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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TTS AAR: Burgundian Ordnance vs Sassanid Persians - Take Two

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

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

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

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

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

It was all over very quickly!

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

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

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

A disappointing loss for the Burgundians!

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

A great game.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On to the last game…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Welsh Warm-Up: Venice Abroad vs Graeco-Bactrians

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Postscript

Michael Lane reminded me of another incident in the game:

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

Practice for 2TS: Game Three

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Practice for 2TS: Game One

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TTS AAR: Burgundian Ordnance vs Sassanid Persians

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TTS AAR: Anglo-Normans vs Fanatical Berber

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TTS AAR: Fanatical Berber vs Anglo-Normans

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TTS AAR: Venice Abroad versus Northern Dynasties Chinese

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All was not lost, however.

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

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

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

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

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

TTS AAR: Hittites versus New Kingdom Egyptians

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TTS AAR: Warfare Game Four: Venetians Abroad versus Timurids

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And boy, was I right to do so!

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

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

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

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

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

TTS AAR: Warfare Game Two: Venetians versus Thematic Byzantines

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My second game at this year’s Warfare tournament was against Nick and his Thematic Byzantines.

Chatting before we began, Nick mentioned that although he himself was a novice at To The Strongest (this being only his eighth ever game of TTS) his figures were about forty years old and veterans of many a tabletop encounter dating back to the days of WRG 5th or 6th. This made me wish that I’d been using my Early Imperials, also about forty years old, and reflect on all the changes there have been to this hobby of ours since I first started playing as a child, particularly as the Venetians are multi-part plastics less than three years old.

Anyhow, on to the game…

Quite unusually, I won the scouting, so decided to take the fight to the Byzantines, advancing forward strongly right across the battlefield.

My plan was to use my Knights, supported by infantry, to overwhelm the Byzantine cavalry on the left and right whilst avoiding the scutatoi in the centre.

On the right, my initial charge was the usual mix of positive and negative: one unit of Knights doing its job and disordering the enemy, the other getting disordered themselves and needing to be pulled back to recover. What was slightly different about this game, though, was the fact that I had brought my infantry right up with the Knights, so the foot could intervene and make up for the faltering unit of Knights.

On the left, the Knights did exactly what they were supposed to do: smashing a Byzantine cavalry unit from the table and giving me the opportunity to get my lights around behind the Byzantine line.

With the right flank locked into a combat that seemed to be going nowhere, I decided to now focus on the left, where my initial success was beginning to overstretch the Byzantine line, leaving a gap that I could perhaps exploit.

I had a “spare” unit of Knights on the left which I then sent back into the centre, right into the gap that I mentioned above. This worked very nicely, as I had also brought up my crossbow-armed infantry and was peppering the skutatoi with bolts.

With the skutatoi pinned in place, my Knights were able to turn onto their flank: setting the scene for what promised to be a very painful episode for the Byzantine infantry.

Before that could happen, however, the Byzantine right suddenly gave way, leaving the Venetians victorius!

So a 12-2 win that neatly cancelled out my 2-12 loss in the first round. On to game three…

TTS AAR: Warfare Game One: Venetians Abroad versus Parthians

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My first game at this year’s Warfare To The Strongest tournament was against Tim’s Parthians.

The action began on the right flank, when two units of my Knights advanced forward to take on a couple of Parthian Cataphracts. Mixed results for this initial clash, with one disorder inflicted and one disorder received despite having the first charge advantage.

I then made a devastatingly stupid decision to ignore “Trevor’s Rule” and decided to try and activate some mounted crossbowmen for a cheeky shot before the main action.

I was duly punished by the cards for my temerity but, in my defence, if the ballistieri had managed to knock out the disordered cataphracts, my veteran Knights would have been able to intervene to help the disordered Later Knights to their left, and there’s only a 10% chance of an Ace appearing…

But a post match analysis does show this to be an incredibly stupid thing to do and, no lie, this probably lost me the game, as you just can’t afford to make a mistake like this against a player of Tim’s calibre: on his next turn he finished off the Later Knights with a unit led by a general (no similar error on his part!), which meant all I could do was try and retreat my veteran Knights before they also were annihilated…

Okay, so that one was down to the cards…but it was still my initial error that caused the situation to arise in the first place!

Meanwhile, on the left hand side of the battlefield, more of my Knights had advanced against similar numbers of enemy cataphracts. Unfortunately, one of those units was a camelry unit that, try as I might, I just couldn’t shift from the field: the smell of these curious beasts making the steeds my Knights rode reluctant to close to melee properly.

I did eventually gain some advantage here, but only by committing my Alabardiers unit in support, and not to a battle-winning degree.

Which meant, of course, that things would be finally decided in the centre.

Here, the defeat of my Knights on the right had freed up a couple of Parthian heavy horse units to attack my Crossbowmen: hardly the best unit to withstand charging cavalry, especially when pulling an Ace to activate the turn before!

Withstand the charge they did, however, and I was even able to slide a unit of spearmen sideways to protect them from future depredations: slightly gamey, I know, but allowed within the rules.

More enemy Cataphracts were on the way in, however, and I was still drawing Aces to activate any defensive shooting!

The Venetians weren’t beaten yet, however, and managed to not only defend their camps against the furious Parthian frontal assault, but even drive their cavalry backwards.

The Venetians might even have knocked a couple of enemy units off the table as well…but the cards intervened again…

Now those of you who have been paying attention will remember that I said that my decision to lead with the mounted crossbowmen on the right, drawing an Ace for activation and thus ending my turn instead of having a possible replay if I had opened the batting with the general-led Knights, had lost me the game…well that moment was now upon us and the chickens firmly came home to roost as unopposed Parthian horse, heavy and light, swarmed down the right flank and hit my camps - the camps that had just repelled a frontal assault - in the flank.

The militia spearmen there just didn’t have the time to turn to face this new threat and, despite the barbed wire (okay, fortifications) protecting them, gave way, costing me five victory medals and the game!

A great performance from Tim and the Parthians, a less than stellar piece of decision-making on my part, and I was the loser 2 points to 12!

So let that be a salutory lesson for all you TTS players out there: obey Trevor’s Rule and always lead with your general’s unit!

TTS AAR: Darius' Revenge

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Neil was keen to have another go at a massive Macedonians vs Persians game using his 2mm blocks: Darius wanted his revenge and had reconfigured his army list accordingly!

Macedonians advance forward quickly, keen to get to grips with the enemy

As always when playing the Macedonians, my plan was for Alex and the Companions to punch through the enemy cavalry on one flank, and then turn and hit the rest of the Persian army in the flank as it was pinned in place by my advancing infantry.

Alexander and the Companions prepare to make their move

In our last game, Alex and Co. had done exactly that, but only in the nick of time as they had had to chew through deep units of Persian cavalry. This time I therefore positioned Alex opposite the smaller but better quality units of enemy horse, thinking that they wouldn’t take so long to win and break free.

The first part of the plan worked: Alexander and Co. charged forward and drove the enemy cavalry back…but unfortunately it still took a long time to actually break them (well, they were better quality) and, worse, the fighting moved away to the left: further from where Alexander would be needed to smash into the back of the enemy infantry.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, each sides’ poorer quality cavalry had closed to contact. This didn’t go too well for the out-numbered Macedonian ally-cavalry, and they were slowly driven backwards towards their baseline.

And in the centre, the Macedonian infantry grind forward…but much too slowly, especially as the Persian foot retreat backwards to avoid contact!

Persians pull back to avoid contact with the pikemen and ally-hoplites

So, to summarise the situation to date: on the left, Alexander and Co. have won the cavalry battle there but been drawn off further from the centre; on the right, the Persian cavalry are winning nd have pushed the Macedonian’s Ally-Cavalry back; and in the centre, the Macedonian infantry have advanced towards the retreating Persian infantry but not yet made significant contact.

What does this all mean?

Well, a gap had now opened up on the right of the advancing Macedonian infantry and the Persians, vastly superior in terms of overall numbers, were able to send their scythed chariots and mercenary/traitorous Hoplites into the space offered and assault the flank of main Macedonian infantry line.

Uh-oh!

With Alexander and Co. effectively out of the picture, it now became a race to see whether the Macedonian infantry could destroy the Persians in front of them, including taking the Persian camp, which which would then give them enough victory medals to win the game, before being mullered by the Persian flank charges coming in from the front!

Two units of Macedonian Ally-Hoplites had burst through the Persian line in front of their camp, and now needed to assault the place in order to win the game:

Unfortunately, Tyche was not with the Macedonians that day and, try as they might, the Ally-Hoplites just couldn’t get into the Persian camp…which meant that the Persians coming in from the right were able to overwhelm the right end of the Macedonian line doing enough damage to mean the Macedonians had to retreat, sarissas between their legs!

So a very close run thing, but a revenge win for the Persians, setting the scene for the deciding battle, to be held in a few weeks time!

TTS AAR: Practising for 2TS

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The end of the year sees the annual Two The Strongest (2TS) double tournament for To The Strongest.

As friend Peter and I have entered this year competition (going for out hat trick!) we thought we’d better have a bit of a practice, choosing a couple of armies from Peter’s collection: one was one of the later Roman/Bysantine armies, the other was a cataphract/horse-archer army, with Tibetans proxieing in.

I would take the Roman-Byzantine types, Peter the Tibetan types. Each side consisted of two allied armies, each of 100 points.

Unsurprisingly, Peter’s cataphract-types (I’ll call them Tibetans from now on) won the scouting, forcing me to deploy in a long line in order not to be outflanked on either side. This gave Peter the opportunity to try and use one of his favourite tactics (one that I have adopted myself) which is to try and concentrate all your force on one half of an enemy army at a time.

Accordingly, once the game had begun, the enemy facing my right flank turned to their right and sped over to the other side of the table, leaving a lot of my troops apparently facing air! I had, however, been ready for this and, using the Romans’ famed mobility, soon had most of my right hand troops facing left and ‘marching to the sound of the guns’.

The action began with a decent bit of fighting from the Romans: one legionary unit threw its pila like javelins against an enemy heavy cavalry unit, disordering it then moving in with the gladius (or perhaps by now the spatha) to finish them off. This left the legionaries surrounded on three sides, so they sent promptly marched backwards to resume their original position. Now that’s how Romans ought to fight all the time!

By this time, my Romans from the right were beginning to arrive to reinforce my left, and the fighting there became intense.

Fighting of this intensity couldn’t last long and, sure enough, some veteran Roman cavalry managed to destroy the proxie-Tibetans on the far left which, combined with my success elsewhere, took the last victory medals from Peter’s right-hand army. Under the rules of 2TS, this meant that the whole of that army then dispersed, leaving me master of that side of the field.

Well…almost. If you look at the second picture in the gallery below (top right of the four) you’ll see that there are still some Tibetan troops on that side of the field. Peter had managed to find a gap in my line to sneak them through and, in consequence, was able to charge them into the rear of my victorious cavalry (the unit with the ‘ten of spades’ behind it).

This was enough to break them, taking my last victory medal away, so I then lost all my remaining troops from my left hand army leaving, as you can see in the final picture (bottom, left) a very empty left hand side of the table.

A couple of things to note at this point.

Firstly, my Romans had effectively beaten ¾ of the Tibetans with only ½ of their force: a decent achievement especially against such a seasoned player as Peter.

Secondly, because Peter was using proxie figures from several collections mashed together and hadn’t had the time to mark them up properly, when he moved his left hand army to the right, the various commands got very intermingled…to the extent that for this phase of the battle neither of us were sure which of his units belonged to which command, having to guess what belonged where…which is why you’ll see the Tibetan bases now carrying coloured meeples in that final picture: the meeples marking which command each base was from. That meant that although we’re pretty sure we got it right, it’s entirely possible that the units that took my left-hand army off the table should actually have disappeared when his right hand army dispersed…

Anyhoo, on with the action…which took place between the remnants of each sides’ right hand armies.

Both Peter and I had left cavalry on the right hand side of the table, with the Tibetans having an advantage as they had hordes of lights versus much smaller numbers of Roman heavies, and a very open table in which to deploy them.

Unfortunately my luck also turned at this point, and a valiant attempt to take one of the enemy camps and so finish the game in my favour, ended up with my cavalry taking unexpectedly severe damage from the Tibetan lights so losing me my last victory medals on that side just before my infantry could intervene.

So an overall defeat, but a close run thing…and good practice for 2TS for its new date in January.