TtS

I got in another solo game of To the Strongest! yesterday...well almost. I actually spent most of the day working in the garden and consequently didn't get to start my game until later afternoon. The garden did desperately need attention though; it was starting to look like the Velociraptor pen in Jurrasic Park. I wasn't able to complete the game before the family started to come home but I got a few turns into it and was able to correct a few of the rules mistakes I made in my last game. I won't be writing this up as a battle report but I will revisit this scenario and order of battle at a later date. In the meantime here's a couple of pictures from what I am calling a 'test game'. The setup: Romans at the top, Carthaginians at the bottom of this picture. A Roman farmstead can be seen hastily evacuating in the top left. The river has two crossing points and the Roman army has a camp over in the right. The Romans advanced as aggressively as the Carthaginians and battle was joined quickly. I wil

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Following on from the Hills I made last week I have been trying to make a selection of different terrain types that can be used in my 6mm games using the To the Strongest! ruleset by Simon Miller. For these small terrain item's I have used 70mm rounded edge bases as these fit just inside the 75mm squares on the game mat I am using.Rocky Outcrop - This is classed as Impassable Terrain and is tall enough to block line of sight for units at ground level. Troops on low hills, however, can see over this type of terrain. Vegetation - Thick ground vegetation such as bushes, briars or heather is counted as broken ground because it impedes movement. This counts as rough terrain to mounted and phalangitae, only and doesn’t block line of sight.Boulder Field - This is Broken Ground which means that only skirmish units can pass through it. While the broken ground may make the movement of formed units impossible it isn't sufficiently elevated to block line of sight. Boulder fields do provide cover. Muddy field -

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I've been working on some more terrain items, this time specifically for playing 6mm wargames using the To the Strongest! rules. My game mat is divided into a 3" grid so when I'm building terrain elements for use with these rules I try to make them fit comfortable inside those dimensions or multiples thereof. My current set of hills is rather limited, especially now that I have expanded my games surface to 3x4', so I have started to build a set of extra hills that allow for a bit more variety.The following pictures illustrate the technique I have used and show some of the variety of hills I have managed to create using it.I cut slices of cork bark with a model saw and lays then along one edge of the base to make a line of cliffs. Then I built up the hill behind the cliffs using layers of corrugated cardboard cut to fit. I filled any gaps with little offcuts of the card until I had the rough shape of the hill. The whole thing was glued together with lashings of PVA glue and then left overnight to dry

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Tuesday was my day off and I decided to make the most of the free time to play a solo game with my Punic War forces. I have recently been reorganising my Carthaginian army and during the painting challenge, I added several Gaul and Iberian units to the collection so it was high time these were played with. I also recently bought a new gridded game mat from DeepCut Studios and this was an excellent opportunity to christen it in battle.The SetupThis game is a fictional battle set on the banks of the Secutium River somewhere in northern Italy. Both armies came in at 200 points apiece so this was going to be a relatively large game and more importantly it was going to be played solo. To add a certain level of 'automation' to my non-existent opponent controlling the Romans I decided to randomise the deployment of the cavalry command so it could have been on either the left or right flank. I also diced to determine the level of 'aggression' the Roman army would show in their actions. Would they be cautious and stan

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After expanding the ranks of my Polybian Roman Army last week now its time to add some extra muscle to my Carthaginian army under Hannibal. The most famous of the Barcids, Hannibal always seemed to be outnumbered but he made up for it by gathering disaffected and outright rebellious roman 'subjects' and turning them against Rome. The march from Spain had severely depleted his army. Some estimates suggest that as much as 75% of his starting strength was 'lost' to battle casualties, garrisoning of parts of Cisalpine Gaul and disease (especially during the harsh Alpine crossing). When he arrived in Northern Italy Hannibal faced a region of Gallic tribes that had been brutally subdued by Rome and were naturally reluctant to turn on their powerful overlords. However after he had routed an army under Publius Scipio at the Battle of Ticinus nearly all the Gallic tribes switched to the Carthaginian cause. I already had three of these units painted but wanted the option to field more (I can take up to six us

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