the back of the Hussite veteran cavalry (with general who had no other unit to go to, so would disappear if the cavalry broke): unable to evade because, you guessed it, they were also squished up against the wall of war wagons.

Unfortunately, although the Alabardiers had two goes at breaking the cavalry, and hit several times, the Hussite horse were veterans and managed to save the lot: Neil drawing high cards out of his deck right, left and centre!

So the game ended in 113-53 winning draw for the Venetians: frustrating as I would have had ‘em properly if there had been one more turn to play! Still, a satisfying result that showed the Hussites can be beaten: especially as I achieved this result with all my knights, mounted and dismounted, having a really bad set of cards.

This was the final game of the day, and when the points were totted up, my two wins, one winning draw and one loss saw me into fourth place: not a bad result.

Frustratingly, once the final scores were published, I realised just how close the top spots had been. Had my Alabardiers managed to finish off the Hussite cavalry and their general in the closing moments of the game—securing me an outright victory—I would have taken second place overall! How annoying is that? Probably as annoying as when I turned to Neil and cheerfully declared that the Venetians, too, would be staying right where they were on their side of the table at the start of the game…

 

TTS AAR: Ewelme 25 Game 3: Venice Abroad vs Late Romans

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My third game at this year’s Ewelme tournament was against Si and his Late Romans, rapidly becoming my nemesis opponents! It’s a small-ish army but packed full of veteran legionaries and auxilia that do very well against my Venetians, and a nasty shock unit of veteran cataphracts.

Both sides began the battle by advancing forward cautiously. On the left flank, I carelessly allowed the Romans to get an overlap, and would spend the rest of the game defending from a tactically outnumbered position there.

This meant that I needed to force the right as soon as possible, so I advanced my infantry and second command of knights forward as fast as possible.

Battle was generally joined on the right but to no clear outcome in the main line, although some of the Roman infantry on the far left did punch through and head for my baseline. No matter, I had some knights who could sort them out!

Much to my surprise, the infantry battle in the centre wasn’t a complete disaster, with the Venetian foot holding their own against the veteran Auxilia. Maybe I could win on the right before Si’s cavalry stuffed me on the left!

First up, I really needed to get rid of that pesky unit of Legionaries down in the left hand corner: a nice four coins just waiting to be collected by the Knights.

But they needed to get their skates on, as things were not going well on the left…

But in the end it was not to be.

I had two chances to win the game (as we were both now down to minimal coins): the Knights I’ve already mentioned and the Later Knights who had punched through at the other end of the field and were now in as position to threaten the enemy camp.

Unfortunately, the Knights just couldn’t get anywhere against the Legionaries, despite still having their lances for the first clash. Frontally charging undisordered veteran infantry is not a an easy clash to win!

And although the Later Knights took one of the enemy camps, Si managed to get some light infantry into the other camp meaning it was just an activation too far to take that one as well and get enough coins to win the game.

In the end, the game ended with a bit of a damp squib: with one of my Spear units falling foul of the javelins thrown by some Roman cavalry, and the game was lost before I could win it next turn.

Not a good result for the Venetians, but a great game of To The Strongest.

On the left, Si’s tactics gave him an immediate advantage but I managed to defend the position for longer than I expected to. On the right, the game could have gone to either side, mainly due to the unexpected efforts of the Venetian infantry, so it was just the way it goes that Si dealt the winning blow first.

Editor’s Note: Subsequent to the battle, Si has pointed out that although outside of competitions we have a fairly evenly matched success rate, I’ve never actually beaten him in a tournament. Thank you, mate, I’ll bear that in mind for next time!

TTS AAR: Ewelme 25 Game 2: Venice Abroad vs Ikko-Ikki

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My second game at this year’s Ewelme tournament was against Colin’s Ikkio-Ikki: a nasty bunch of Japanese samurai monks who all happened to be (a) fanatic and (b) carry big choppers i.e. hard to kill and lethal in combat!

As expected, as the battle began, the Ikko-Ikki eschewed any tactics and just headed straight for my battle line intending to use their naginatas to deadly effect.

My plan was to weight everything away from the left flank, aiming to defeat half their army with two-thirds of mine on the frest of the table, and then turn back to defeat the second half in due course. The knights would punch through their line on the far left and far right of my line whilst my over-matched infantry just held on until the knights could turn and hit the Ikko-Ikki in the rear.

On the left flank, the Later Knights did their jobs very nicely, but the helmet-heads didn’t: the usual cardboard Venetian armour coming into play.

This effectively left my left flank wide open apart from some nervous looking light infantry, meaning that I really needed to win on the right as soon as possible, or see my super-expensive camps fall to the religeous nutters costing me a lot of coins!

Meanwhile, in the centre, my infantry were hanging on for dear life: only really surviving because I had one extra unit that could help hold the left part of the line…but the Ikko-Ikki were remorseless in attack, and soon the centre began to look very shaky indeed.

It was all down to the knights on the right, helped by the victorious later knights on the left.

They had indeed punched through the enemy line, and were now looking at how best to finish the game before the left and centre finally gave way.

Everything now worked out rather nicely.

The later knights that had been successful on the left swept into the centre and smashed some of the Ikko-Ikki cavalry reserve that had been coming forward to plug the gap, from the field.

This allowed the knights of the right to position themselves perfectly to turn the tide of the battle my way: one unit headed for the flank of the Ikko-Ikki line that was threatening my infantry, the other spotted a chance to make a sudden thrust forward and take the enemy camp, not undefended but currently unoccupied!

Here’s an overview of the positions as we moved into the final phase of the game. You can see that my plan has worked: four of Colin’s units on the left (as you look at the picture) are facing one unit of Venetian light infantry, leaving the rest of my army free to attack the rear and flanks of the rest of his troops.

Note the lone Ikko-Ikki unit at my baseline on the right. They could have caused me some trouble, but Colin was unlucky with the cards, and they never really got a look in to the action after their initial success.

The end of the game the came quickly, as my knights on the right went to work.

The enemy camp was taken, and the flank of the Ikko-Ikki infantry line was charged, with even the intervention of the rest of the enemy cavalry having no effect on the later knights that had come over from the left.

So a 158-83 victory for the Venetians, but it had not been the easy battle the scoreline suggest. Those fanatical, naginata-wielding Ikko-Ikki are very tasty in combat, and had Colin managed to get the whole lot of them in against my troops, things would have been very different indeed!

TTS AAR: Ewelme 25 Game 1: Venice Abroad vs Konmenon Byzantines

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One of the great things about competitions is that you can never tell who you’re going to be fighting next.

Somewhat ironic, then, that my first game at this year’s Ewelme tournament was an exact repeat of my final game at Roll Call 2025, the last event I’d attended: my Venice Abroad versus Nigel’s Konmenon Byzantines…although both sides had slightly different armies as the set points totals were different between the two competitions.

The terrain was unusually dense, with significant patches of impassable or rough ground on the flanks. This had the effect of channelling the battle into the central zone, although it looked as if the Byzantines were going to try and slip round the outside of the poor going on their right flank.

As the game began, both sides advanced forward strongly on one wing. Nigel sent his troops forward against my right, and I slammed forward on my left, hoping to take advantage of the fact that some of the Byzantines were the opposite side of the impassable terrain so had effectively ruled themselves out of the first part of the battle.

I was unfortunately immediately in a bit of tactical trouble as, on the left, my veteran later knights managed to lose their initial charge and ended up disordered and, on the right, the Varangian Guard ran over the other unit of later knights. The famous Venetian cardboard armour striking again!

On the right, the situation was partly stabilised when the (normal) knights there managed to destroy the Byzantine Skutatoi but, in the meantime, battle had been joined in the centre and my men weren’t doing very well at all!

At this point Nigel made possibly the critical decision of the game. If you look at the picture above, you’ll see that (top, right) the Varangians have turned towards my victorious knights rather than turning towards the flank of my beleagured battle line.

Nigel was (quite rightly) very worried about his Varangians getting some knights charging right up their collective backsides, but if he’d turned towards my line, got a hit that killed the already-disordered right hand infantry unit (and his men did have big choppers!) he could perhaps have cascaded that disorder down the line and effectively ended the game.

But he didn’t, and the game went on…

Back to the left flank, and my knights there (both types) had recovered the situation nicely and driven his troops there from the field, apart from the units that had been on the other side of the poor terrain which were now busy driving my light troops on the left back and off the board.

So that is the situation as we hit the final stage of the game: one more significant hit would give me the win and it was still my initiative, but if I didn’t get that hit and win the game this turn, my main line was going to break, losing me at least three units, and probably give Nigel the win.

My crossbowmen had been sitting on a hill throughout the entire game doing sterling service shooting down Nigel’s light cavalry. As mentioned above, some Byzantine horse had driven my light troops back down the far left hand side, although I had managed to disorder them and wound their general as they did so.

The crossbowmen had one shot left so raised their weapons and opened fire: a hit and, I must confess, I can’t remember if it was the Byzantine horse or general who died, but it was enough to give me the last few coins I needed for the win!

Well that had been the closest of close run things, giving me a win 186-33 points: a scoreline that doesn’t reflect the actual situation at all. As I said, if my main battle line had collapsed, and it was about to do so, Nigel could easily had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat!

A great game of To The Strongest: very exciting until the very last moment.

TTS AAR: Arab Conquest on the Rampage

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Neil and I had time for another go at the Arab Conquest versus Early Crusader. The picture below is from after my first turn, where I’ve taken full advantage of my mounted infantry to get as far forward as possible on my left flank, whilst refusing my right, leaving it covered by a couple of units of Jund cavalry.

With such a quick rush forward, battle was quickly joined, and before long I was well into the process of turning the Crusader right flank: the light camelry again proving their worth.

Everything was happening very quickly: my Arabs had also generally engaged across the centre:

On the right, however, the Crusader cavalry had come forward and was poised to cause me some problems.

Fortunately, a bit of clever manouevring largely countered the threat.

Meanwhile my troops on the left had largely won the combat there, and were starting to curl into the centre:

This was too much for the Crusaders to take, and they withdrew from the field of battle.

TTS AAR: The Arab Conquest Begins

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Having finally painted and based enough 15mm Arab Conquest figures to make an army, it was time to get them onto the tabletop for the first time. Neil, my opponent, played an Early Crusader force which, whilst not exactly contemporary, was closer than many recent match-ups!

The Arabs were almost all resin prints of the Red Copper range augmented by a few metal figures from Essex and Blue Moon to fill in the gaps. The Early Crusaders were actually Normans from the excellent Museum Miniatures Z range.

The game opened with the Arabs charging forward as fast as possible in order to take full advantage of their mounted infantry bonus to try and avoid too much archery and crossbow fire from the Crusaders before getting stuck in to melee.

Superior numbers also gave me an overlap on both sides, especially as the Crusaders had deployed stacked quite deep, and I wanted to see if I could get my cavalry on the right and camelry on the left round and into the Crusader flanks: something achieved very successfully.

On the right flank, my cavalry were now in a perfect position to turn and roll up the Crusader line.

This, however, proved more difficult to do than expected due to a combination of clever defensive work from the Crusaders, taking advantage of the patch of rough terrain and their camp to anchor their formation, and some bad luck with the cards.

Eventually, however, that pesky unit of Crusader infantry in the rough ground gave way under sustained pressure from front and flank, and the roll up began.

This was good news indeed…but things were not going so well on the left flank.

Although I’d got the camelry around and into the Crusader rear, they had failed to deliver on their potential, with my Jund cavalry also not performing well against the Norman knights and being forced to retreat in disorder.

This left his cavalry free to do to me what I had been trying to do to Neil i.e. head back into the centre of the field and roll up my line, now generally engaged there.

Both the Arabs and Crusaders had now managed to roll up one of their opponent’s flanks, making the situation critical for both sides: one more unit lost would mean defeat.

Unfortunately for the Arabs, Neil had the advantage in both troops and positioning, meaning that unless I could pull something out of the hat, I would end up snatching defeat from the jaws of victory: I just had too many units on the verge of breaking to survive another Crusader turn, with the double-disordered warband about to be charged by a fresh unit of veteran Norman knights being the prime candidate to go first!

All I had left to try was to send my disordered Jund cavalry on the left, accompanied by an already-wounded general, into a desperate charge against an equally disordered unit of Crusader cavalry accompanied by their True Cross army standard.

This was a tad risky, as the Knights had a better save than I did, but I would attack first and, quite frankly, this was my only hope of victory! A ‘10’ was pulled for my activation card, so I was only going to get one go at this, and I reached for my attack card: a ‘9’, which was a hit despite my disorder.

Neil’s save card was pulled and, much to my surprise, the disordered Jund cavalry swept the Normans from field: a glorious victory that, as the True Cross fell, led to the rest of the Crusdaer army retreating just as it looked as though they would win the game!

A glorious victory for the Arabs: snatching victory from the jaws of defeat rather than the other way around!