TTS AAR: Normans Take The Field!

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As mentioned in my last post, with the last of the Milites finished it was time for the Normans to finally take the field with a game of To The Strongest versus Kavan playing the Vikings.

This would be quite an interesting battle as the Normans were mostly heavy cavalry and the Vikings were all infantry. My plan was to take advantage of my extra mobility and get around his flanks, as charging formed infantry with cavalry is rarely a good idea!

As the game began, both sides advanced forward strongly, with the battle rapidly dividing into three sectors: the left, the centre and the right.

In the centre, Viking huscarls (the units with the red Meeple) had sped forward and hit a line of Norman cavalry in the Norman half of the table. With three Norman units in play against just one Viking, I was fairly confident that I could win the first clash, but I had underestimated just how ‘hard’ the huscarls were: being a deep, veteran, shieldwall unit with extra two handed cutting weapons!

My first Norman cavalry unit just evaporated and, worse, the follow up huscarls, led by their overall commander and waving their ‘land-waster’ standard, hit my own overall commander’s unit and forced him to make the decision to run away as fast as possible! Oh, the shame!

A quick overview pic, with the Viking huscarls bursting through my centre!

Meanwhile, on the left flank, my plan had actually worked out rather well.

Three units of milites had faced up to a couple of the lesser-quality Viking bondi units supported by some lights, and used their superior mobility to get around the hairy infantry and into the Viking camp. Six glorious victory medals headed my way as my horsemen remembered their heritage and sacked and plundered the enemy camp for all its worth!

My Viking Longships haven’t arrived yet, so the Viking camp has a weird looking hut in it…and lots of Norman cavalry!

In the centre, however, the Vikings were about to do to me what I had done to them, with their commander’s huscarl unit crashing after my fleeing horse and then into the Norman camp and refusing to be shifted even by William himself!

Fortunately only one half of my camp was taken, but that still meant three victory coins to Kavan!

Casualties were now mounting on both sides, so it was obvious that the battle would be decided on the right where, up to now both sides had cautiously crept towards each other.

Somehow I had managed to get into a decent tactical position where I could get two of my cavalry units onto one of the bondi units but, as I have said before, these deep units are tough and the bondi survived long enough to pull back and get some support.

Not even the toughest Viking, however, can keep taking charges from the front and flank, and so it was here as well. The bondi unit broke and with that Kavan’s final victory medals were spent and the Vikings decided to retreat.

A great game and a very narrow victory for the Normans as I only had five coins left myself.

It was an interesting battle and one where I learnt that Norman cavalry definitely do not want to take on Viking huscarls or bondi units head on, even with lances: the only way is to get around their flanks or hit them two-on-one.

Last of the Norman Milites

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Here are the last of the Norman Milites figures: 15mm miniatures from Museum Miniatures’ CAD designed Z Range.

That’s eleven units of Norman cavalry (88 figures) I’ve painted since the first ones rolled off the production line in February, all of which were painted in ‘eights’ so with each horse and rider painted in a unique colour scheme.

These are lovely figures. I read a review somewhere else on the ‘net criticising them for not having enough depth of detail to take Contrast paints well, but that hasn’t been my experience. I highly recommend the Museum Z Range and now have Sumerians, Classical Indians, some Greeks, and now the Normans.

Must be time to get them onto the tabletop…

Campaign in Milton Keynes

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No, not my attempt to invade the most famous new town of them all but a visit to the annual Campaign wargames show held, would you believe it, in Milton Keynes.

Milton Keynes is only about an hour from me. I’ve actually been there before: once on a geography field trip when I was at school, and once for business about eight years ago.

Campaign is an unusual show in that it takes place in the middle of the MK Central shopping centre. Yes, right in the middle of a mall. As such, besides the usual wargaming folk, you have large numbers of members of the public exposed to our hobby…which is a good thing.

MK Central is the mall to end all malls: it is truly enormous with every chain you can think of in there. The show itself is small: it’s a handful of trade stands, a double fistful of demonstration games and, mostly, a venue for a variety of Ancients competitions.

I think the idea of the show is terrific: our hobby needs a constant supply of new blood to keep it fresh, so exposure from Campaign has got to be a good thing and I applaud the organisers for their efforts.

Here are some pictures from some of the competition games:

TTS AAR: A Day in the Desert

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Another series of mega-games of To The Strongest yesterday!

The premise is as follows:

  • two teams: one of three players, one of two players

  • New Kingdom Egyptians vs Neo-Assyrians

  • Four armies, two identical armies of each, each army is 300 points

  • In the morning, one team takes the Egyptians and the other the Assyrians for two simultaneous 300 point battles

  • In the afternoon, the teams swap armies for two more simultaneous battles

  • Finally one massive 1,200 point battle with each side bidding to play their preferred army by sacrificing victory medals

  • Add up all the points over the five battles and see which team wins

The big pyramid marks the centre of the 18 foot table. The temple at the far end is the end of the battlefield, but there’s a mirror behind it making things look even bigger!

Game One

My morning game involved me using a New Kingdom Egyptian army against Steve and Dillon playing the Neo-Assyrians.

I decided to mass my light chariots to give them a bit more staying power and at first this seemed to be working nicely. My charioteers charged forward and were soon loosing a hail of arrows on the Assyrians.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be something wrong with my bows that day, and I just couldn’t score a hit to save my life. The Assyrians then came forward in return and hammered me in melee. We didn’t finish the game (phew!) but at the final whistle I had lost 7:13 points.

Game Two

For the first afternoon game, I swapped sides and played the Assyrians versus Si taking the Egyptians.

This battle started really well for the Assyrians, going 5-0 up within the first few turns. Unfortunately my luck turned and the cards (it was a new deck as well) decided that they hated me!

It was a hard fought game that we did manage to fight to a conclusion: with me going down 15:21 points.

The Mega-Game

Fortunately my team partner, Peter, had done somewhat better than I had, and we went into the final mega-game only two points behind. We then sacrificed two more victory coins to make sure that we took the Assyrians: so four down in all.

We played this enormous battle as one game in two halves, meaning that there were a couple of times that the two halves got out of sync and one side or the other had to pause and wait for the other to catch up. Dillon, playing in the centre on the enemy side, had to fight Peter with some of his commands and me with what was left. Despite these small speedbumps, the game rattled on at a cracking pace, showing what a robust system To The Strongest is.

Not only was the game cracking, but also very close. We started off with me doing rather well, and Peter doing less well. Then I had a catastrophic turn when I shed victory coins like last year’s fashion (not sure where that metaphor came from!) but recovered to deal out the same treatment to my main opponent, Si, immediately afterwards.

Both Peter and I then continued to alternate good patches with bad patches, calling out our successes (and failures) to the other as they happened. Finally the last Egyptian victory medal was won, and it all came down to how many we had left.

We’d been keeping them in a little pot, and, at first, it looked as if we had hardly any left at all. This was, however, an illusion, as we’d been taking out the big medals as we went along leaving only the little ones behind. The final score was 42:31 to Peter and I, meaning that we had won the day overall.

All in all a great day’s gaming. My thanks to Peter for organising and hosting.

Siculo Norman Cavalry

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As previously mentioned, I’m building my 15mm Norman army out to include Anglo-Normans and Italo-Normans.

One key difference between Norman-Normans and Italo-Normans is the influence that the existing mix of Greeks, Arabs and Lombards had, and I wanted to reflect that in the different troop types/figures that I would field.

The To The Strongest list allows for up to four bases of Norman knights, two bases of Mercenary Knights and two bases of Communal Knights. I could field the Norman knights via my Norman-Norman milites, so just needed a couple of bases of different-looking figures for either the Mercs or the Communal types.

Step forward Baueda (available in the UK via Magister Militum) who actually do figures specifically for the Siculo-Normans…so here they are:

Nice looking figures, although they are distinctly smaller than the Museum Miniatures Z range that I am using for the Norman-Normans. They also all have upright lances in soft metal which, to my mind, just means lots of bent spears that continually need to be straightened.

I decided to hand paint the shields myself rather than use a decal as a base. Not a process I enjoyed, but I did get better at it as I went on. I should really have added Baueda Norman command figures as well, but I wasn’t thinking when I ordered the figures so have no command types and have had to hang the banners on standard lances rather than the extended version that banner-carriers have.

So that you have a direct comparison, here’s another base of standard Norman-Norman milites that I have finished. Only two more of them to do now!

Matching Assyrians

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As mentioned before on this blog, moving from one set of rules to another often involves certain tasks: the dread re-basing being the most common. Close on re-basing’s heels, however, is the need to add more troops to the army, either different troop types or just more figures.

My Assyrians for To The Strongest are a case in point. The collection I had needed a few extra figures for use with TTS, but that was with some single element bases combined into pairs of double element bases. That was fine, and I added a first wave of new figures that you’ll have seen showcased on this blog previously, but did mean that some of the double element pairs didn’t match. The second heavy infantry unit, for example, comprised one element of mixed Spears/Bowmen with one element of either Slingers or Archers. Not a problem on the tabletop, but it just didn’t quite sit right.

So I bit the bullet and ordered enough figures to match the mixed Spears/Bowmen base and set about attempting to paint the new figures to match.

The figures are Chariot Miniatures via Magister Militum - I seem to remember that I wanted a change from the Essex Miniatures that make up most of the army. Here’s the new element, painted and based, front and back:

But does it match the old element, I hear you cry? Not as easy as you might think, as I first painted the Assyrians in 2021, some twenty-two years ago and way before the introduction of the Contrast Paints I use these days.

Here are the two elements together:

The new base is on the right as you look at the picture above. It’s the one without the command figure with the different shield.

Not a bad match.

Obviously I can see every tiny difference, but to the average eye, particularly at the magic 3ft distance, they might as well be identical. Job done!

TFL Painting Challenge: Coronation Bank Holiday Special!

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Well not so much this bank holiday but the last one: as many of you seem to have spent an awful lot of time painting figures!

So, today, we have entries from:

  • Matt Slade with the usual vast numbers of Star Wars figures plus some Italian Wars infantry plus some What A Cowboy gunmen

  • Nick Cooper with a miscellanea of fantasy figures

  • Andrew Helliwell has more late medievals…and whose terrain storage cupboard must be overflowing by now

  • Stumpy with more Napoleonics and some Beau Geste types

  • A superb Bad Squiddo Squid from Ralph

  • Chris Kay also goes all What A Cowboy

  • Sapper does 15mm Goths in a big way

  • Mervyn has some 15mm Greeks and 28mm US Marines

Make sure you visit the individual galleries, but here’s a selection for you to feast your eyes on:

With another bank holiday this weekend, I’ll expect to see a similar amount of entries for next time!

Even More Normans!

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Not much gaming going on at the moment, so I had a chance to finish off some more Normans.

Off the painting table today are two units of light archers, the heroes, and the senior command stand consisting of William the B himself plus Bishop Odo (who you can’t see as he’s behind the flag).

These are more of the 15mm Museum Miniatures CAD designed Z Range, except for five of the Heroes who are from the Splintered Light Norman specials pack. I particularly like the chap at the back charging forward whilst swinging his sword.

I’ve also now ordered a ton of Sicilian and Italian style Norman spearmen from Baueda (via Magister Militum) and Khurasan, plus a few extra cavalry types to represent light cavalry and Sicilian style milites. Looks like I’m going to be painting Normans for some time!

Norman Archers

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Had a real push on finishing the Normans last weekend:

There are two units of Archers and two units of Light Crossbowmen. These are 15mm figures from Museum Miniatures lovely “Z” range of CAD designed minis. Highly recommended for anyone looking for Normans in that scale.

With these figures finished, I can now field Anglo-Normans if I add my Vikings to the roster as quasi-Anglo-Saxon types. I could also field a Norman-Norman army, but it would be a very infantry-heavy one: I’m going to need to paint up some more milites before I can field mostly-mounted Normans.

Salute 2023

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It’s April, so it must be time for the annual pilgrimage to Excel and Salute.

This year, rather than drive, I thought I’d try taking the new Elizabeth line. Going by train would previously have involved a change at Paddington onto the tube, another change at Aldgate onto the DLR and, all in all, be a right pain…but now I got on a train at Maidenhead and got off at Custom House only about an hour later. Extraordinary! And the return trip cost me less than it does to park at Excel all day, so money saved too.

Anyhow, on to the show: the hall in Excel was its usual gloomy self; no real queue to get in; pretty packed in the morning but emptied out after lunch. The best bit of the show, obviously was the Lard Zone, with some spectacular-looking demo games of What A Cowboy; IABSM; Chain of Command; Strength & Honour; and General d’Armee.

There were some great looking non-Lard demo games elsewhere as well, some of which I’ve photographed below. Forgive the variable quality: I was having camera troubles, so some are from my camera and some are from my mobile phone.

I wasn’t shopping for very much, so only bought a few odds and ends, but one thing that did strike me was how little there was on offer for a 15mm gamer such as myself. Essex were there, Forged in Battle were there, Battlefront/FoW “we now only do late war” kit was everywhere, but apart from those three, I don’t think there were any other 15mm manufacturers present. Certainly nothing spectacular and new to spend my money on, and I was ready, willing and able!

So a bit disappointing really, especially as this was supposed to be the 50th Anniversary Salute. Worth going, but very run of the mill :(

TFL Painting Challenge: St George's Day Update

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Or Shakespeare’s birthday update: take your pic!

Lots of entries added this time round, including the return of Steve Burt with some nice Napoleonic British Dragoons and a cornucopia of entries from Matt Slade that are either 10mm or 32mm: switching between the two must be fun for the eyes!

Anyway, please do check out the individual galleries, reachable through the NavBar at the top, but here’s a taster to wet the whistle!

IABSM AAR: Spanish Civil War Action!

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Lee Young and friends recently played out a game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum set in the Spanish Civil War. I missed this on the IABSM Facebook Group, so it’s a pleasure to feature it now. Lee says:

Another great game of IABSM, this time our Wednesday night game takes us back to the Spanish Civil War.

The Nationalist had to break through the Communist line and reach the top of the road to Madrid. Had to do some tweaks to the FT-17s and placed some extra cards in for ammo shortages. Played better than I expected.

FK&P AAR: Widbrooke Common

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Played a second game of For King & Parliament with friend Fred, this time using scenario #02 from the Marlowe to Maidenhythe scenario pack: Widbrooke Common.

I didn’t have my camera with me, so not many photos, and those that there are are from my mobile, but one thing that did stand out about the game was the power of a well placed unit of Forlorn Hope.

For those of you who know the game, Forlorn Hope are the weakest possible units: usually acting as no more than speed bump as they get overrun by better quality battalia. Not in this game however!

Placed occupying a farm house in the centre of the table, Fred’s Forlorn Hope held up two of my full strength standard battalia for the whole game, constantly rendering them Disordered when I got too close, meaning I never really got a chance to properly assault them.

I still won the game, I hasten to add, but would have won it a lot more quickly and effectively if it hadn’t been for the Forlorn Hope.

Here are the other shots of the game that I took:

FK&P AAR: The Attack on Marlowe

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A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I was at school with a chap that everyone called Fred. Not sure quite why, as that wasn’t his name, but I’m thinking it might have been because he just looked like a “Fred” in that he was very large and very strong and had a difficult to spell surname. Or it might have been because he bore more than a slight resemblance to the Scooby Doo character, assuming that Fred Jones lifts, that is!

Fred and I used to wargame at school - mostly Ancients using WRG 6th - but lost touch after he swapped to doing the real thing and joined the army. Flash forward many years and he was now out, had seen me on Linked In, and made contact again. We met up shortly afterwards for a drink or three, and from there it was a very easy transition to arranging a game.

Gaming is very different now to what it was then. In those days, the early to mid-eighties, nothing was quick and nothing was small: a battle was a whole day or weekend affair, minimum, with thousands of 25mm figures on the tabletop and an allowance built into the session’s timetable for colossal, life-threatening rules disputes involving such matters of importance as fractions of inches or degrees; the definition of charging in a straight line; or line of sight arguments that could only be settled by the hiring of a theodolite! Fred used to paint 25mm Minifigs’ Napoleonics with a syringe needle, for God’s Sake, in order to make sure the regimental numbers on the cuffs were legible!

I had no wish to return to those days, especially the “life-threatening rules disputes” as he was still a very large person and now presumably trained to kill, so decided upon a game of For King and Parliament, the English Civil War version of To The Strongest. FK&P is a cracking game that, to my mind, really captures the look and feel of the period to give reasonably realistic results with fast-play mechanics. It’s grid based, obviating a lot of the disputes about measuring, and driven by drawing playing cards.

We used the first scenario from my Marlowe to Maidenhythe scenario pack, with both sides acknowledging that this first game would be a training session more than anything else. Fred took the Royalists, on the attack versus my Parliamentarians.

Fred’s first question: where was the grid? It is there, but indicated in a way that doesn’t interfere with the look of the game.

I won’t describe the battle in detail, but suffice to say that it was a grinding win for the Royalists.

What was interesting, however, was seeing Fred reacting to the different challenges he faced, drawing on military rather than wargaming experience. My battalia were to be “located and fixed in place” before being destroyed by an attack from the flank, so Fred immediately understood the concept of a Zone of Control or ZoC, and proved very good at the fixing and destroying bit.

An advantage was to be “immediately followed up” with the emphasis being on a series of consecutive hammer blows rather than necessarily conserving damaged units. It was all very interesting, and we both enjoyed the game immensely.

Here are some more shots of the battle:

TFL Painting Challenge: First April Update

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A large number of entries from a small number of people this week.

We have Matt Slade with more Star Wars figures; Sapper and Mr Helliwell with their WOTR collections; the usual assortment from Nick Cooper; and some Cuban militia from Mark Luther.

Do visit the individual galleries, accessible via the Nav bar above, but here’s a taster for you in the meantime:

IABSM AAR: Action at Galmanche

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I hope that everyone can be lucky enough to play in one of Phil Turner’s excellently presented and run games of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum. I did so at one of the Operation Market Larden events, and enjoyed myself immensely.

Here’s another game from Phil that uses one of the scenarios from the rulebook. Click on the picture below to see all…