Apparently. they got that wrong . . .

Hi,

You know that old saying, the one about how  pride goeth before the fall?  Yeah, not so much.  Turns out, pride goeth during the Fall.  Mid-November, as it happens.

Regular readers may recall this post, in which your (now) humble author laid waste to all who opposed him? The evening in question led to much debate within the club as to whether or not the ability Long Move was a bit OP in Song of Blades and Heroes.  Yeah, verdict is, "not so much" ;)

I got in two games, one against ernieR's Dwarves, and one against Foxlington's beastmen, and was hammered (hoofed?) in both.  The dwarf game was a place of power scenario, with me as (nominal) defender.  ErnieR had gotten in a few games between this one and our last, and his Dwarves are moving up in the world - not inconsiderable boosts to both combat and quality value across the group, and the addition of another uber-combat guy.

The terrain caused me some problems, and ernieR used it well.  Because there wasn 't a load of room for my big bases, I tried to send my knights looping around.  In consequence, ernieR was able to take me on in scattered engagements, fighting two or three to one, and it didn't take him long to rack up some casualties.

I didn't play this well, to be honest.  I had a significant mobility advantage over ernieR, and should have used it to hang back and pick off single figures if /as they were exposed.  Although slow, ernirR's basic guys are the equivalent of my best ones, and it was silly to forget how dangerous they can be in close combat.   Instead, I went in hell for leather, and it cost me.  It didn't help that I rolled a pile of "1"s, both in combat, and for injury - I lost my new knight, and "good "archer, Salvatore, and my other peasant P'Tit Jean took a hit to quality in the next game.  Total casualties were the equivalent of over 100 gold!

With a much depleted warband on the table, Foxlington and I sat down to a game.  I can't remember the title of this one, but it began with a fairly unconventional deployment; we took turns placing one of the opponent's figures on the table.  This produced a predictably scattered arrangement, with Fox's minotaur in distressing proximity to Lady Hawk.  I caught a break in the first turn, when Fox fluffed his activation roll for the big guy, and the Lady rushed to safety.  Not that it helped her in the long run.

I was badly outnumbered in this game, but had learned a bit from the previous one.  I put the experience to use picking off a few of Fox's outliers in the early turns, using my mobility to gang up on isolated figures.

It wasn't long, however, before Fox consolidated, and we were left with a bit of a stand-off.

I tried a couple things, throwing a transfix on one of the beastmen, and buttonhooking a knight around the wall, but he managed to flub his combat roll.  My second knight didn't manage enough successes to get in on combat, and I was left with a knight exposed, and my forces strung out.  The game turned into a straight up slog, line on line, and once again, my opponent had more force to bring to bear.

It wasn't long before Foxlington was able to bull his way through, and he took my figures out one by one.  A failed morale roll later, and my gang was out of the game.

This game cost me another permanent casualty.  In two games, my warband cut down to half size!  The Lady was robbed to boot!

I noticed a  few things in these games, between the spurts of blood and shrieks of terror.  As the quality and number of troops go up, it's getting harder to pull off some of the riskier tactics I'd used in my first games.  Exposing my leader to danger in order to pull off a transfix is a much greater risk when opposing figures either are better at resisting the transfix, or at surviving the following round of combat.  Bad dice have gone from being something occasionally frustrating, to something that loses me figures.  Because my knights are so expensive, I can't play them fast and loose.  With only two of them and my leader left, my next few games are going to have to be much more cagey.

FMB