Now that corderoy trousers and tank tops have peaked, the latest trend in the Berk-ley Vale fens is L’art de la Guerre 120 points. Slimbridge was the venue and a motley crew of veterans had assembled. The rules are a free download from the official forum and the biggest attraction for competitions is the ability to finish a game in an hour and a half ( or sooner😖)

It was another run out for my Patrician Romans. In order to get a victory I went for solid heavy infantry and bow armed heavy horse. To deal with the terrain I planned a second smaller corps of rough terrain troops.

No.87 Patrician Rome

One Brilliant Commander@3 points

Three Heavy cavalry (bow) @33 points

One light cavalry unit with javelins

Four Foederati impetuous heavy swordsmen @32 points

One light infantry bow @4 points
Corps two

Another Brilliant general @3 points

One Isaurian javelin light infantry@ 4 points

One elite Light infantry @5 points

One light cavalry bow @6 points

Three medium infantry impact swordsmen@24 points

The first game was against the Elfin Unwin’s Lydians. Andy poured a whole corps worth of javelin units into the forest whilst his companions swept round on my left. As his spears moved forward in the centre, I attempted to slow him with my light infantry.

But it was all to no avail, my heavy cavalry would not stand and my impetuous Foederati showed a marked lack of enthusiasm. It was draw but hardly an auspicious start!

Next up the boy wonder, Mark Clarke and the new must have troop type, camels! Not just some camels, a huge number of camels! Wall to wall camels were lined up with my heavy foot and they meant business.

This was one of those moments that I wished I was a more “switched on” competitive gamer. We used the wrong stats for my heavies against the camel onslaught and then I forgot my impact auxilia discount Marks javelins. I did have the pleasure of knocking Marks dice over to a one in a simultaneous dice off! Even Constantine couldn’t halt the bad luck. I would come to mourn the loss of many commanders over the next few games. Victory to the Beja Liberation Front!

The dimunative Colin next with his diminutive plastic Greco- Bactrians. I didn’t fancy taking on elephants so I stayed at the top of the central ridge. Colin was content to wait for my command roll to fail and an impetuous charge to be initiated.

The Roman command dice held and our respective cavalry wings made a feeble demonstration against each other. A draw with the Patrician losing fewer than the  Greeks. But then, Fry……….

The evil genius was up to his old tricks. A village full of Viking axemen and two Brest implants on each flank of two handed Islesmen. I wasn’t going into the valley of death but his Vikings weren’t staying in the village. It were orrible……

Mark does have some georgious miniatures in his collection. He quickly overwhelmed my left wing and he was on my baggage. My horse mounted a counter attack and surrounded Macbeth but it was all over. A great game and a most successful format. The Thornbury Show in August will see us all reconvene. Thanks for reading.