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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TTS AAR: Aghlabids versus Gauls

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Time for some more To The Strongest, and a clash between my Aghlabids and friend John’s Gauls: not exactly an historical match-up, but would hopefully give a good game!

As the Gallic horde was quite infantry heavy, my plan was to use my superior numbers of mounted troops on the right to smash the enemy horse from the table before turning and rolling the Celts up from that flank. This was helped by the Take the High Ground stratagem that I had drawn.

A good opening card saw my troops get into the perfect position to charge, but then the Card Gods punished me for hubris and my attack stopped dead. This gave the initiative to the Gauls, but it seemed that John had earned the CG’s wrath as well, as he forgot Trevor’s Law - “Always start with the General” - and also failed to charge home.

With my move on the right stymied, I tried the same thing on the left, with almost exactly the same result!

With the flanks getting nowhere, I move my infantry up to try and weaken the Gallic warbands with bowfire.

Back to the right flank, where my Arab cavalry finally charged home. An initial success was followed by multiple turns of frustration as the disordered Gallic horse in front of me just wouldn’t break, John saving time and time again.

Here’s an overview of the position so far:

Things continued to go wrong for me on the flanks. On the right, the Gallic chariots managed to send my other unit of Arab cavalry flying from the field…leaving me with a tactical advantage but not the crushingly dominant position I had hoped for!

And on the left I lost my Arab lancers and would spend the rest of the game with my two units of lights dancing around trying not to be killed as they harried the flanks of more Gallic cavalry and chariots!

The Gallic infantry warbands now started to move forward in the centre. I sent volley after volley of bowfire into them from my infantry, but John was saving and/or rallying like a demon, and although I did earn four coins from the Gauls drawing even cards for the latter, the writing was now firmly on the wall for the Arabs.

A last attempt on the right to save the day failed to deliver:

And although the Gallic chariots failed to take my camp, left unguarded courtesy of another Ace…

…the relentless wave of Gallic warriors (half veterans, half fanatics, all big and scary!) eventually smashed enough of my infantry from the field to capture my last few coins.

Despite the loss, this was a brilliant game of To The Strongest, full of action and Aces!

John played the Gauls masterfully: absorbing my early cavalry attacks and then advancing his warbands inexorably up the field to drive my infantry back and then off. Good fun and, hopefully, this will have used up all my Aces prior to the Worlds next weekend!

TTS AAR: Aghlabids versus Italo-Normans - The Return Match

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With the Italo-Normans victorious in our first game, there was still plenty of time for the Aghlabids to have a go at evening up the score before I had to collect Mother from her event and start the four-hour return leg of my trip to Huddersfield.

Deployment was similar to the last game, but the Italo-Normans put even more of their cavalry facing my left flank.

The Italo-Normans moved first, and almost immediately I was in big trouble again as the enemy heavy cavalry shot down towards my flank and forced my light horse back into the camp.

Fortunately, my heavy cavalry were able to partially recover the position, but it was all looking rather cramped in that corner!

Sticking with the action here in the corner, things got worse again when the Italo-Norman horse broke the rear unit of Arab lancers and, further up the table, managed to get a two-to-one advantage on my other cavalry unit. The situation was only partially rescued by deploying my reserve infantry (purple flag, behind the rock) to support my beleaguered troops.

My light horse, in prime position to charge the corner unit’s flank managed to fail to do any damage whatsoever, and I watched with huge misgivings as Geoff pulled a card to turn his cavalry to face my lights. Fortunately, luck was with me, and I was able to use Someone has Blundered to force the enemy heavies into facing the wrong direction.

My lights then remembered which end of the javelin goes in the enemy, and sent the Italo-Normans flying from the table with a hail of javelin-fire (they can’t evade that!) including, again, killing the enemy general.

Elsewhere on the table, my infantry had formed two lines, hoping to shoot the deep enemy spearman units to pieces before contact was made. There was also some action on the far right, where more of my Arab lancers had squared off against more Italo-Norman heavy cavalry.

Geoff also had a unit off-table carrying out a flank march. He now drew a card to get it onto the table and succeeded. I checked the diagram in the rulebook and confidently told him that he could bring it on anywhere in the central sector of my right flank.

This was wrong: it could come on anywhere on the right hand table edge…and my only pitiful excuse is that a quick glance at the diagram does seem to have just the central sector highlighted…but if you look properly, it’s the central sector and the single strip along the right hand edge of the tabletop. Mea culpa and all that, and we’ll count the Arabs as having lost again as a heavy cavalry unit in my right rear could have been very unpleasant indeed.

As it happens, I did get it wrong, and his cavalry entered the table just behind the melee that was already going on (it’s the unit with the Nine of Spades next to it).

This, of course, left the newly-arrived Italo-Norman horse in a prime position to be charged by my black-flag lancers, provided my lancers could get through the other Italo-Norman cavalry (the disordered unit)…needing only a 3+ to get their charge in.

Well, I had two turns to try and make the charge, and failed both times: the cards obviously aware that I had made a mistake with the table-entering position!

Which meant that it was on the other side of the table that the battle would be decided, as the two infantry lines had still not made contact.

In the end, the Italo-Normans lost their last couple of coins when their last remaining cavalry on the left was overwhelmed by numbers: the use of my reserve infantry meaning that I had three units versus one. Hit in the rear after evading, that was that!

So another closely fought battle, with the Arabs coming away with a victory overturned on a you-got-the-rules-wrong technicality. I also think Geoff captured more medals over the two battles combined than I did.

My thanks to Geoff for being such a great opponent, and to Gemini Games for their hospitality. I look forward to hitting Huddersfield again some time in the future.

TTS AAR: Aghlabids versus Italo-Normans

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I had to take Mother to Huddersfield (well, she’d managed to find her way back from Nottingham…) and faced the prospect of a long day with nothing to do whilst I waited for her event to finish. Luckily, in a post-match chat after the recent Doubles, fellow TTS-player, Geoff, mentioned that Huddersfield was his neck of the woods and, moments later, a game was arranged.

I liked Huddersfield: from Greggs on the main drag at six-thirty in the morning for a ‘sausage and bacon bap with red’ right through to Travelodge late at night, everyone was very pleasant. Lots of places to charge your car as well. Geoff and I met at Cafe Valencia, just around the corner from Gemini Games, the venue for our battle, where they bring you a proper pot of tea, with an egg-timer to make sure you let it mash for long enough.

Geoff wanted to get his Anglo-Normans onto the tabletop, which suited me just fine as I could then field the Aghlabid version of the Early Muslim, North Africa and Sicily army list, meaning that what I would transport to Huddersfield was a 15mm 3D printed resin army rather than a ton-weighing metal one. This proved to be a good decision, as the nearest carpark to Gemini Games was closed for repairs, which meant parking on the other side of town and using the Roman Baggage Train (my camping trolley) to wheel the Aghlabids to where the action was.

Gemini Games were very accomodating: providing a large table at the back of the shop’s gaming area free of charge, even though their main business seemed to be collectable/strategy card games such as Magic: the Gathering.

I won the scouting, and weighted my army on the left, intending to quickly wipe out the three units of horse in front of me using a four-formed-plus-two-lights verses three-formed advantage in numbers, with a couple more infantry units in reserve if needed. The rest of the army sat back and waited for the Anglo-Normans to advance, confident that they could bow them to death as they did so.

Unfortunately, that plan didn’t quite work out as I had intended.

On the left, Geoff’s three cavalry units made mincemeat of my more numerous Arabs, and I soon found myself down half my coins and very much unable to contemplate any kind of outflanking manoeuvre there.

Worse, on the right, the Anglo-Norman horse managed to burst through the end of my line, and proceed to do to me exactly what I had been hoping to do to them!

Some of the Italo-Norman cavalry that had broken through then kept pursuing my light horse, curling around towards my camp in another threatening manouevre.

I needed to stabilise my line, but only had a unit of disordered Bowmen to do so. They did have a good position on the flank of enemy cavalry, but their attack failed, with the Italo-Norman horse then turning to face them.

This was not good, but I did have a moment of hope when the enemy horse faltered for a second and I used my Someone Has Blundered stratagem, but unfortunately the enemy cavalry didn’t succumb to this attack either - very unsporting of them - and they soon turned back again and disposed of the unfortunate archers.

The death of the bowmen let the enemy cavalry through onto my flank and, despite the fact that the Black Guard had some success to their front, it was only a matter of time before I lost my last few coins and the battle…helped by the cards letting Geoff’s final attack go in.

It had been an excellent game, full of successes and reverses for both sides (I had killed one of Geoff’s generals on the left flank in just about the first combat). A significant victory for the Italo-Norman cavalry, with their infantry hardly involved at all!

Two the Strongest Game Three: Northern Dynasties Chinese versus Polybian Romans & New Kingdom Egyptians

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Our third game at the Doubles was against Geoff and Nate using Polybian Romans and New Kingdom Egyptians respectively. This was a crucial game as the way in which the points system worked meant that three pairings were still in with a very good chance of winning the tournament overall: not only, therefore, did we have to beat Geoff and Nate, but also beat them by more than Si and Dave beat their opponents. Exciting stuff!

I have a New Kingdom Egyptian army myself, so I know something of its strengths and weaknesses. My plan was therefore very simple: charge forward with my heavies and steamroller the enemy before they had a chance to use their superior shooting to pincushion me to death!

So that’s what I did: straight forward and to hell with the consequences!

Crude tactics, but they worked like a charm. The Egyptians crumpled under the onslaught of my heavy cavalry and were dismissed from the field after only the second turn!

This was very unfortunate for Geoff, who now found himself facing Peter’s army from the front and my army from the flank.

This turned out to be no foregone conclusion, as the Polybian quincunx proved incredibly difficult to break.

Peter did manage to get his cavalry past the main Roman line and capture the enemy camp, but then had to spend his time trying to keep the camp (and the three coins it represented) and trying not be killed by superior numbers of Roman cavalry, all the while watching the three quincunxes marching inexhorably forward.

Time was also ticking on, and in the very last turn of the game I finally managed to get enough of my own heavy horse across and into the flank of the Romans to finish them off, but it was a near run thing and the Latin infantry resisted charge after charge before finally giving way. A tremendous, if untimately unsuccessful, defence of a very difficult position by Geoff!

All that was left was to wait for the final scores to be added up…Peter and I were overall winners again, but only by the very narrowest of margins: 102 points versus Si and Dave on 99 points!

My thanks to Nate and colleagues for organising, to all my opponents and, of course, to my doubles partner, Peter. Perhaps I can have a rest now before next year’s competition!

Two the Strongest Game Two: Northern Dynasties Chinese versus Principate Romans & Armenians

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The second game that Peter and I fought at last year’s Doubles (actually held in January this year due to scheduling problems) was against the powerful combination of Principate Romans and Armenians, ably generalled by Matt and Tim respectively.

The Chinese won the scouting and we both immediately advanced strongly against our opponents.

On my side of the table, things went wrong very quickly, with two units of my heavy cavalry disordered in the first charge, and my lights on the wing, who were supposed to be outflanking the enemy line, driven backwards and right off the table!

The Armenian cavalry who had driven my lights back then turned around and headed towards the rear of my horse, who were still very much under pressure from the enemy in front of them.

This had disaster written all over it, but somehow my cavalry threatened by the Armenians in the rear survived the next couple of turns: once because Tim drew Aces and failed to charge them, and then because they managed to make their saves when hit from behind.

A very narrow escape!

And, in fact, a narrow escape that allowed me to charge and disorder an Armenian unit further into the centre of the battlefield, and then assault it with more lights, finally doing enough damage to break them and give me enough coins to win the game.

This was very lucky, as I only had two coins left myslf, and Tim’s other cavalry were about to hit the rear of my other horse again!

So that was my side of the battlefield, what of what Peter was doing on his. Here’s his report:

Peter writes

My CinC , Mulan (of Disney fame), led some brave but nervous LC facing the veteran Lance and javelin armed heavy Roman cavalry. Mulan advanced and sure enough the Romans took the bait and galloped forwards to kill or capture the apparently weak and defenceless girl. But of course she withdrew.

Meanwhile the solid line of Lorica segmenta clad legionaries trundled forward with no gaps across six boxes!

But this was a trap! My nearby command of cavalry and supporting light cav on the other side of the river shot forward. My veteran cav Lance bow, blocked the advancing legions and started shooting although scoring no hits. They then sat there with lowered lance, threatening to countercharge any further advance by the Romans.

Meanwhile, the bow armed cavalry surprised my opponent Mat by turning and offering their flank to the pilum armed pesky praetorians! Why? Because They then charged across the deadly river, at the Ford smashing into the flank of the Roman cavalry! Missing once and hitting the second, which Mat failed to save! The supporting light cavalry followed and again missed and then hit but frutatingly the vet cavalry saved!

So it was up to Mulans squadron of bow armed light cav to pour 6 volleys into the same unit and on the last arrow they failed to save and died!

This left just one unit of Roman cav facing a swarm of formed Chinese cav and Mulans light cav and they very wisely began withdrawing back to their base edge.

Meanwhile my veteran heavy Lance armed cav blocking the menacing Roman mincing machine, activated - and withdrew! This surprised Mat but also delighted him as he wanted to advance to take my camp.

So he blew his cornicens and the whole line of locked red scuta came forward in a rush.

But again this was a cunning trap!

By now the Final Roman cavalry unit had been pursued to their base edge and shot to pieces by the swarm.

This allowed Mulan and one unit of LC to turn and charge across the same Ford that the heavy cavalry had charged across the other way just two turns previoulsy.

You can see the moment in the photo above, where, just like in the AI video based on this very figure that I posted yesterday, the koi carp leapt into the air as Mulans tiger splashed through the water in Hollywood slow motion, before smashing into the flank of the already disordered legion!

The first card missed, the second card hit and the legion, obviously completely surprised by this unexpected attack across what it had assumed was a protective turbulent river, drew a 4 and failed its save!

These were the last two medals that the entire double army had left and the remaining Romans turned tail and ran!

I couldn’t have choreographed such a Hollywood moment any better…

  • A turbulent and deadly river.

  • One surprise charge across the Ford with heavy cav to take out Roman vet cav to close one trap.

  • Then another charge the other way to close the Second trap led by Mulan and her tiger to destroy a legion.

  • Winning the final medals for a total wipeout victory!

So another big win and on to the final game…

Two the Strongest Game One: Northern Dynasties Chinese versus Middle Sassanids

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Peter’s and my first game of the 2025 Two the Strongest Doubles Competition (actually taking place at the end of January 2026 due to scheduling problems) was against the formidable pairing of Simon Miller (writer of To the Strongest) and Ian Notter (who does the photography for the rulebooks), commanding a force of Middle Sassanids.

The tournament took place at the Seven Dials club in central London: a very cool venue for a wargaming competition!

Peter and I won the scouting and, with some very lucky cards, I managed to get one of my commands down onto the baseline behind Ian’s left flank.

Things went from bad to worse for Ian, who soon found himself fighting on two fronts—and before long, very much due to the fact that his cards had it in for him (I don’t think he made a single save all game), I had taken enough victory medals to drive his entire army off the table.

Simon, meanwhile, was doing his best to close with Peter’s troops, sensibly trying to stay as far away from my men, who were now heading over towards his side of the table, as fast as possible.

Most worrying for Peter was the unit of Savaran that almost managed to take the Chinese camp (gallery below: top right) something only avoided by the fact that I just managed to get some light infantry into the camp (to join the light cavalry there) in time.

There was also a general melee in the far left corner of the table (gallery below, bottom right) where various units of cavalry from both sides clashed over the small stream there.

All this fighting had weakened Simon’s army, especially as he was now fighting both of us at once, and eventually his force also collapsed, the coup de grace being delivered by more of our heavy cavalry, led by Mulan herself!

A great start to our campaign with a 16-5 victory.

TTS AAR: Burgundian Ordnance vs Sassanid Persians - Take Two

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With the first game over so quickly, Neil and I had time for another…so we kept the sides the same and started again.

As you’ll see from the pictures below, I decided to weight all my forces onto one flank in an attempt to win there before turning to wipe out the enemy elsewhere.

The Sassanids, wise to the tactic, came forward as fast as they could, and prepared to counterattack from the other flank:

My troops duly charged in but, shock, horror, failed to do more than just push the Sassanid foot backwards.

Things just weren’t happening fast enough, especially as the Sassanid heavy cavalry was almost in a position to counterattack: good moves by Neil!

It was all over very quickly!

My stacked troops on the left still failed to inflict the death blow on the Sassanids in front of them, which meant that Neil was free to launch a massive counter-attack of his own.

Yes, the unit of Burgundian Knights guarding my right flank did dispose of some of the Sassanids, but not enough to make a difference.

In the end, it was actually the troops on the Sassanid left, the one’s I was supposed to be overwhelming at the start of the game, who won the battle: taking full advantage of the ‘distraction’ posed by the Sassanid counterattack:

A disappointing loss for the Burgundians!

I worked out afterwards that the problem was that I didn’t commit enough to the main thrust on the left: I kept too much back defending my camp and in the centre protecting the thrust. That meant that Neil, keeping an excellently cool head, was able to absorb my main hit and then calmly counterattack with his overwhelming numbers of horse…but it was the troops that were hit by my main thrust that won the game even before those horse properly arrived!

A great game.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First go with Command & Colours

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Friend Neil wanted me to try Command & Colours, a board-wargame featuring wooden blocks representing units moving around a hex battlefield, with activation being card-driven and combat being resolved through throws of custom dice.

We played the Napoleonic version (there are versions that cover other periods in history), specifically the battle of Eggmuhl between the French and the Austrians.

So, what did I think? Firstly, let me say that this is definitely a wargame and not a boardgame. Put this onto a big table with a hexed mat (i.e. no different from To The Strongest’s grid) and substitute the wooden blocks for figures, and it plays exactly the same as a tabletop system. In fact, my first thought when I saw the game set up, was “oh look, it’s kriegspiel”.

We played two games, swapping sides for the second. I lost the first one, then we started another game but I made a critical mistake in my first turn and got heavily punished immediately, so we stopped that game and started again (consigning that encounter to the forgotten history file) and then won the second.

The system was easy to learn, although there are nuances that you need experience to exploit. For example, the cards drive what units you can activate…which means that to launch a game-winning attack, you have to make sure you have enough cards in your hand to allow you to push that attack forward for at least three turns, otherwise you will find yourself unable to exploit any success you might have had with your first card.

It also takes a little time to adjust your play for how brutal the combat can be. You definitely don’t want to be infantry caught out of square by cavalry, and using your artillery effectively (and without getting them killed!) is tricky.

All in all, I really enjoyed the two games we had. I’d always choose to play a figures-on-the-table game over a wooden-blocks game, but Command & Colours would certainly provide a great alternative if no full wargame was available.

I’m also tempted to get a huge hex mat on a suitably sized table and see what it would be like to fight a slightly later game with my 15mm collection: perhaps an 1859 Franco-Austrian encounter as I don’t really have any Napoleonics…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On to the last game…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Welsh Warm-Up: Venice Abroad vs Graeco-Bactrians

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Postscript

Michael Lane reminded me of another incident in the game:

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

Practice for 2TS: Game Three

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This was the third game in Peter and I’s practice game for the forthcoming 2TS Doubles tournament (already past by the time this post gets published).

Preparations had been intense: morning fitness sessions; a strict dietary regime; classroom sessions on strategy, tactics and the rules; and, of course, a series of practice games of which this one was the third. Again, I would take the Northern Dynasties Chinese, and Peter would field Later Romans.

I won the scouting and, again, forced the Romans to deploy across the table to protect their flanks.

I then advanced forward with my main strength on the right and centre, intending to overwhelm him there and then turn and roll up the Roman line from that direction. Left to right, the situation before the two lines closed was now as follows:

Keen to avoid the consequences of my cunning plan, the Romans pulled back on the right. In the centre, a hail of arrows hit their steadily advancing infantry, with light cavalry harassing their flanks.

All was reasonably going to plan, and the Romans were slowly getting battered…but then disaster struck as their cavalry finally arrived from the left, heading straight for my lightly defended camps!

A ferocious melee broke out around the left side of my camp, but somehow my cavalry, armed only with bows, and a unit of horse-archers held back the veteran Roman lancers.

But this couldn’t last, and I now needed to win the battle quickly, sending everything forward into battle in the centre and on the right!

And still my two cavalry units, somewhat incredibly, held the camp!

Fortunately, the strength I had been able to deploy at the beginning of the battle, when the Roman heavy cavalry were occupied by a couple of light units off to the right, began to take effect. Often tactically outnumbered, and weakened by the constant bow fire and flank attacks, even the veteran Roman legionaries and auxilia began to waver…and, perhaps fittingly, a unit of raw Chinese spearmen, striking from the rear, finally inflicted the coup de grace: taking the final Roman coins and giving me victory!

As incredible as the stand of my cavalry around the camps was the fact that this was the third time I had beaten Peter in a row. As I write this, the Fimbulwinter (three consecutive, brutal winters with no summer) is upon us, there is moral decay leading to brother killing brother everywhere (well, Minnesota), the sun and moon are being devoured by the wolves Skoll and Hati, and I swear I can hear the breaking of chains holding monsters like Fenrir!!!

Practice for 2TS: Game Two

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With the TwoTheStrongest (2TS) competition fast approaching, Peter and I have been practicing with our new army: the Northern Dynasties Chinese. For this game, I would field the Chinese and Peter would command a late Roman force.

The Chinese won the scouting and, after deployment, my plan evolved as follows:

  • on the left flank, a command of light cavalry would keep the expensive Roman right hand cavalry force occupied

  • on the right flank, I would overwhelm the Roman cavalry there then sweep in to take the rest of the enemy army from the side

  • I would move my centre gradually towards the right, seeking to beat the enemy infantry by bowfire and sheer weight of numbers

Well, that was the plan, but how did things actually work out?

The left flank plan worked exactly as it should have done: my three light cavalry units kept the whole Roman cavalry command occupied for just about the whole battle, tying up double their number in points terms thus giving me a points-advantage in the clashes in the centre.

On the right hand side, a slow start by my heavy cavalry meant that the Roman troops managed to get forward in time to prevent me lapping around their left flank.

My heavy cavalry, however, pinned the Roman infantry in place in a Mexican standoff as superior numbers of cavalry and lights dealt with the enemy horse on the far right, but effectively this flank was a stand-off until the end of the battle when my cavalry and lights finally managed to win their fight and start to lap around the Roman flank.

It was therefore in the centre that the battle was decided, with my plan working well as the advantage I had given myself by tying up his cavalry on the right with lights proved successful.

To summarise the action, we went head to head, unit by unit, but I had more decent fighting units that I could deploy and the extra numbers eventually overwhelmed the Romans in the centre.

There were obviously a few dicey moments, but the combination of my heavy cavalry with lance and bow and light horse archers worked very well: shoot with the bow until the enemy becomes disordered, then charge in with the lance to finish them off.

The coup de grace actually happened on the right flank, when some heavy cavalry charged into the rear of some retreating Roman horse, taking Peter’s last victory medals and giving me the victory!

So this victory gave me my second against Peter in as many games: cue checking the news for other signs of the coming apocalypse!

Practice for 2TS: Game One

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With the TwoTheStrongest (2TS) competition fast approaching, it was time for Peter and I to get in some practice games. Our armies this year would be Northern Dynasties Chinese and, as a first trial, Peter would take the Chinese whilst I would field a late Roman force.

The Romans found themselves immediately on the end of a powerful flanking attack coming in from the left hand side: an attack that would eventually just about wipe out my cavalry command there. If I hadn’t kept the Roman Cataphracts in reserve, then things would have been over a lot earlier!

Meanwhile, however, my centre and right flank had been concentrating their efforts against the center and left flank of the Chinese army.

As you can see from the first photo, my right hand cavalry force started the battle facing nothing but air as the Chinese concentrated their attack on the other end of my line, but I managed to get them back into the action quite quickly - mainly by merit of ignoring the enemy light cavalry in front of me (designed to temp me to chase them into obscurity) - and they were soon supporting my main infantry attack: something that pushed forward nicely with my legionaries and auxilia doing what they do best!

So, after the first phase of the battle, the Chinese had destroyed the left side of my army, and I had destroyed the left side of their army: in effect the game now swivelled through 180 degrees as the victorious flanks of each force turned to face the other.

The first action was around the Chinese camp, where two legionary units faced two units of raw Chinese spearmen: surely an easy target for their gladiii, despite the fact the Chinese were defending camps. Unfortunately not: and the game ended with the Romans still trying to break into the enemy camps: a testament to the fortitude shown by the raw Chinese!

Each side was now so battered that it was very much a case of “sudden death”: with the next unit to fall deciding the fate of the army it belonged to.

The Romans had a narrow escape in the centre, where a unit of equites alares managed to avoid being overwhelmed by Chinese cataphracts accompanied by heavy and light cavalry.

So it all came down to a fight on the Roman baseline between more Chinese cavalry and more equites alares, this time supported by auxilia.

The melee swayed backwards and forwards, with extreme bad luck on either side playing its part, but eventually the Roman horse prevailed, the Chinese horse fled, and the battlefield belonged to Rome!

So the narrowest of victories for the Romans, and some vital lessons learnt on both sides.

IABSM AAR: Monmouths at Mouen Playtest

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One of the things I look forward to every year are the I Ain’t Been Shot Mum games put on by fellow Lardy, Phil Turner, and friends.

Here’s a pictorial report of a playtest of their latest offering, due to make it’s debut in a few weeks time: the Monmouths at Mouen.

Click on the picture below to see all:

TTS AAR: Burgundian Ordnance vs Sassanid Persians

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Time for a quick game of To The Strongest, with my Burgundians facing Neil’s Sassanids.

Unusually, the Burgundians won the scouting, so I positioned by Knights to face one command of Persian heavy cavalry on my left, with a couple of units of mounted crossbowmen aiming to sneak around that flank as well; and my veteran spear/archer units in front of the other command of Sassanid heavies: I was pretty sure than the combination of longbow fire and spears would keep them at bay.

All this meant that I had to weaken my right, so I used the This Way Effendi! strategem card to push back his infantry and horse-archers there, and placed the Ducal Household Infantry supported by handgunners and an organ gun to cover them.

To tell the story of that right flank first, although the Sassanid elephants, horse-archers and Daylami javelinmen advanced forward, they did so comparatively slowly and, when they did get close to my line, were stopped by missile fire: the organ guns being unusually effective against the Daylami. The battle ended with that flank still very secure.

The action kicked off very quickly, with the Sassanid heavies charging my line as soon as possible.

The Persian attack on the far left was enough to force back my Knights there, but at the cost of the Sassanid general of that command. Any gloating on my part was, however, immediately cut short as the Sassanid attack on my other Knights in the left-centre, although largely unsuccessful, killed Charles the Bold. Turn one and both sides had lost a general!

Centre-right then saw the Persian Cataphracts charging my main infantry command:

Attacking undamaged veteran spear/bowmen with horse, even cataphracts and veteran heavies, is never going to go well, and soon two Sassanid cavalry units had been sent fleeing from the field, another Persian general dying in the process.

On the left, I then stupidly lost a unit of mounted crossbowmen by allowing them to be squished between two Savaran units, but this actually opened up the opportunity to hit the squishers in the flank with the unit of Gendarmes that I had been forced to pull back to rally.

Victory here gave me the game: the Sassanids had lost two generals, one infantry unit to organ-gun fire, and three units of heavy cavalry

Not a game with a huge amount of tactics in it: the Burgundian missile-fire was exceptional throughout right across the army, which meant I was generally charging disordered units when it came to melee…and there’s nothing a Gendarme likes better than riding over disordered troops!

Here’s a couple of shots of the rest of the field at my moment of triumph:

The good news was that as that game was over so quickly, we had time for a re-match, but more of that later…