To the Strongest! Feb, 11 2017

Last Saturday thanks to Ezio’s help (and his patience considering that he was the only that have read the rulebook!) we played to "To the Strongest!" the wargame system wrote by Simon Miller.

It was the second battle for me and I've already explained quickly in another post the main differences respect other wargame systems.

We didn't play an historical battle because the armies that fought were: a list of Crusaders (around XI century) against a late Roman empire legion (around VI -VII century). Romans were painted by me while the Crusaders were not a work of mine. Unfortunately we didn't finish the battle because, during the day, we hosted a person in our club and so we spent  more time than in a normal struggle.

I tried to write a kind of battle report. 

For the record we played the scenario in four: Ezio and another person in a side (Crusaders), me and Maurizio in the second one (Romans)

Creation of the "terrains" using the system rules

Initial deployment

A look to the armies

The Romans advance

In the centre the knights attack but the Roman legion stop them

On the Roman left wing cavalry and auxiliaries try to outflank the enemy while on the center the fight continues

Now it is time of the Roman right wing

On the left wing Crusaders move back but they remain strong 

The front becomes fluid with the legion that immobilizes the Christian knights

The final positions

To the strongest! Jan 6, 2017

Today we played a test battle using a new rulebook: "To the strongest!"

Unfortunately, at the moment our new club house is not completely available,  so we played in another place.

During the Christmas Holidays Riccardo M. bought this new rulebook that is a set of rules to recreate Ancient and Medieval battles. The system mechanism is simple and I can confirm that, for the armies we decided to use, it works well. We played it with Vikings and Saxons without light infantry and cavalry. 

"To the stongest!" is produced by BigRedBat and it doesn't use dices. To simulate the movements, the melees and so on you have to use 80 playing cards. The same cards that you can use for poker or other traditional card games. Other peculiarity of the game is that there are no rulers because the movements are set with a grid.

As I reported above we decided to use Vikings and Saxons. The army lists prepared by Riccardo are inspired to the Brunnaburgh battle.

The Saxons have four troop contingents:

- Athelstan King of Wessex: 3 combined units of Thengs and Ceorls

- Mercia troops (leaded by Edmund Althelstan's brother): 3 combined units of Thengs and Ceorls

- A Vikings contingent with the hero Egil Skallagrimsson

- Two dismounted units

Break point: 13

Also the Vikings have four troop contingents:

- Olaf Guthfrithsson King of Dublin: 3 Vikings Hird

- Owen's Welsh teulu: 3 units

- Lowland Scots spear: 2 units

- a unit of Pictish warriors.

A view to the initial deployment and the table. We used sewing pins to indicate the grid

Only a part of the miniatures were historically accurate. Unfortunately we haven't Pictish warriors

Scots painted by Riccardo M.

Vikings painted by me

Another view of the Vikings painted by me

A detail of the fanatics we used as Pictish troops (painted by me)

Saxons painted by another club member

Below I have synthesized a kind of battle report

Initial movements. 

Part of the Vikings unit on the left wing failed the movements so the Vikings formation starts to be a not uniform

The melee starts. The first Saxon's general dies. In this game generals are attached to the unit. Every time the units is hit you have to test if the general dies. The Saxons were not very lucky

A view of the battle in different moments. On the left the Pictish unit (allies with the Vikings) broke the enemy front

On the center Athelstan moves forward but the Vikings line remains steady

The battle is continuing as a shield wall against another shield wall but the Vikings destroy two units and another Saxons general dies

At the end Vikings forces win 13 against 0