Не тихий дон

One of the companions of my youth  - in wargaming, follow-spot operating, bad rock and roll playing (and I mean bad), excessive beer drinking, and unsuccessful womanising (the last two possibly being connected) - duly arrived for a brief visit.

We first had a try at Through the Mud and the Blood and, as anticipated his familiarity with general Lardie concepts meant that he quickly picked it up. The British always win the first scenario in the book, but their task was made easier because I forgot the 'wait for it' rule thereby denying the Germans a first shot at the time of the attackers' deployment.

We then visited the legendary wargames room for, as is often the case these days, a bit of Gargliano. James has already written about the evening so I shan't add anything except to agree that Don's dice rolling was uncanny. At one point he rolled a saving throw of five dice and got five sixes.

Note the crap chariot in the background

The following day it was back to the annexe and a run through of To the Strongest!, a game that I hadn't played for a while - which showed. It all came back to me eventually and we had an enjoyable and very close game which Don as the Celts won in a deciding melee; the loss of a Roman commander at a crucial moment being probably the factor that swang it. 

A good time was had by all and Don learned two hard life lessons: never take James' advice when it involves attacking and, at TtS!, never use your commander to replace a 9 because you will inevitably draw a 10. Hopefully, he'll soon have another chance to avoid these mistakes.