To the Strongest - Wagon Train

Some more pics from our recent wagon train game.

Hope you like them.

More Romans.

Leading on from my last post just wanted to share some vignettes with you.

Command base.  Again Foundry figures.  The foot tribune is from the Caesarian range while the rest from the Imperial Roman range.  The captive is another Foundry figure but I can't remember what pack.  Really minor conversion in that the guard had his right arm rotated to test on the captives shoulder.

Here's the same base from another angle

Another command base this time based on a certain film.  The main figure (not Maximus) is from First Corps (General of the Northern Armies) and is a cracking model. As usual the other 2 figures are Foundry.

Close up

More next time.

Friends, Romans, Countrymen...

Following on from my last post I thought I'd post up a few close-ups of some of my Romans.

The vast majority of the figures are the Perry sculpted Wargames Foundry figures.  Although a somewhat vintage range they are still, in my view, one of the best Early Imperial Roman ranges available.  They probably show their age in that they are quite small in stature (closer to 25mm rather than the more modern 28mm) but the animation and sculpting is still top notch.  

I managed to pick up most of my figures over 15 years ago when Foundry still sold them individually and I'm glad I did.  Originally based up for Warhammer Ancient Battles (WAB) my current basing is a mix of 60mm frontage to allow for DBA games, 40mm bases and individuals.  

They now get used for Hail Caesar and of course To The Stongest, where a unit frontage of 120mm works well.  I could do with doing a few more units and will probably just go with a 120mm frontage (Impetus style).

Anyway here's a few shots

Auxiliary archers

Legionaries 

To the Strongest

I'm a bit of a sucker for rules sets.  Like most wargamers, the search for the perfect ruleset is a little like the search for the holy grail (although probably with slightly less chance of success!).  However, I do like reading rules and picking up clever ideas.

Recently I'd picked up on a new set of ancient rules by Simon Miller called "To the Strongest" which seemed to have a different approach (no dice!).  The initial reviews I'd read were positive however, and I was intrigued.  So with the rules available for download for under a tenner it seemed rude not to take a look.  

As noted above, TTS are a little different.  To be fair, as they use neither dice or tape measures it has been joked that they aren't really wargames rules at all!  Tape measures are replaced by a grid on the table and dice are replaced by playing cards.  Both aimed at speeding up a game.

I laid out a quick grid on my table using little bits of ground cover material, roughed out 2 armies from my Roman and Ancient Briton figures and set to it.

Table set to go with the grid marked.

Roman battle line.

Britons defending the village

Battle commenced with the Romans advancing and cavalry clashing with chariots on the left.

Overall I liked the rules.  Playing solo it took a little time (as always) to get my head round the rules but the basic concepts are dead easy.  In addition combat is quick to resolve but does seem to ebb and flow in a realistic way.

The Romans won the first game, but I realised I hadn't counted the warband units as "deep" which while making them less manoeuvrable does give them more staying power.

The second game saw fortunes reversed.  This time the Britons managed to break through on the right.  This did highlight one of the strengths of the rules which is the need to hold a reserve.  Units are far less manoeuvrable than most ancient rule sets.  Once your battle line is breached it is very difficult to react quickly withou fresh reserve units.

Overall I like them.  They do give a quick game and are, I think, ideally suited to multi-player games.

I definitely want to play more and introduce them to the Club.  With the multi-player aspect and quick play I think these would be ideal for a club nights.