TTS AAR: Britcon Game Three: Venice Abroad versus Later Carthaginians

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My final game of day one of this year’s Britcon To The Strongest tournament was against Howard and his Later Carthaginians.

I’d faced these lads before, and they have always been a tough nut to crack, especially with Howard’s propensity to put loads of steep hills onto the tabletop and then hide his light infantry on them: very difficult to winkle out!

I lost the scouting again, so set up in a tight formation weighted towards my left flank, but a slow Carthaginian start gave me the time to readjust for their deployment and establish a more central position as the game began. My plan was to defeat the Carthaginians on the left with most of my army, before turning right to finish off the remainder.

The action duly began on my left flank, where I had rapidly advanced my Knights in an attempt to knock out the Carthaginian and Numidian cavalty there before heading into the centre behind the enemy line.

My first charges were very successful: knocking the Numidians and a unit of cavalry off the table. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to exploit this initial success, and the Carthaginians were able to bring across reinforcements and stabilise the situation.

This pattern then repeated itself as again my Knights successfully charged forward only to fail to finish the job and let the Carthaginians back into the game…so much so that it looked as if I was about to lose that flank entirely.

Fortunately I managed to bring some reinforcements of my own across and, by the end of the game, the left flank was very much in a tied position, both sides too exhausted to do much more than glare at each other!

Note that that initial unit of veteran Carthaginian legionaries was still standing, as were my Knights on that side: some units prove just impossible to kill!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, fearsome amounts of Carthaginians were heading towards my lone command there.

Very quickly, the Carthagians managed to get their cavalry right down onto my baseline, and I now faced the classic problem of trying to defend both front and flank at the same time.

The Venetian Knights are, however, very tough (when, that is, they remember not to put on their cardboard armour!) and that initial flanking position was defended successfully and all seemed to be stabilised on the right, especially as the main body of Carthaginian infantry (nasty veteran javelinmen types) hung back in relative safety on the steep hills that scattered that side of the table.

This couldn’t last for long and, as Howard realised that his right wasn’t going to win the battle on its own, he send the infantry forward, and the situation on my left suddenly got a whole lot more critical.

Althoug helped by a bit of bad luck on Howard’s part, my troops on the right soon found themselves pushed right back to my camp and under extreme potentially game-losing pressure!

All was not lost, however: fighting from behind the walls of my fortified camps (the rather infamous barbed wire!) gives you a major advantage, and my camps remained inviolate.

Both sides were now on their last legs, but the cards were smiling on me for a change and, as both Howard and I ruefully checked how many coins we each had left, my veteran Later Knights (with two heroes from the Tonight We Dine In Hell card I’d played earlier) swung into action and, with a cry of “Venice Forever, whilst they keep paying my wages” they charged forward against the two units of Carthaginian cavalry in front of them.

It’s the Knights on the right that you need to be looking at!

It was, quite frankly, glorious: with both enemy units being dashed from the table along with their accompanying general to give me victory!

These ones!

Well that had been a very close run thing!

If the Knights hadn’t charged when they did, and if my cards hadn’t been good and Howard’s bad, then I doubt that I could have held my camp for that much longer. But they did, and they were, so the game was mine - just!

All my games with Howard were good, but this was particularly so, and a great way of finishing day one of the tournament.

Figures packed away, we headed out to sample the delights of Leicester’s nightlife…

TTS AAR: To The Smallest Game 4: Arab Conquest vs Later Carthaginians

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My final game at this year’s To The Smallest competition was an absolutely bonkers affair against other-Rob’s Later Carthaginians.

I say ‘absolutely bonkers’ as I’ve never played a game of To The Strongest quite like it. Seven of the eight Generals that started the game died; I was pulling 10’s out of the pack like there were no lower cards present; victory could have gone to either side in the final stages of the battle ; and the whole 160 point game was over in 45 minutes!

So what actually happened…

First up, Arab mounted infantry and the Take the High Ground” strategem card meant that the two sides started the game really close together:

The first action was on the far left, where Rob had been trying to sneak a unit of massed light cavalry around my flank. Not wanting this to happen, I sent some light camelry in that direction, thinking to intercept the Numidians in a turn or so.

The cards, however, were with me, and pulling a couple of tens in a row meant that I hit the lights in the flank right when they were on the edge of the field.

Although the camels didn’t manage to destroy the Numidians, they did disorder them, and for the rest of the game the two sides knocked seven bells out of each other without either side actually managing to finish off their opponent.

Meanwhile, on the other flank, some more Numidian cavalry had managed to get onto my flank, and despite the fact that they were raw massed lights, eventually managed to wipe out the cavalry command I had stationed there!

This was a bit unfortunate, but the cavalry had managed to take some of the enemy with them, so not a total loss.

Back to the centre, which had neatly divided into two halves as the two battle lines moved together.

Left-of-centre, I had a couple of units of Jund cavalry facing vast numbers of Celtic types - these Carthaginians are a mixed bunch! - but the Jund were on form smashing one warband from the field and moving up to engage the others. My cards had been very good here: lots of tens!

Generals had been dying in droves at this point: Rob had already lost three, and I had lost two, and at two Victory Medals apiece, that can really cut into your cache!

Right of centre, the action developed into a massive infantry melee as deep units of Hoplites and Spearmen smashed into my Warriors (half of them Fanatics).

Disorder markers rained down on the units involved, with the advantage slightly with me as my Fanatics ignored the associated penalty on combat ability.

The luck, however, stayed with me, and a final flurry of ten’s from my infantry (in defence as well as attack) and the death of the last remaining Carthaginians general gave me another five coins and the game.

I had won 16-9, but that didn’t really represent how close the game was. I had taken the last of Rob’s coins with a deep unit and a general going i.e. five coins, so before that, we had been on 11-9 in my favour. If my fanatics had gone (I’d already lost their general!) then the score would have been 11-12 in Rob’s favour with all to play for.

It had been a great game, played at a rapid rate of knots, full of action and much hilarity, especially as one general after another bit the dust. A great way to end the tournament. In the end, I came 6th overall, not bad for two wins and two losses…and it’s always a pleasure to game at Firestorm and to see the TTS crowd again.

Britcon Day Two: Game Four

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This was probably my hardest game of the tournament: matched up against Howard’s beautifully painted Later Carthaginians.

This was an epic clash that lasted some 3½ hours and was the only game of mine that was stopped by the umpire rather than coming to its natural conclusion.

Rather than use the set terrain, we had used the rules in the book, allowing me to protect my wings with a couple of pieces of impassable rocks. That meant that I could tie up his three units of heavy cavalry with the Praetorians and Auxilia whilst the rest of my army went for the rest of his.

My plan was for one unit of Legionaries to take out his elephants centre-left, whilst my cavalry took out the rest of his cavalry centre-right and then got round behind and into his camp. Meanwhile, I would hold back his elite pseudo-Legionaries with the rest of my true Legionaries on the right.

As always, no plan survived first contact with the enemy: my Legionaries refused point blank to go after his elephants and my cavalry got blocked in the middle…Howard had some annoying light infantry positioned on steep hills that caused me a lot of grief.

One of the key moments of the game: the equites alares get back to block the carthaginian heavy cavalry

The battle started to sway Howard’s way but, for once, the Roman cavalry were superb. The Equites Alares effectively held the centre on their own, rushing backwards and forwards to force his advancing units to protect their flanks.

At the end of the game it was tied 5:5, but my cavalry, on their last turn, managed to flank charge one of Howard’s units knocking it from the board and thus giving me a 7:5 victory.

TTS AAR: Elephants Swimming in Canals

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Back in April this year, friend Peter asked me if I would have a game of To The Strongest with him as a test for one of the armies he was considering taking to the Chalgrove World Championships. Why has it taken me so long to deliver the After Action Report? Well, Peter didn’t want any hint of which armies he might be using to leak to possible opponents, so had slapped a D-Notice on me. Now, however, that he is basking in another victory, he has graciously given permission for the secret files covering our game to be released!

Peter’s test-army was the Venetians, and he had asked if I would use a Later Carthaginian army against them. This would be a real test for the canal-dwellers: a cavalry army against Hannibal’s spear-armed infantry supported by elephants…and on a board with at least some trees on it.

The Venetians: Knights & Lights!

Hannibal’s Brave Boys

Of course, part of the problem with writing an AAR six months after the event is that I can’t actually remember much of how the game played out!

What I do know is that Peter completely wrong-footed me at the start by gaining the initiative and deploying all on the (from my point of view) right side of the table versus my more evenly spread line. This would mean that he could concentrate his army on only a portion of mine, gaining victory there before then turning to polish off the rest. Cunning stuff!

As it happens, however, this didn’t work as, somehow, I managed to get my heavy spearmen moving and across the field to support my by now beleaguered right flank.

My Celtic warriors also refused to give way despite being hit by veteran knights with a general from the front and two units of knights from the rear, joined by two lights, for several turns. Their Celtic cavalry comrades were equally resilient: normal Celtic cavalry convincingly winning a melee against veteran lance-armed later knights supported by lance-wielding mass lights: they killed the knights and drive the lights back without suffering a single hit!

The game developed into a huge melee in the centre of the table, with the action swirling backwards and forwards. Despite my successes, above, my army was starting to look a bit ragged and I could see that a collapse was fairly imminent: there were just too many light units hitting or threatening to hit my flanks.

It was time for a Hail Mary. I had one unit of Celtic horse still undamaged. I could see the Venetian camp (complete with fountain and gondola) in a straight line in front of them, with only some more of those massed lights blocking their way. The Celts charged forward and, with a great run of cards, smashed the light horse out of the way and then thundered into the enemy camp. Three victory medals to the good, the victory was mine!

It had been a cracking game that I had won through good luck and by the very thinnest of margins. As Peter said afterwards, “if it wasn’t for your extended gallop into my camp I would have won in my turn”. My only reply is, obviously, and with apologies to the Spartans: "If..."!

Here’s the full pictorial story of the battle: