Romans vs Seleucids in To The Strongest!

Last Saturday saw me throwing another phalanx vs. legion bash for the guys, this time using the To the Strongest! rules from Simon Miller. We called it before the real end of things, but it seemed to be drifting toward a victory for the phalanx... in no small part to the Roman left-flank player's appalling luck. I've never seen one roll so many ones, so to speak.

Early moments: The Seleucid right advances, while the Romans move forward a little more cautiously.

 We started things off rather farther apart than most games of TtS recommend; this gave the players time to get the hang activations, group moves, and march moves.

Just before the clash.

 The above picture shows off all the lance (blue), shock (green) and ammo (brown) tokens this game needs. I'm going to need to order some more if I want to run some bigger games...

Camelry in the foreground, Seleucid lancers and Roman triarii in the middle.

 While the two sides were point-balanced, the Seleucids had a really cavalry advantage, and I think that might be a bit of a problem in scenario design. Not sure yet how to address it.

The Romans stand off behind their velites.

 I also think I erred in a couple things - for one, on a closer reading of the rules, units can't activate to shoot if they're in an enemy zone of control. That means that the only way javelin-armed troops can shoot is either from one side, or by moving and shooting in the same activation.

The Roman left flank has all but disintegrated, leaving the legion open to a sweeping flanking move from Seleucid cavalry.

Still, fun was had by all, and though I felt things might have been dragging a bit halfway through, I do like the rules.