Monday 22 February 2016

To the strongest!

yesterday at the club I had my first game of "To the strongest". Dave set the game up and with Kev controlled the Hittites. While Ian and myself had the New Kingdom Egyptians (NKE). These are all Dave's Figures, rules, Terrain, Maps well everything.  Dice represent the missiles the unit have before they run out and need to get supplied again.  The little white skulls represent there is a hero in the unit. While the red hearts tell you the unit is close to breaking, or has suffered a hit and another will kill it.
WE played 2 games in all and the pictures are taken on Dave's phone as I forgot the camera and he was nice enough to do it.

The rules worked very well indeed.  In the first game I was of course daunted by facing heavy chariots with only 1 unit of heavy infantry several units of light infantry and some light chariots. But with some luck I did manage to destroy half the heavy chariots of the Hittites and slip a light chariot unit behind the Hittite lines where it sacked the Hittites baggage trains and generally made a nuisance of itself. It was hard fought everywhere else and I did have some light chariots chased from the board never to be seen again (yeah OK they did turn up in the next battle). generally speaking it was hard fought by all four of us but due to the baggage train being sacked the Hittites lost faith in the battle and the NKE won.

The second battle was somewhat different. Firstly let me state that I failed to kill anything at all. Dave did out play me I cannot say otherwise. Kev also out played Ian and I had a Hittitte light chariot in the rear (Make up any rude joke you like) and my Baggage was sacked. Ian on my left had completely crumbled as Kev had learnt how to use his chariots and Ian unfortunately had not adapted quite as well. But a loss is a loss and it would be ceorlish to blame anyone else for such a thing.  So I take full responsibility!

So where do we go from here? That is the question! I did very much like the rules, they were easy to play uncomplicated and yet at the same time versatile. The army size is very nice (bigger than DBA of course but not so large as to make them unruly and difficult to transport.

So the consequence is that I think I will get an army. Ahhh but which one. I do have a choice of opponents. Big Lee has some 6mm Romans and Carthaginians ready for these rules. Dave has 2 Biblical armies. I think Another club member has some NKE as well so I would seek something else. My pet love is Italian renaissance, but that would mean getting 2 armies as I do not think anyone else in the club has them, also the rules are just on the edge of that as a timeline so perhaps not. Unless I was to do them in 10mm or smaller. (Just for cost/storage/transportation purposes).

I have had a "Seapeople" army before and they were fun and very hard hitting and I do have some Minoan/Mycenaean figures sitting in the lead pile. So that would be another option and would be a better army for my character than the NKE. And knowing Dave he would want to use the Hittites again and again.

So if you know the Biblical period and know a good army drop me a comment.

All the best Cheers Clint

Finally, just for Sander. here are some Bare Naked ladies!

14 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks Fran. the rules are surprisingly simple yet work very well indeed. The average Reject (If here is such a thing) would grasp them in about 30 mins. ($% mins If I was explaining them!)

      Delete
  2. A group local to me play those rules. I'm (supposedly) taking part in a game next weekend, so possibly it might be those rules. No idea what the game is. Where its to be played. Who's playing. Or what we're playing with. Ah, I love good organisation! :))

    Not that I'm an expert on Ancients...
    WHAB book chariot wars lists these:
    Sumerian & Akkadian Armies (very early chariot armies using mule chariots).
    NKE.
    Hammurabic Babylonia.
    The Hittite Empire.
    Trojan War - Archilles. Troy. etc. etc.
    Israelites
    Assyrian Empire - 4-horse heavy chariots! Cavalry. Mounted infantry. Med. armoured infantry. Skirmishers. Allies: Mercs, Scythian horsemen, Arab camelry, Greek or Lydian hoplites.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Roy. I know all those armies in army lists but not how they play. But I notice Stuart has a lot of 15mm Sea People and I have a few Minoans so either of those armies might be a good place to start. There is so little written about the Seapeople though I am a little reluctant to tread that path just yet.

      Delete
  3. Yup, thanks for playing I think they were really tactical game where you spend more time decision making than fighting, yet almost no time looking up rules, and having two games with the same players yet have two totally different outcomes is a big plus in my book.

    I have 6 armies, pretty small though 100pt DBM size but most is multi-use or used as allies anyway and had a Nubian and Mycenean still in the box.

    The Sea Peoples are definately different from the other armies, 90% double sized units (take 3 hits) and just a couple of chariots and auxileries, could be interesting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Dave. I agree totally with what you say in the first paragraph. I have the start of a Minoan/Mycenean army so that may be where I start.
      Relfie has a dba NKE army and Graham a Hittite Dba army as well so as a group we may be well equipt to play out s small campaign. Should we choose.

      Delete
  4. Sounds like the rules played well and I feel another army coming on Clint!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Michael. You may be right about another army. There is a show next Sunday so you may be right.

      Delete
  5. From the piccies and your report it does sound like it was a good game and of ocurse a good set of rules is always a plus. My ancient 's knowledge is limited so I'll leave any suggestions to others. Good luck with this new venture Clint.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Joe. Today the new venture is zombies. As I feel I did not have enough zombie games last year.

      Delete
  6. Ah, Biblical armies are my first love! I have late Assyrian, Kushite Egyptian, late Hebrew and Midianite, all in 15mm. But since I've no idea what style you like, I don't feel able to make any suggestions for you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks you C6. I can loose with any army equally quickly. I will put this on the back burner for now and return to it late. But thinking Minoan.

      Delete
  7. Great looking armies. Decisions Decisions pick which one you like the look of most and go for it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Simon. I have been side tracked back onto zombies for the moment.

      Delete

Please feel free to leave a comment.