El Cid adventures with To The Strongest!

Following on from the Battle of Britain game with the chaps at Brown Deer I asked if I could arrange the next game and Bill kindly agreed to host an El Cid! game using my terrain and figures, we should be using the To The Strongest! rules.

I loaded up the car on Friday evening and set off around 0645 Saturday morning arriving at Brown Deer around 0830 to be greeted by Bill. I realised then that in my hurry to pack everything I had forgotten to bring my contribution for lunch. We carried the goodies down into his huge games room in the basement of his home and soon Mike and John arrived and we had quickly set up all the terrain and figures.Unfortunately, Nick and Kurt were unable to make it so it would just be the four of us.

 Dishing out the ammo markers to the unit I had soon ran out, I had forgotten just how many missile weapons the El Cid collection carried! I also had forgotten to pack the victory medals so we improvised with dice. You'll note from the game that we used order chits rather than cards, I am a bit of a tart and think that they are more photogenic although cards do rather add something to the game.

The two forces we used can be found here, you'll note that I added a couple of units of formed archers to the Berbers that are not in the original TTS! lists and neither side is 100% compliant with the lists.

Bill and John would command the Christians while Mike and myself the Muslims. The Christians won the scouting phase and elected to be the active player.

The Berber Jinetes were soon in the backfield of the Christians, but were mopped up by the judicious use of a command of Caballeros and my complete lack of being able to pass a single evade test or make a save!

The Berber foot were getting the better of the slog in the centre, but John had carefully guarded his horse and only committed his Jinetes to harass the Berbers opposing them. It was time for King Alphonse to commit, having all but wiped out the Berber horse on their right Alphose committed his reserve of Caballeros and despite the stubborn resistance of the African mercenaries the Berbers were rolled up and broken.

An inauspicious start for the African invaders!

After a bite of lunch we switched sides, Mike ad I would play the Spanish this time and John and Bill the Moors.

Bill also committed the Berber Jinetes into the Christian back-field early on, and we were completely unable to deal with them in the efficient way that Bill had mopped us up in the first game. However, Mike had also manoeuvred one of his commands of Caballeros onto the flank of the Berber line, this was looking to be an interesting game.

The Berber Jinetes were soon ravaging the Spanish baggage and we were soon six victory medals down, ouch! The troops assigned to recapture the baggage were extremely sluggish in their response and the Jinetes made hay among our supplies. The Berber foot surged forwards and the Spanish seemed to get the better of the initial clashes.

Ibn Scrivs committed his reserve cavalry to counter the Christians threatening his own baggage while Caballeros roamed freely on both his flanks.

Unfortunately, the Berber pressure started to tell in the centre, galvanised into action the Caballeros on each flanks pressed on but were unable to make headway, Alphonso committed his reserve in the centre, but they were unable to make headway and the Christians lost all their Victory medals as a commander fell. Victory to the Berbers this time.

It was time to pack up and say our goodbyes until next time. Bill is a great host and has a fantastic games room in his basement.

It's good that the scenario appears to give both sides a good chance of victory and bodes well for when I run the game at What-Khan later this month. I think for that I shall switch back to using card decks rather than order chits.

More images from the games, the Spanish are in the main Perry Miniatures while the Berbers are mostly Gripping Beast.