With plenty of time remaining and the table and figures all set up, Bevan and I decided to swap sides and play again: I would take the Papal Italians (proxied by a Burgundian Ordnance army) and Bevan would play the Sicilio-Normans.

Now if I thought my luck was bad in the last game, in this game it really fell off a cliff!

On the right flank I lost a unit of Knights to some scummy Sicilian light cavalry, leaving a huge hole in my line that enemy Knights immediately exploited. I did manage to get a breakthrough of my own going, but it took longer than it should and the battle ended elsewhere before I could take full advantage.

On the left, I got into the perfect position to do some damage, but the cards weren’t with me, and my glorious flank charges fizzled out unsuccessful!

Meanwhile, the Sicilio-Norman infantry ground forward in the centre and, with what I had lost already and the fall of my camp to the enemy Knights that had broken through, I was soon out of victory medals.

A frustrating game: as Bevan said afterwards, I didn’t do anything tactically wrong…it’s just the cards didn’t fall my way. To misquote the great Les Dawson: I had all the cards I needed, just in the wrong order!

No matter, these things happen. At least I could get my revenge in quickly, as we were due a couple of games of For King & Parliament, Eastern Front Variant in 24 hours time, with my Transylvanians facing the Muscovites. But more on that later…