This was a playtest of the “a few sides of A4” initial version of my suggested To The Strangest rules: a fantasy version of the popular To The Strongest Ancients/Medieval rules.

Rather than go pure fantasy for this first playtest, I went with fantasy versions of a couple of my existing Ancients armies: Hoplite Greek and Viking. These translated quite nicely into Legendary versions with the addition of a few specialist troops, such as the Medusa and Hydra for the Greeks, and a large (pun intended) contingent of Jotuns or Frost Giants for the Vikings.

First up were the Legendary Greeks. Four commands:

1. Poseidon (Senior Officer and Demi-God)

   • The Medusa (Character with Distance Weapon, Dread)

   • The Hydra (Character with Regeneration)

   • Four Heroes

2. Manipules (Attached Officer, Heroic)

   • Two units of Athenian Hoplites (Deep)

   • Two units of Psiloi (Lights with javelin, Raw)

   • Camp

3. The Minotaur (Attached Officer, Heroic, Shaman)

• Minotaurs (Hulks, Veteran)

• Cyclops (Giants)

• Centaurs (Cavalry with bows, Veteran)

4. Bellarophon (Attached Officer, Mounted, Flying)

• Pegasus Cavalry (Cavalry with javelins, Flying)

Facing them were the Legendary Norse. Perhaps unwisely, they had loaded up and gone with three commands:

1. Knut (Attached Senior Officer, Shaman)

   • Two units of Huscarls (Shieldwall, Deep, Veteran, 2HCCW)

   • Archers (Lights with bow)

   • Five Heroes

   • Camp

2. Ragnar (Detached Officer, Heroic, Shaman)

   1. Three units of Jotun [Norse Giants] (Giants)

   2. One unit of Dvergr [Norse Dwarves] (Shieldwall, Shaman)

   3. Camp

3. Sven (Detached Officer, Heroic)

   1. Two units of Werewolves/Werebears (Warriors, Regeneration)

   2. Two units of Fyrd (Shieldwall, Deep, 2HCCW)

Here’s a pictorial battle report, with comments explaining how the new rules for unit types, magic and flying work…

An exciting clash and a good test of the rules. The magic works really well - there’s never enough to do everything you want! - whether you concentrate it into one place (Poseidon demi-god) or spread it out (the multiple Norse Shamans). The Flying rules also worked well, although a better test will be when both sides have units that can fly. The only thing I think I do need to do is to look at lives and points for Characters and Giants.

Next test will feature the Gendarme (Knights, Longbowmen, Dragons!) versus Undead!