15mm To The Strongest Game

Last night (Thursday), John, Chris and I popped into Julian's after work for a game of TtS using some of his 15mm Dark Ages figures. The scenario was based on a real battle from around 550 AD I believe

I faced Chis on one wing whilst Julian faced John on the other. Julian and I had an army value of 10 coins whilst our opponents had 13 coins.

It was a bit of a see saw game - initially, I had very bad luck with my card turning and by about move three, Chris had charged home and had half of my six heavy cavalry units shaken. However, by around move six, I had destroyed two or three of Chris's units and redressed the situation.

On the other flank, John made a couple of half hearted forays against Julian but did not look like he would be able to make much of an impression, then, just as I seemed to be getting the upper hand on my flank, John delivered one defeat after another to Julian, and our last remaining coins were gone - victory to the Byzantines (I think they were...maybe that was us and they were Seljuks...dunno!)

Nice way to wind down from a shit week at work - and the whole of July is going to be worse until the evening of the 22nd when I head south to Tarawera for our five day wargaming escape - yeeha!

Here are some decidedly average images - 15mm are really too small and as usual the lighting at Julian's is crap for photography!

Our left flank with my six heavy cavalry units confronting Chris

The enemy left flank commanded by John - four units of infantry occupying an imposing ridge

John's light cavalry advance in the centre

Another view of John's advance, which was aimed to catch my exposed right flank to the left of the oasis

Chris advances into contact

View from one of my two commanders positions

John's advance in the centre develops as he swings left and right in an attempt to catch both wings of our army in the flank

The commander of Chris's units opposing me

After a couple of rounds of melee, almost all of my units are shaken - one more hit and they will be gone from the table!

My unit nearest the oasis succumbs to the pressure and quits the field. Chris's successful unit has punched right through my line

But my other "brigade" of three units has been able to recover and reform on the extreme left, ready to crash into Chris's flank

My reformed units charge in from the flank and destroy two of Chris's units

Over on Julian's flank, it looks like our advance is going well, with John losing a couple of light cavalry units and being pushed back towards the infantry on the ridge...

The action continues on my flank as Chris struggles to contain the advance on his flank

But it was all settled on Johns wing - in a series of advances in the last move, his infantry came down of the ridge and destroyed two or three previously shaken units in Julian's command. All our coins were gone and John and Chris still had about six remaining.

Another fun evening using the TtS rules - nothing particularly "realistic" in this rule set - its definitely wargaming with the emphasis in gaming - but that's fine with me!