Britcon 26: Game Four: Venetians vs Gurjara-Pratiharans

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My fourth game at this year’s Britcon To The Strongest tournament was against Jon and his Gurjara-Pratiharan Indians: a formidable army featuring elite lance armed cavalry, lots of light cavalry with lance and bows, and camels, lots of camels!

Unsurprisingly Jon won the scouting, and immediately messed with my usual deployment by placing a large chunk of impassable terrain on my baseline. He then grouped his heavies on one side of the table, with his lights on the other.

This all looked very familiar to me - it’s a set up used very successfully by friend Peter in the countless times he has beaten me - and I immediately knew that I was in a bit of trouble!

The game began and Jon sent his veteran cavalry straight at the right side of my line, seeking to punch a hole where my troops were pressed back again the impassable terrain.

Things looked bad, but my Alabardiers and my lights performed brilliantly and, although disordered, managed to hold off the Indians and even kill one of their cavalry units.

Having fought Peter countless times from this situation, I knew that the only way to possibly turn the tables is to ignore the enemy lights on the left (or you devote valuable “save the battle” time and resources to uselessly chasing them round the board) and focus on getting your troops there across the table and into the flank of your attacking opponent.

This I did spectacularly, driving into the flank of the enemy cavalry harassing my Alabardiers and sending them routing from the table. Incidentally, the other knights that you can see top left in the left hand picture below had also turned and were heading for the camels you can see top left in the right hand picture below, hotly pursued by the enemy light lancers who seemed somewhat annoyed to be completely ignored as a threat! It’s a risk, but it’s what you pay the points for the knights for.

I really needed the enemy camels in the centre of the right hand picture below to break, which would have just about given me the game, but despite charges from the knights in front of and to the flank of them, they just wouldn’t rout. I don’t know if Jon was awarding medals to his troops, but they certainly deserved them: I know he said afterwards that before the saves he thought that the game was lost…but, as they say, never give up when you’re playing TTS!

Meanwhile, my knights on the right had driven back half of the enemy veteran cavalry there but, again, couldn’t break them, and I had also lost enough units myself for the situation still to be critical.

A swirling melee resolved itself into the situation you can see in the picture below:

The battle was on a knife-edge. I began my next turn and still couldn’t break the camels in the centre. More medals for them!

Now what you can’t see in the picture above is that in the bottom right hand corner of the battlefield, Jon’s other unit of veteran cavalry had turned towards the right flank of my remaining infantry there, threatening to charge them once my turn was finished. I had my light mounted crossbowmen on the flank of those veteran cavalry and now had a choice to make. Charge them, and risk them evading back up the table towards my later knights pursuing the enemy horse there, or attempt to re-arm and then shoot them.

The safer but less likely to succeed in killing the cavalry option was to try and rearm and shoot them, but I chose to go for the riskier but potentially more rewarding option and charged them. After all, I was down to four coins (I’d lost two generals for four coins and another two coins to rallying!) and needed to take seven of Jon’s to win.

Unfortunately, the enemy cavalry were having a good day, and managed to evade my lights three times in a row and, as my turn ended, now faced the rear of my later knights near Jon’s camp. Was this a mistake? Probably…but the situation was critical and I went for the win and did still have something up my sleeve in case of emergencies (see below).

Equally unfortunately, Jon now turned his fleeing knights towards their pursuers (who had sensibly turned to face the camels on their flank) and so had three units with which to attack my later knights.

I quickly corrected my potential mistake, above, by using the Someone has Blundered stratagem to turn the evading knights way from their target, so my later knights only now faced camels to the front and disordered knights to their flank. Veteran later knights are tough, saving on a 4+, so I felt I had a good chance of surviving .

But it was not to be. The cards fell for Jon, didn’t fall for me, and my later knights and army standard routed, costing me four coins and the game!

Well that had been a rip-roaring game of To The Strongest!

Jon almost had me at the beginning with his deployment and rapid attack, but I recovered well and then almost had him with my attack on the flanks of his camels. The battle then balanced on a knife-edge and, unfortunately, didn’t fall for the Venetians and they lost 7-13 or 54-148 points. Epic stuff!

Britcon 26: Game Three: Venetians vs Pergamene

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My third game at this year’s To The Strongest tournament at Britcon was against Sid’s Pergamene army: Galatian cavalry, javelinmen, lots of light infantry and an elephant.

As I’d lost the scouting, I set up in my traditional cavalry on the wings and infantry in the centre formation, and awaited the onslaught.

The one thing I knew was that man-for-man, my units were better than his: my knights should out-match the Galatians, I had more formed infantry, and although I had fewer lights, they did all have longer-ranged missile weapons.

My plan was therefore to beat the Pergamene cavalry with my knights, shoot down all his lights, and get stuck in with my formed infantry as soon as possible. I was nervous of his elephants hitting my horse, but there was only one unit of pachyderms…which I aimed to also shoot down before contact.

I was also determined not to send my horsemen into the gap between the edge of the table and the steep hill on the left: Sid tempted me into doing something similar when we played last year at Britcon, and I almost came a cropper doing so!

The game began with the Pergamene coming forward fast, and Sid had also pushed my Knights on the left back a square with the This Way Effendi strategy, which even took one unit off table.

Sticking to my plan (do not go into the gap between the edge of the table and the steep hill on the left: just don’t, even though Sid’s put some lovely vulnerable light cavalry there…once bitten etc!) I came forward fast as well, luckily getting my missing knights back onto the table without an issue.

The first clash actually took place on the right, where two units of my Knights took on two units of Galatian cavalry along with their associated lights.

After the last game’s shooting debacle, miracle de miracle, my mounted crossbowmen disposed of the enemy light cavalry with missile fire, but although I pushed both units of Galatian cavalry back, and one off the board, I hadn’t killed either, which meant that I tied my knights on the right up for the rest of the game for just a three coin advantage when really I’d needed them to quickly smash their opponents from the field and then sweep into the rest of the Pergamene from the flank.

Meanwhile my other knights on the left had unsuccessfully charged the rest of the Galatian cavalry and my first infantry attack hadn’t been very successful either.

I desperately needed time for my troops to pull back and reform and, luckily I got it: not through any great skill of my own, but with a bit of help from Sid’s cards.

This pause allowed me to both reorganise the Alabardiers and get some more of my infantry up in support, and this time I did have a bit of luck in that I managed to get a second attack in twice and effectively win the centre, although it would be another turn before it happened.

By this time I had been losing coins as well, so it was a relief when my veteran later knights on the left came back into the fray, even if Sid had finally got his elephants into my other cavalry.

Things got a bit hazy at this point, and I was obviously too busy to take photographs. All I know is that the Pergamene gave way first, leaving me with a very narrow 13-11 victory which translated into 133-85 tournament points.

So not a bad first day: one big win and two narrow victories. Two more games to go!

Britcon 26: Game Two: Venetians vs Macedonians

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After my escape against the Normans, my next opponents were Adrian’s Macedonians: pikemen, elite cavalry, and lights…very nasty indeed!

The tournament was using the rulebook terrain system, which delivered a very dense and unusual tabletop for this game as both of us tried to limit what the other’s core troops could do: a runway across the centre of the table bordered by rough ground and hills on either side.

My only clear path to the Macedonains was on my left, so one command of knights immediately went there. Adrian then cannily placed his pikemen opposite, effectively blocking off any knightly advance of mine.

Conversely, however, the rough ground on his left then forced him to deploy his cavalry behind his pike, giving me an opportunity to perhaps get onto his left flank, so I deployed in a line knowing that although this would mean that a lot of my army would start the game facing only light troops, I might then have the opportunity to do what I’d accidentally done to the Normans in my last game i.e. go through the enemy lights (despite the rough ground) and then turn and hit the flank of his main body as it came forward.

As the game began, both sides advanced rapidly towards each other. I sent a hail of missiles towards the Macedonians, but couldn’t hit a thing. In fact, this set the pattern for the entire game: despite expending almost all my ammunition, I don’t think I scored a single missile hit across the whole battle!

I was now feeling very nervous of my left flank: the Macedonian pike were just about on my knights and, good as they are, they wouldn’t last forever against an onslaught of men with long pointy sticks!

Desperate measures were called for. My knights on the other flank only had light troops in front of them. In a daring move reminiscent of von Bulow, I turned my knights inward and thundered into the runway between our two armies.

I thought I had covered my knights’ rear with their attached light mounted crossbowmen, but then it turned out that what I’d thought was a unit of light cavalry was actually a small unit of Prodromoi veteran lance-armed horsemen that, with a bit of luck from the cards, carved through my mounted crossbowmen and ended up in the rear of my daring knights (Adrian had been clear what the Prodmoroi were when he depoyed them: this was totally my mistake). Enemy actual-light troops also came forward to nip at their flanks and rear, and I was starting to feel very nervous of their survival: having the lights attacking was probably survivable, having formed cavalry up your bottom with lances was a very different kettle of fish!

Fortunately Adrian’s cards deserted him and he just couldn’t hit my brave Cuirassiers knights: I don’t think I actually had to make any saves despite multiple attacks!

With my knights on the left about to feel the pain of the enemy pike in front of them, the front unit of the knights on the runway charged the Companion cavalry led by Alexander himself (he’s the ginger one!) in front of them,

Using my lance, I scored two hits without even having to use my hero. The cards had still deserted Adrian, and the Companions not only failed to save either hit and routed, but Alexander was hit and killed as well: four coins to me.

At the same time, my other knights on the runway had turned and charged the Prodromoi that had tried to hit them from the rear. I would eventually kill these, but it did take several turns to do so.

Over to the Macedonians, who retreated the Hypaspist javelinmen (led by Phillip himself) back into the marshy ground behind them. They then tried to advance their three pike blocks forward into my left-hand knights and infantry, but an unlucky Ace meant that only one phalanx got to fight and all that happened was that my spearmen there were disordered.

The retreat of the Hypaspists meant that they (and Phillip!) were safe, but had left the way open for my knights to charge the flank of the phalanx that had fought last turn. It was already disordered (although I can’t remember how) and, hit from the side, vanished in a tangle of broken men.

The knights would go on to attack the next phalanx in turn, but only succeed in disordering them.

The writing was now on the wall for the Macedonians. The two remaining pike phalanxes retreated backwards chased by knights from both sides of the table, but it was only a matter of time before the already disordered one was destroyed. With the other casualties that the Macedonians had suffered, that was enough to give me the game: my gamble had paid off!

Well that had been an extraordinary game. I couldn’t hit anything with missile fire (I think I went through 20 rounds of ammunition without result) and Adrian couldn’t hit anything in melee or save a hit either. My von Bulow manoeuvre was a risk, but there was really nothing else I could do. I was lucky (or rather Adrian was unlucky) that it paid off for a big 12-1 coins (171-8 tournament points) for the Venetians.

Britcon 26: Game One: Venetians vs Normans

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My first game-proper at this year’s Britcon tournament was against Ian Ralph and his Normans. I hadn’t played Ian before, so was looking forward to our encounter. As the Normans are mostly cavalry, I loaded the table in front of my infantry with hills and tried to keep the wings open for my knights to try for his flanks: this worked on the right, but not the left.

My plan was to hold the centre with my infantry on the hills and to attack hard on the right, hoping that my heavier knights would smash through their Norman opposition and then be able to turn left and run riot. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do on the left: lots of shieldwall troops in front of my other knights and some difficult terrain as well.

The game began with the Norman horse coming forward hard, with poor cards on my part meaning that the hail of missile fire from my infantry that I thought might slow the enemy down a bit down doing nothing but use up a lot of ammunition for no effect!

At the same time, with the Norman infantry on my left showing no sign of advancing - only drifting further away from me to their left - I sent my knights forward to see what mischief they could get up to. I still had no clear idea what I was going to do with them, and poor cards soon saw the command split.

Meanwhile on the right, with my infantry doing nothing, my knights were now outnumbered tw0-to-one. No matter: my knights are tough, and this is what you pay the points for.

Unfortunately it was another cardboard armour day, with my veteran later knights, and army standard, being smashed from the field in the first charge!

This was not good, and my only consolation was the fact that three units of Norman horse then spent far too long trying to mop up my light troops on that flank: something they eventually mostly achieved, leaving me down a total of nine coins, but giving me time to try for a desperate counter-attack in the centre.

The Normans then got a bit overenthusiastic: attacking my infantry in the centre despite my troops’ defensive positions. The enemy cavalry bounced off my right hand infantry command and then withdrew to reorganise, hotly pursued by my troops who recognised a good opportunity to gain the initiative.

By this time, I was also managing to bring my other infantry command in from the left, followed by my other knights, as the Norman shieldwall infantry that could have blocked them had retreated back into their camp and let them go by. Admittedly the enemy infantry then came forward again to threaten the flanks of one unit of knights, but that was a problem for the following turn!

My later knights in the centre did a fantastic job of knocking out the retreating Norman horse top right in the picture above, running over some light infantry whilst doing so (both the lights and the Norman horse failed to evade), and ended up blocking the path of the other retreating Norman horse coming in from their right. This left them vulnerable to a flank charge from the other retreating Norman horse, but I hoped that my pursuing infantry would sort the situation.

Unfortunately, although my spearmen showed a remarkable turn of speed, the effort left them too exhausted to lift their weapons, and it all looked a bit unfortunate for my later knights. My Alabardiers next door hadn’t helped: they also failed to finish the Normans in front of them off: to my mind an easy task despite their disorder!

The disordered Norman horsemen in the centre of the field then had to make a fatal decision: charge my later knights in the flank or turn and face the spearmen behind them. As the disordered archers top right in the picture above had managed to turn to face my knights, they chose to about-face and try and run over my infantry.

This didn’t work and, next turn, my later knights crashed through the unfortunate archers giving me Ian’s last two coins and the game.

That had been a very close run game: 13-9 in terms of coins, although the tournament scoring system we use came out 140-69 in my favour. Ironically, I think it was the initial Norman success on my left that gave me the win: although I had one command completely wiped out, I was then able to contain and thencome in on the flank of the main Norman attack.

A close run thing for the Venetians, and my thanks to Ian for a great game!

TTS AAR: Venice Abroad versus Later Romans

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Another practice session for the forthcoming Britcon 2026 competition: this time it would be my Venetians versus friend Si’s Later Romans. Warning: this report contains one of those endings that encapsulates the highs and lows of playing To The Strongest, leaving one of us celebrating and the other ruefully shaking their head in disbelief!

As this was a practice game, and as the terrain set up had given me hills and what looked like a pretty secure right flank, I decided to try something different and play this game defensively. I therefore sat and waited as the Romans came towards me.

I did send me knights forward on the left, thinking to use their weight to smash the Roman horse from the field, but this didn’t work…and didn’t work in a big way. After a few turns of intense melee, my knights and their supporting mounted crossbowmen had been cleared from the field and my left flank was wide, wide open!

Meanwhile the Romans sent their infantry and cataphracts forward against the rest of my line, focusing their attentions on my right where I thought that the terrain had given me an advantage.

Much to my surprise, the Alabardiers quickly destroyed the eagle-bearing legionaries in front of them, ending up suddenly all on their own in the middle of the battlefield.

Then, this time much to my annoyance, more Roman infantry took advantage of my defensive stance to get up on the hill that was supposed to protect the right hand side of my line and refused to be budged. Worse, I thought I’d try a charge with my nearby spearmen across the top of the hill and succeeded only in disordering them, leaving them vulnerable to future attack.

Si took full advantage on the left, driving my infantry back with his cavalry and Auxilia, and the only thing that prevented an immediate collapse was the heroic defence mounted by my troops there. It was, however, only a matter of time before the whole lot went!

Worse, the other end of the line was about to collapse as well, as the Roman cataphracts easily dealt with the disordered spearmen then turned to casue havoc elsewhere. I couldn’t even console myself by getting my knights to charge his lights off the table!

Ed.’s Note: this is what happens when you play defensively!

The Venetians were facing annihilation…but I had one last Hail Mary that could, perhaps, save the day.

The Alabardiers were in a position to strike at the Roman camp, but it had taken them a bit of time to do so…time that had allowed Si to move his light infantry defenders into the right part of the camp to face them. One more coin would see my army crumble, and I needed to both kill the lights defending the camp and take not one, but two of the three Roman camps to win the game i.e. seven coins, which shows you how far behind I was.

First up, getting into the camp: a diagonal move into rough ground. I pulled a seven, easily enough for the Alarbardiers to get over the ramparts and threaten the lights.

Next, defeating the lights: I pulled an eight, which was a hit, and Si didn’t pull a big enough save despite the fact that his men were defending a fortified camp. That meant I had killed the lights and taken one camp, but I still needed to take the other to win.

The Alabardiers were on a seven, so to move again (+1), sideways (+1), over rough ground (+1), I would need a natural ten: nothing else would do…

Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!

Seven coins in one activation and the game!

To be fair to Si, he took it very well: I’m not sure that I would have been so phlegmatic!

TTS AAR: Venice Abroad versus Gauls

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With the 15mm To The Smallest tournament done and dusted, it was time to start thinking about the 28mm Britcon To The Strongest tournament, only two weeks away.

My first practice game was to be with my Venetians against John playing the Gauls. I won the scouting, and was pleased to see the Gauls set up in a tight formation based around their two camps. This let me place my knights on the wings and, as the game began, send the ones on the right flying forward to outflank.

Unfortunately my rapid advance on the right had been so rapid that the two Gallic warbands at that end of the enemy line had time to turn to face my knights, particularly as I hadn’t yet had time to get any troops forward in support.

At the same time as that, my Knights on the left charged forward to engage half the Gallic cavalry, and the two infantry lines moved to within crossbow range, a lucky shot taking out one of the Gallic infantry generals!

On the left, my knights initially made very heavy weather of the Gallic horse: the first unit to go in, the Veteran Knights, bounced off their Celtic opponents and had to retire to reform. Luckily I had the Later Knights handy to take over, and the other half of the Gallic horse were taking their time about joining in the fun.

The Later Knights were having a good day and dashed both units of Gallic cavalry in front of them off the table, leaving only some somewhat nervous Celtic lights in between them and the Gallic camp.

Meanwhile, the disordered Veteran Knights turned to take the rest of the Gallic cavalry in the flank.

As the cavalry were fighting it out on the wings, the enemy centre came forward against my infantry. A hail of crossbow bolts slowed them down and the initial contact went my way, with the Gallic infantry withdrawing slightly to regroup. I tried my luck by sending the Alabardiers forward to follow up this initial success, but the brave billmen were cut down without effect and soon the two infantry lines paused and just stared at each other across the battlefield.

On the right flank, meanwhile, my Later Knights were still having extreme difficulty in breaking the Gallic warband in front of them. They got to the double disorder stage, but just couldn’t break them, not helped by the cards either!

Back to the left where, with some superb manoeuvring, John had managed to force my Veteran Knights to retreat again and (after initially ignoring them and hoping they would just go away!) to not only thwart my Later Knights in their attempt to take the Gallic camp, but also then get into a position to assault the left hand end of my infantry line.

At the same time, his warbands there came forward again and I was in real trouble!

Meanwhile, the position in the centre of the battlefield was very confused. I lost my Knights on the right, but then my infantry conducted a heroic defence against the main Gallic assault.

Back to the left, where my Veteran Knights took advantage of the fact that the Gallic cavalry that had been all over them had left to harrass my Later Knights theatening the enemy camp, and redeemed themselves by charging the Gallic warbands assaulting that end of the infantry line. At the same time, my Spearmen on this hill anchoring said line managed to hold off the other Gallic horse, and suddenly it was all to play for again.

Casualties had been high on both sides, and John and I each had only two coins left, which meant that the next loss of an ordered unit or general would decide the game.

It was John’s turn and a unit of pesky lights turned and assaulted the rear of the Later Knights who were still trying to finish off the warband on the right. The attack went in…a hit…but that bounced off the Later Knights’ armour…but their accompanying general wasn’t so lucky: he drew an Ace for his save so had been hit. This was bad: a 50% chance that he would die, losing his life and me the game!

The card was turned: a Four!

Phew! A light wound and I was still in the fight.

The Celts tried to go in again, but drew an Ace themselves and the iniative passed back to the Venetians!

All I needed was one kill…which was delivered by the Later Knights on the other side of the table, who may have been prevented from taking the enemy camp, but then turned and happily rode down their attackers. Victory for Venice!

Well that had been a cracking game of To The Strongest, with mayhem, action and fortune swaying wildly over the whole battlefield. It had been the narrowest of wins for the Venetians: definitely a little too close for comfort!

Roll Call '26 Game Four: Venetians Abroad versus Ayyubids

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So it was on to the final game at this year’s Medieval Madness competition at Roll Call.

At least six of us were in contention for the title: Peter, Dene, Mark, Tim, Si and Yours Truly…with Mark and I, and Peter and Dene, playing each other in this final match up. Not difficult to see that in order to secure overall victory, I needed to beat Mark and see Dene beat Peter. Exciting stuff!

The Ayyubids set up mostly in the middle of the battlefield with, I was told, a force off-table as well. I adopted my usual ‘cavalry on the wings, infantry in the middle’ formation, planning to smash his cavalry on the right with my knights, and use my other knights to curl around the Ayyubid right wing. My infantry would advance to assist where possible.

My knights on the right duly advanced into range, charged in with their lances and, much to my consternation/annoyance, were disordered and forced to retire. This was very much not part of the plan!

Fortunately, my knights survived the Arab follow-up and, with the help of reinforcements from the centre, held and then overwhelmed the advancing enemy cavalry. All well and good, but I’m using double the number of units to deal with the incursion, leaving me light elsewhere on the field!

Meanwhile, on the left, my other knights punched a hole in the end of the Arab line and, supported by the Alabardiers, managed to get into a position to first threaten, then take the one of the enemy camps

With the general I had killed on the right, I was now on nine coins taken, so within a couple more units of winning, but now faced two new threats.

Firstly, on the left, the Ayyubid off-table force arrived: a ‘massed lights’ double unit of light cavalry which, combined with the light’s Mark had had floating around there since the beginning of the game, meant three light cavalry units roaming around in my rear.

I manged to move some infantry across to contain the threat, but lost the first of my coins as the Arabs picked me off from the flank.

Secondly, the Ayyubids advanced strongly in the centre, which I had needed to weaken in order to reinforce the right to contain the Arab breakthrough there.

Attacked from two directions, and with only lights and crossbowmen to hold off elite heavy cavalry, I was punished badly: suddenly finding that Mark had drawn just about level on coins, and needed only three more to finish me off. The Alabardiers had also been unlucky with their cards and were now disordered and in danger of breaking. Time was ticking on, as well, which meant I had to do something fast.

Fortunately my second unit of knights on the left had so far sailed through the battle unscathed, and were in the perfect position to assault the already-disordered Arab infantry in front of them. In went the knights, the Arabs broke, and Mark’s last two coins were mine.

So I had won the outright victory I needed, but a tight one: 12 coins to 10…but what of Peter and Dene? A big victory for either could see them take the tournament overall, with my money being on Peter managing to do just that!

Fortunately, Dene had managed to hold Peter to a draw…which meant that I had won the tournament: the first that I have won outright (i.e. not as part of a doubles team) or had organised myself (the last two Britcon events). Thanks for pointing that out, btw, you know who your are!

Here are the final results:

 

A great tournament and a great day’s gaming, and not just because I won!

Roll Call '26 Game Three: Venetians Abroad versus Gurjara-Pratihara Indians

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With two good wins already under my belt, it was inevitable that my third battle of the day was going to be against Peter and his Gurjara-Pratihran Indians.

This was going to be a tough battle (I have never beaten Peter in competition, and only managed to hold him to a draw twice…which adds up to a lot of losses!) so, after losing the scouting, I decided to abandon my usual “infantry in the middle, knights on the flank” set up and put all my knights on my left flank.

This did give Peter some food for thought, and he pondered my deployment for a bit longer than usual before, as expected, weighting his troops on one side: his plan being to form a schwerepunkt on his right wing, fighting two thirds of his army against a third of mine, then turn and roll up my line.

View from behind the Gujarati lines

As predicted, The Indians slam forward on the left

As you can see, I knew exactly what was coming…and still couldn’t stop it…but at least I had all my knights (my best troops) where the action was as opposed to seeing them flail around on the isolated flank for the first part of the game.

Anyhoo, we were barely out of the second turn before his cavalry and elephants were upon my line: the elephants and camelry being particularly troublesome to my knights (the veteran nellies save on only a 3+ when facing mounted troops!) and his lights threatening to lap around my far right flank.

The gallery below shows the battlefield at this point from left to right. It looks pretty bad, (and it is!) but the one thing I have learnt when facing Peter in this position is not to give up: you have to get your troops that he has managed to isolate on the flank opposite the action back into the game as soon as possible, ignoring the lights that hover to harrass them, and hope that your knights can hold out for long enough for the reinforcements to get there!

Fortunately, my knights on the left were wearing their metal armour for this game (they often seem to be wearing their ceremonial cardboard armour!) and managed to hold out against both elephants and camelry for the next couple of turns, even managing to push back the centre of Peter’s line as my infantry started to arrive from the right.

The writing, however, was on the wall, and soon my far left command collapsed entirely, and Peter turned his troops in and prepared to roll me up like a kati roll on a Kolkata street corner.

Rolled up like a kati roll on a kolkata street corner!

Then, much to both our surprises, the “time” was announced: no new turns could now be started. As I was just finishing off a turn, literally about to draw cards to activate my final command, that meant that the game would end once I had finished what I was doing: no chance for Peter to polish me off.

I won’t say that this wasn’t a collosal relief, as one more turn would, I think, have given Peter the victory. Looking at the picture above, I can see the light cavalry next to the pen taking my camp, possibly both; the other lights on the back row and his elephants smashing my knights with the army standard from the flank and off the table; and me also losing the disordered knights in the centre. As he already had nine of my coins, Peter only needed another four to get a total victory, and I’ve just listed the opportunities to gain ten!

As the game had seemed very short (and we weren’t playing particularly slowly) I checked with the organiser whether we could, in fact, start another turn, but was told very firmly that we couldn’t. Madness to check, I hear you cry, but, fair’s fair: Peter had me beaten and deserved the overall victory…but I won’t say I wasn’t pleased that the “end the game” decision stood!

So a winning draw for Peter 6-9, leaving all to play for in the final game of the day.

Roll Call '26 Game Two: Venetians Abroad versus Bretons with Norman allies

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My second game at this year’s Roll Call tournament was against Chris’ Bretons with Norman allies.

The Bretons won scouting and, after deployment and as expected, headed straight for my line. Of particular concern was my right flank, where I could see the potential for a worrying overlap.

I managed to block the overlap, with my knights taking full advantage of the situation to drive back the Breton attack there.

This led to an amusing situation where both Chris and I used our stratagem cards in the same turn: each playing Someone has blundered!, and each using it to turn a unit of our opponent’s horse through 180° so ending up back to back on the edge of the table!

Meanwhile, the left and centres were thundering towards each other, and I had a quick success as my two units of knights on the left smashed a Breton cavalry unit from the table and forced another to evade backwards.

Elsewhere, more Breton cavalry charged my spearmen in the centre, but the Venetians held firm, with more of my infantry turning to take them in the flank.

My rapid advance on the right and the Breton rapid advance in the centre had meant that a gap had developed between the main points of contact. The Venetian Alabardiers, led by their general, saw an opportunity and marched through that gap and into the Breton camp, with three easy victory medals as their reward.

With the fleeing Breton cavalry unit on the left now hit in the rear and destroyed, and a Breton general killed somewhere on the field (I forget where!), Chris was now down to just one coin…which I took by driving the light cavalry off board on the right for a 10-1 victory for the Venetians.

A really fast-moving game of TTS where the action was literally non-stop. For once my knights were having a good day (i.e. were wearing their metal armour rather than the ceremonial cardboard version they usually seem to wear) and swept all before them, and my spearmen remembered which way round their weapons went!

Roll Call '26 Game One: Venetians Abroad versus Medieval Irish with Feudal Scots Allies

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My first game at this year’s Roll Call ‘Medievals-Only’ tournament was against Adrian’s Medieval Scots-Irish army.

The Venetians were outscouted, so deployed in a traditional “infantry in the centre, cavalry on the wings” formation. The woods on the right hand side of the battlefield looked ideal terrain for the enemy, so my plan was to hang back on the right, advance on the left and, quite frankly, see what opportunities presented themselves!

First up, however, was a general advance forward one square to give the Venetians some fighting room, making sure to keep the integrity of the line intact. Note the large numbers of Irish light troops trying to get around my right flank.

And it was on the right that the first threat emerged: those advancing enemy lights being joined by a unit that had started the game lost off table to pose a potentially tricky situation that required a bit of careful manoeuvring to deal with.

But in one of those coincidences that makes life interesting, I too had had one of my units lost off table: a squadron of light mounted crossbowmen appearing directly behind the Scots-Irish.

This disrupted Adrian’s plans as neatly as the appearance of his lights on the right had disrupted mine. He turned his longbowmen, safely ensconsed behind stakes on the central hill, to deal with the threat, only to see the flank of the archers charged by some of my knights coming in from the left.

Charging uphill against infantry behind stakes rarely goes well, even when from the flank: the knights failed to budge the enemy archers, leaving the situation as shown in the photo below:

Adrian (who was not having much luck in this game) turned some Scots spearmen to threaten the knights, only to see my horsemen retreat backwards two squares and then charge the same spearmen in the flank (whilst they still could, as ES14 has stopped this cheesy manoeuvre happening), whilst the Ballesteri Montati (mounted light crossbowmen) charged the rear of another bunch of Scots.

Meanwhile, the fighting on the right hand side of the field had intensified, with the superior armour of my knights there countered by the larger numbers of troops they were facing. Neither side seemed able to make much progress.

Back to the centre, where the Scots spearmen in the centre had crumbled under the loving attentions of the Venetian Alabardiers. The Scots spearmen near the hill, however, although disordered and attacked on the flanks, were still putting up a brave fight.

This stabilised Adrian’s centre, but I now had fresh knights, still with their lances, coming in from the left…but then a unit of veteran Irish javelinmen were thereatening the rear of my line.

Adrian had, however, gradually been losing coins throughout the game: in particular losing light infantry to crossbow fire and one, or perhaps it was two, generals in combat: as I said, he was having a particularly unlucky day.

The three coins lost when the spear in the centre routed took him close to the edge, and a final charge from my Knights into disordered Irish javelinmen on the right broke his army as a whole, although it took a Venetian hero to do so.

So a big 14-1 victory for the Venetians to open proceedings…although I was glad that the battle ended then as too many of my units had fallen into disorder and, of course. that Lady Luck had shunned my opponent throughout!

To The World's Strongest, Game 4: Venice Abroad vs Normans

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My final game at this year’s world championships was against old friend Matt’s Normans.

Matt won the scouting, and deployed his massed cavalry in two chunks facing my wings:

The game began,, and I was almost immediaely in trouble on not one but both wings: my Knights having dressed, as is often the case, in their ceremonial cardboard armour instead of the proper metal kit!

Let’s start on the right, where I then repidly lost the Later Knights and was forced to withdraw right to the table’s edge to regroup and send infantry over from the centre to help.

Although the Knights on the right rallied and pushed forward, I was now facing a roll up from the right as the Norman cavalry pivoted through 90 degrees and headed for the centre.

The infantry I had redeployed to stabilise the situation succumbed to attacks from their flank and rear, and it was only by throwing in the Alabardiers and some desperate fighting from the Crossbowmen and Lights that I managed to stave off disaster.

Meanwhile, on the left, I had managed to rally the Later Knights and push forward to drive the Norman cavalry back, but had had the Knights become disordered and was threatened by enemy infantry lapping around the flank.

At this point we were starting to run out of time. My first thought was that this was a relief, as I had really felt that I was only just holding on throughout the game so far.

Then I looked at the table again and thought, hang on, I’ve killed everything threatening me on the right and am actually now chasing disordered Norman units to finish them off…and actually the same is true on the left. With each of us down to our last few coins - helped by the fact that I had killed two of Matt’s generals - I could actually win this game despite the fact that I had nearly crumbled into defeat in turn two!

Unfortunately it was not to be.

On the right, in the last turn of the game, my Knights and Alabardier units, each led by their command’s generals, failed to break units of already-disordered enemy cavalry…

And on the left, a desperate melee involving three already-disordered Norman units also failed to result in any coins heading my way.

Time was called, and we had both taken nine of our opponent’s coins, so a technical win for the Venetians so something like 90-82 points in my favour…and what a game!

I honestly thought the game would end after about three turns as my Knights crumbled and the Norman army lapped around both my flanks, but a great fight back ensued until the Venetians were within Ames Ace of victory: just failing to secure a win mainly due to some outrageous saving cards from Matt, probably deserved as his officers had fallen like flies earlier in the game.

So what did all this mean for the competition as a whole?

Well, I came eighth overall—a considerable improvement on the 19th place I managed last year, when I had a real mare! - with two outright wins and two winning draws…but if you look at the results table below, you can see just how close the competition was. Not so much for first place (with four wins out of four, Peter was well ahead of everyone else), but for the other top spots: the extra 25 points from one more outright win, rather than a winning draw, would have given any of the next eight players second place—including me!

A cracking tournament all round, and I really would encourage people to enter the To The Strongest competitions that are run just about throughout the year: great fun, great sportsmanship, great gameplay…just great!

To The World's Strongest, Game 3: Venice Abroad vs Eastern Latins

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My third game at this year’s To The World’s Strongest tournament was against Andrew and his Eastern Latins: a ferocious army with lots of good quality cavalry.

The terrain placement had been kind to me, with Impassable ground narrowing the battlefield in my deployment zone, especially on my right. I therefore determined to hold the right back along with most of my infantry, and send the Knights and some of my Spearmen forward to win on the left.

As the game began, a bit of luck came my way, with my mounted crossbowmen on the left disposing of some enemy Lights and perhaps leaving a path for an outflanking manouevre. Andrew wasn’t falling for that one, however, and soon a mass of enemy cavalry had moved to block my advance.

Latin Cavalry took out my mounted crossbowmen, but fortunately some of my just-successful Knights were in a position to turn back to counter their threat. The Byzantine horse didn’t fancy mixing it with my Knights, so evaded away in some disorder, ending up on the edge of the table pursued by the Knights and some lights that I had brought up from the camp.

Elsewhere on the left, my other Knights and their supporting Spearmen had pushed the Latin cavalry back and killed the cavalry’s commander, but that flank was now at a bit of a stalemate, with the Venetians having just tipped the strategic balance in their favour five coins to one and with the Byzantine horse very vulnerable.

Meanwhile, I had sat waiting for the rest of the Latins to come forward into crossbow range…although I had moved more of my Knights forward on the right to see if they could snatch a cheeky victory against some enemy cavalry who fancied a go.

Latin missile fire gradually stripped my Lights from the table, but in the end, I managed to fight his cavalry on the right with my Knights, knocking both units and their commander off table.

That gave me eleven of the twelve coins I needed, and I think it was then the Byzantines being pushed off table on the left that gave me the final one to give the Venetians a 12-5 victory (all my losses were Lights), but it might have been killing another Latin general that did it - Andrew was very unlucky with his officers!

A good game against an interesting army that I haven’t encountered before. All that cavalry on my left did worry me quite a bit at the beginning, and I was pleased that Andrew never managed to combine them and his infantry in a more general assault.

On to the last game of the day…

To The World's Strongest, Game 2: Venice Abroad vs Early Imperial Romans

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Game two at the World’s, and it’s another Roman army: Principate or Early Imperial commanded by friend Dave.

I have an EIR army myself, and I know that one potential weakness is the fact that you only really have enough cavalry for one command…so assuming that would be on one flank, my plan was to smash it off the table with one command of my Knights and then loop back into the centre. The rest of my army would pin his heavy infantry in place.

I duly advanced forward and, before long was in range to charge.

For once my Knights had their metal as opposed to cardboard armour on, and soon the enemy cavalry was beaten back and I could turn to face the Roman flank.

Unfortunately, poor follow-up cards and Roman manoeuvrability meant that it took me a bit of time to actually finish off the enemy horse, by which time I was facing a wall of Legionary steel that wouldn’t be easy to break through.

Meanwhile, on the right hand side of the table, both Dave and I deployed our stratagems: Flank March for me, Lost Unit for Dave.

My flank marching light cavalry failed to dent the Roman infantry they appeared behind, and were then shot down by the Saggittarrii archers: disappointing in the extreme.

Dave’s Lost Unit however, ended up arriving right in one of my camps: highly annoying, and although I did manage to evict them fairly easily, they went on to threaten the flank of my other Knights, meaning I had to spend some time and sacrifice some territory to redeem the situation!

Back to the left, and I was still trying to bash my way through the Roman troops on that flank, but nothing I did seemed to work. Dave made excellent use of the terrain and the ease with which his Legionaries could manoeuvre: add to that a run of poor attack cards for me and great saving cards for him, and I was making little if any headway at all!

Then a crisis developed in the centre. My now-disordered Alabardiers were forced to retreat back to the camp, and those pooping light cavalry were back: sneaking through my lines to add to my problems.

Fortunately, the Alabardiers were made of stern stuff and resisted all attempts to break them and, as you can see in the picture above, I had reinforcements available to sort the situation.

I was also now in a position to essay an attempt on the Roman infantry on the right: a bit of manoeuvring would be required, but I ought to be able to get a decent flank charge in somewhere!

Unfortunately at this stage we ran out of time. The first morning session had overrun, and combine that with all the time spent failing to break the Roman left flank (despite multiple flank charges) and then dealing with the situation in the centre and on the right, and Time’s Winged Chariot was upon us and the game was over! A technical 8-6 victory to me, but not the Total Victory I was looking for.

Very frustrating after the initial success on the left. I only needed to break one more Roman unit (maybe take a Light as well) and the game would have been properly mine, but congrats to Dave for managing to stabilise the left and then come right back at me elsewhere.

A great game of To The Strongest.

To The World's Strongest, Game 1: Venice Abroad vs Later Western Romans

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My first game at this year’s To The World’s Strongest tournament (held in Blewberry on 28th February) was against Chris and his Later Western Romans.

Although terrain placement had been in my favour, I had lost the scouting, so was quite pleased to see Chris open the game by advancing his cavalry forward on my left flank: my plan, you see, was to smash his horse from the field there with my superior Knights and then roll him up whilst the rest of my troops pinned his line in place.

Unfortunately, my Knights seemed, as is so often the case, to be wearing their ceremonial cardboard armour rather than the real McCoy, and I was soon having to pull back and consolidate before heading back into the fight.

Net gain: three coins from killing a unit of light cavalry and, more importantly, the Roman cavalry General…despite the fact that a glorious flank charge from the balestrieri montati failed to even scratch the armour of one of the Roman squadrons, followed by a narrow escape when they turned and tried to charge me back!

Meanwhile, on the right flank, two units of Roman Infantry (Legionaries have red/yellow shields, auxilia have blue or yellow shields) faced off against my other command of Knights: neither side willing to risk a frontal clash.

A hail of missiles followed from both sides (the Romans had archers and some chaps with plumbatae - darts - mixed in to their heavies) with one unit of Roman lights killed as a result.

A bit of action in the centre followed, as the Romans sent their light infantry there forward, only to have one shot down by the Venetian’s mercenary crossbowmen, and the other impaled on the spears of some lancieri. That was another two coins, which made nine when added to the two that I had won on the left by finally killing one of the Roman cavalry units there (the cataphracts I believe) and another for Chris rallying a unit on an even number: two more to go!

The Romans, now realising that they needed to get their infantry into action if they were to save the game, advanced one unit of Legionaries forward, but the Venetian Alabardiers met them in the middle and disordered them with their halberds.

The disordered Legionaries retreated back into their line in order to rally, but this was the opportunity I had been waiting for: a disordered infantry unit in range of my right hand lancers.

Sliding the left side unit of Knights across with a ‘4’ put me needing a ‘6’ or more to charge diagonally forward and then in. I drew a ‘6’ (phew!) slamming into the disordered Legionaries with a mighty crash.

First attack card was an Ace, but then I used a Hero to convert that to a ‘7’ then drew a ‘10’ for my lance: two hits, at least one of which the Romans failed to save…and that was Chris’ last two coins and game!

This was quite lucky, as in the meantime the last unit of Roman light cavalry had killed my right hand mounted crossbowmen and snuck through my lines to threaten my camp…bottom right in the picture below.

Anyhoo, a good start to the day with a 12-2 victory and, more importantly, a fun game with a very congenial opponent!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On to the last game…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Welsh Warm-Up: Venice Abroad vs Graeco-Bactrians

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Postscript

Michael Lane reminded me of another incident in the game:

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

TTS AAR: Venice Abroad versus Northern Dynasties Chinese

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All was not lost, however.

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

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

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

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

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