My first tournament game at Briton this year was against John’s Zanj Revolt army: hordes of fanatical warriors who would keep fighting at full capacity no matter how many times you disorder them. My troops were missing the canals 0f Venice already!

As the Zanj had no cavalry, I won the scouting, and was pleased to see the enemy drawn up in what looked like a defensive posture to me. The last thing I had wanted was to face an unbroken wall of foot units stretching right the way across the table, so the open flank on one side of the Zanj formation seemed like an opportunity to be exploited.

I duly advanced my infantry slightly forward in the centre (always give yourself a little retreat room just in case you need it) while sending the Knights cantering forward on the left flank.

The Zanj weren’t moving: obviously hoping to act as a rock on which the waves of my assault would break, so I took the time they had given me to get my troops just where I wanted them.

John’s refused right flank, however, didn’t give me what I really needed: a clear path, free of ZoCs, into the side of main Zanj body of troops. It was time to try and break things up a bit: time to send in my main line.

My initial advance to contact didn’t go too well: the Alabardiers and a unit of Knights being disordered, but a quick step backwards began to open things up a bit, certainly enough to deploy one unit of my outflanking force into position.

A lot of the Zanj were on the right hand side of the table, facing air…so they ganged up on the only unit of mine that they could reach: more Knights. For once, however, the Knights did what they were supposed to do, and punched through the warriors in front of them to escape the threat.

In the right hand picture above, you can also see how John’s echelon formation was keeping my outflanking force at bay…but all I needed was one chink in the Zanj armour and I was in!

That came as my re-ordered infantry pushed forward again, leaving a lane behind them for my flanking knights to cross the entire field and crash the side of the Zanj force on the ‘empty’ side of the table: as I said, they had been advancing forward so had got out of touch with the rest of their troops.

As the Zanj line fragmented, I was now able to gang up on their individual units. What this meant was that although the Zanj warriors and most of my men fought the same way, because the Zanj (as fanatics) saved very badly, I was able to inflict significantly more hits than I took, and even deep units can’t stand forever.

Zanj warriors began streaming from the field, leaving the Venetians with a 188-23 victory (we were using Peter’s Ewelme points system): a good start to the tournament proper.

A good win, but one that left me facing a tough opponent in round two: the Spartans!

My second game at Medieval Mayhem at Roll Call this year was against Matt’s Almoravid Berbers.

This was a beautifully painted army consisting of a unit of Black Guard veteran cavalry, a unit of Mercenary Knights, some Shieldwall (including more veteran Black Guard types) and then lots of light horse with javelins.

As the Berbers won the scouting, you’ll see from the montage, below, that my Knights faced off against his cavalry and infantry, with my foot deployed slightly to the right and mainly facing the light horse. Methinks I might get outflanked on the right!

Both sides opened the game with an advance and, with a bit of help from the cards, I was lucky enough to be able to extend my line out to the right before the Berber light horse had a chance to lap around it. Okay, so I only had raw crossbowmen and light crossbowmen out there on the flank, but that was better than nothing at all.

My plan, for those interested in that sort of thing, was to hold his infantry and light horse in the centre and right respectively whilst my Knights and Later Knights punched through his cavalry on the left, took his camp, and then the rest of his line in the rear.

The action began on the right, when Matt’s light cavalry came forward to harrass my advancing infantry. Crossbow bolts headed their way and, much to Matt’s dismay, one of his units was shot off the table. The other made no impression on my infantry, who continued to advance remorselessly.

By this time battle had also been joined on the left, with the Christian mercenary caballeros being blasted from the table by my Knights in one glorious impact whilst my Later Knights attacked the mounted Black Guard.

Unlike the Knights, the Later Knights bounced off the Black Guard and ended up very vulnerable to a counter-attack.

Up to now the plan had worked perfectly, but the cards just wouldn’t let me get the rest of my Knights stuck in on the left. Instead an uneasy stalemate occurred with neither side able to make any headway against the other.

This meant that I had to bring up my infantry before my left was overwhelmed by troops moved to reinforce Matt’s right and, fortunately, my Alabardieri and Lancieri were on tip top form and proceeded to convincingly win the centre.