…which almost never happened?

Why? I hear you ask. What could keep the man from his beloved wargaming?

An intruder, that’s what: an alien beast that has taken up residence in my wargaming room.

When I agreed that the family could get a dog, I made it clear that I wanted a good-sized, rough ‘n’ ready working dog. As you can see, I got exactly what I wanted. She’s a pedigree too, and one who delights in the name Irma Daydream Belle-ever, or Bella for short.

But back to wargaming…and with the space where my tables go filled with all sorts of doggy paraphernalia, I had to de-camp to the sitting room and go To The Strongest rather than my intended I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum.

With everything having to be shipped into the room as opposed to being immediately available , I decided to try my reconstructed 100YW English army: mounted knights, dismounted knights, longbows and billmen. K. would take the Sarmatians: neatly proxied by the Sassanid Persians.

For the first game, I made the classic “new army” mistake and forgot to consider how the army acted historically. As I’d rather foolishly put my cannon into the same brigade as the mounted knights, I placed them in the centre of the table, with battles consisting of a mix of dismounted knights, longbows and billmen on the flanks.

The Sarmatians took the initiative, swept forward, and basically defeated each battle as three separate encounters. Yes, I had plenty of missile-armed troops, but I just couldn’t get the concentration of fire I needed to halt the enemy heavy cavalry, who then swept in and lance-d my troops to death.

I had learnt my lesson for game two, and set up in the traditional “Agincourt” fashion: archers in the middle, with the two battles next to each other for mutual support, with the melee troops on the flanks, and my mounted knights grouped on one side for a decisive flank attack.

This worked much better. As the Sarmatians advanced somewhat unevenly, I was able to target each unit in turn, hammering them with bow and cannon fire. By the time they had reached my line, they were already down three units, and natural attrition in melee, even on a one-for-one basis, gave me the victory, especially as the cannon had neatly taken the head off one of his generals!

A couple of good games (despite the change of location!) and a valuable lesson re-learnt: go historical with your tactics!