Undaunted: Stalingrad

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Interesting afternoon at friend Neil’s the other day: a session playing through three games of Undaunted Stalingrad.

Undaunted: Stalingrad is a two-player tactical board war game from Osprey Publishing set during the 1942 Battle of Stalingrad, in which one player commands Soviet forces and the other German forces. It is primarily a campaign game, with up to fifteen linked scenarios in which the results of one battle carry over into the next. The game represents a platoon through a deck of cards, with individual cards corresponding to soldiers and officers on the battlefield. What makes Stalingrad particularly distinctive is its persistence: casualties can permanently weaken your force, soldiers can gain upgraded abilities, and the urban battlefield itself can change as buildings are destroyed or control of areas shifts.

In terms of game mechanics, Stalingrad combines deck-building, hand management, area control and tactical combat. Each round players draw four cards and secretly choose one to bid for initiative; the player with the higher initiative acts first. Cards are then played to activate their corresponding units, allowing them to move, attack, suppress enemies, scout, take control of territory or perform specialist actions. Combat uses dice against a target's defence, with terrain and range affecting the difficulty. Importantly, when a soldier suffers a casualty, the corresponding card is removed from your deck, meaning your army literally becomes less capable as the campaign progresses. Units can also become suppressed or routed, while successful actions can improve soldiers and add new cards to your force. This creates a particularly interesting tension between winning the current battle and preserving enough of your army to survive the later scenarios.

We weren’t doing anything as sophisticated as playing through the full campaign: instead, we played through the same scenario three times, with me taking the Soviets on each occasion. More impressively, Neil had created his own system of terrain tiles, which mimicked the boards that come in the box, along with a set of playing pieces to use instead of the counters. This made it feel much more like a proper wargame than a board game—a rather enjoyable hybrid of the two, although the mechanics are firmly those of a board game rather than a traditional wargame.

As I said, we played the same scenario three times, with my Soviets attempting to prevent Neil’s German tanks from capturing a particular terrain tile. Although I lost all three times, I had fun, which is the point after all! In terms of gameplay, I’d suggest that knowing the game mechanics inside out is more important than having any particular strategic or tactical knowledge of World War II warfare. But then, the game never claims to be anything other than what it is: a highly enjoyable tactical board game set against the backdrop of the Eastern Front.

TTS AAR: Tribal Hebrews versus Akkadians

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A third game in a row for the Tribal Hebrews, this time against the Akkadians, commanded by friend Rob.

The two sides deployed and advanced rapidly towards each other, with the Akkadians trying for an outflank on the Hebrew left with their battle-carts, and the Hebrews making a play for the high ground on the left of the Akkadian main line.

The initial clash of the two main battle lines was indecisive, and it took my use of the Someone Has Blundered stratagem to give the Hebrews a small advantage.

But what, I hear you ask, of the Akkadian flank attack?

Well, using battle-carts to get around someone’s flank is all very well, but they are not very manouevrable and I had left some light infantry in a clump of palm trees to further delay their arrival.

Unfortunately, I got a bit too enthusiastic about the possibilities of hitting one of the battle-carts in the flank as it tried to turn onto mine, an enterprising tactic that failed dismally and left the lights out in the open to be destroyed by their erstwhile opponenents. This left the battle-carts well and truly on my flank and the situation began to look a bit critical!

Fortunately the cards were with me and against Rob, with one unit of veteran Hebrew javelinmen surviving being hit in the front and rear , and one battle-cart not quite managing to get into action yet.

This couldn’t last, so I needed to win the main clash as soon as possible, or face being rolled up from the left. Rob and I had already knocked off a couple of each other’s units, so I needed to kill another three or four to win the game before that could happen.

A superb effort by the ish bahor Chosen Men on the right managed to break the Akkadian Royal Guard, also taking out their General, began the process, with Rob also losing a couple of units of lights to morale to leave him teetering on the edge of defeat.

I then managed to sneak a unit of Light Slingers along the very right hand edge of the table to take an unoccupied Akkadian camp, giving me another three coins and the game!

A victory at last for the Hebrews, but a very narrow one as you’ll see from the pictures of the rest of the table in the gallery, below.

I do like playing the Tribal Hebrews - they are an unusual army, being comprised solely of light troops and veteran javelinmen - but have ordered enough chariots to allow me to morph them into two later variations: the United Monarchy Hebrews and the Regnal Hebrews. We’ll have to see if the addition of a mounted arm makes any difference to their success!

Lust for Glory: Polish-Lithuanians versus Ottomans

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Time for our first game using the “finished” preview edition of Lust for Glory: the new rules for the 17th/18th Century from the To The Strongest stable.

Mark and I would command a Polish-Lithuanian force (“the Poles”) fighting the Ottomans, commanded by Dillon and Si. We used the new rules giving generals different abilities and, as is only meet and right, it turned out that I was a “Brilliant” general, with all others on the table being “Cautious”. A good start to the day!

The two sides deployed: the Poles massed all their cavalry on the right flank, with the Ottomans using a more traditional set up of cavalry on each wing with the fearsome Janissery and not so fearsome Azab infantry in the centre.

The game opened with the cavalry on both sides advancing forward rapidly.

On the Polish right flank, one cavalry command smashed into their Ottoman equivalents and, within two turns, had sent them fleeing from the field.

This was good, but both units (one light, one Pancerni) that had been left behind to deal with an errant Ottoman unit of light cavalry were then routed by missile fire from the aforementioned Turkish lights, so although the eventual outcome was still very much in the Polish favour, it wasn’t by as much as it should be, and there were still the errant enemy lights to deal with.

Meanwhile, on the Polish left flank, Ottoman cavalry had swung round to try and take the German mercenary and Hadjuk infantry in the flank. In response, the ‘Polish’ infantry formed an L-shape and prepared to fire volleys into the advancing enemy cavalry…but there was something seriously wrong with the Polish muskets that day: no Turkish cavalry were routed and a hail of arrows flew back in return, disordering some Hadjuks.

The Ottoman infantry then charged home, blasting one regiment of Hadjuks from the field, and leaving themselves perfectly positioned to roll over their secondary objective (the white building) and then threaten the main Polish camp.

So things looked a but grim for the Poles on the left, but fortunately they had a Brilliant general in command in the centre (that’s me, in case you had forgotten) who led the cavalry into the rear of the Azabs protecting that end of the main Turkish line.

This was quite an amusing passage of play. The first Polish charge went home over the rough ground the Azabs were sheltering in due to a lucky card, but then the Winged Hussars failed to hit with any of their four chances to do so!

I then remembered that my stratagem (the King of Spades) allowed me to deploy engineers to flatten any area of rough ground. Consulting the rulebook, we couldn’t see any reason why this wouldn’t apply to the rough ground actually under the Azabs, so the next Polish charge went in easily and unhindered, and squished the Ottoman rabble underfoot!

This put the Ottomans in a precarious position: almost out of coins and with rampaging enemy cavalry on their flank.

The Turks shifted a battalia of Janisseries to cover the gap, but the rest of my horse had come up and I was able to use one squadron to by-pass the Janisseries and strike for the Ottoman secondary objective: their band.The Poles desperately needed to capture the band quickly, as the situation on their left was, as we’ve seen, critical. Fortunately, an extraordinarily lucky card draw (the perfect ‘10’!) saw my Pancerni sweep forward and seize the band, securing the game for us…and only just in time!

A bit of post-game ‘what if’ analysis revealed just how close it had been. The Janissaries on the hill, plugging the gap in the Turkish flank, were charged by my Winged Hussars—but it was the Hussars who were blown away, as the Janissaries rolled two ‘10s’ out of three chances to hit! Meanwhile, the Turkish cavalry on the Polish left would indeed have swept forward to capture the Polish secondary objective. Either of these outcomes would have handed the game to the Turks. Talk about cutting it fine!

A great game of Lust, and a digital edition of the rules are now available to purchase from the BigRedBat’s shop. Click here to see.

TTS AAR: Tribal Hebrews versus Hittites, Round 2

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After losing to the Hittites played by John, the Tribal Hebrews would now take on the Hittites again, but this time commanded by Rob.

Although I lost the scouting, the Hittites chose to deploy in a tight formation in one corner of the battlefield. This looked like a good opportunity for an outflanking manoeuvre, and soon a portion of my army was heading down the right flank ready to turn and pounce on the Hittites’ open side.

Meanwhile, battle had been firmly joined in the centre, with Hittite chariots crashing into the mass Hebrew javelinmen across the board.

The chariots would usually win the initial clash, disordering their opponents, but be unable to immediately break the javelinmen…which gave my flank attack the opportunity to land a devastating blow on the Hittites before their infantry could bolster their position.

Unfortunately, the flanking command suffered some terrible “good” cards - drawing 10’s on their first activation twice in a row - meaning that although they were moving towards the Hittite flank, it was at a snail’s pace rather than the hoped for tsunami. This gave the Hittite infantry time to manoeuvre to both defend their open side and to support the right side of their line in the centre: definitely not part of the Hebrew plan, especially when the unit defending the Ark of the Covenant was destroyed!

Although the centre was pretty much lost, and the right flank an area of some concern, the Hebrew flanking attack on the left was still quite capable of winning victory.

Unfortunately, the cards decided that it was not to be, with the Hebrews pulling some terrible cards for their movement and attacks, and the Hittites getting an extraordinary run of cards for saves!

The Hebrews were beginning to run out of steam at this point: they had lost two generals, the Ark of the Covenant, and a couple of deep units, meaning they were down to the their last handful of coins. The cards were still criminally against them as well, with even the simplest of flank attacks failing to land with any effect.

This couldn’t last and, as the final photo in the gallery above shows, the last Hebrew coins went, somehwat appropriately, with a unit of Chosen Men hit in the front and the rear and drawing an Ace for their final save!

So a second defeat in a row for the Hebrews, but this time not so much down to a mistake on my part (as in the previous game) but to the cards kicking me firmly in the fork time and time again!

The Hebrews would fight again almost immediately, but this time against the Akkadians…

Painting Challenge: End October Update

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Lots of entries in, so time for another update even if it is only a couple of weeks after the last one.

First up is Dex, with some lovely WW2 15mm figures:

Next we have Andrew Helliwell’s regular contribution. What I want to know is how he has storage for everything he paints! Must be Really Useful’s number one customer - after me!

All the above pictures are slightly cropped to suit the format of this Home Page. You can see the originals, and many more submissions from all participants in their various individual galleries, all accessed via the NavBar, above.

Back to the new entries, and next we have Mervyn with some pirates, gangsters and policemen…

And then we have Stumpy, with a real mix of entries: Napoleonics, WW2 and Fantasy:

A couple of entries from Zofficus: some Sassanid horse archers and a couple of really small towns. There are more in his gallery.

Carole has sent in some excellent looking SciFi figures. They are a bit late appearing here as they ended up in my Spam folder for some reason. Better late than never!

And last, but by no means least, we have Mr Burt with some more citizens for Traitor’s Toll.

That’s all for now. Keep ‘em coming!

TTS AAR: Tribal Hebrews versus Hittites, Round One

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Earlier this year I competed at the To The Smallest 15mm To The Strongest tournament at Firestorm Games in Cardiff. One of the other competitors fielded a Tribal Hebrew army using Red Copper sculpts, something I have coveted for some time: troop types specified by tribe, deep veteran javelinmen, the Ark of the Covenant…what’s not to love? A discussion was had, an offer was made, and now the Hebrews reside chez moi, and it was time to get them onto the tabletop. I even had suitable opponents for them: a Hittite army also using Red Copper sculpts.

The Hittites opened the proceedings, sending their chariots forward in the centre, with their Syrian allies attempting an outflank on the left. This was very worrying: my only consolation being that their infantry seemed content to stand by and just watch.

As the Hittites were obviously trying to overwhelm the left hand end of my line. I thought I’d better send reinforcements. I therefore turned one of my commands sideways and marched them to the left.

Unfortunately, I had underestimated how fast the Hittite chariots could move, with the result that half the turned-left command got hit in the flank and annihilated. Not my finest hour as a general!

This left a hole in my line into which more Hittite chariots poured, and soon I was in danger of being overwhelmed not on the left but in the centre!

Meanwhile, the Syrian chariots on the left had finally managed to get into a position to do some damage. I held them up briefly with light infantry, but soon they were nipping at the flanks and rear of the two Hebrew units of deep javelinmen that were fighting more Hittite chariots there.

Whilst all this was going on, I had sent one infantry command forward on the right flank, thinking I might occupy the rough ground there, giving me an advantage if the Hittite infantry ever did come forward.

This advance didn’t really achieve much, particularly as I had to siphon off some of the force to reinforce the rest of my line (still under threat from enemy chariots) and soon I was regretting that decision as well, especially when the Hittite infantry finally got off their backsides and came forward.

I even had to commit the fanatics protecting the Ark (that unit is worth six coins so should really stay out of danger) to bolstering the centre.

Now although the above sounds as if the Hebrews are being soundly beaten, after the initial disastrous Hittite flank attack, the various combats hadn’t been going too badly. Yes, I’d lost plenty of coins and had the rest of my infantry disordered, but I’d also managed to kill a couple of enemy units and, even better, kill not one but two Hittite generals. You can see all the main action in the gallery, below.

Beleive it or not, we were now at the stage where both sides only had two or three coins left, which meant things were very much at the “sudden death” stage.

Unfortunately, the poor old Hebrews had taken too much damage to survive another turn: the coup de grace coming from those pooping Syrian light chariots, who managed to run over a unit of Light Slingers, takin g my last coin and the game.

An absolute cracker of a game that I had effectively lost once the Syrian light chariots had outflanked, lost again after my error in turning some jevelinmen sidweways and seeing them blown away by Hittite chariots hitting them in the flank, then started to win again (especially, and fittingly, when the Ark was committed) before just losing on the turn of a card. Great stuff!

IABSM AAR: Seelowe Nord - The Yorkshire Landings

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Adapted from a post on the IABSM Facebook Group.

At the end of 2025, the South Yorkshire Air Museum hosted the Operation Seelowe Nord Weekend, bringing one of the most fascinating “what if?” scenarios of the Second World War to life on the tabletop.

A particular highlight was the recreation of the Hunmanby Gap, the location where German forces first land and come up against the Home Guard defending the beach.

The terrain was painstakingly researched and constructed using a wealth of historical references, including WWII aerial photographs, period postcards, modern photographs and images of the surviving original pillboxes. The result was a remarkably detailed and atmospheric representation of the Yorkshire coastline.

The project was inspired in part by Andy Johnson’s Seelowe Nord, a book that has become a long-standing favourite among Operation Sealion wargamers for its compelling scenario and meticulous historical detail.

With the help of Russell Collins, Ewan Spence and Mark Burgess, the team spent two days recreating the battle and bringing the scenario to life.

A big thank you to Alex at Storm of Steel for the interview and for producing a superb video showcasing the table and terrain. It’s a fantastic look at the work, research and craftsmanship that went into this impressive project.

A brilliant example of historical research and terrain building coming together to create an incredibly immersive wargaming experience.

TTS AAR: Gauls versus Later Carthaginians

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Time for a practice game for the To The Strongest tournament at this year’s Warfare show: what turned out to be an epic clash between my Gauls and Peter’s Later Carthaginians.

I lost the scouting, and watched as Peter predictably deployed with his troops heavily weighted towards one flank.

I had been here before (far too many times!) so I knew that there was only one way forward: send my cavalry on the far left in a wide sweeping movement to attack the Carthaginian right flank, and position my infantry on the right to face forwards and right in order to hold out until the cavalry arrive to help.

The first phase of the game unfolded as expected, with only the appearance of a double Ace draw interfering with my counter-plan:

Although my cavalry made good time on their flanking manouevre, I let my chariots get distracted by a unit of light infantry lurking in the woods on the left: a silly mistake that tied up three times their points value in a pointless exchange of javelins.

Nevertheless, just as the main Carthaginian attack hit my infantry, the cavalry arrived to distract half of the enemy veteran legionaries:

I had managed to blunt Peter’s weight-one-flank strategy, but I was not out of the woods yet, as was proved when the Carthaginians snuck a unit of light cavalry through the, er, woods that were protecting the corner of my position and smashed a unit of warriors from the table.

This was fairly critical, but was fortunately immediately followed by my cavalry finally breaking one of the units of Carthaginian veteran legionaries and ending up perfectly positioned to ride down another.

Unfortunately, the cards then produced my second double Ace of the day, and the Celtic horsemen failed to charge home.

The Carthaginins quickly re-positioned themselves, and a grinding fight began as just about every figure on the table was now committed to the kesselschlacht.

Key to my position were the two warbands that were facing to the right at the bottom of the table: if either of them went, then it was safe to say that the rest of my army would follow.

Somehow they held out, turn after turn, both double-disordered and under constant attack, but obviously determined not to give way, perhaps encouraged by the two chieftains that were with them.

At this stage, the Carthaginians (who had lost a couple of generals) were down to their last two coins, meaning defeat if one more unit routed. I still had something like seven left, but with most of my warbands on two disorders already, one lost unit would almost certainly lead to a cascade of routs that would cost me the game. It was close…very close!

In the end, it was the Carthaginians who gave way first: their cavalry failing to evade when charged in the flank:

A fantastic game of TTS that absolutely came down to the wire. Peter deployed superbly, and it was only by the slimmest of margins that I managed to get my infantry into a position to hold until my cavalry arrived. Even then, if it hadn’t been for the extreme resilience of the two warbands on my right flank, my army would have collapsed in spectacular fashion. The very narrowest of victories for the Gauls!

Lust for Glory: Helsingborg

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Time for another playtest game of Lust for Glory: the 18th Century incarnation of the To The Strongest rule system. Today we would refight Helsingborg, using Mark’s collection of 6mm figures. Here’s what ChatGPT had to say about the historical battle:

The Battle of Helsingborg was fought on 10 March 1710 during the Great Northern War (1700–1721) between Sweden and Denmark-Norway. It was a major Swedish victory and effectively ended Denmark's attempt to reconquer the southern Swedish provinces of Scania, Halland and Blekinge.

After Sweden suffered a devastating defeat against Russia at Poltava in 1709, Denmark saw an opportunity to regain the territories it had lost to Sweden in the 17th century. A Danish army of roughly 14,000–16,000 men landed at Råå, near Helsingborg, in November 1709 and rapidly occupied much of Scania.

The Swedish commander Magnus Stenbock withdrew to Småland and raised a new army. By February 1710, he had assembled a force of roughly 14,000–16,000 soldiers and marched into Scania, forcing the Danish army back toward Helsingborg.

The Danish army, commanded by Jørgen Rantzau, took up a strong defensive position on the heights northeast of Helsingborg. Stenbock attacked on 10 March. The fighting was particularly intense around the cavalry wings. Rantzau's counterattack initially had considerable success, but he was seriously wounded, while Swedish cavalry eventually broke through the Danish flank. The resulting pressure on the Danish infantry caused their formation to collapse and much of the army retreated toward Helsingborg.

The surviving Danish troops withdrew into Helsingborg, but Stenbock chose not to launch a costly assault on the city's fortifications. Instead, the Swedes bombarded the city, and the Danes evacuated across the Øresund to Helsingør a few days later. Thousands of Danish horses were killed because there was insufficient capacity to transport them across the strait.

View from behind the Swedish lines

Deployment was historical, and I had command of the Swedish cavalry on the left, and the second line of Swedish infantry in the centre. Dave, my co-commander, would order the cavalry on the right near the marsh, the guns, and the first line of Swedish infantry.

In front of my cavalry were lesser numbers of Danish horse. My plan, therefore, was to advance forward rapidly, sweep them from the field, and then curl around to hit the Danish infantry in the centre: all very standard stuff. I also decided to move my infantry to the left and try and get them forward on the left hand side of the field, both to support my cavalry and further threaten the Danish right flank.

My cavalry were keen to get stuck in, advancing forward rapidly, but as we made contact I made the unpleasant discovery that whilst we might outnumber the Danes, their cavalry was nearly all comprised of elite horse guards types! Suffice to say that rather than sweeping them from the field, my brave boys were soon fighting for their lives!

Meanwhile, in the centre, Dave was advancing his infantry ponderously towards the enemy as I attempted to squeeze my foot around to the left.

On the right hand side, the two opposing cavalry forces advanced towards each other, with the initial advantage going our way.

Back to the left where, at this point, there was literally nothing left but corpses!

And to the centre, where are infantry were still toiling towards the enemy line:

At this point, unfortunately, I had to abandon my command for domestic duty reasons. The game continued, with the following result:

Technically a winning draw to the Danes: the Swedes had eleven medals left, and the Danes thirteen but having started with 2 less.

Your left had very little troops left, just two units of cavalry and one infantry, from both sides, in total. The right flank may have gone your way, but only just. The centre had advanced on the Danish line, but most of the first line had disorder and would’ve found it hard to make it, I think.

We stopped after turn 6.

So it looks like the Swedes would have eventually lost the game, but at least I can blame my co-commander for the defeat: had I been able to continue, I am sure it would have been a glorious victory!

TTS AAR: Ancient Britons versus Early Imperial Romans

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My very first wargames, almost fifty years ago (aaargh!) were clashes between the Early Imperial Romans and the Ancient British…mainly because these were the only two armies we possessed.

In those days, my Brits were 1/72 scale Airfix figures mounted on bits of cardboard, with my friend Sam using beautifully painted Minifigs Romans. IIRC Sam used to paint them not with a brush but with a syringe needle!

Those Romans have survived all these years (including a thirty-five year period of imprisonment in my Mother’s attic) and would now see action again as friend Rob used them against my Victrix Celts.

The Brits won the scouting, and I immediately saw an opportunity: I could hurl my cavalry on the right forward, defeat the outnumbered Roman horse in front of them, and then sweep round onto the flank of the main Roman line.

All I had to do was to make sure that I didn’t close with the main Roman line (the mincing machine!) until the cavalry had won their fight, at which point I could use my infantry to pin the Roman line in place so that the cavalry could take advantage as planned.

Unfortunately I got a bit carried away with the infantry advance, and before I knew it I was exactly where I didn’t want to be: fully engaged across my entire line with narry an outflanking move in sight!

Worse than this, the reason Rob had so few horsemen on the field soon became apparent, as a Lost unit of Roman cavalry turned up right where I didn’t want them!

Fortunately the “10” stymied an immediate charge into my rear, but the threat thereof obviously unnerved my chariots and cavalry as the initial clash went very much “not necessarily in my favour”!

Not only that, but it wasn’t long before the Roman mincing machine had burst through my infantry line, forcing me into a general withdrawal, hotly pursued by annoyed Italians…and this was before the Lost Roman cavalry got involved!

Although there were a few local successes, the writing was very definitely on the wall for the brave Celts, and it wasn’t long before the Romans had polished them off for a pretty substantial drubbing!

So a great plan very poorly executed, leaving me gnashing my teeth over what might have been. The only way to fight Romans with deep warbands is to find some way to get an advantage, and here I threw away that possibility by being over-eager with my infantry…and paid the price!

Painting Challenge: mid-October Update

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Time for another update to this year’s Painting Challenge.

First up, we have Bill Pilon with some beautifully painted medievals: there’s some good looking heraldry depicted there.

Next we have Mr Cooper’s latest batch of all things fantasy. I’ve only got room to show a few of his models here, so I recommend visiting his gallery (accessible via the NavBar, above) to see them all.

Here’s a couple I really liked: a fantasy tower and (as it’s almost Halloween) a large pumpkin. Speaking of which, his gallery does contain a couple of adult-image models, so avoid if that’s not your thing!

Another large entry has been sent in by Andrew Helliwell. It’s a mix of 15’s, 28’s and about twelve feet of terrain so, as a change, here’s are some of his latest home-made hedges and fences. Makes me think that I should be making my own too!

Mark Luther had produced even more 6mm ‘planes, this time covering three different WW2 theatres: Khalkin Gol, the Continuation War and Burma.

Stumpy has also sent in multiple entries, including some rather nice Samurai for Test of Honour, and an ogre for Midguard.

Last, but not least, Zofficus has finished a rather large number of Parthians…which before long I shall doubtless be facing across the battlefield!

That’s all for now. Keep them coming!

Britcon 26: Game Five: Venetians vs Italo-Normans

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And so onto the last game at this year’s Britcon tournament: battered from losing game four so narrowly, my Venetians would now face friend Geoff’s Italo-Normans.

I won the scouting (first time all tournament) and was delighted to see Geoff deploy in a defensive formation centred on his camps. If that wasn’t an invitation to outflank, I don’t know what is!

Ed.’s Note: you can see how important winning the scouting is. Although the position is similar to the start position of the last game, the Venetians have managed a better terrain placement with steep hills defending their camp but not stopping them retreating if necessary; and the Italo-Normans have that wood and impassable terrain in the centre of their line, stopping an immediate advance there.

Also, and most importantly, the Venetians have the initiative: they can advance to outflank immediately rather than already having the enemy horse right upon them before they can even move.

Oh, and note how the Venetian knights are one command in rather than out on the left flank as normal. It will mean that they don’t have to move diagonally as well as forward to outflank the Norman formation.

Once the battle had begun, I pushed my knights on the left forward as hard and fast as I could, also moving the rest of my troops forward in line so as to pin the Italo-Normans in place. I left the crossbowmen and light crossbowmen behind, hoping for some long range missile fire once the enemy began to move.

A bit of luck with the cards had me in just the right position to hammer the Italo-Norman flank, but the knights on the enemy baseline went in with their lances and missed every single strike! That’s four misses trying for 6+ each time (standard attack, hero replay, lance attack, and flank attack) which was not very pleasing, to say the least!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, my other knights faced off against an equal number of Norman horse.

I was confident of success here as my later knights/knights combination was, on paper at least, superior to the three units of cavalry facing me (of which one was veteran, one standard and one raw) especially as the close terrain and my advance meant that they could only come at me with two of their number not all three. Even better, the veteran unit carried a Papal Banner, so if I could kill that unit and the attached general, that was six coins to me: one third of Geoff’s total and thus a very, very worthy target!

Ed’s Note: and he should know, as the Venetian later knights on that flank also carried an army standard so were worth multiple coins…and losing them had lost the canal-dwellers the last game!

Although my later knights refused to charge, my knights did the business, and it was soon two versus two with that Papal Banner beckoning me onwards!

The knights then dealt with the raw cavalry in front of them (as is meet and right!) as the Papal-Banner-holding, veteran Norman horse and the Venetians lights started knocking seven bells out of each other without much effect!

On the other side of the table, Geoff and the Normans prepared to fight back, with William and Co. turning to face the flank of the Venetian later knights coming in to support the other knights that had so miserably failed to score any hits before.

Ed.’s Note: worried about the plastic lances snapping if accidentally leant on, the miserable Venetian knights on the Norman baseline have been temporarily replaced by a base of dismounted knights who should, if necessary, prove more resilient!

The only problem for William, of course, was that the rest of my army was coming up fast, with the spearmen leading the way having an easy diagonal move (only 3+ needed) to get onto the Bastard’s flank and pin him in place.

The spearmen didn’t manage to put in an attack (the cards were kind, but not that kind!) but William was duly pinned.

Meanwhile, as things were going so well, I had a sudden rush of blood to the head, and embarked on what can only be called a very risky manouevre. What I should have done is use the miserable-knights to try and bash the Norman cavalry in front of them whilst turning my later knights to face the pinned William-led Norman horsemen.

Put it down to not sleeping well for two nights (the same car/building alarm waking me at 3am both days), or the strain of five games in a row, but what I actually did (as it seemed like a good idea at the time) was to use the later knights to flank charge the Norman cavalry on the baseline (which worked as they left the table in the face of a three-attack onslaught) and then to send the miserable-knights thundering into the narrow gap between the Norman camps and the first line of Norman troops.

Admittedly this was into the rear of some deep, raw archers (three coins worth), but it was really too early for that sort of insanity, and it didn’t work anyway as the miserable knights re-earned their title by failing to achieve anything except to put themselves in danger!

Ed.s Note: pay attention please! In the picture below, the miserable knights have been restored onto the tabletop and are now behind some archers in the center of the photo; with the just-victorious later knights temporarily replaced by dismounted knights for the same reason as before…although it’s not quite so obvious why, as the later knights have also now managed to pull back away from the danger of being caught in the flank by more raw archers on a hill inside the enemy camp. Confused? Try editing this battle report so that it makes sense!

The rest of my advancing infantry then turned to stop more Norman cavalry from charging my weak-in-melee crossbowmen…although, miracle de miracle, the crosbowmen had managed to disorder their threateners with missile fire: the first time they had managed anything quite so significant all tournament!

I was now ahead eight coins to nil, but I’d seen that sort of lead slip away before. It was therefore time to try again at securing that Papal Banner.

I had a big advantage as it was now two-on-one and I had a flank, but still not a foregone conclusion. Fortunately I avoided Aces when charging home, and the weight of three attacks was enough to break the disordered Norman cavalry, giving me my six coins.

Two to go, and I must admit that these fell fairly easily as my infantry overwhelmed the disordered Norman cavalry that had threatened my crossbowmen: not a surprise as I did have five units capable of shooting and/or attacking them.

That had been a stonking win with which to finish the tournament, and although I didn’t win overall, my four victories out of five gave me second place.

A fantastic fun event that everyone seemed to enjoy - I cannot but recommend the To The Strongest tournament circuit: it’s a series of great fun events played in the very best of spirits by the very best of people!

Here is the final results table and a piccy of all the players:

Finally, my thanks to Kevin and the rest of the BHGS team for putting on such a great event.

TTS will be back at Briton in 2027!

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!

Britcon 26: The Warm-Up Game: Gauls vs Parthians

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This year’s Britcon To The Smallest Tournament (five 140-point games over two days, with a practice session if you wanted on the Friday) was once again held at De Montfort University in Leicester.

Again the traffic was awful, so my expected two hour journey up actually took me more like 3½ hours, with the result that all the early birds had already started their practice games, leaving me no-one to play with. Fortunately Tim took pity on me and volunteered to play a second practice game, so it was time for my Gauls to face off against his Parthians.

Why the Gauls, you ask, as I was due to field my usualy Venetians? Well, I had organised for a reserve player to be there on the Saturday in case any of the main entrants had to drop out, and brought the Gauls up for them to use if necessary…and I didn’t want to have taken all the trouble to bring Asterix and friends up without using them, so using the Gauls in the practice game seemed like the thing to do!

Now the Parthians are nasty to fight - all thsoe cataphracts and horse archers - so I decided that the only way to win was to get right up in their faces and see how they liked a gross bit of melee with a load of deep warbands chock full of heroes.

I duly used my first turn to advance forward as fast as possible, with the only problem being on the left, where the Gallic horse pulled an Ace after the first unit had moved and so left a bit of a gap at the left end of my line.

This allowed the Parthians there to potentially get a two-on-one advantage on my left hand warband, but the cards were harsh to Tim, and the situation was soon remedied.

The two sides came together in the centre of the field with an almighty crash.

Usually I’d try to manoeuvre to get the first charge in, but that’s difficult to do when you’re foot versus mounted, so I didn’t, and suffered accordingly, taking casualties right across my line.

Not on the left, however, where my cavalry were having a particularly good day and effectively broke through the Parthian right flank.

Fortunes were, however, mixed elsewhere, as although some of my warbands pushed forward spectacularly, a fine use of the Someone had Blundered stratagem meant that one set of warriors, already double disordered, accidentally turned to their right and were duly splattered over the battlefield!

As an interlude, my massive push forward had left my camps vulnerable to marauding horse archers, but the javelinmen I had left behind in defence were able to see them off.

Back to the main action, where I was now desperately trying to get my cavalry properly onto the Parthian right flank or, failing that, capture an enemy camp or flank-kill one of their cavalry units before their cataphracts could slaughter enough of the warbands to break my army’s overall morale.

Unfortunately it was not to be. The cards fell Tim’s way and one of my battered warbands broke and took the rest of the Gallic army with them.

The narrowest 13-14 victory for the Parthians, but a great game nonetheless. It could really have gone either way at the end, and it was really just the cards that decided things.

Thanks to Tim for agreeing to play a second warm-up game: an excellent way to start Britcon even if I did lose!

Victrix Warriors of Carthage

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Now my Celts are just about complete, it was time to think about what my next army would be. Looking at the lists, the obvious crossover with the Celts is a Carthaginian army of some kind (Early, Middle or Later), as the Celts that I have just finished would provide all the heavy cavalry and around one third of the infantry needed for Hannibal’s boys.

A quick visit to the Victrix website saw me purchase the Warriors of Carthage pack: an excellent acquisition which, when painted, would provide three units of Libyan light infantry with javelins; one deep unit of mercenary Hoplites; and two units of African spearmen wearing captured Roman armour (“Hannibal’s Veterans”). That’s half the extra infantry I would need all for the princely sum of £35: a bargain at around 57p per figure.

First on the painting table were the Libyan light javelinmen: a very easy paint as they have minimum equipment, especially if you don’t give them shields! I used a 50/50 mix of Contrast Darkoath Flesh and Guilliman Flesh for their skin; and a dark red highlighted, washed and highlighted again for their tunics.

Having painted a few hundred 15mm Hoplites, I was not looking forward to doing the mercenary Greeks, but it turned out that they were almost as easy to do as the Libyan javelinmen. I undercoated in Grey Seer, then painted the panoplies in either white or a linen colour using different techniques to get variety: some were painted with acrylic white over Grey Seer, some with acrylic Wraithbone over Grey Seer, some with Contrast white then highlighted with acrylic white, and some with Contrast Skeleton Horde over Grey Seer. Then, on some of the panoplies, I outlined the seams in a variety of colours.

The flesh was painted as above, with the rest of the figure/equipment done as I would usually do so: Contrast Snakebite Leather for the leather, Wyldwood for the spear shafts etc. The aspis shields were painted on the sprue: undercoated in Grey Seer on the rear and Corax White on the front, then the backs were painted Contrast Wyldwood with the holding-cord picked out in an acrylic leather colour, and the fronts with decals from Little Big Man Studios via Victrix and then edged appropriately. I’m very happy with the result.

The two units of Carthaginian spearmen gave me a few more problems. As most of the figure is effectively chainmail (captured Roman armour) I decided to undercoat in black…which made the chainmail easy but meant that I could not use my belov’d Contrast paints for everything else…which meant painting everything else with the Holy Trinity of basecoat, layer and highlight or, in my case, basecoat and highlight as I always was a heathen…but once I’d got the hang of this retro painting system, building and painting the two units didn’t take too long at all.

The shields were as easy to do as always, but haven’t come out as well as the hoplite shields, above. Not sure why, perhaps it’s something to do with the shield designs or, more likely, something I did differently!

So that’s most of the Carthaginian infantry now done: just a couple of units of non-Roman-armour spearmen and the elephants to do now…and some Numidian cavalry…and all the command bases, casualties and heroes…and maybe some Celtiberians/Scutatoi…the list goes on!

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!