It was just like any other Friday night until Mr. Jackson produced a stained plastic box from within his floor length leather jacket. Not content to fight fairly, Chris had sought the dark corners of the black web and tried to buy himself onto the top rung of competition gaming. Under a soiled cardboard covering was an army painted by none other than Mr. T Porter, Mr. Madaxeman himself. Selling out his children’s future for the promise of toy soldier glory, Chris looked smug.

Two whole corps of impact horse were ready to lead my Spaniards a merry dance. The black flags of the Abbassids would attempt to lure my own impetuous horse to their doom. What followed was two hours when the ruleset was tested to breaking point by Mr. Jackson’s ambitious interpretations/ variants/ unpublished FAQs that had “just been published!”

Notice the A ( sic “hay” in the field ( A for ambush of course!) After a few issues with trying to cram all Andalusia’s arable land into one sector, Chris was less than happy. Apparently you can’t put fields in seawater and ambushes aren’t allowed in the Spanish deployment area.

I deployed my archers and javelinmen in the fields opposite the Arab foot. I was expecting an attack on my camp. Unfortunately Chris had miscalculated his number of command points and in one move, crossed two fields and a plantation to the other side of the table. Lester Picket eat your heart out! He was off to the other side of the field.

Thankfully though the unit that didn’t have a general figure, or indeed any flag, was in fact the general so the skirmishers could still be commanded from four foot away. Chris explained how the general was the figure with the raised fore leg😳. El Jackson had seen that my caballeros might stand a chance against one corps of lancers , but not two. I needed to wipe out his right wing horse before reinforcements arrived.

My slow moving spearmen would have to pin the super fast Arab horsemen. Unfortunately Chris had misread the stats for heavy cavalry. He also then forgot that light horse did not have to evade. We just had time to argue over whether impetuous Spanish cavalry got an impact bonus. After half an hour, we found that the answers were all written in the rules. Unfortunately we delved back into the rules to see if cavalry could charge at an angle. Apparently horses and their miniature replicas can actually wheel.

The rash charge of my heavy horse was held, even after discomforting the Abbasid general. I’d lost half the cavalry corps and my spearmen looked like their line would be flanked in the following turns. The Abbasid infantry were not leaving their fields and there was just enough time to grouse about a dice that threw too many sixes before Chris’ mum rang to say that if he didn’t come home soon, she’d be locking the door.

Not the most fast flowing game but memorable for the fact that we both agreed never ever, ever to play with impetuous troops ever again! English Civil Wargame on the 26th at Firestorm maybe anything but civil! Thanks for reading!

Ps on the painting front I picked up these rather nice basing materials from a Polish trader last week- Alien laboratories. Great service and a quality product. These will go nicely on my Fall of Rome bases.