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| The rival warlords Nexiust and his loyal legions face off against his rival Primus and his Burgundian allies. |
I finally decided to have my first solo game. This came about due to the fact that my wargaming has been reduced to maybe playing a game once every 3 months or so if even that. Why? Well my regular opponent no longer (war)games very often or least not that I'm aware of as he prefers mostly just to paint in regards to miniatures. The other group lives over an hour away and has their own gaming group, but are also not gaming as often as they used to at the moment due to real life interfering. There is a club I used to go to about a half hour away. Friendly folks, but they mostly play games I'm not really interested in (Fantasy ,Sci-Fi ,some historical but always skirmish) plus often with unpainted miniatures which sadly I cannot overlook, not to mention I really dislike transporting my miniatures. Since wargaming includes both painting and playing for me if I'm not gaming then the motivation to paint is affected. Well, I knew I had to do something or wargaming as a whole would just come to a halt period. This would not be a good thing as the wargaming hobby has had a very positive affect on the quality of my life.
Solo gaming. Hmmm would that really work? When playing a game I've always looked at it as very social activity and probably the part I liked the most even more then the game itself . The hobby talk before the game, friendly banter during the game, and the after game discussions and plans. This would not be present. I also worried about favoring one side too much leading to a boring predictable game.
Well I'm happy to say I enjoyed the solo game a lot more then I expected! Of course I would have had more fun playing a friend no question, but the experience was quite fun which is the important thing! I think the rules To the Strongest! had a lot to do with it due to the friction in activations where units can fail to activate which changes the dynamics disrupting plans not to mention the grid system eliminated any kind of fudging and fiddling of units and speeds the game up. As long as you try to play each side as best you can then you will have a good time as the cards will give you plenty of surprises.
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| General Nexiust in the center with the legions and commander Cyprus in his cataphractarii leading his division of cavalry on the left and commander Poximer leading the auxiliaries on his right face off in the distance General Primus and his legions center with his cavalry under Optomier and his ally Chieftain Hangar and his Burgundians. |
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| The cavalry prepare to engage. |
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| Poximer's Aux. Begin to advance |
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| Hangar's Burgundians roar their defiance |
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| General Primus with obvious Germanic tastes |
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| Genaral Nexius who isn't above showing the heads of previous enemies as an example of what happens when defying his rule. |
I decided to use my Late Roman/Germanic collection as it's my largest to play a kind of civil war of two rival Warlords. I did need to substitute some units for others as I didn't have enough of a particular type. For example I didn't have 3 cataphractarii units on one side rather just one and the other two were equites(normal cavalry). There were more substitutes, but I think the overall impression of Late Romans with Germanic allies fighting Late Romans was achieved.
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| A mighty clash of cavalry led by Cyperus himself! |
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| More clashes of the cavalry looking for advantage. |
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| Hangar charges with his Burgundians, but Aux. hold their ground. |
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| Back and forth the Auxiliari's and Burgundians fight, but neither can seem to get an advantage |
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| In the cavalry duels Optimer's heavy cavalry manage to outflank one of Cyprus forward pressing units. |
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| Optimer's riders crush the enemy underfoot |
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| Disaster for Cyprus as both he and his cataphractarii are shockingly ridden down! |
I was always holding back from playing To the Strongest! as I didn't think I would like the grid system and the cards instead of dice.....I was wrong to say the least! I really liked the grides as it just made moving units so easy without any fuss and the process of flipping cards was more fun then rolling dice I found. Also, since I could take my time I didn't feel the game drag as often happens when learning new rules. I found myself completely engaged as to what would happen and not wanting to stop playing which is a very good thing. It was a very tense game with charge at the end deciding the game!
I thought maybe the cards on the table would be distracting, but they were not as I picked them up after each "division" was completed and the attack/save cards were played off battlefield. Really like the way the victory medals were worked especially with the amendments. Do you really want to rally that unit? Could cost you victory medal in doing so. I won't explain To the Strongest! here, but those that play will get that. Quite a few interesting choices to make in that whichever side your playing you are making decisions.
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| Nexiust seeing his cavalry flanked destroyed and his right flank bogged down decides a desperate charge of his legions to break Primus center is the only chance he has before his flank will be set upon by cavalry |
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| Auxiliarii vs Auxiliarrii, Legionarii vs Legionarii and Warlord vs Warlord clash in the center! |
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| Nexiust and his Legionarii's desperate charge pays off and they break both of Primus's Legionarrii's sending them scattering and Primus himself being dragged off to safety by his bannerman. |
Remember when I said that I was worried that my preference for one side could lead to unconscious bias to the side I was playing......well I lost so that answered that! To the Strongest is an excellent game and if I had to nit pick I'd say not having the units base to base takes a bit from the visual, but that can be easily adjusted simply by making the boxes smaller, but I wanted them "standard" until I'm more comfortable with the game. I highly recommend playing To the Strongest! and I plan on playing many more games in the future along with Simon's For King and Parliament and his yet to be released Age of Reason(Corporal John?) ruleset for 18th century warfare all which are right up my ally with a focus on fighting armies.
So It looks like wargaming will continue through a combination of solo and friends which is a very good thing for me indeed and has already fueled my desire to paint more units to fill in the gaps of my existing collections and grow others. Other rulesets like Field of Battle and TFL also look promising for solo due to friction in activations which I think is very useful in solo wargaming.
Thanks for viewing!
