TTS AAR: Britcon Game 5: Venetians vs Florentines

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My final game at Britcon this year was against another Italian Condotteri army: Nigel’s Florentines.

Although technically a different army to mine (an Early Italian Condotteri army versus my Later one, and from Florence as opposed to Venice), Nigel’s force was actually/obviously quite similar to mine, with the contemporaneous nature of the clash promising an interesting game.

As you can see in the picture below, we even deployed in a similar way!

The oppening phases of the game saw both sides plagued by a series of Aces, something I had (quite surprisingly!) managed to avoid in the tournament so far.

Nevertheless, the Venetian Knights advanced strongly on the left wing, and managed to get into a position where I could threaten to roll up the Florentine line, with the only thing standing in their way being a couple of units of enemy Lights…

…who were disposed of in short order:

My other command of Knights was also in the process of doing the same thing on the other side of the battlefield:

Back to the left flank, where my initial success was now being slightly stymied by a combination of a really annoying unit of enemy Knights that just wouldn’t die and my decks of cards who had obviously decided that I had been having far too easy up until now:

Despite this, however, the rest of my troops on that flank had started to knock Florentine units off the board, helped by the Venetian infantry who had now caught up and were eager to join in the fun.

Things were also still going well on the right flank apart, again, for one really annoying enemy unit: this time a bunch of Light Infantry with Melee Weapons: a relatively new troop type who had the temerity to charge my overall commander, with army standard, bodyguard knights etc, in the flank!

I remember this being a deeply frustrating phase of the game, where a couple of Florentine units on the wings distracted me so much that it kept me from properly enjoying the process of destroying his centre…but the writing was on the walls of Florence and soon Nigel’s last victory medal was mine for a 181-38 point victory.

With all five games now done, as organiser I totted up everyone’s points from all the games and discovered, a bit to my embarrassment, that I was actually the overall winner, and with a clean sweep of five victories out of five.

So a good result at what had beena cracking tournament overall. All the games were fought with a great spirit of friendly, competitive, fair play, with no arguments marring the event at all.

My thanks to all those who took part (especially my opponents), to all the organisers at BHGS, and to Derek, who was kind enough to do all the list checking. Make sure you keep 7-9th August 2025 clear for next year’s competition.

First of the Hittites

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I mentioned in a previous post that I was so happy with the 3D printed Red Copper New Kingdom Egyptians that I had printed by Baueda to fill in the gaps of my newly-rebased NKE army that I decided to do what I’ve been wanting to do for some time and get a 15mm Hittite army for them to fight.

I duly ordered the figures, again getting Red Copper 3D sculpts printed by Baueda (under a week to print the figures, only four days in the post from Italy) and went to work, starting with a base of Hittite chariotry and a base of the Royal Guard.

The chariots are, again, fantastic sculpts. The chariot bodies come with very clearly defined panels, making it very easy to get the striped effect you can see above. These were painted all over in a dark colour, then highlighted in a lighter version of the same colour, standard acrylics.

The crew are as easy to paint as the NKE infantry were, and are, as you can hopefully see, full of character. The three charioteers actually fit into the chariot body without being too crowded: snug but not rush-hour tube, and have plenty of variants to make the base look unique.

The horses are the most fun to paint. Again, clear relief and detail to show you exactly where to put the paint. I used Contrast Snakebite Leather highlighted with Bronze for the armoured coats, and a combination of the same colours I’d used on the chariot body for the tack.

The Royal Guard came out really well too. I decided to make them uniform to suggest they were regulars, intending to dress the Spearman units, when I come to do them, in different coloured robes and without the same uniformity in shield colours.

There are plenty of poses, they are easy to paint, and ther was only a minimal amount of 3D flash on them.

Both the chariots and the Guard are highly recommended.

TTS AAR: Britcon Game 4: Venetians vs Thessalians

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My fourth game at Britcon was a re-match of the warm-up game I’d had on the Friday evening before the tournament started: my Venetians versus Adrian’s Thessalians.

The stakes this time around, however, were much higher: we were ranked one and two in the tournament so far, so whoever won this game would end up perfectly placed to take the title. It would be fair to say that I was a little nervous about this one: my Venetians had been hammered on the Friday night (as in soundly beaten not drunk as a lord!) and I couldn’t afford to let that happen again.

The Thessalians were another largely infantry army, and I’d beaten three of them already during the competition by sending my Knights around one or both flanks. Adrian, however, was far too canny to give me the opportunity to do that: his men were deployed to cover just about the entire width of the table, so no room around the sides!

His left flank, however, did look a bit weaker than his right and centre (where those nasty veteran Hoplites were waiting) so if I couldn’t go around a flank, I determined to punch through it using my larger command of Knights. First off, however, I had to deal with Adrian’s cavalry there, who were attempting to do to me what I’d done to others!

In the meantime, I kept my main line rigidly under control, just advancing far enough forward to give me a little retreating space should I need it.

Things continued to go well on my right: the Thessalian cavalry were disposed off (either routing or retreating off table) and, more importantly, two of my Knights units were now free to crash right the way through to the enemy base line.

Meanwhile battle had been joined in the centre, with the combination of Alabardiers and Picchieri proving more than a match for the Thessalian Hoplites, with the threat of a single unit of Knights enough to keep Adrian’s right wing forces at bay.

The Knights on the right finally properly broke through, with one unit heading for and taking the enemy camp (despite the best efforts of some pesky enemy light infantry) and the other crashing into the rear of the Thessalian reserve.

The game should have ended here in a Venetian victory but, unfortunately, I had made a mistake on my right flank: I had positioned my Knights and Lights there to keep the enemy light cavalry that had retreated off table from coming back onto the board, but forgot what they were there for and decided to “get my Lights back into the battle”. This let Adrian bring his light cavalry back onto the table, meaning that when his camp fell, he had one coin left rather than none.

How annoying!

The writing was, however, on the wall, and it was only a matter of time before I managed to get the extra coin I needed to win the game, but it was a pain in the backside and could have let Adrian back into the match.

Fortunately I managed to take the final coin needed before his Hoplites could relieve his camp: a 188-23 victory for the Venetians.

IABSM AAR: Somewhere in Normandy

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Here are some great pictures from a game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum played in 20mm by Mercian Miniatures, taken from the IABSM Facebook Group.

TFL Painting Challenge: Final August Update

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Peopl seemed to send their entries in just after I’d done the mid-August update, so thatseems to me like a good excuse to a small, but perfectly formed, final August update to the Painting Challange.

First up, we have Chris Kay, who sends us a mix of Star Wars Legion and WW2 BEF figures for us to admire:

Next we have the ever-productive Mr Helliwell, who has entered a mix of figures and some very nice home-made terrain:

Steve Burt has built a factory:

Last but by no means least, Stumpy has sent in a mix of painting and re-basing:

And so we’re into September: the last four months of the Challenge year!

TTS AAR: Britcon Game 3: Venetians vs the Sea Peoples

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With the Zanj Revolt and Spartans already defeated, it was now time to face Howard’s beautifully painted Sea Peoples: another infantry-heavy army.

Having beaten two infantry armies by curling the Knights around one flank, I thought it would be rude not to go for a third win that way, so deployed much as I had done in the first two games.

The terrain was unfortunately quite heavy on either flank, with annoying woods all over the place, but all would be good if I could temp the Sea Peoples forward a bit into the more open centre of the table, where I could either get round the back of their line or just curl in on their flanks.

The sight of my line slowly advancing forward did indeed prove too much of a temptation for the SP’s and, even better, rather than attacking all at once, they dripped their warriors forward in a quasi-echelon formation meaning that the Venetian pichieri (pikemen) and alabardieri (billmen) could gang up on the lead unit and very quickly remove it from the board.

Even the mighty Goliath couldn’t stop the combination of pikemen and billmen

Meanwhile, I had made a bit of an error on my right flank.

The two units of Knights who were supposed to be keeping the enemy busy there had got themselves jammed up against the edge of the table and the piece of randomly-placed Impassable terrain and, faced by the SP’s elite chariots, had failed to punch through.

This left them horribly exposed to a flank attack, that duly went in, and my Knights disappeard off into the distance, bitterly complaining that their contracts stated that they delivered the flank attacks not the other way around!

My only consolation was that this little action had tied up quite a lot of the Sea Peoples’ force away from the main action, meaning that I could now try and follow Mr Riding’s principle of fighting the half of the SP’s army that was left elsewhere on the table with the two thirds of mine that faced them.

Back to the left, and my outflanking manoeuvre had been gloriously successful, which meant that I had managed to totally fragment the Sea Peoples’ main battle line.

This meant that my roving Knights could gang up on isolated warbands while my infantry ground inexorably forward.

Now hemorraging coins, it wasn’t long before the final Sea Peoples’ unit fell, leaving the Venetians masters of the field, with the coup de grace fittingly delivered from the left flank.

The only downside was that the loss of the Knights on the right had cost me more coins than I wanted, so the victory was a more modest 169-62 in my favour.

With three wins out of three so far, that left me in pole position at the end of day one. That meant that the next morning I would face Adrian’s Thessalians again - yes, the ones I had lost the warm-up game to just before the tournament began - with the winner then able to be fairly confident of victory overall.

Time for a curry - with only a modest amount of alcohol - and an early night!

Red Copper Miniatures: New Kingdom Egyptians

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One of the things about re-basing an army is that you almost always end up needing some more figures…and that was the case with my 15mm New Kingdom Egyptians, now based for To The Strongest but short one commander and one unit of Billmen.

I’m also a fan of 3D printed figures: I like the fact that they don’t weigh as much as metal, are often slightly cheaper, and can give a level of animation you don’t often get with traditionally cast models.

One of the manufacturers that I have long wanted to try are Red Copper Miniatures, who specialise in biblical period figures with ranges of Hittites, Sea Peoples, Ancient Hebrews and, of course, New Kingdom Egyptians.

The only drawback is that as I don’t yet have a 3D printer of my own, and Red Copper just provide the STL files not finished models, I needed to find someone to print the models for me. A bit of time spent on the Internet showed me several companies in the UK that would print them, many via Etsy, but they all seemed very expensive for what you get. Step forward our old friends Baueda, based in Italy, but with a flat charge of €12.50 for p&p, who will 3D print all the Red Copper biblical range no problem at all.

I put in a test order, and a couple of weeks later a nice little box arrived with enough models to complete my Egyptians.

So, what did I think?

Well let’s get what I don’t like out of the way first: the figures have no bases. Which is a pain when you’re trying to stick them on to lolly sticks to paint them. I had to revert to putting them onto individual little pieces of card (old business cards cut into six squares!) before I could undercoat them.

Second thing: because the models are resin, and mounted on little pieces of card, you have to be careful when undercoating that the force of the spray doesn’t blow the figures all over the place.

Right…next…no: that’s it. Those are the only two things I didn’t like about the Red Copper 3D Egyptians: the slight annoyance of no bases.

So what did I like?

Everything else!

These figures are superb, truly superb. Look at what I managed to produce even with my rudimentary painting skills.

These were undercoated in GW Grey Seer, then painted in white Contrast paint. The white was then highlighted with acrylic white, and then the rest of the figure painted with Contrast paints or, for the bronze, a standard acrylic metallic.

The animation and detail are excellent: and the only reason they don’t look even better is that I’ve based them (following how I’ve based the rest of the Egyptians) as two identical lines rather than a unit of mixed poses.

Pharaoh’s chariot is just as good. The only negative is the way the wheels attach to the body of the chariot: I’m not sure I did it right, but it seems you just glue the end of the axle on the main body to the end of the axle on the wheel i.e. two very small surface areas rather than some kind of pin-and-hole device.

Overall, these are an excellent addition to my New Kingdom Egyptians…and I’ve been so inspired by the Red Copper scultps that I’ve ordered a Hittite army to fight them!

Highly, highly recommended!

TTS AAR: Britcon Game 2: Venetians vs the Spartans!

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My second game at the Britcon To The Strongest tournament this year was against Andy’s Spartans - another infantry-heavy army.

This was going to be a horrible army for my Venetians to fight: veteran Hoplite Spartiates backed up by more Hoplites, backed up by even more Hoplites. How’s a Knight supposed to charge into that lot and survive?

One advantage I had was that I would almost certainly outscout the red cloaks, and this did indeed prove the case. I therefore adopted the same tactics that I had used against the Zanj in game one, and came forward infantry in the center to pin his line in place, while my Knights probed for a flank to turn.

And either or both flanks would do!

But the thing about Hoplites is that they can more really well in one direction and not at all in the other: my problem is that I couldn’t remember which was which! Was it right good,/left bad or left good/right bad?

As it turned out, it was right good/left bad, so that Spartans slewed across the field in an attempt to stop me getting around their right flank. Unfortunately for the Greeks, my horsemen were faster than them, and soon my mounted crossbowmen and some of the Knights on the left were looking at Spartan backsides!

On top of that, I was also in a position to use more of my Knights on the right flank, although some Spartan allies there had turned to face my assualt.

On the left hand side, Andy’s problem was that his men couldn’t face in two directions at once: a problem made worse when the first flank charge from my mounted crossbowmen and some Knights killed the general in charge of the Spartiates. They would have to fight the rest of the battle without Leonidas!

Spartans are tough, though, and it was going to take me a bit of time to chew through them, even with the tactical advantages that I now had.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the field, my Knights and Lights had worked in perfect harmony (for once!) and cleared the Spartan allies from the field.

I would lose the Lights and one unit of Knights clearing more off the board here, so it was the left flank where the battle would be decided.

There I had by now dealt with one unit of Spartiates, and now threatened the rear of two more.

Andy was still unwilling to commit his men to frontal charges against my Knights facing forwards, presumably worried about the fact that if he charged me, although he would get the first strike, it was likely my Knights would survive that and then strike back twice with their lances, and strike back at Spartans who had given up all the advantages that formed spearmen get when receiving a mounted charge.

That meant that I had both the tactical positional advantage and the initiative, so could attack and defeat the Hoplite unit on the hill you can just see in the picture above with a combination of in-the-rear and in-the-front attacks. This removed a Zone of Control, allowing me to then start to roll up the rest of the Spartan line.

The loss of multiple deep units was also hurting Andy’s supply of victory medals, and it only really took one more unit of Spartiates, again beleaguered on two sides, breaking to finish the game. A victory at 177 points versus 54 points for the Venetians.

F4freddie Terra Firma

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Britcon is more than just a gigantic tournament, it’s a trade show as well and, by dint of planning it that way, all the To The Strongest players had time to have a wander around the various stands in between their games.

One trader that caught my eye was one I hadn’t seen before: F4freddie Terra Firma. I have no connection with them at all, I hasten to add (I don’t even game WW2 in 28mm!), but loved what they had on show: especially all the unique items they have to “dress” a tabletop.

What first caught my eye were the washing lines you can see top right in this picture:

Then there were the Anderson (air raid) shelters, ponds and pig styes etc that you can see below:

Then all the gardens and houses and huts…you get the picture:

Really nice, quirky pieces that would really make any battlefield come alive!

F4freddie have an Etsy shop that you can find here: etsy.com/uk/shop/F4freddieTerraFirma

As I said, I have no connection to them whatsoever, but do feel free to mention Vis Lardica if you buy anything from them!

TTS AAR: Britcon Game 1: Venetians vs Zanj Revolt

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My first tournament game at Briton this year was against John’s Zanj Revolt army: hordes of fanatical warriors who would keep fighting at full capacity no matter how many times you disorder them. My troops were missing the canals 0f Venice already!

As the Zanj had no cavalry, I won the scouting, and was pleased to see the enemy drawn up in what looked like a defensive posture to me. The last thing I had wanted was to face an unbroken wall of foot units stretching right the way across the table, so the open flank on one side of the Zanj formation seemed like an opportunity to be exploited.

I duly advanced my infantry slightly forward in the centre (always give yourself a little retreat room just in case you need it) while sending the Knights cantering forward on the left flank.

The Zanj weren’t moving: obviously hoping to act as a rock on which the waves of my assault would break, so I took the time they had given me to get my troops just where I wanted them.

John’s refused right flank, however, didn’t give me what I really needed: a clear path, free of ZoCs, into the side of main Zanj body of troops. It was time to try and break things up a bit: time to send in my main line.

My initial advance to contact didn’t go too well: the Alabardiers and a unit of Knights being disordered, but a quick step backwards began to open things up a bit, certainly enough to deploy one unit of my outflanking force into position.

A lot of the Zanj were on the right hand side of the table, facing air…so they ganged up on the only unit of mine that they could reach: more Knights. For once, however, the Knights did what they were supposed to do, and punched through the warriors in front of them to escape the threat.

In the right hand picture above, you can also see how John’s echelon formation was keeping my outflanking force at bay…but all I needed was one chink in the Zanj armour and I was in!

That came as my re-ordered infantry pushed forward again, leaving a lane behind them for my flanking knights to cross the entire field and crash the side of the Zanj force on the ‘empty’ side of the table: as I said, they had been advancing forward so had got out of touch with the rest of their troops.

As the Zanj line fragmented, I was now able to gang up on their individual units. What this meant was that although the Zanj warriors and most of my men fought the same way, because the Zanj (as fanatics) saved very badly, I was able to inflict significantly more hits than I took, and even deep units can’t stand forever.

Zanj warriors began streaming from the field, leaving the Venetians with a 188-23 victory (we were using Peter’s Ewelme points system): a good start to the tournament proper.

A good win, but one that left me facing a tough opponent in round two: the Spartans!

TTS AAR: Britcon Warm-Up: Venetians vs Thessalians

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One of the high points of the To The Strongest calendar year has to be the Britcon tournament: with five games over two days, it is the marathon event on the competition circuit.

This year’s Britcon was going to be even busier for me than normal as I had stepped in to run the TTS event after the original organiser had had to pull out.

Tradition has it that any early birds who arrive on the Friday night can play a warm-up game with whoever else is there, so my Venetians therefore found themselves lining up opposite the Thessalians, ably commanded by Adrian, last year’s winner.

The Thessalians are quite intimidating: a command of veteran Hoplites ideal for defending against a cavalry charge, a command of meaty heavy cavalry, then all sorts of support troops including a couple of veteran Peltast and small Hoplite units. This was not going to be an easy warm up!

At this point I wasn’t sure what my plan was…but I did know that it didn’t involve letting a couple of units of enemy light cavalry sneak around my left flank almost as soon as the battle began!

Those pesky lights forced me to drop back the Knights I had on that flank, causing me to spend the first half of the game with one eye constantly on what was happening there. Definitely not good for the concentration!

Fortunately, as you can see in the right-hand picture, below, I did manage to contain Adrian’s troops there, even managing to also see off the Thessalian cavalry that had come forward in support.

Meanwhile, my Knights on the other side of the table were trying to get forward to turn the Thessalian left flank.

This, however, just wasn’t working for me, although I can’t remember why. All I do know is that my Knights there were somewhat roughly handled by some more pesky lights and the veteran Peltasts forming the end of Adrian’s main battle line, and that this allowed the Thessalian Hoplites to get into contact with my infantry.

The Knights on the right just couldn’t seem to get involved. One unit, the one with the general and army standard, languished disordered at the back of the board covered by a small unit of enemy veteran Hoplites. The other was still trying to chew their way through a unit of enemy veteran Peltasts. Not a very good performance from the Knights.

There was other fighting still going on over the rest of the battlefield, but by now my units were fighting as individual elements, not together as part of a line.

The end, as they say, was nigh…with the coup de grace being delivered as a hoard of Hoplites smashed their way into my camp, the Lights I had left there as guards proving no more than a speedbump for the Greeks, despite fighting from behind fortifications.

So a 4-13 loss for my warm-up game: not a very auspicious start to my campaign. Let’s hope the Venetians learnt some lessons for the tournament proper…!

TFL Painting Challenge: Mid-August Update

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Let’s do a quick Painting Challenge update before I head off into the tunnel that is six To The Strongest after action reports from Britcon.

First up is John Emmett, with ten 28mm buildings that he put together for an Arnhem project:

Next we have some French from Sapper: Normans in 15mm and Napoleonics in 28mm:

Steve Burt has sent in a couple of models to make the Nazis tremble:

And last, but my absolutely no means least (in fact, quite the opposite), we have Andrew Helliwell with a collection of terrain pieces and a few figures:

More to see in the individual galleries.

Keep them coming!

TTS AAR: Burgundians versus Celts

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

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

view from the ancient british side of the table

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • guard your flanks

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

  • use your lights in the enemy flanks

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

Happy Valley...if you're a Roundhead!

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Friend Rob and I continued on our playthrough of the The Siege of Norchester campaign book for For King & Parliament with the Happy Valley scenario.

G0ing into the game, the Parliamentarians were way behind the Royalists in terms of overall victory medals to date, so this was a great chance to not only stop the Cavalier relief force from getting through to Norchester, but also to gain back some of the deficit.

The photo above shows the table at the start of the game. Although not very obvious, the road runs through the middle of the valley, with the terrain gradually rising up each side.

The Parliamentarians, with home field advantage, are drawn up in the traditional manner, but the Royalists have a problem: they start the game with their horse in the centre on the road (well, they insisted, and being the officers…) and their infantry (a lot of mobs raised from local supporters) largely on the wings.

Bpth sides began the game advancing their cavalry forward, with the Royalist horse heading sideways on their right to counter the threat of the Roundhead Dutch-style squadrons.

On the Parliamentarian left, two squadrons of horse thundered towards the lone enemy infantry unit blocking the way through to the Royalist rear.

That infantry unit would hold the enemy force off for the whole game, even sending one squadron reeling backwards to reform.

On the other wing, three squadrons of Roundhead horse faced three squadrons of Royalist horse: the Parliamentarians being more numerous but still operating in the somewhat obsolete Dutch style versus the more modern Swedish style of their opponents.

Despite their old-fashioned ways, the Parliamentarians smashed their way through the Royalist horse, crashing in to the unfortunate mobs behind, most of whom were soon regretting their decision to join the Norchester crusade!

Back to the centre, where the Parliamentarian infantry was rushing forward to catch up with the cavalry:

A general engagement soon broke out across the line:

Miraculously, one unit of Borders Horse, on their flea-bitten nags, survived a colossal charge by some Royalist horse, drawing four consecutive save cards when one more failure would have meant they fled the table.

Elsewhere in the centre, the opposing infantry were locked into a firefight, each side firing off huge amounts of ammunition hoping to break their foe.

Sheer weight of numbers now came into play, with the Parliamentarians able to deploy more regular soldiers into the fight in the centre: the Royalist mobs there effectively neutralised by the Roundhead horse.

Luck had also deserted the King’s men: if the Cavalier cavalry had broken through on the right, they could have rampaged in the Parliamentarian rear, but they just couldn’t get the final charge needed to clear their path.

With their left and centre lost, the Royalist relief force had no choice but to withdraw before the Parliamentarians combined to overwhelm the survivors. Norchester would not now be relieved!

This turned out to be a big victory for Ollie Cromwell’s men: putting me now two victory medals in front in the campaign overall.

Here are some more panoramic shots of the game:

TTS AAR: The Beardless King Strikes Again

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Having spent all that time and effort re-basing my New Kingdom Egyptians, I now wanted to get them onto the table.

No wargaming friends were available (you just can’t get the staff these days!) so I persuaded (i.e. bribed) daughter number two to put aside her computer games and face me over the tabletop. I would take the Egyptians, she elected to lead the Italo-Normans into battle.

The Italo-Normans deployed with their infantry and camp on their far right, lurking behind a couple of hills. Their knights, half of them Veterans, were in the centre of the table.

I deployed the Egyptians in the traditional way: a command of chariots on either flank with the massed infantry in the centre. My plan was, somewhat obviosuly, to sweep the chariots forward in an attempt to outflank the enemy whilst pelting them with bow-fire. Meanwhile my infantry would be a rock on which the Norman knights could dash themselves to pieces.

Well, as Mike Tyson famously said, everyone has a plan until you get a punch in the face!

I opened proceedings with, as per the plan, a major advance forward with the chariots. The cards favoured me on the right, with one command ending the turn in prime position.

The Normans responded by advancing their infantry forward onto the hills in front of their camp, sending a unit of Knights to handle my massed Light Chariots on their left wing, and an all out advance in the centre: the Beardless King saying later that her strategy was to attack, attach and then attack some more!

On the left hand side of the table, my other command of massed Light Chariots were somewhat surprised when the Norman infantry (deep Spearmen) came down off the hills and headed for them, murder in mind. Didn’t they know they are supposed to stay on their hill and get peppered with arrows until they break?

I duly retreated back before the advance, loosing arrow after arrow to not a huge effect: a pattern of activity that would be repeated until the end of the game. I would have to win elsewhere!

Meanwhile in the centre, the Normans were coming forward fast.

One unit of Knights hit the Shardana Royal Guard (the Sea Peoples types) and smashed them straight off the table!

The rest of the Knights closed with the main Egyptian infantry line.

On the right flank, the other chariots division had split their efforts. Half of them now faced the Knights that had defeated the Royal Guard, the other half (the ones down the other Norman side of the table) opened fire on the Knights that had been sent to contain them and, in due course, shot them down.

The victorious chariots then turned and headed back to the main action: let’s see how the Norman cavalry like a chariot charge in the rear!

Unfortunately, however, the Egyptian infantry line was in deep trouble and, before the chariots could intervene, just collapsed under the weight of the charges of the Norman Knights.

So that was it! The relentless charges of both the Norman knights in the centre and the Spearmen in the left had driven the New Kingdom Egyptians from the field.

The Beardless King, triumphant, slunk back to her screens!

TFL Painting Challenge: First August Update

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The last couple of weeks have seen plenty of entries into the Painting Challenge.

First up is Sapper, with some rather nice French Napoleonics:

Next up is Mr Cooper, with a huge “catch-up” entry from the last couple of months. Here’s a selection of what he’s sent in:

Mark Luther has sent in some more 6mm aeroplanes. Here’s a niche offering: former FAA Hampdens flown in as convoy escorts that were left for the Soviets. I remember these from the RAF books my father had from before WW2!

Jonathan Davenport has been painting up the 64th (2nd Staffordshire) Regiment, along with a few outriders and plenty of guns:

Good to see that other people’s painting tabels look like mine!

Next is another big entry from Andrew Helliwell: a combination of figures and terrain. Plenty more to see in Andrew’s gallery, accessible from the NavBar at the top of the page.

Finally, here’s Mr Douglas and Mr Burt’s entries: Mervyn with some native North Americans, and Steve with some Italieri tank obstacles.

Do make sure you get to the individual galleries as well: lots of inspiration to feed off!

IABSM AAR: New Player's First Game

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Richard T from the IABSM Facebook Group played his first game the other day, and here are a few photos of the battle.

Richard commented:

Our first game ! Pretty fun day was had. Think they tick all the boxes for me, really like the 'blinds' and the activation deck particularly. Command, control and communications are simple and smooth...wonderful. Early days still, but I have high hopes.

Lovely looking figures: I really like that style of painting.

Re-Basing the Egyptians

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I’ve been thinking about re-basing my New Kingdom Egyptians for some time.

Their old bases (dating back to 2001) are made of cardboard and are just starting to curl up slightly at the edges, and whilst the Vis Bellica element system will work with To The Strongest (anything works with TTS!) it isn’t absolutely ideal.

Once that decision had been made, it was time to get the figures off their old bases. This is always the most nerve-wracking part of the job: will the figures’ paint be affected by the re-basing process? how many figures will I break as I take them off the old bases etc.

I use the tried and tested “soak them overnight in water” method, placing the figures in the packaging you get with terrain tufts: ideal trays about half a centimetre deep.

I was abit worried about the chariots: the old glue points of two wheels, two horses, and the yoke across the horses’ backs complicating matetrs a bit. In the end, however, although a few chariot wheels did fall off, they were easily glued back on, and any damage to the back-cloths draped over the horses was also easy to fix once I had correctly matched the colours needed.

I decided to go with the official Big Red Bat bases for TTS, which arrived very quickly after I had ordered them. The chariots would, as they were light, go two to a base, giving me eight individual or four “massed lights” chariot bases. The close order infantry would go 24 to a base: neatly matching two Vis Bellica elements. The lights would neatly fit on a TTS light base: seven figures for the akirmishing archers and nine figures for the javelin-armed chariot runners.

Once the figures were glued in place, I covered each base with GW Armageddon Dunes, left it to dry for a couple of hours, then dry brushed with whatever the GW bone colour is called these days, finally neatening all the edges with GW Tallaren sand.

The fifteen standard bases, four light bases and eight command bases used up three pots of Armageddon Dunes with the only issue being that each pot dried to a slightly different colour. Not sure why that was, but it was probably down to the different ages of pot: I was digging deep into my new pot depository!

Once all the paint was dry, I dressed the bases with as many different coloured tufts as I could find, placing them all in random positions.

In all I re-based nineteen chariots, 200 infantry and one lion…taking two days to do so. Well worth it, particularly as I discovered that I really needed another command chariot and another infantry unit to ensure I had everything I’d need for a 150 point army: any excuse to buy more figures!

So the Egyptians are now ready to rock, and will deploy in four divisions: Amun, Re, Ptah and Set. Can’t wait to get them back on the table.

TTS AAR: To The Longest Game Three: Venetians versus WOTR Yorkist

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The afternoon game at the 2024 To The Longest event was a maga-game where everybody would fight at once. In effect, this meant eight games of To The Strongest played simultaneously, with movement of troops from one table to another allowed.

My opponent was Steve and his Wars of the Roses Yorkist army, with all its units based and painted to its historical equivalents. It was a very good looking army consisting of bows, billmen and knights: not a combination to be lightly dismissed. Terrain-wise. the left side of the battlefield was dominated by another ruined monastery, impassable to mounted troops. In addition, lunchtime rain meant that the ploughed fields that had been good going in the morning were now rough ground. The presence of the monastery determined my deployment: infantry on the left, with my Knights on the right.

The picture above was taken after the game had been going for couple of turns. On the left you’ll see Steve advancing some infantry through the monastery grounds and, on the far right, my Knights advancing forward in an attempt to turn the Yorkist left flank where, actually, the game had started quite well for me: one units of Knights managing to drive some Yorkist knights from the field.

All seemed to be going well until, that is, we each deployed our final commands (in To The Longest, you started with one command off table until the end of the first turn).

I put my final lot of Knights onto the table centre-right, where they could either re-inforce the centre or follow up on any success on the right, but Steve deployed a huge command of billmen and bowmen right opposite where my original Knights were trying to turn his flank, neatly plugging the gap at the end of his line.

The picture below shows my original Knights on the right retreating in the face of this mass of veteran infantry!

With an advance on the right now looking a tad dangerous, I switched my efforts to the left and centre.

In the centre, my newly-arrived Knights and some infantry managed to clear some light units out of the way and then punch a hole through the Yorkist line. This was good, and I now threatened the enemy camp, but there was a huge mass of Yorkist units (seven of them) on the right hand side of the table and it would not be good if they pivoted through 90 degrees and headed to their right.

I needed to keep them occupied to their front, so my main body of Knights retreated back just far enough to keep the enemy pinned in place whilst I frantically worked out how to win the game elsewhere.

On the left, my light handgunners had put themselves into pole position for the “men of the match” award by managing to drive back the enemy infantry trying to infiltrate my left through the monastery grounds. They, supported by the Lancieri (spear) and Pichierrii (pike) had actually driven the Yorkists back onto their own side of the table, even though the enemy had survived several flank attacks from the ‘gunners.

The pikemen, after their humiliation in the last game, were also on a roll, squeezing through the gap between woods and fields to drive an enemy unit from the field.

I really needed to finish the game now: my Knights were running out of retreating room on the right, and although I had cleared the enemy centre, his troops on the right were starting to do what I’d feared they might: move to their right to re-take the ground I’d taken in the middle of the field, knocking off my units there from the flank.

Taking the enemy camp would do nicely, and I had a unit of Knights in position to do that…but the camp was defended and I’d had some bad experiences in the past trying to take a fortified camp with mounted troops.

So that left the pikemen…who could take the camp with an easy move forward and then a difficult diagonal move into the undefended portion of the Yorkist camp.

I drew a card for the easy move: a “10”.

Well, they certainly were keen, but were now presumably puffing and blowing and not in the mood to go again. Or were they? Only another natural “10” would get them into the camp and win the game for the Venetians…

Lady Luck had, for a change, smiled on me and my pikemen marched neatly into the Yorkist camp costing Steve his last three coins. Victory was mine 14:5!

So a decent final game for the Venetians, although it didn’t stop the English winning the event overall.

A great day’s gaming: many thanks to Peter for organising, and to all the players, especially my three opponents.