David Bickley's Wargames Blog

The occasional ramblings of an average gamer, journeyman painter, indifferent modeller, games designer, sometime writer for Wargames Illustrated and host of games in GHQ.



Thursday 16 January 2020

Year of Destiny?

For the recent Monday game here in GHQ with Phil we had decided to give To the Strongest another run through, borrowing Phil's grid marked games mat and deploying my Saxons and Normans. {I should say that this is the figures' third rebasing, so you must excuse the lack of static grass, clumps and other vegetation for now, I've just not felt like tackling that as yet.} With the exception of one figure from Gripping Beast all of those you see are from Foundry, designed by my son Matt. You may have seen he has done a range of late Saxons for Footsore recently which look very compatible with these older ones. I may add some at some point, but that means more Normans! As Phil painted the Normans for me I would have to fit any more in his Commission schedule, no easy task as he is in demand!! As usual, a few captioned pictures to give a flavour for the game ~
The host of Harold the Hairless drawn up for battle. (The mat
really is much greener than it looks in the photos by the way}

Huscarls hold the centre supported by Harold's Thegns.

Harold and his Household are in the front line of battle.

William the Bastard's army drawn up for battle. Too many
archers for my liking I have to say!

Typical sneaky Norman attack on the Saxon right flank!

While the Saxons' own left flank is reluctant to move forward.

The Norman centre is advancing now against the Fyrd.

With the wood offering some protection the Saxons are trying
to flank the Norman attackers.

The two armies are beginning to close with one another.

Harold the Hairless is fighting with his Huscarls in the centre!

The Saxon right is holding up well but is being outflanked!
More elements are engaged in the centre now.

The Saxon lines have been breached and the Normans are in
the rear!

The fat lady is nearly ready to exercise her vocal cords!

Its all over for the Saxon cause, but Harold the Hairless lives to
fight another day!

I have no plans myself to move over from our Neil Thomas mash up for my Ancient and early Medieval games here in GHQ, but we both enjoyed our first run through of the rules at Phil's, so it did no harm to try the rules with different armies. Either way it has shown me that the Normans need at least four more bases of infantry and perhaps two bases of unarmoured cavalry. Sadly no room in the present schedule for 2020 for any of that. So its back to painting the von Rall Grenadiers for the AWI for me!

10 comments:

  1. I've played TtS a few times and they give a good game, but at times the look frustrates me. I keep meaning to give Neil Thomas' rules another run out, but I'm trying to stick to my Spring plans and not be swayed...

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    1. Yes, not over keen on the look myself but I think with more conventionally bases units and figures it would be less intrusive.

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  2. Another game that could have gone to either side, although I think the Norman's made heavy weather of it at times.

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    1. In truth the Saxons didn't exactly shine did they?

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  3. Nice looking game , the rules just don’t do it for me with the grid approach but al to there own. As for more Normans.........of course you need more 👍

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    1. Well, yes, I could do with more Normans and I'd like the Late Saxons Matt did for Footsore, but it's not on the cards yet.

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  4. My own early Saxons are out today, I hope they win this time as they have been out of luck recently. The new Footsore Saxons are beautiful and if I had the opportunity to play more War and Conquest games I would be very tempted, sadly not. I have no time for the Normans since I sold an army decades ago, they didn't like me either.

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  5. Lovely looking game, painting up Saxons at the moment, although of an earlier variety!
    Best Iain

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Iain and best of luck progressing your early Saxons.

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