TTS AAR: Fanatical Berbers versus Early Feudal Spanish

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Time for another game of To The Strongest in 2mm: I would play the Fanatical Berbers against Neil’s Early Feudal Spanish.

I lost the scouting and could only watch in horror as Neil deployed the vast majority of his army in a schwerepunkt against my right flank.

Not only that but, as the action began, the command he had left behind on my left turned and headed right to join their comrades…who were advancing rapidly towards me as fast as their horses could carry them.

Fortunately for me, Neil’s attempt to consolidate his commands on my right meant that the light cavalry I had deployed on my left could sweep forward and flank charge the Spanish troops moving sideways.

Although the latest Even Stronger now prevents light cavalry charging through other light cavalry, I was fortunate enough to have the time and space to hit the unfortunate sideways-movers from flank and rear, rapidly wiping out one formed unit, one light unit and a general for an immediate five coin advantage, and even threaten the final unit of lights as well.

Meanwhile, on the right, my counter-advance had brought the two sides within easy charge distance and a messy and extremely savage series of melees broke out with neither side particularly gaining the advantage.

If it helps when looking at the photos below, I’m using green disordered markers and Neil is using white skulls. It’s also worth noting that all the luck in the cards seemed to be with me: I was saving hits like there was no tomorrow and Neil, er, wasn’t!

Given that we each lost at least one unit in the kesselschlacht shown above, I was now feeling fairly confident of victory. I mean I was something like seven or eight coins to three ahead with thirteen getting the win, and my lights on the left were in a perfect position to sweep down onto the largely undefended Spanish camps.

My hubris was, of course, immediately punished by Lady Luck: my next two turns neatly preventing my lights from doing anything remotely ressembling sweeping, and the tide turning against me on the right, with even the elite Black Guard suffering the effects of my current run of misfortune.

Neil, meanwhile, had been battling away, refusing to give up. His cavalry on the right had taken full advantage of my troops’ card-enforced pause in doing anything and had effectively won the fight there, and the ‘scores on the doors’ were now showing that the coin count was just about even.

I now had two coins left, Neil had one, so whoever broke the next unit would win the game, and it looked as if I was about to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!

The rest of that turn was very frustrating: all my possibilties being nerfed by the cards again.

In Neil’s next turn, he managed to drive my light cavalry (bottom-right in the picture, above) off the table, meaning that we were now even on coins and into what was effectively a sudden death match!

Fortunately, lights from the left came to my rescue: their general ordering them to throw their javelins at the enemy lights in the nearest camp. I scored a hit, and Neil (despite the advantages of being in a fortified camp) pulled just one pip lower than he needed: the lights were routed and I had won the game - just!

An absolutely cracking game of TTS that played out in only just over 90 minutes. It was the sit-down I needed afterwards that took the time!

TTS AAR: Dead Cid Rides Again!

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Time for the re-match, with the Al Andalus forces smarting from their defeat last game and the Early Feudal Spanish busy tying dead El Cid’s body* to his horse!

As Arab commander, having learnt my lesson last time, I deployed my men in a much tighter line: stacking my cavalry on one side rather than splitting them between the flanks.

*he’d been killed in the last game!

Advancing forward strongly, I thought I saw the chance for an overlap on the left, but the Spanish moved quickly to counter and, in a decidedly unsporting move, manoeuvred to actually outflank me there themselves!

Meanwhile, in the centre, I had sent the light horse forward to generally harrass the advancing Spanish infantry, hoping to soften them up a bit before the main melee began.

Back to the left, where the Spanish had now managed to turn my flank, forcing me to try and pull back my infantry to avoid my line being rolled up.

Despite my best efforts, I had to leave a unit of the Black Guard vulnerable to a flank charge, and could only watch with horror as the Spanish cabelleros, led by El Cid himself, took the corks off the tips of their lances and charged in.

Unfortunately for the Spanish, they had forgotten that El Cid was actually now dead, merely a corpse tied to his horse, and the move into charge distance and then the charge itself didn’t make contact with the very relieved Guard!

This enabled me to stabilise the situation, my spearmen ready to hold the Spanish horse at bay.

One weak point, however, was the green-pennant unit of Arab infantry, who had been disordered previously. In went another unit of Spanish cavalry, again led by Dead Cid. This time they actually made contact, but gloriously failed to do any damage even with Dead Cid’s extra replays.

Do the Spanish still not realise he’s dead? Leave the man to rest in peace!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, some of my light cavalry had a narrow escape after failing to do any damage to some Spanish shieldwall.

At risk of being pushed off table, they watched with glee as the hapless Spaniards foundered around in the rough ground: eventually even managing to kill the Spanish general and disorder the unit.

As the flanks weren’t working for them, the Spanish then sent everything they had left forward in the centre.

This was another decidely worrying development for the Al Andalus, as there were far too many lights holding my line, with my formed cavalry (including the mercenary christian knights that you can see bottom-centre in the pic below) not really in that much of a position to help.

Fortunately, it turned out that the money I’d invested in the mercenary unbelievers was money very well spent.

In an extraordinary series of events, they charged over the hill in front of them to smash the end unit of cabelleros from the table…

They then turned and did the same thing to the next lot of enemy horse: hitting them in the flank to devastating effect!

With Rob’s men pinned in place by my infantry line, it was Rob’s turn to look on in horror as a flank charge went in…but fortune smiled on him as the mercenaries paused to renegotiate their fee:

Fee safely doubled, however, they went in again…this time securing the Al Andalus the last two coins they needed for victory!

So a glorious victory for Al Andalusia helped, it must be said, by cards that were decidely in my favour for once: the poor Spanish learning that you can’t rely on a dead body for inspiration and that gold sometimes means more than faith!

TTS AAR: Reconquista Action!

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Rob and I really fancied some Reconquista action, so played a game featuring Rob leading the Early Feudal Spanish (with El Cid in command) and me playing an Al Andalus army.

Losing the scouting, I formed my men into one long line: confident that my superior numbers would overwhelm the upstart Spaniards!

My cavalry on the left could see the Christian knights stacked against them and were therefore not quite so sure of the outcome and initially refused to advance. Opposite me, El Cid found he had the same problem, even with his superior Great Leader command ability!

Despite these teething troubles, battle was soon well and truly joined on the left, with superior numbers of Christian horse generally mullering the Arabs until almost half my coins had gone and I was forced to bring infantry over from the centre to help.

Meanwhile, on the right, I was hoping that the gold I had spent hiring some mercenary Christian knights would prove a wise investment, but they got stuck dealing with some pesky light infantry and would take no significant part in the battle!

Back to the mass Christian assault on the left, where my troops were fighting on bravely…even if the writing was now firmly on the wall!

I had a moment of hope when El Cid himself was killed (just like the film!) but, in the end and despite a card-induced temporary reprieve (the photo, bottom left, above), my last coin went and the Christians were victorious!

A great game which, I think, I lost in the deployment phase: Rob stacking his knights against one end of my line was a genius strategy that paid off in Spades!

Now on to the re-match…presumably with Dead El Cid now tied to his horse!

TTS AAR: Crusades Game 3: Venetians Abroad vs Early Feudal Spanish

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My third and final game at the recent Crusades event at the Games Bunker in Weston Super Mere was against Sid and his Early Feudal Spanish: the El Cid lot!

Rather than risk boring you with my usual report, I actually have a report from the other side of the table: Sid posted the following on his Facebook page. As you would expect, it is full of “fake news”, lies and propaganda, but it saves me the trouble of writing a report of my own!

Sid says: “My third and final game at The Bunker for the TTS Crusades Competition was against Robert Avery’s Venetians.

The armies line up. The open left flank beckons me.

“Rob and his army are hardened veterans and winners of this year’s TTS at BRITCON. The Venetians are an interesting combination of Spear or Bill and Light infantry. The main striking force are Knights supported by unusual Light Cavalry who have crossbow for that three-box range or lance to be an offensive Lights unit. He had two camps which are fortified.

“Robert Avery and I have played a few times over the last couple of years and I seem to be his personal kryptonite: when we play my cards are average but his are invariably ‘pants’. I was hoping this would play on his mind. I know, it’s a terrible thing to do to a lovely chap like Robert Avery.

“As with every game that day, I won the scouting, so I could match my commands where they would be most effective.

“Rob deployed his two infantry commands in the centre and split the cavalry equally on the wings. His left looked more exposed, so I concentrated two commands against that flank. My right flank only had one cavalry command but it was my veteran cavalry so I thought I had a chance to take him on frontally. My infantry might be raw but had extra bow so could impact him without getting too close. I also had a horde of raw Light Infantry to clog up the works.

The filthy raw peones look across at the heavily armoured Venetian infantry. At least there are plenty of monks in the camp to administer the last rites.

“My activations started well, I managed to rush my mounted troops right into Rob’s grill. The kryptonite was working and Robs right wing activated one unit before stopping.

“The Venetian infantry then ground forward, and I was in no position to stop them but did delay them and pushed back the mounted wings.

The right wing, not so open but still opportunities. I rushed forward to close down the opposing knights. You can see that the Venetians are down to a single unit of knights, but with LIGHT CAVALRY support which was whittled down. The Venetian infantry assault can be seen to the left.

“On my left I took down Rob’s Light Cavalry and the Knight unit closest to the centre.The loss of that Knight let me push cavalry through to hit his exposed Crossbow unit who were very unhappy at tangling with lance-armed cavalry. This exposed the Spear next to the Crossbow who were flanked and destroyed leaving a gap in the line.

“The only good thing for Rob was the survival of his far right Knight unit, although it was disordered so reluctant to get involved. In the end, Rob had a f*** it moment and charged them forward anyway. Unusually for Rob it worked, and they destroyed the Caballeros Villanos matched against them.

The success of my main effort on the left. I managed to make ground as Rob failed activation after activation.

You can see the surrounded Venetian knights, which oddly survived and fell back. The Venetian knights not surrounded, were the ones who fell to the two Spanish cavalry units who double teamed them.

At the back can be seen a crossbow unit, which were screaming to be ridden down. Just to the top right can be seen the only raw unit in the Venetian army. Identified by the fat cook in the front rank. They drew me like moths to a fame.

The final knight unit injured and fending off repeated attacks.

My cavalry with the red standard are occupying the ground formerly held by the now deceased Venetian crossbows. The now disordered Venetian raw spear have drawn the attention of my cavalry. I’m still loving that fat chef in the front rank. The camp is beckoning.

“In the centre, Rob’s infantry were pushing my raw Shieldwall back and I was pulling them back just to keep them in the game. But the success of this meant that they became isolated and exposed to my hordes of raw Light Infantry. Meanwhile my cavalry who had taken out his Spear, went through the gap and took one of the camps.

The camp is seized and my cavalry have the option to turn to drive the LI out.

“On my right, my elite Cabaleros Hidalgos rushed Rob’s Knight command and were outrageously lucky, taking down one unit of Knights and disordering the other. I followed up and had his Knights pinned against the table edge with another Light Cavalry pinned next to them. This unit just held on, which as it had the Army Standard kept Rob in the game. I could have pushed the Light Cavalry off the table but held on until he would be down to his last coin. On the same flank I had supporting Light Cavalry ready to hit some Light Infantry on a hill in the flank.

Meanwhile on the other side of the table.

My far right cavalry have pinned their opponents and throwing javelins at the trapped knights. My left shieldwall are driven back, but raw LI are flanking their opponents. The right side peones are disordered By the unit of billmen.

More detail of the centre

“After I cleared out another unit, I pushed the Light Cavalry off table for the win.

The far right. You can see how my right side cavalry are simply holding place ready to drive the LC off table.

The Venetian knights with army standard are disordered, the Spanish cavalry with army standard are also DISORDERED SO a stand-off but I am throwing the odd javelin. My LC are facing into,the centre ready to flank charge some LI on a hill just out of shot.

The knights break out of the trap, but are flanked by LIGHT CAVALRY.

There are also crossbows to the left peppering the knights.

Just after this, I drove the Venetian LC off the table for the win.

“As always with Rob, a great game, full of chat and banter. Yet his cards hated him and I’m not joking when I say that. Maybe he was distracted as I spent the entire day trying to nag him into going for an Ancient Spanish army for his next project.”

An excellent report from Sid, sadly accurate in that I lost the game 5-13, which meant that I finished the event in 5th position.

What Sid doesn’t mention is that in my last turn before he won the game, I had an excellent opportunity to rout two of his Shieldwall units with my infantry, which would have meant the game finished something like 9-13 or the like, which meant I would have placed higher overall…but I drew an Ace for my first actuvation and that was that!

Sid’s pictures are interspersed with his report, here are mine in a picture-only gallery:

So a great game but a disappointing end to the day. The event had been most enjoyable overall, and my thanks to Don and team at the Games Bunker, and my opponents, for a great day’s gaming.