TTS AAR: Galatians versus the Scandanavian Leidang

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With the Ewelme tournament coming up fast (Ed’s note: by the time this report gets published, it will have been and gone. Doubtless a trophy is now adorning my mantlepiece…) I needed some more practice with the Galatians I was intending to use, especially as their first two outings had resulting in a couple of stuffings of epic proportions! I therefore persuaded friend John to bring his Scandanavian Leidang types over to my place for a game.

Once deployed, the Galatians still looked very impressive, and I was very much hoping that this goregeousness would translate into military success, especially as it looked as if I could overlap the quasi-Vikings on the right. I duly advanced forward strongly…

The Scandies turned some of their troops towards my flanking force, and I was thinking that I could attack their left from two sides but, somehow, my coordinated assault failed to go in at the right time and I ended up losing my flanking cavalry to, of all things, some Viking light infantry archers! I’m still not sure how I let this opportunity slip through my hands!

My cavalry on the other flank weren’t having a very good time either. I think I’m used to having my Venetians Abroad knights on the wings, and thus being able to largely ignore missile fire, so have suffered bady when trying to use mere cavalry in the same way!

Looking back at the photos, I am also struck by how ragged my line looks compared to the solid mass of the enemy. This is obviously something I will have to watch out for in future!

Back to the action.

On the left, I sorted out my battered battle line, and advanced forward to take the wood that looked to be key to the Leidang position. Unfortunately, three Galatian warbands failed to dislodge the one unit of Huscarls occupying said wood, and that was that opportunity gone as the Vikings reinforced and I failed to make any further progress…

…so it was on the right where the battle would be decided.

Both sides had by now taken large amounts of casualties, and we were rapidly approaching a sudden death situation, where the next side to lose a significant unit would lose the battle. I still had a bit of an advantage, and had the potential to take the enemy camp, but somehow I just couldn’t get the cards I needed and the initiative swung to the Vikings.

Now when my deep units had tried to manoeuvre around the battlefield, I hadn’t managed to pull the cards I needed. Not so John, who neatly pivoted a deep unit of Bondi onto the flank of one of my warbands, hitting twice and polishing them, and my last three medals off!

So another loss for the Galatians: making three in a row! Let’s hope it goes better on the day.

(Ed’s note: I won’t bother to clear a space in the trophy cabinet then…)

Well they looked good advancing forward!

Fanatics ≠ Archers - Again

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With our first game taking not very long at all, Peter and I had plenty of time for a second. I’ll let him tell the story again:

Peter writes…

In our second Galatian vs Western Sudanese battle, Rob deployed his camp slightly off centre to my left and surrounded it with his scary hairy warbands. He then deployed one cavalry command to my left of that and the other way off on my right.

So I again used my camp as a hardpoint on my left flank garrisoned by an entire command of archers to counter any possible attack by his cavalry on that flank.

I then deployed another command of archers centrally to create an interlocking field of fire in the middle. On my right I deployed my only cavalry command supported by a full infantry command to face his single cavalry command.

The Battle Begins

On that right flank I quickly marched forward with my 8 units and 22 arrows facing 2 units and 4 javelins. The numbers quickly showed and Rob’s command was quickly disordered and surrounded.

In the centre I advanced my massed bows to create interlocking fields of fire directly in front of his warbands. This deterred them from advancing.

Just as they were deciding they were fanatical enough to charge forward, Rob attempted to drag his cavalry on my left, that were facing my well garrisoned camp, into the centre enroute to supporting his outnumbered cavalry command on my right.

However this blocked the advance if his warbands and the combination of rough terrain, hesitant unwieldy warbands and intimidating fields of fire quickly turned into a log-jam with the cavalry baulking at entering rough terrain, and his unwieldy warbands both getting in the way and still reluctant to advance into the interlocking fields of fire.

The Battle Continues

On my right, Robs outnumbered, outflanked and unsupported cavalry quickly caved in allowing me to threaten the flanks of his central warbands.

At this stage I advanced my camp garrison out into the main battle area and started to shoot into the flanks of his bogged down cavalry and the still reluctant warbands.

Before long the constant rain of arrows in the middle and the cavalry attacks into his flank was enough to conclude the battle.

Conclusion

Every battle with Rob is always enjoyable and good fun, especially when we are both trying out new armies. In this case Rob’s conclusion was that Galatians don't like being shot at and so my Nigerian army almost exclusively of archers was his worst nightmare.

It does show that sometimes massed archery can work although like me, most TtS players have experienced disappointing and unreliable volleys from massed bowmen. And I know from my personal experience at the World’s that sometimes it's the enemy’s raw LI/javelin that throws its one javelin and kills off both your wounded verteran cataphract and its heroic senior general!

That’s all part of the joy of TtS and means that whatever situation you are ever in, never give up, because your opponent might just fail the save and give you a last minute victory!

My Comments

Well that didn’t work out very well, did it!

I still need to find a way to get my fanatics into combat without being shot to pieces by massed archers; and need to remember how difficult it is (on a competition-size table) to switch a command from one side of the field to the other: the table-size is designed to get a result not allow for anything other than micro-tactical manoeuvers.

That’s two games in a row without a win for my Galatians!

Fanatics ≠ Archers

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With enough Celts now painted to have a game, I was keen to get them onto the tabletop. Perhaps unwisely, my first opponent was Peter, winner of almost every To The Strongest competition he enters.

The first incarnation I tried was the Celts as fanatical Galatians: an army comprised of six units of deep fanatics and some cavalry. I’ll let Peter tell you what happened…

Peter writes:

I love experimenting with new armies, new troop type combinations and new tactics and seeing how well they perform, either as an official tournament army or with slight variations to stress test their full potential.

I’ve been inspired by a Nigerian CEO mentoring client who told me about the fascinating medieval history of his nation including Mansa Musa who is, relatively speaking, the richest man who has ever lived, far outpacing the likes of Gates, and Musk through his extraordinary gold mines. Although beware any email from his 20 times great grand son who claims to have found his inheritance down a mine!

Anyway…

So I created a Western Sudanese Nigerian army and fought two battles against my good friend Rob, who wanted to test out his brand new Galatian hordes with gorgeous tartan cloaks.

Essentially an army of archers fighting against hordes of hairies.

In our first battle Rob deployed his hordes in the middle with cavalry protecting each flank. I deployed my archers centrally with my small cavalry command on my left and my camp as a hard point protecting my right flank.

The Plan

My plan had 3 components …

  1. To have a melee free stand off in the middle whilst peppering him with arrows.

  2. To draw Rob’s cavalry command on my right forward into a killing zone surrounded by archers in my camp and nearby woods.

  3. To win the whole battle on my left with a combined arms attack of cavalry and massed archery, around two woods that would constrain and frustrate both his cavalry and his deep warbands.

The Battle Starts

On my left I pushed forward with all my cavalry supported by several bow units. This sucked his cavalry and three warbands forward, with a bloodlust to crush my impertinent bowman.

I then manoeuvred my three mounted units against just one of Robs and moved four archer units just into range to pour arrows into his other cavalry unit and three deep warbands that were struggling to manaouvre around the two woods. The deep hairies were also attempting to swerve right to avoid the interlocking field of fire of yet more of my formed bowmen on top of a central defensive hill. This led them into a very constricted area between the two woods where their lack of manoeuvrability bogged them down into in-action and created a traffic jam. In an attempt unblock this cloggage one unit of fanatics chased some annoying archers into a wood getting delightfully entangled in the vegetation. Not ideal for a deep unit.

Meanwhile in the middle I selectively advanced more bowmen into range to annoy his central wall of warriors who chose to stand and take it, presumably scared that their naked private parts may get skewered by my arrows if they charged me. This stand off suited me as I had 14 points of bowmen holding up 44 points of warbands. Inevitably this meant I had superiority elsewhere on the battlefield.

On my right I advanced and then retreated my apparently helpless archers to tempt Rob’s cavalry forwards into my killing zone. Sure enough one cavalry unit fell for the trap whilst the other, luckily helped by poor cards, decided discretion was the batter part of valor and held back - abandoning their mates to a porcupine death.

The Plan Unfolds

Back on my left I had outflanked one of his cavalry units but despite multiple frontal and flank attacks it survived against the odds. So using the 3rd “P” of my 7 “P” wargaming principles – “Pranking and Surprise”, I unexpectedly pivoted and manoeuvred two of my mounted units to charge Robs exposed and very surprised warband flanks. The bulky naked Galatians stuck between the woods couldn’t react in time and quickly collapsed.

This left the lone warband that had now extracted itself out of the “fire pan” of the wood into the “fire” of being surround by 3 formed bow units, one in front, one on the flank and one behind. With a likely 10 attack cards every turn the outcome was surely inevitable?

Back on my far right, the interlocking fields of fire easily took out the lone cavalry unit that had got too excited and isolated without any cover or support.

The End Is Nigh!

Eventually in the middle the four big Galatian warbands decided at last to risk their surprisingly small private parts by advancing towards my bowmen - who instantly started to edge backwards. But it was too late. On my left the surrounded warband succumbed to repeated double volleys from behind (to get the -1 save), and being charged from the flank. As both Galatian flanks collapsed they gave up enough medals for my plucky (did you see what I did there?) Nigerian archers to win an almost casualty free outright victory in just over 60 minutes.

Lessons Learned

  1. Massed bowmen CAN be deadly even in TtS - provided you keep them out of melee against superior melee troops.

  2. The 3rd “P” - Pranking and Surprising your opponent with unanticipated tactics can be deadly!

  3. Overlapping fields of fire in an Agincourt style killing zone, can be devastating especially when focussed on foolhardy individual targets and can also scare off even superior yet hesitant enemies.

  4. When you have inferiority - slowly back away. When you have superiority use it or lose it!

  5. Experimenting with unusual armies is fun and can unearth some real gold!

  6. The Western Sudanese Nigerian army is the first Sub Saharan army I have ever seen used in TtS and is well worth an experiment or two!

  7. Plans don’t always work, but it’s better to have one than not.

Anyway, that was the first battle of two.

My Comments

Although I might quibble with some of the above, it was indeed a masterful demonstration of how to use mass archers against fanatics. Indeed, I’ve done something similar with crossbows against Ikko-Ikki in the past.

Peter’s mounted units did do a lot of damage but, to be fair and as you’ll see in the pictures below, this was as much to do with the fact that the first two cards my horsemen drew for the first two turns were Aces. My fault for not following Trevor’s Rule - always move the general first!

I certainly found the combination of deep units and an 8+ save a challenge: but one I will work on for the future! Here are my pictures of the game:

Final Batch of Celts

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Here is the final batch of figures that I need to actually field either a Galatian or a Gallic army (the Ancient Brits will have to wait for chariots, slingers and light cavalry).

First up are the command figures:

Then there are three more bases of warriors. These are all Victrix figures:

Always important, here are two bases of light infantry with javelins:

For a warband-bases army, you need a lot of heroes. I decided early on to use Celtic character figures for my heroes, collected from a variety of ranges:

I’ll actually use Cernunnos, who stands about 9cms high, as the army standard!

Finally, I built a nice camp of standing stones using Alternative Armies’ new Standing Stones.

Even More Celts

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My Celtic army is coming along nicely: I’ve now finished three more units of heavy horse, and started to add some heroes as well.

Here are the three new units of horse. All are Victrix figures painted using Contrast paints, and with shield transfers from Little Big Man Studios (available via Victrix) and all with cloaks from Weave of War.

I’m going to need a lot of heroes for any Celtic army: six for the warbands and then another three to five as standard. I’ve decided to try andget as many Celtic personaities into the heroes mix as possible, which means trawling the Internet for interesting one-off figures. Here’s the first two I’ve completed: Boudicca and Obelix.

Boudicca is a metal casting from Belt Fed Gaming available from the Colonel Bills website. She is also painted with Contrast paints, but I have attempted to glaze her skin tone.

Obelix is, quite rightly, a giant of a figure. He is one of the Aquila Empire: Gaul Heroes set of two resin prints from Anima Games UK available via Etsy. The other is Asterix, who will appear in due course.

More Celts

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With the decision made to create a core Celtic force, it was now just a question of following up on the first warband by creating the other two warbands that could be fashioned out of a single bag of Victrix figures.

These actually took a lot less time to complete than the original warband: mainly, I think, because I sort of knew what I was doing now!

I used the same combination of Victrix plastics for the figures, LittleBigManStudios (now part of Victrix) for the shield transfers, and Weave of War for the cloaks. Full details can be found in the original post about my first warband: https://www.vislardica.com/blog/2026/3/4/first-of-the-celts

The only pain was the command figures: technically the 48-figure Victrix pack contains enough for two units and I was producing three, but I managed to bodge together a suitable leader, standard bearer and musician for each of the second two even if one of the two leaders isn’t wearing armour, one of the musicians has a horn not a carnyx, and one of the standard bearers has a shoulder built out of green stuff and an extra hand on the bottom of his pole!

So that was one bag of figures done…and I almost went straight into the second…but then I thought “well, I’ve got the Celtic infantry I need for a Carthaginian army: why I don’t I paint the Celtic cavalry I need for both a Celtic army and a Carthaginian army…and that way I don’t need to absolutely commit to one or the other for another four units”.

And that’s what I did. Here’s the first unit of Celtic horse:

I’m really pleased that the Weave of War cloaks fit nicely onto the cavalrymen as well as the infantrymen, although I think that for the next unit I’ll have the cloaks streaming out behind…like the horses’ tails!

TTS AAR: Aghlabids versus Gauls

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Time for some more To The Strongest, and a clash between my Aghlabids and friend John’s Gauls: not exactly an historical match-up, but would hopefully give a good game!

As the Gallic horde was quite infantry heavy, my plan was to use my superior numbers of mounted troops on the right to smash the enemy horse from the table before turning and rolling the Celts up from that flank. This was helped by the Take the High Ground stratagem that I had drawn.

A good opening card saw my troops get into the perfect position to charge, but then the Card Gods punished me for hubris and my attack stopped dead. This gave the initiative to the Gauls, but it seemed that John had earned the CG’s wrath as well, as he forgot Trevor’s Law - “Always start with the General” - and also failed to charge home.

With my move on the right stymied, I tried the same thing on the left, with almost exactly the same result!

With the flanks getting nowhere, I move my infantry up to try and weaken the Gallic warbands with bowfire.

Back to the right flank, where my Arab cavalry finally charged home. An initial success was followed by multiple turns of frustration as the disordered Gallic horse in front of me just wouldn’t break, John saving time and time again.

Here’s an overview of the position so far:

Things continued to go wrong for me on the flanks. On the right, the Gallic chariots managed to send my other unit of Arab cavalry flying from the field…leaving me with a tactical advantage but not the crushingly dominant position I had hoped for!

And on the left I lost my Arab lancers and would spend the rest of the game with my two units of lights dancing around trying not to be killed as they harried the flanks of more Gallic cavalry and chariots!

The Gallic infantry warbands now started to move forward in the centre. I sent volley after volley of bowfire into them from my infantry, but John was saving and/or rallying like a demon, and although I did earn four coins from the Gauls drawing even cards for the latter, the writing was now firmly on the wall for the Arabs.

A last attempt on the right to save the day failed to deliver:

And although the Gallic chariots failed to take my camp, left unguarded courtesy of another Ace…

…the relentless wave of Gallic warriors (half veterans, half fanatics, all big and scary!) eventually smashed enough of my infantry from the field to capture my last few coins.

Despite the loss, this was a brilliant game of To The Strongest, full of action and Aces!

John played the Gauls masterfully: absorbing my early cavalry attacks and then advancing his warbands inexorably up the field to drive my infantry back and then off. Good fun and, hopefully, this will have used up all my Aces prior to the Worlds next weekend!

First of the Celts

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I’m a 15mm gamer who plays To The Strongest competitions in 28mm…so although I have some 17 different Ancients/Medieval armies in 15mm, I only have two in 28mm: my 40-year-old, Minifigs Early Imperial Romans, and my two-year-old, Perry-medieval-plastic Venetians.

I’ve used the Romans a lot, and the Venetians even more, so have been thinking for some time that it’s now the moment to add another army to the roster…but which one?

It’s a big investment of both time and money, so it’s got to be an army that means something. There’s a tale behind the Romans (I won’t repeat it now as many of you know it already) and the Venetians began from a box-set I won at the Doubles a couple of years ago…so what was going to spark my interest for number three.

Well, my very first army ever was an Airfix Ancient Briton army that I used at school and university (when the lessons were taught in the original Latin!), and a couple of units of Celtic foot could be the starting point for any number of Gallic-style armies (Galatian, Gallic, Ancient British) or form a command for even more (e.g. Carthaginian or any other army in which the Celts served as mercenaries).

One problem: I didn’t fancy painting six deep units of warriors wearing checks, tartans or stripes, and whose shields were too intricate to be hand-painted and would thus require a whole load of transfers to have the bit for the bosses cut out with a ‘sharp craft knife’. Fortunately, Victrix have come to the rescue on that last one - now producing pre-punched transfers that make using them so much easier - and Weave of War, my new favourite wargames supplier, sell miniature, real-cloth cloaks that can be glued to the back of a figure and obviate the need for 360° painting: it’s always the join between the back and front of a stripey or chequered figure that cause the issues.

So Ancient British/generic Celts it was. Here’s the first unit, both a front and back view:

Victrix

The Victrix figures are absolutely lovely: highly, highly recommended. Yes, you have to build them, and that can be a bit fiddly, but once you get the knack of it, they go together very easily. I am a heathen and use superglue to fix, with either water or PVA applied just before pressing the two surfaces together to activate the glue (when I say water, I dip the surface to be glued into a small dish of the stuff; ditto with PVA).

Note that I didn’t bother to add any additional paraphernalia to the figures - no scabbards for example (confess, you didn’t notice, did you!) - as that’s just extra work for things that will be totally overshadowed by the shields and cloaks. I also made the decision to build the first unit from fully-clothed figures: I’ll save the topless and naked versions for veteran and fanatic units respectively.

They paint up beautifully, with the sculpts doing all the work of bringing out my rudimentary skills. I used Contrast paints for the base coats, and standard GQ acrylics for the highlights. I block painted the figures, then carefully drew stripes on their fronts and sides with a thin brush (with the cloaks, there was no need to do the stripes etc on the sides).

No need for too much accuracy on the stripes etc: there is so much going on with the figures in the unit (figure, cloak, shield) that just the impression of the stripes etc is enough. I didn’t both with stripes etc on the trousers for the same reason, although I will stripe the trousers on the topless lot when I come to do them.

LittleBigMan/Victrix Transfers

Shields ready for the transfers to be applied

The shields were painted and had the transfers attached before being attached to the figures. The method used was to cut the plastic sprues they came on so you can prepare the shields on the sprue; spray them white; paint the boss black and then bronze; touch up with white; apply the transfer; paint any non-transfer areas (the rim, the back) a wood colour. Very simple.

As for the transfers themselves, just follow the instructions that come in the packet. Now that they are pre-punched, the only annoying bit is having to carefully cut out each transfer…but this is ten thousand million times easier than doing the boss hole!

Weave of War Cloaks

Now available from Deadanddread Miniatures, the Weave of War cloaks are fantastic. They literally are little cut-out fabric cloaks that come all ready for attaching to your painted figures.

The cloaks come in three different sizes - in order, smallest to largest: battle, campaign, command - and there’s also a rolled up version as well. Loads of different colours, and can bought either in packets of eight in single designs (for that one-clan look) or mixed designs (what I used).

There are videos demonstrating how to attach the cloaks but, really, all you do is put a bit of glue on the straps that go over the shoulders, a blob of glue on the inside back just under the collar; leave to get tacky (do this: I found life a lot easier once I’d curbed my impatience and let the glue get properly tacky); and then pop the cloak on the figure, fold the straps over and done!

Once the glue is dry, you can then scrunch the cloak to get a bit of shaping, knowing that when you varnish the figure (I used a matt spray) the cloak will harden to being pleasingly stiff: like paper or cloth flags that have been covered in PVA, shaped and then left to dry.

One thing to note: when varnishing the unit, above, I got very careless and over-varnished the rear view. Nothing to do with the cloaks themselves, it was all me getting the spray can too close and for too long. It was dark, I was tired, Officer!

This left a clouded residue on the cloaks that I thought had ruined them, but then I remembered the advice I’d been given when a can of GW varnish (never buying GW varnish again: never) did the same thing even though I’d used it correctly: vinegar.

“Vinegar? Are you George Bernard?” you might exclaim but, yes, the cloaks in back rank of the picture above were cloudy to the point of being opaque until brushed with vinegar from the kitchen cupboard (expensive Apple Cider Vinegar, according to the wife, rather than the cheap stuff for chips but, I mean, “because you’re worth it” and all that!) which neatly brought the colours back out again. Phew!

In Conclusion…

I’m very happy with this unit and am actually looking forward to painting more. The products detailed above (the Victrix figures, Contract paints, LBMS transfers, the Weave of War cloaks) really do all the heavy lifting. I am not an artist, only an average painter, but can follow a set of instructions!

All highly recommended.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TTS AAR: 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!

More Teeny-Tiny TTS

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Neil had time for another game of To The Stongest using his 2mm figures. I’d play the Romans again, Neil would take the Ancient Brits.

Following my previous defeat, I thought I’d try something a bit different this time, and stacked most of my troops on the right intending to overwhelm him there before turning back to destroy the rest of his army.

As the game began, my plan unfolded successfully, and at least a third of his troops ended up effectively out of the game until they could get across the table and back into the action.

Unfortunately things began going wrong shortly after that!

Part of the plan was for my veteran heavy cavalry to punch their way through the British chariots facing them on the far right. This didn’t happen and, in fact, the chariots won the encounter and thus blocked my flanking manoeuvre from happening.

Worse, the veteran Legionaries, advancing forward quickly to engage the warbands facing them, failed to dent the Celts, even with a numerical advantage. There really was something wrong with my troops today!

This, of course, gave Neil the time to bring his “missing” men back across the table and into combat, leading to a most unpleasant situation featuring the Legions being potentially attacked from front and flank…

Although the Roman cavalry had by now managed to dispose of the chariots, the time it had taken them to do so left them trapped in the top right hand corner of the battlefield as the Celtic warbands and Legionary units went at it to their left.

The Legionaries were still fighting very badly indeed, and had been pushed back into a position where the British could start to apply their by-now-superior numbers.

In the end, the British did to the Romans what the Romans had been trying to do to them: the Celtic cavalry arrived from the far reaches of the other side of the table and curled round to threaten to take the Romans in the flank.

So two defeats in a row for the teeny-tiny Romans. Admittedly I’d tried the bold tactic of severely weighting one flank, but that had worked until my troops failed to take advantage of their tactical position just after the beginning of the battle.

Captain Hindsight has pointed out that perhaps I was expecting too much from the Legionaries to quickly defeat the warbands in front of them (I should have anticipated the need for a slow, grinding victory) but the Roman infantry didn’t really achieve anything all game: not one warband was destroyed!

The real culprits, of course, were the veteran Roman cavalry. A pathetic initial performance that they admittedly recovered from, but too late to be useful.

So the manoeuvre phase was a success, but the execution of the combat phase didn’t: something to build on for next time!

Teeny-Tiny To The Strongest

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Friend Neil invited me over for a game of To The Strongest using his 2mm figures. This was a new experience for me as I’d never played with anything so small before (quiet in the cheap seats!).

I would play the Early Imperial Romans, with Neil taking the Ancient Britons.

My plan was to hold the centre with my legionaries and auxiliaries whilst my cavalry (doubtless superior to the chariots in front of them) on the right flank smashed through what was in front of them and curled around to take the warbands in the centre in the rear.

Unfotunately, my cavalry were having an off day, and made no progess at all against the “Ancient British Panzer Division” in front of them.

This meant that I had to send the legions in against the British centre, but even that didn’t go very well as the command on the right got decisively mullered!

This was all very disappointing, and made worse when some Celtic cavalry that, up to now, I had kept bottled up on the left managed to get clear and take the same battered command in the flank.

So a fairly decisive win for the Brits as I wrestled with adjusting to the different scale.

TTS AAR: Burgundians versus Celts

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As is now our usual practice, Rob and I quickly cleared away the game of For King & Parliament that we had just finished and prepared for a quick ‘dessert’ of To The Strongest.

I was about to travel to Nottingham for the TTS competition at Britcon ‘24, so was quite keen to have a practice game against an infantry-heavy army. The closest equivalent in 15mm to the Venetians (Late Italian Condotta) that I would be using at Britcon were my Burgundian Ordnance troops, so I would use them whilst Rob took the Ancient Britons: plenty of infantry with enough mounted support from chariots to make them tricky to deal with.

view from the ancient british side of the table

Theer did seem to be an awful lot of troops facing my Burgundians but, as it turned out, that was nothing to what the Venetians would face in Nottingham, but more of that in future reports…

The Ancient Brits opened proceedings with a general advance forward, but a weird series of cards meant that their warbands were immediately strung out almost in an accidental echelon formation. The Burgundians kept their nerve and moved slightly forward in a solid line.

Digressing from the centre for a second, British chariots hurtled forward on my left, seeking to curl in behind my battle line.

I dispatched a squadron of knights to deal with the threat but, much to my surprise, although they held the chariots up the knights were eventually defeated.

Thankfully the chariots never managed to get moving again after the clash (presumably looting the bodies for steel weapons, armour, heads etc) so what was an awkward situation never developed into a crisis.

Back to the centre, and the lone Ancient British warband that Rob had pushed forward was soon dispatched by my line: three against one is never good odds!

Meanwhile, my mounted crossbowmen on the right had, through a bit of luck with activation cards, managed to charge the flank of the first wave of British chariots heading towards my camp.

This allowed me to send the knights covering that side of the field forward to engage another warband: once again allowing me to use my superior fighting power to hit an enemy unit whilst avoiding being overwhelmed by weight of numbers.

With two warbands and two chariots already lost, Rob was caught between a rock and a hard place. Either he jung back and let me use my longbows and then advance to finish off any pin-cushioned survivors, or he threw everything he had left forward in an attemtp to finally break my line.

Naturally he decided to throw everything forward, and an almighty melee broke out in the centre of the field.

Unfortunately, as I said above, the troops in my main battle line were either as good as or better than his on a unit-vs-unit basis, so it was only a matter of time before just one too many warbands broke and victory was mine!

It had been a great game, and really good practice for Britcon. Lessons learnt about facing a mostly infantry army included:

  • guard your flanks

  • always try to gang up on warbands that have got separated from the main body

  • use your lights in the enemy flanks

Now all I had to do was try remember them and then put them into practice!

A bit of Miscellaneous Painting

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Always good to add some character units to your rank and file, so when I saw that the 3D printed March to Hell range of Celts included war dogs and a handler, I knew I had to get one to act as one of the many "Heros” accompanying my Ancient Brits.

A nice little piece that paints up very easily indeed. The hounds were a single coat of Contrast Basilicum Grey over undercoat; the handler was painted as a normal Celt: dark blue tunic with light blue stripes.

Next are a couple of extras for my Venetians.

My Spearmen don’t seem to be achieving much, so here’s a unit of Alabadiers or Billmen who, hopefully, will fare a bit better.

The Alabardiers are made from the heads and bodies of spare normal infantry combined with the arms and weapons of spare knights, which is why they all look a bit top heavy!

It also got a bit crowded on the base…which is why, in the back rank, one of them is smashing the back end of his axe into the face of another! I should perhaps have dropped a figure from each line or at least spaced them out properly.

Finally, a unit of light crossbowmen and an infantryman carrying a flag that I can use either as an army standard or to mark where a dismounted general is or the like.

TTS World Championships 2024: Game 3: Venetians vs Ancient British

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The story so far: one big win, one big defeat…so it was all to play for in game three of the 2024 To The Strongest World Championships.

This time, my Ventians would face Matt’s Ancient British, and lot’s of them there were too!

The Ancient British outcouted, and before I knew it, I had shed loads of barbarians coming right at me: chariots and cavalry on the wings, infantry in the centre.

There was nothing for it but to get straight back at them and see what happened!

The two lines came together with a mighty crash…

…but honours were fairly even. The Brit infantry were in deep units, but my Knights had better saves, so things pretty much cancelled themselves out.

Cue a grinding melee that swung backwards and forwards between us: before too long, most of Matt’s units were on two disorders and most of mine were on one, but my pikemen and spearmen were having a good day and were pushing forwards towards the British camps: it was all going to be down to who gave way first.

Then disaster struck: one of Matt’s warbands broke through my line and charged towards my camp.

No matter, I thought, I have light infantry handgunners behind fortifications, and whenever I have tried taking a fortified camp packed full of light infantry, I have failed again and again and again.

Not today, however.

With barely a pause to draw breath, the British warband smashed straight through the fortifications into the camp, killing my lights as they did so. Four coins down!

Next thing, the game ended due to time considerations, with the Venetians recording a 4-9 losing draw: actually the first time I have not had a clear “win/lose” result in a competition game.

It had been a great encounter with a tough opponent. Had we continued, I think Matt would have quickly taken the rest of my camp and therefore the game but, on the other hand, there was also a fair possibility that I could have caused a general collapse in his line first, which could just about have given me the win…but I guess we will never know.

Must be an excuse for a return match some time in the future!

TTS AAR: British Open Game 3: Early Imperial Romans versus Galatians

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My third game at this year British Open at SELWG was against Tim and his Galatians.

Galatians are a unique army: like Gauls or Ancient Britons, but nearly all deep fanatical warrior units with loads of heroes. It was going to be tough to chew my way through them!

Neither Tim nor I were in the mood for any shilly-shallying around or tactics or anything like that: both battle lines headed for the other determined to get stuck in as soon as possible:

Annoyingly, one of Tim’s units burst through the Auxilia and made it into an undefended part of my camp.

Honours were even on my right: whilst most of my cavalry were forced to retreat, the Contariorum smashed an enemy unit off the table, and threatened to wreak havoc in the Galatian rear (ooh-er, madam!) despite the threat of scythed chariots.

On my left, I was cautious about his cavalry swinging wide around the wood and coming in from the flank. I therefore held back a unit of Legionaries against that threat: something that I was very glad I had done when suddenly a couple of chariot units appeared from off-table on that side - good use of the stratagem card that I thus neutralised by accident!

So, as ever, it was up to the main body of Legionaries to do the job…and they did. Pushing forward relentlessly, the Praetorians and other veteran units smashed three enemy units from the field, giving me a pretty narrow 13-9 victory.

So not much finesse, but a win. A warning to those intending to fight Galatians: those warrior units are tough! Three hits to kill them, they rally easily, and ignore wounds until they are dead. A battle I was glad to get through!

TTS AAR: A Defeat for the Legions!

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Time for another game of To The Strongest with John.

Rather than play a standard pick-up game where each side lines up on opposite sides of the table, we went for a more scenario based encounter, with the Romans starting the game in three columns: their main legionary force in the centre, their horse to the right and their lights to the left. The Celtic types facing them were largely deployed as one might start a standard game, but with enough exceptions to make things interesting.

To have any chance of victory, the Romans needed to deploy for battle as soon as possible: a task completed fairly easily as the superb drill of the legionaries kicked into play. There was a gap in the line on the road itself: the Cohorts VIII and IX not performing as expected!

Note that the yellow markers indicate that the Romans have pila ready to use.

The Celts announced their intention to move forward en masse. Their wings duly did so, but for some reason (the vagaries of the cards) their centre units hung back. This gave me a real opportunity to defeat them in detail on either flank before turning to crush their centre.

On the right, my single unit of legionary cavalry, supported by some auxiliary horse archers, duly moved forward to engage the enemy horse and chariots rapidly trying to curl around my flank. I also brought four cohorts of infantry (two units in TTS terms) across in support.

This really was a good opportunity to win on this flank, but the Gods decided otherwise: consecutive 2’s drawn from the pack meant that my legionary horse sat stationary rather than charging home.

My supporting legionaries were, however, able to charge home, dispersing the Celtic cavalry in front of them (kudos to the single Cohort X base for its contribution to the fight) but this wing was still very much in dispute rather than going my way.

Things weren’t going my way on the other wing either. For some reason, my main legionary force, including the double-size Cohort I with the aquila or Eagle Standard, also hung back, meaning that rather than fighting two enemy warbands with two Roman units, I now risked a delayed fight tying up my units until they were overwhelmed by more Celts coming into the fray!

And so it came to pass: the Celtic warbands in the centre ‘woke up’, and headed forward…

It would now be much more of a traditional stand up fight, and all would be well if I could get the Roman ‘mincing machine’ into action: I needed to bring my men together, make full use of my remaining pila, and rotate units in and out of the front line as required.

Unfortunately none of that happened!

Having split my line to deal with each wing of the initial enemy attack, I couldn’t get free enough of the rampaging Celts to get it back together again. So rather than fighting as one command, my Romans had to fight as three isolated commands on the left, in the centre, and on the right.

Secondly, my legionaries had obviously packed their pila away for the march, as not a single volley had any effect on the opposition. I also suffered a wave of officer casualties including the two tribunes commanding the main body of the legion. On top of that, even John remarked that the cards had turned against me: I was missing hits that should have gone in and failing saves that should have been easy. It was just not the Romans’ day!

My cohorts were gradually disordered and then wiped by the Celts using their superior numbers, and I just didn’t have the coins to withstand those losses for long.

So a defeat for the Romans probably stemming from my failure to wipe the enemy wings at the beginning of the battle. I’d made a bold tactical decision that had a good chance of success, particularly on the right, but it hadn’t worked and I’d suffered the consequences against the remorseless Celtic hordes commanded by John!

TTS AAR: Sassanids Win Three Out Of Three

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So with Bevan having defeated me twice in quick succession, it was my turn to take the Persians and his to take the Gauls.

Having watched the master at work, I knew that the best tactics were just to get forward as fast as possible, get my horse archers shooting quickety-quick, and charge home with the heavies as soon as I got the opportunity!

The terrain forced the action into three separate channels: the left past the woods, the centre, and the right past the woods.

On the left, two of my heavy units backed up by the elephants faced the Gauls’ three main cavalry units. The heavies quickly chewed through the more likely armed Celts, but the elephants had to divert to protect the rear from a marauding Gallic warband. These Gauls weren’t up to much snuff, however, and the elephants quick sent them packing.

On the other flank, I used another unit of heavies and some horse archers to quickly dispatch his final unit of horse: things weren’t going too badly at all!

Regular readers will know that usually when I say that, it presages an immediate reversal of fortunes and a catastrophic defeat…but not this time.

The two centres clashed, and I scored an immediate success as a unit of veteran clibanarii smashed an enemy warband off the table!

My line wasn’t (unfortunately!) a solid wall of heavy cavalry, so Bevan pushed forward hard at the sections held only by horse archers. These naturally danced backwards, which was fine except for the fact that it meant that the Gallic warbands concerned now had a chance of taking my camps.

One of the good things about having a cavalry army, however, is its ability to move rapidly around the table, including to head backwards to head off travel.

As one of my heavy units headed for the Gallic camp, another headed straight into the rear of one of the warbands threatening my camps. The hit was, as you might imagine, devastating: the warband shattered and I had won the game!

So one game back for me, making the day two for Bevan and one for me…but three-to-nothing for the Sassanids.

This must make them one of the best armies under the To The Strongest system, at least where the battlefield is fairly open. Must be time to re-base the Sassanid infantry as well then!

TTS AAR: Gauls vs Sassanids - the Re-Match

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Having been sliced and diced in under and hour in our first game, the Gauls had plenty of time for a re-match against the Sassanids. Bevan and I played the same sides again: me taking the brave and heroic Celtic underdogs again, him taking the Persians.

Both sides set up in a fairly similar fashion as last time, although the Gauls did split their cavalry between the two wings rather than concentrating on just the one.

As the game opened, once again the Sassanids shot forward rapidly, effectively clearing half the battlefield before the poor Celts had even had time to finish their croissants.

Out in front were the two wings of each army, and the first action was therefore clashes on the left and right.

On the left, two units of Celtic horse (the third had hung back for some reason) faced a unit of Sassanid Clibanarii and, led by a Boudicca type in her chariot, smashed the first unit from the field. They then went on to engage a second unit behind and quickly disordered them too. Yes they disordered themselves in the process, but things were certainly looking promising on the left!

On the right, I also achieved what I saw as an advantage: another cavalry unit and some Gaeseti fanatics effectively got the drop on another lot of clibanarii, getting a two-on-one advantage, and although some horse archers had slipped through my line, things looked promising here too.

Meanwhile, in the centre, my main group of warbands had hit the enemy line (a combination of horse archers and heavies) and pushed it back. Okay, the horse archers were evading away rather than being broken, but his camps were soon in sight, and they were worth a lot of victory medals!

Although I had taken some casualties, I was on the cusp of victory: all I had to do was survive the next, Sassanid, turn, and I would presumably finish off one or two enemy units, take his camps, and therefore win the game.

As you may already have been guessing, the salient part of that last paragraph was “all I had to do”!

Although Boudicca survived another round of combat, my infantry units heading for the Sassanid flanks were now hit in the flanks by those horse archers that had danced away from their advance. I wasn’t too bothered: deep warbands can soak up a lot of damage…but not, unfortunately, enough!

One was dashed from the field, the other disordered, effectively curtailing its advance next turn.

On the right, where my horse supported by infantry had been mullering his clibanarii, the fortunes of war suddenly turned against me. I went from two undamaged units facing a disordered enemy heavy cavalry unit to a lone, disordered warband facing two enemy units!

Finally, and to add insult to injury, that lone unit of horse archers that had slipped through my lines managed to get into my camp and ravage my Gallic baggage. That cost me three victory coins and the game!

I had, however, actually come quite close to winning the game, and had certainly lasted longer than last time!

Even better, next game it was my turn to run the Sassanids!

TTS AAR: The Last Zoom Battle

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Regular visitors will know that last time I faced Bevan’s Galatians with my Marian Romans, things started well but finished very badly: one devastatingly bad turn (I blame the cards, my figures blame me) led to an absolute thumping for Caesar and his men. It was now time for the re-match in what, I hope, will be my last game over Zoom as we all return to face-to-face gaming.

The Galatians: eight warbands of deep, fanatical infantry and a couple of tasty cavalry units. More heroes than The Expendables.

The Marian Romans: six units of veteran legionaries, a unit of legionary cavalry, three units of lights.

Learnings

I had learnt three things from my last encounter.

Firstly, don’t fight right in front of your camps: you might need a bit of room to pull back and rally and the Galatians are bound to punch at least one hole in your line so you need to make sure that any (unwieldy) warbands that have got through the gap take a lot of time to take your victory-points-rich camps.

Secondly, don’t face your light cavalry off against their cavalry: use their comparative manoeuvrability to keep some of their warbands occupied.

Finally, use the comparative manoeuvrability of your legionary units to get a temporary two-to-one advantage wherever possible. You need to do three hits to break a warband, so to break a warband in one turn will need the attacks of at least two units.

Armed with these nuggets of undoubtedly game-winning information, I logged on to Zoom and prepared for battle.

The Game

I had the initiative so advanced my line forward as fast as possible. The Galatians did the same, but in a somewhat more raggedy manner: no nice, straight, Roman lines for these barbarians.

I protected my left flank against a cheeky cavalry lap around by keeping one of my legionary units back from the main line. This made it difficult for the extra cavalry unit (bottom, left in the left-hand picture above) to either get past the unit and into my rear or to threaten the flank of the main line.

On the other flank, my two light cavalry units (the Persian types with the sandy bases) faced off against the warbands positioned far out on the Galatian left, with my legionary cavalry bolstering the line of legionaries. I’ve no idea why one of my legionary units has hung back: perhaps I thought this might temp a charge from one of his and allow me a to-the-rescue flank attack!

The Two Lines Clash!

The two lines began to come together with a mighty clash!

Last game I had pussy-footed around with my legionaries and allowed the Galatians to recover from their advance and hit me in a nice straight line. This time, as you can see from the pictures above, I had advanced forward smartly myself and was in a situation where my main line could get an overlap on the (my) right hand side of the four warbands that had advanced slightly in front of the others i.e. I could get the 2:1 advantage I needed on one of his warbands.

This duly happened, and even better than I expected. My lagging legionary unit came forward and conformed with the main line, giving me six units: L/L/L/L/L/C. One of his central warbands came forward giving him a line of five units: C/W/W/W/W. I was, I admit, a bit lucky in that his other central warband hung back!

The five legionary units that matched up with a warband performed as expected, disordering but not breaking the Galatians in front of them, two being coming disordered in return, but the overlapping legionary cavalry then smashed the warband they overlapped from the field!

This punched a hole in the Galatian line which my cavalry then charged in to. Pausing only to eliminate a unit of light infantry with their javelins, they then charged forward and took the enemy camp. One turn and half the victory points I needed had been gained!

However, things weren’t going all my own way.

One of my legionary units was then broken by the Galatian warband in front of them; and another, as my cavalry couldn’t be in two places at once, had moved forward into open space. Now it was my three camps (a lot of VPs to lose) that was threatened. Fortunately, my light cavalry out on the right flank were keeping three warbands occupied, otherwise I was in danger of being swamped by numbers despite the fact that I had just broken another warband on the left.

Never fear: the legionary cavalry hadn’t finished their work yet!

Neatly reversing out of the Galatian camp, they headed back onto the battlefield and smashed into the back of another enemy warband. That shook the Galatian warriors badly enough so that a fast-manoeuvring legionary unit could also about face, hit them in the rear and send them fleeing from the field. Victory was mine!

It Worked!

Amazingly, my battle plan had worked!

I had managed to fight away from my camps, keep three of his warbands occupied with my light cavalry, and get a vital overlap at the initial point of impact. I had been lucky in that the Galatian advance had been a bit raggedy, but if I had hung back, as last time, then they would have had a chance to correct and hit me as one line.

Stars of the show were, undoubtedly, the Legionary Horse. Only the second time on the battlefield and a Companion-like performance. One warband destroyed, one light unit destroyed, the enemy camp taken, and then a rear charge to set up another warband for its almost immediate destruction. Laurel wreaths aplenty!

A great way to, hopefully, end my period of wargaming over Zoom. Not that it’s a bad way to game, but pushing lead face to face is always better!