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!