Thursday 12 July 2018

To The Strongest - Sweet Victory at Last!







The Great King looks on and declares that we will not move to our rear in this battle.


We have thrown ourselves back into the wonderful Simon Miller reules "To The Strongrest" in recent months and Wedensday night was another occasion for a great un battle against Steve and his wionrful Alexandrian Macedonian army with my Persians.





Deployment can always be a tricky thing in TtS...at least for me.  Here my Persians look for some flank
protection from a difficult going hill


This was also the perfect opportunity for me to bring out some of the terrain pieces that I had specifically made for the games using the TtS gridded mat system.  These included some purely aesthetic scrubs etc. which helped break up the cloth.




What I had deemed would act as my Royal Reserve here.  Guard Cavalry and Apple Bearers with extra bow.


e
These Greek and Egyptian Hoplites were purchased as raw deep formations.  Good value for money and sturdy.


Steve and Phil deploy.  This wonderful Lammings army was painted by Stevo almost 40 years ago and still
 looks sensational.  He has added a few lovely modern Foundry pieces to the formation as well.


Lovely Tin Soldier Saka painted by friend Nathan acting the part of my bow armed light cavalry.


The right flank General and his command had most of my cavalry

Takabara in the rough - Vendel Persians.


Mardian bow ready to rain a cloud of arrows upon the enemy


Slingers and Kardakes in the central command

All the Hoplite and deep infantry units except the Apple Bearers are raw against sturdy, possibly veteran pike.

Those hills came out ok and fit into Simons sage brush mat very well in my opinion

Now these look sensational.  Gorgeous figures with a hurtful intent!

Companions in wedge and Prodromoi on the left


Not quite the same quality on my side...Colonist raw cavalry and slingers


I need to build another camp as the generic ancient wagons in the middle there are getting a flogging
 in every three command army I use lately.

However they still do suitable as a non-decorative stand-in.

Vendel Egyptian Hoplites with an encouraging hero to the rear

Apple Bearers - Veteran Hoplite formation with a here, extra bow and attitude 

The Mardians have already dispatched the Macedonian peltasts which were to the right of the rocky outcrop

Quickly the Macedonian centre advances in order to feast upon their Persian foes.
 
A
The Colonist cavalry are no more, beaten by Companions however my scythed chariot gets lucky and hits a flank





Another view down the table

And an overview of the action including the Persian left.  The Prodromoi are threatening the flanks on a wide
enveloping move


Those Companions certainly managed to save those chariot hits very well indeed




At this stage the battle was incredibly evenly poised.  The run of low and high chits in the complete wrong order had visited both the Macedonians and the Persians and now the battle was starting to reach a critical stage.





After some intense fighting each side loses a unit and the gaps start to emerge

In the centre left the Apple Bearers are drawing 1 after 1 and are static whilst the enemy manoeuvres around them


The Mardians are now almost out of ammunition but command failures are restricting their usefulness


The Companions turn but the chariot miraculously manages to survive


Can this General save the day?


The Apple Bearers are destroyed and the King, true to his word, does not retreat, though he is now pointing in
the direction of a bloody big threat!

In the centre two more Macedonian Veteran pike units are destroyed.  These raw hoplite units have earned their salt
today one must say. They have fought gallantly, saved miraculously and advanced upon the superior foe and bested
 them in battle.  Well done lads.


The companions manage to evade my light cavalry charge which also got them away from the scythed chariot so
foolish on my part...however the battle is won and the Persians are victorious as the last victory medallion is handed
 over from the enemy camp.


What a wonderful game.


Steve, myself and Phil all had  a sensational time playing the game and once again it highlighted the playability and subtly of Simons wonderful rule set.


Almoravid v Feudal Spanish and the Cid next week.  Should be great fun!


25 comments:

  1. Great bases and figures !
    Very beautifull table !
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much L - greatly appreciated.

      Delete
  2. Spectacular and beautiful armies, so many gems on a single table...Splendid!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Phil. It was a good fun game with lots of lovely toys.

      Delete
  3. Great looking and fun sounding game, I've enjoyed my run out with this ruleset and hope to play some more.
    Best Iain

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope you do Iain as the tiles are tremendous.

      Delete
  4. Glorious figures. Those Persians are superb!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks P. I very much like this particular army and the Vendel figures do paint up very well.

      Delete
  5. That looks fantastic, and was a fun read. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Stunning figures and table. An excellent batrep and good that the Persians got the victory, deserved for the Egyptian hoplites alone.


    Cheers, Ross

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was the first time these particular Persians had managed to get the better of Steve’s Macedonians so it was a great deal of fun to do that in such a close fun game!

      Delete
  7. Nice pictures and miniatures! 40 years is almost as old as I am. 😀
    How’d you do 4 players, did each have their own deck/chips?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Only three in this game Stew as I played the Persians by myself. We simply divide up the commands however we go all draw from the same pool of chits as we have one per side. They then get collected up after every round and make xem up again for use in the next phase.

      Delete
  8. Very nice Carlo- I haven't tried these rules yet. Game looks great. Thanks for the report.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi John and thanks for the compliments. You would very much enjoy these rules as they are clever, playable and have sufficient tactical subtlety to keep even the diehard ancient aficionados more than impressed. Highly recommended.

      Delete
  9. A fine looking game, and congrats on the victory!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much Peter. For a while there it looked like the Persian lads were gong down again!

      Delete
  10. Looks spectacular Carlo. I do love the look of games played with Simon’s rules - big units and lots of them. I think we are too far down the Impetus route to turn around though.
    Richard

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Richard for your kind comments. Impetus is very popular at the NWS here in Perth as well however there are more and more admiring looks towards the TtS games from those same players as the months have rolled on. The great thing is that the two games are able to be played with exactly they same basing so I would seriously have a look mate.

      Delete
  11. Never had the opportunity to play the rules but they certainly give you the opportunity to get some big collections on the table. Wonderful eye candy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You’d very much enjoy these rules Pat. Absolutely loads of fun.

      Delete

  12. Ravi Gaikwad
    Ravi Gaikwad RTO
    Ravi Gaikwad IPS
    Ravi Gaikwad Solapur
    Ravi Gaikwad Mumbai
    For more details about Ravi Gaikwad visit:-
    http://www.ravigaikwad.com/ravi-gaikwad/

    ReplyDelete