TTS AAR: Sicilio- Normans: The Return Match

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With plenty of time remaining and the table and figures all set up, Bevan and I decided to swap sides and play again: I would take the Papal Italians (proxied by a Burgundian Ordnance army) and Bevan would play the Sicilio-Normans.

Now if I thought my luck was bad in the last game, in this game it really fell off a cliff!

On the right flank I lost a unit of Knights to some scummy Sicilian light cavalry, leaving a huge hole in my line that enemy Knights immediately exploited. I did manage to get a breakthrough of my own going, but it took longer than it should and the battle ended elsewhere before I could take full advantage.

On the left, I got into the perfect position to do some damage, but the cards weren’t with me, and my glorious flank charges fizzled out unsuccessful!

Meanwhile, the Sicilio-Norman infantry ground forward in the centre and, with what I had lost already and the fall of my camp to the enemy Knights that had broken through, I was soon out of victory medals.

A frustrating game: as Bevan said afterwards, I didn’t do anything tactically wrong…it’s just the cards didn’t fall my way. To misquote the great Les Dawson: I had all the cards I needed, just in the wrong order!

No matter, these things happen. At least I could get my revenge in quickly, as we were due a couple of games of For King & Parliament, Eastern Front Variant in 24 hours time, with my Transylvanians facing the Muscovites. But more on that later…

Britcon Day One: Game Three

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My third game at the Britcon 2023 To The Strongest tournament was against Simon and his Hapsburg Burgundians again. Regular readers will know that I fought a warm-up battle against Simon on the Friday night, losing badly!

This was a grinding game that could have gone either way. The enemy pike pressed forward relentlessly with the Legions conducting an epic fighting withdrawal as the Roman cavalry worked their way onto the HB’s flanks.

Unfortunately, my “roll up” mounted flank attack went in with only enough time for me to break one of Simon’s pike blocks before the legionaries finally gave way: a 5:17 loss.

What was frustrating was that my plan was sound and I came so close to rolling him up entirely…it just didn’t quite happen. If one more pilum had gone in, if my cavalry had got one more hit…if, if, if!

Still, at least I did better than in the first battle!

Britcon: Day Minus One

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One of the five To The Strongest competitions that I am playing in this year is currently taking place at Britcon: the massive wargames competition event held in Nottingham each year.

As I’m quite a long way from Nottingham, I travelled up on the Friday i.e. yesterday. Horrible journey where a combination of a very busy M40 and a clogged M1 meant that the trip took me an hour longer than I expected, but I found the car park no problem and, almost even better, a cracking place to re-charge my car - I’m 40 miles short of being able to do the round trip in one charge: a bit too much to risk!

Check in to the accommodation was easy too, so kudos to BHGS for their superb organisation. Okay so the room is not what one is used to (it’s been a long time since I was a student!) but very pleasant once you get used to it. The shower is very good, so things could have been much worse!

Carrying a metal 28mm army from flat to venue proved challenging: my arms and fingers had just about reached their limit by the time the main hall sprang into view, but a quick cup of coffee soon revived me and I was able to have a wander and get my bearings.

The rest of TTS lot arrived soon after, and we decided to have a warm up game to get into the swing of things. My opponent was Simon Miller, author of the rules and all-round good egg, with his Burgundian Hapsburg army of mostly raw pikemen.

My Early Imperial Romans advanced in echelon, and got into the perfect position to flank charge his slowly advancing line…but then I suffered the most extraordinary bad luck for the rest of the game and got thrashed 0-13!

Now you may say “oh, the old "‘bad luck’ excuse, eh?” but even Mr Miller kept apologising not just for my card draws but also for his extraordinary good luck. Put it this way, during the game I had nine flank charges that resulted in no effect whatsoever: not even a single disorder!

All I could hope for was that this was not an omen for the competition itself, and that I had used up all my bad cards!

Here are some pics of the game:

A Few Burgundians

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Regular visitors will know that I bought a 15mm Burgundian Ordonnance army at the Warfare show last year. I’d already added some organ guns to its roster, but now needed to properly finish it off.

First up were some mounted crossbowmen, the only light cavalry in the army and thus the source of all of my scouting points.

These are Essex 15mm figures, painted with Contract Paints. Painting these after the Khurasan Normans was a real pleasure, and I am quite in love with the Essex style again. Their chunky, broad surfaces really take Contrast Paint well and I’d say that if you didn’t know they were 15’s, the photo above could show 25’s.

Next up were some light infantry handgunners, also Essex.

The photo above doesn’t really do them justice, but the Contrast white really works when placed next to the blue and the red: look at the chap second from the left in the back row (the one with the red hat). He’s the one that the photo has actually captured well.

AAR: TTS European Championships

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Friend Peter had organised a new competition for To The Strongest - the European Championships - and wanted to know if I was interested in taking part. Now I don’t really do competition battles any more: ghastly memories of arguing over minutiae in WRG 6th or similar and ultra-competitive behaviour (usually from me!) souring the experience…and the TTS tournaments are all played in 28mm and my collection, as you all probably know, is exclusively 15mm.

I checked the diary, however, and it turned out that, unusually, I had a completely free day that Saturday, so I said to Peter that I would come along and help and, if needed, make up the numbers as a super-sub should an odd number of players turn up (assume the joke about expecting an even number of odd players to turn up!).

I duly arrived at Ewelme (you-elm apparently) Primary School early yesterday morning and enjoyed half an hour of peaceful reflection eating my breakfast sandwich in an idyllic rural setting until everyone else arrived. To be honest, it was worth the half hour travel time for that alone!

Peter was lending me a Burgundian Ordnance army, so handed me a box full of troops and then it was fingers crossed to see if I would get any games…but as it happened, even numbers were present. No matter: I was happy to time keep and generally help out, and there were some spectacular looking armies to admire, even if they all looked very big to me!

About 15 minutes in, however, one of the players was forced to up-sticks and head home to sort a family matter, so I quickly grabbed the Burg’s and settled down to fulfil my super-substitute role.

My opponent, Andy, was using Almoravids: a very nice looking set of Spanish Berber types, all of whom were already deployed and ready to rock. We agreed that keeping to the tournament schedule meant we couldn’t go through the usual scouting, terrain and deployment process, so I just slammed the Burgs onto the table in a long line and off we went.

I am about to sub in for John, on the right

It was a great battle. The very first javelin thrown by the Almoravids went straight through my CinC, Charles the Bold’s, visor and killed him instantly! I followed that up by managing to draw five Aces in seven cards and it looked as if a hideous defeat was about to follow…but the Burg’s are a resilient lot, and somehow managed to fight their way back to a 100:73 point victory. I do remember one set of Knights smashing the Black Guard from the table in one charge, and killing a couple of enemy generals, but not much more than that!

Then it was onto game two: fighting Michael and his Later Italian Condotta with Swiss Allies, or Venetians for short. This was another cracking game, involving my Knights coming up against some very menacing looking pike blocks. Star of the show was my little Organ Gun artillery unit, which held up the Swiss pike block for two or perhaps three turns as it marched relentlessly towards my camp. The crew of said gun even managed to do the Swiss some damage in the melee! This stout and quite frankly incredible defence allowed me to get some Knights onto the Swiss flank and, much to the shock of all concerned, send them fleeing for the rear. Much to my surprise, another win at 108:58 points.

At this point we broke for lunch and a tour of the school-church-alms house complex, all built by Alice Chaucer, thrice-married grand-daughter of Geoffrey, and the first female Knight of the Garter. Fascinating stuff that included a secret stair and the minstrels’ gallery where Henry VIII allegedly first, er, succeeded, shall we say, with Anne Boleyn.

Onto the afternoon session, and bad news for the super-sub. Another player had withdrawn from the tournament meaning that numbers were uneven again. I was all prepared to return to the bench when someone else, Mark to be exact, said that they would be happy to sit this game out to give me another go. This was gentlemanly behaviour in the extreme, so it was time to face Chris and his Later Swiss. More pikes!

This, third game was also excellent. The Burg’s were caught napping, out-scouted and then pinned back against the edge of the table by some extraordinarily fast marching from the Swiss (I still don’t know what they do with their pikes when acting as mounted infantry LOL). I was sure I was doomed, and told Chris the same, but he assured me that all was not lost…a bad mistake on his part as his prophesy began to come true. Still pinned against the edge of the table, a camp lost to the enemy, the Burg’s stuck their heels in and began to push back. A couple of enemy generals were dispatched (it was a bit of a theme for the day) and some non-pike units broken, but it was a combination of missile-fire to disorder then send in the Knights to punish, which finally broke a Swiss pike block sending loads of victory medals my way. If we’d played on, the game could still have gone either way, but I ended the winner with a score of 102:79 points.

At that point I returned to the substitutes’ bench and spent a very enjoyable couple of hours wandering around the games, admiring both the action and all the very lovely figures on display.

Time for the results and I was amazed to find that I had come fourth. This was obviously partly due to the bye I had received in the fourth round, but was very welcome news indeed. Even more surprising (doubtless particularly so to those who have gamed against me!) was that I was also voted Most Chivalrous Player of the day. Even my family were gob-smacked by that one!

So many thanks to Peter for organising a great day, and for everyone else there, particularly my three opponents Andy, Michael and Chris. I had a whale of a time and am now wondering from whom I can borrow an army for the next one!

TTS AAR: Vikings Resurgent!

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Time for a quick game of To The Strongest. Today’s game would feature the Vikings, commanded by Yours Truly, versus the Burgundian Ordnance, commanded by John.

The yellow caps are lance markers, the red meeples indicate veteran Huscarl units.

Two very different armies: my Vikings are a foot-only army comprised mostly of big shieldwall units (I’ll call them warbands) with a few lights thrown in; the Burgundians are a combination of lethal and indestructible Knights with some useful missile-armed spearmen in support.

I knew I would lose if I let the Burgundians pick me off one unit at a time: the only way to win was to move forward and attack en masse so that my battle line could absorb the initial charge of his Knights then swamp them with numbers.

I also knew that my light bowmen were useless against the Knights (the arrows would just plink off!) so determined to send both light units up the far left flank and try and get behind his battle line and into his camps, knowing that he didn’t have enough units to face my warbands and defend his rear.

I therefore moved my warbands forward in a long line, being careful not to let the more impetuous Vikings surge forward in an uncontrolled manner.

This meant that when the main lines did clash the outcome was exactly as I had predicted: the warbands hit by the Knights were badly disordered at first contact but not destroyed, and then other warbands piled in to help.

Keep your eyes on the light units to the far left as well: they are doing what they were supposed to do!

By now I was whittling down his army, especially on my right flank. With so few Burgundian units on the table, he just couldn’t afford to lose many and, as we reached the climax of the battle, I had wiped the four units on his left and left-centre for the loss of only one of my warbands.

That meant that I only really needed one big push to win the day and, rather pleasingly, that came from (yes, you guessed it) one of my light units finally taking the first Burgundian camp.

With half their army destroyed and their baggage taken, that was enough to send the neo-Frenchmen packing: the Vikings had won the day!

First Painting of the Year

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Not the start of a new project (they are still in their box!) but a few bits and pieces for existing armies.

First up we have some organ guns for my Burgundian Ordnance army. I had some rockets already, but organ guns are more correct and having the actual models will hopefully remind me that there are special rules that apply to this type of artillery in To The Strongest. I’ve also painted up a couple of pavilions to add a bit of flavour to the Burgundians’ camp bases.

These are from Alternative Armies: very nice sculpts and they arrived very quickly as well.

Next up are a few command figures for my British army for the Crimean War (1854-6). I don’t actually need command figures for the rules I’m playing at the moment (Neil Thomas’ Rules for 19th Century Wargaming) but I find the army looks a bit odd without them. It also helps remind me of which units are in which division.

These are Rank & File figures from Timecast: very nice figures that my somewhat messy painting doesn’t really do justice to.

My next painting will be the start of the first big project for 2023: a 15mm Norman army using the excellent Museum Miniatures CAD range. Can’t wait to get started on them!

TTS AAR: Burgundian Ordnance vs Vikings

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As Bevan had his Vikings out and I wanted to get my still-relatively-new Burgundians onto the table, we decided to have a game that would set the two against each other.

The Viking army was the same that had beaten my Vikings: maxed out on Bondi with a few lights in support. My Burgundians fielded four units of Later Knights supported by four units of sound infantry: three mixed spear or bill and bow units and a unit of crossbowmen. I also had an organ gun present.

View from behind the Burgubdian line: there’s an awful lot of Vikings over there!

The Vikings rushed forward, but were unprepared for the sheer weight of the Burgundian Knights that charged them. Two of my armoured units, shot in by archers to disorder the shieldwalls just before impact, smashed straight through the Vikings in front of them, sending them fleeing for their longships.

One of victorious Knights units then took the enemy camp whilst the other roamed around the centre of the field looking for more Vikings to charge.

Just after the first of the viking shieldwall units disappears from the field

taking the enemy camp (top leftish); rolling them up (centre right)

Meanwhile, on the right, one unit of Burgundian infantry used their horses (i.e. the Mounted Infantry bonus) to advance forward fast enough to split the advancing Viking line. This enabled another unit of Knights to turn right and hit the right flank of the Viking left-flank force that was currently engaged in a massive shoving match with some more Burgundian infantry.

With three Bondi units and their camp now destroyed, this proved too much for the Vikings to bear and, as another Bondi unit fled the field, the rest of the enemy army crumbled and followed. A glorious victory to the Burgundians!

Actually I was a bit lucky on my left, where a huge Viking outflanking force effectively took no part in the game because (a) having the initiative meant I could stay well away from them at set up and (b) Bevan’s attempts to move them into an outflanking position were stymied by the cards, who had obviously decided they didn’t like Vikings any more!

The whole game took only about an hour and further proved the power of the Burgundian charge!

The Return Match

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Time for the re-match: this time I would take the Burgundian Ordnance and John would take the Medieval Scandinavians.

My plan was hold the centre with my infantry and half my Knights, and use the rest of my Knights to lap around the ends of his line, hopefully achieving some kind of roll-up. Comparing notes afterwards, John’s plan was to close with my troops as quickly as possible, using sheer mass and ferocity to win victory.

I had the initiative, and wasted no time in getting forward into the centre of the field. I then halted my centre and waited until the Scandies came forward.

The Scandies did indeed come forward, with one warband getting out in front, and soon battle was generally joined in the centre of the field.

Warbands are pretty hard to kill, even with Knights, but all I needed to do was to hold them in place whilst my horns lapped around his flanks.

On my right flank, this worked like a dream: a squadron of Knights got into the perfect position for a flank charge on the Scandinavian main line and thundered forward to do enough damage that a Burgundian spear-and-longbow unit could finish off the unfortunate warband that was their target.

Unfortunately on my left flank I got a bit too enthusiastic, and although the initial outflanking manoeuvre worked and sent more Scandies from the field, his lone unit of tax-free Knights was able to get forward fast enough to out-flank my out-flankers and consign one quarter of my Knights to the recycle bin! Whoops!

Fortunately this didn’t matter, as my right flank continued to chew through his centre having achieved exactly the roll-up I was after.

I will spare you the gory details, but you’ll see from the pictures below that pinned from the front and hit from the flank (by Knights as well) is not just a recipe but a whole cook book for disaster!

The coup de grace (to put it as the Burgundians would) came either from a unit of my infantry taking the enemy camp or the loss of a unit of light archers being the final straw that broke the Scandinavian back. To be honest, I can’t remember which.

A great game, for me at any rate, and a cautionary tale for warband armies going up against more combined arms forces: watch those flanks!

A Game...Finally!

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What with work and Christmas and everything, it’s been weeks since I actually got to have a battle, so thanks to friend John for braving the freezing fog coming over this morning for a couple of games of To The Strongest.

I had two new armies that were ready to try the tabletop: the first were the Burgundian Ordnance boys I had bought complete ay Colours; the second were my Vikings, finally complete after some time with the figure painter I like to use.

Ideally I would have fought them as is, but these days I try to make encounters as contemporaneous as possible, so the Burgundians would fight as Burgundians but the Vikings would, with the aid of a unit of lancers borrowed from my 17th Transylvanians, manifest as Medieval Scandinavians. Still not exactly contemporaneous, but close enough for jazz! For the first game, I would take the Scandies and John would take the Burgs.

My force consisted of only three commands. The first, headed by the CinC, consisted of my single unit of Frasle or “tax free” Later Knights and two unit of light archers. The second comprised three deep units of Hird: hard men with axes and extra bows. Finally there were the Leidangr bondi types: three of them in a third command.

The Burgs consisted of four commands, each a unit of Later Knights accompanied by a unit of foot. Three of the foot units were either billmen or spearmen with extra longbows, the third were crossbowmen, with the command with the crossbowmen also having a unit of organ gun artillery.

The First Game

With neither side being particularly hot on scouting - Later Knights don’t scout! - a straight draw of the cards meant the John and the Burgs had the initiative. I set the Scandies up in a long line with the Frasle and lights on the left, Leidangr in the centre and Hird on the right. With two camps and almost no cavalry, I was nervous about his cavalry lapping around my flanks.

The Burgs remained in attack columns: coming forward with their infantry sheltering their Gendarmes.

I was keen to get my Hird into his troops as soon as possible, so ignored my bows and headed forward on the right asap. As I came into range, his infantry fired a couple of longbow volleys which actually did me more damage than I had anticipated. At the same time, one unit of his Knights managed to get past his sheltering infantry and charge into one Hird warband. This proved disastrous for the Scandies: with a glorious or pitiful (dependent on your point of view!) run of cards leading to me losing both a unit of Hird and their general!

Meanwhile on my left wing, my Frasle had proved themselves victory-free as well as tax-free: being sent fleeing from the field through a combination of bow fire and the attentions of some Gendarmes. The battle was definitely not going well!

I continued to lose ground on the right - my remaining Hird were outnumbered but putting up a good fight, and those deep units are hard to finish off - but it was in the centre and centre-left that a unit of Leidangr started to properly fight back.

The Gendarmes that had dealt so summarily with my cavalry were wounded by some light bowmen and then polished off by a warband; and another unit of Gendarmes was smashed from the field by some Hird. I was still down to only four coins, so would lose the game if I lost another two units/generals, but now John was down to only five coins, meaning I would win the game if I could kill three of his units/generals.

Unfortunately I could not sustain this momentum (you can see in the gallery above that most of my units were by now disordered) and was soon down to just one coin.

The final action of the game was for a unit of Gendarmes to lap around my right flank, and although I had some Leidangr to face them, Later Knights versus damaged Shieldwall was a foregone conclusion.

Post-Match Analysis

A good first game with the two new armies. I was surprised at how effective the Burgundian shooting was, and how fragile my deep units were in the first half of the game. That was, however, probably an atypical result of the actions that took place, as the second half of the game saw my surviving Hird and Leidangr soak up huge amounts of damage whilst still dishing it out effectively.

So the game was probably decided in that first clash, when I lost a unit of Hird and their general in a shock result. After that, even with things being 50/50, I was on the road to a defeat. All kudos to John, though, for maintaining the pressure and not giving me the opportunity I needed to turn the tables.

The next game will see us swap sides…