Our first unaided go at To The Strongest

Just before Partizan Simon came over to the club and gave Martin and myself an introductory game of his "To The Strongest" rules for Ancient and Medieval warfare that are currently under development.

The rules seemed very good so Simon sent us both a set of rules so we could try them out for ourselves. I have missed a few nights at the club as I was working away, but we made a date to give them a try on Tuesday evening.

We both picked a 130pt force from the list in the book, I used my Gauls and had the following three commands:

Gallic Victory Medals

• Heroic General
• 4 x Warriors
• 1 x Light infantry with sling
• 1 x light infantry with javelins

• Heroic General
• 3 x Warriors
• 1 x light infantry with javelins

• Heroic General
• 2 x Warriors
• 1 x Cavalry

Martin used Republican Romans and (IIRC) his force was also three commands:

• General
• 2 x Hastati
• 2 x Principes
• 1 x Triarii
• 2 x Velites



Roman Victory Medals

• 1 x Equites

• General
• 2 x Hastati
• 2 x Principes
• 1 x Triarii
• 2 x Velites
• 1 x Equites

• General
• 2 x Hastati
• 2 x Principes
• 1 x Triarii
• 2 x Velites
• 1 x Extraordinarii

All the maniples were fielded using the new small units rules. Martin is still painting his Romans so a few units were only in a primed or base-coated state.

Terrain set up and battle about to be joined

The Republican Roman force started on 15 Victory Medals and mine on 13 - you lose these as you lose units and when reduced to zero it is game over for you.

We alternated placing terrain and then randomised the battlefield, resulting in about half of it being removed and the other half being scattered somewhat! Then we set down to deploying our armies.

Tablets at the ready - Samsung for myself and Apple for Martin - this would be our first game unaided but we got down to it quite well, needing very little reference to the rules and were able to use the play-sheet for most things - it is just one side of A4, not tightly spaced and useful for almost all situations.

The game started well for the Romans, almost immediately I had lost two of my Light Infantry and was down two Victory Medals! However, after a stuttering start while they sorted themselves out the Gallic warbands struck. What carnage! Despite forgetting to purchase heroes for my Warriors I was very successful in my attacks and Martin had some terrible luck with his saves! Soon the maniples were starting to tumble and Martins Victory Medals were diminishing.

In the end, after a relentless assault by the warbands, Martin was out of Victory Medals and I had only lost the two from the start of the game, a victory for the Gauls.

Despite the uneven nature of the game we both enjoyed it and will be trying again next Tuesday. We may use the Arthurian troops next time.

 Here are some shots from the game in progress.