The Battle of Delheit Seivhngs.

Hi,

After a longish hiatus, we've finally got our Maurice campaign up and running again, so I carted my French down to the Dueling Grounds last night for a game against marks.  We've yet to play each other in the campaign so far, and marke's army turned out to be rather daunting; it's bigger than mine, over the course of the campaign, it's achieved comparable quality, and he's got a formidable set of national characteristics (Steady Lads, which lets him re-roll his combat dice on defense, and Lethal Volleys, which lets him re-roll failed damage rolls when shooting).



We drew Plains for terrain, which left us even in terms of scouting advantage.  I won the roll, I opted to defend, we ended up with 7 pieces of terrain, and I set up.  marke deployed in a rather offset way, planning, I assume, to wheel around and attack my flank.





The first stages of the game proceeded more or less as I expected.  marke began his long wheel, and I reacted by swinging my cavalry across to "counter-flank" him.  As defender, I had a decided advantage; marke had to seize the town on my side of the table, or break my army, to win.  All I had to do was not lose.  My basic plan would be to disrupt and delay him until time ran out on the game, and threatening his flank was the first step in that plan.





This is one of those games where lots of things went my way, including some of the more entertaining event cards.  I got in a rather fun use of the Confusion card, where I marched one of his front units back through several others stacked up behind.  In Thomas the Tank Engine parlance, it caused much confusion and delay ;)





I also redeployed my artillery.  While I was pretty sure they'd be overwhelmed, they'd do some damage, tie marke up, and give me a chance to redeploy to face his flank attack.





marke eventually broke through, but his units were stacked up, and I kept the time pressure up by running through the card deck as quickly as I could.



I also (finally!) got a chance to play the "That's not on the map!" card, laying some difficult ground right in the path of marke's advance.





Things were now poised to clash.  I'd done a fairly good job of running out the deck, and we were down to one last run-through.  If I could hold him off a little longer, night would fall, and I'd win.



marke pushed forward, and I moved up to meet him.  I had a good run of cards that would interfere with his musketry, and figured they'd even the odds against the advantage he gained from Lethal Volleys.



On the other side of the table, I kept my cavalry in position to charge.  In retrospect, I might have been better off to send them in, but they'd have to go up against 2 guns, 2 undamaged infantry units, and the bulk of marke's own cavalry behind them.  I figured in the end they'd do better to tie up those units, and keep them out of the fight.



The price, however, was exposing the cavalry to musket fire against which they had no response.



It was at this point I made what was probably a game-changing mistake.  I knew once he closed to musket range, he'd outshoot me, so I charged in with my infantry.  With a bit of luck, I'd put enough disruptions on his front line to reduce his shooting effectiveness, and that would buy me a little more time.

Instead, the dice broke the other way (I can't complain; he'd had terrible shooting rolls up to that point), and I ended up losing the fight, and getting raked by musket fire.



He then charged in turn, and with one of my units at 4 disruptions, tore a hole in my line.  His path to the town was open.

Although the local situation was bad, I still felt pretty good about the game as a whole.  We only had a few cards left, and he'd have maybe one shot to take the town.  The odds were deeply against him, so I figured I had it pretty much in the bag.

It was around this point that someone pointed out a horrible bit of the rules I'd overlooked.  I had been operating under the assumption that the game ended when the last card was drawn, but as it turns out, play continues until both players pass twice, or both run out of cards.  Which meant, since it was highly unlikely marke was going to pass, that I was looking at at least 10 more turns of play, marke had a clear line of attack to the objective, I was down several units, and had a sub-optimal hand of cards.

This was not going to turn out well.

At this point, I had a choice.  I could ask for terms, abandon the objective, or try and hold him off.  I opted for the latter, but it proved a Pyrrhic victory.  While I piled on enough pressure to keep a hold on the objective, too many of my units were ground down, and he ended up breaking me on morale.



In the immortal words of Bart Simpson, crap, boobs, crap.

It was a fun game actually, bar my absolute flabbergasting on discovering I'd totally misinterpreted rules written down in black and white.  marke's always a gent to play against, and it was terrific to get my French on the table again after so many months away.  As it turns out, despite the drubbing I took, the army wasn't too badly damaged.  My two guard units, and two trained units come back at their original quality because of my own national advantages, so the only real hit was one of my elites will come back conscript.  Such is war, I suppose.

While marke and I were duking it out, there were a couple of games going on in the background.  ernieR and Vonplutz were having a game of Bolt Action, and DaveB and Jack1080 were playing the final of our Bloodbowl league (Jack1080 won a very close 2:1 game with his Skaven against DaveB's orks).  We're in the final stages of getting our Pewter to Poppies auctions up (we took some glam shots of the minis the same night), and I'll be posting details as I get them.







FMB

Riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in . . .

 . . . a colossal pain in my anus.

Got in a Maurice campaign game against Nick the Lemming last night, and not to spoil the show, had my derriere handed to me rather handily.  Nick's take on the debacle (and some rather kind words, back at you Nick, you're a scholar and a gentleman) can be found here, and the rather amusing campaign report here.

 It all began so well. We drew Rugged for terrain, a type I don't believe I've played on before, and, while Nick won the roll to be defender (i.e., the scouting roll), I used the trick from a few games back in which I put two towns on his side, so I'd have some choice over the objective. Nick deployed, I set up my infantry to pin him and my cavalry to flank.

The calm before my horrible, horrible, defeat.

 I deployed my guns off to the left, with an infantry unit to discourage adventuresome cavalry.  The plan was to envelope his flank, and produce some 2:1 attacks that might let me roll him up.

Crafty.

Nick's army has a fairly powerful combination of National Advantages, those being Lethal Volleys (he re-rolls failed "kill" rolls on shooting), Rally to the Colours (he re-rolls failed rally dice), and Depot Battalions (which lets him play aggressively, knowing that at least two broken units can return at full strength).  He's also an excellent player, which means he uses these advantages to put considerable pressure on an opponent.  I've yet to find a way to deal with his army successfully.  Most of the tactices I've developed against other players (coordinate the attack, flank with cavalry, get in some disruptions via musketry, close to contact for the break through) just don't work, and Nick's aggressive play style means I generally don't have the luxury of dancing around him looking for an opening.

Unassuming, yet murderous.

This game more or less illustrates the problem, so in many ways, is worth studying for learning purposes.  My game plan, as I noted, was to flank with the cavalry, hopefully picking up his guns, and getting my cavalry in behind his infantry.  If coordinated with an infantry advance, this might force Nick to break up his lines a little.  If I could get some 2:1 fights, or hook around the end of his infantry line, I might be able to bring my own advantages (such as my edge in combat via a la baionette) into play.

So far, so good.

Instead, Nick sensibly retired his guns, and elongated his line to counter my moves.  I opened up with a preliminary bonbardment, and pushed forward my infantry and cavalry.  Nick, however, rallied off any disruptions I managed via bombardment, and wheeled his infantry to counter my advance.

That gaping hole in the centre is where the Irish used to be.  Still in the game though.

I thought this might be an opportunity (after the game, Nick concurred, indicating he'd been a little concerned about the thiness of his lines.  I moved my infantry up to just out of musket range, and considered my options.  One was to attack with the cavalry, try to break the thin end of his line, and then sweep around.  The other was a broad infantry engagement, and hope to do enough damage to blunt his return attack.

Nick promptly disrupted my plans by playing an event card that forced my Irish infantry (my best) forward into musket range.  Over the next few turns, he then produced a card combination that had me gnashing my teeth, first forcing a volley phase (which tore up my Irish some), then blunting their charge (I was going to lose them, I might as well try to tear him up a bit as well), and then to top it off, rolled just well enough to survive combat.  The Irish went down in a wave of musket fire, and I was left with limited options.

So handsome, so debonair, so quickly dead.

Nick then advanced his infantry, pressuring me into making a decision.  I simply cannot stand and trade musket fire with him.  His troops shoot better, and unless they're destroyed in a single round, can generally roll off any disruptions via his Rally advantage.  Once we're in range, I either have to go forward, or back up.

Nick moves to musket range.  Time to get off the pot.

I decided to charge, but with the cavalry.  If I could break through, I had a chance to regain the initiative, and  pull some pressure off the infantry.  Unfortunately, this didn't work either.  Partly this was  product of confusion (I'd been treating the hills as separate terrain, and consequently thought my cavalry was divided into two forces, so only went in with half), partly it was a product of cards (Nick played a card that blunted my best unit), and partly it was a product of him rolling just enough to avoid being destroyed.  He'd then counter with musket fire and a rally action, and after a second charge, I was down two units, my entire army was moderately to severely damaged, and Nick's was essentially untouched.



Seeing no prospects for a win, and not wanting to have my army torn up any more, I asked for terms, and Nick, being the gent he is, accepted.

Get back on the pot, get back on the pot!

The basic fact is I was out-played.  Nick's army is a hard nut to crack, and he plays it well.  He guarded his vulnerable elements (his mediocre horse and his guns), and he took away the initiative early, forcing me into a position of making a hasty attack, or trying to disengage and reform elsewhere.  The latter might have been my better option; another possibility was to pull back, and try and loop my horse further around his flank, either getting in behind or forcing him to prolong his line further.  I'm learning that against Nick's force, I basically get one crack; if I don't break through on first contact, he can just sit there and blow me away at leisure.

This does not look good.

One thing I might try next time we face off is to use my guns more aggressively, moving them right up.  That way, I have at least one point in the line where I outgun him.  If I coordinate well enough, I might be able to get enough disruptions to weaken his line, and make a charge viable.  We'll see.
Next up are some almost finished M&T French.  Next week I've got another game against Nick, this one Impetus.  Some Bloodbowl is tentatively scheduled for the week after, and then we're officially into Cubtime / summer.  Blog activity will drop off somewhat in July and August, but I should get enough painting done for at least semi-regular updates.

FMB

The Battle of Holyhosen

Hi,

Got in a rather bloody campaign game of Maurice last night against Vonplutz, my opponent from a few games back.  I, of course, forgot my camera, but VP was kind enough to get some shots on his uberphone.  Many thanks to VP, and all shots are from his side of the table.

We drew rough ground for our terrain, the first time, I think, I've played with that card.  Scouting units were irregular infantry.  As VP had them, I didn't, and he had the Great Captain advantage to boot, he won the scouting roll handily, and elected to defend.  We rolled 10 pieces of terrain (3 contributed by me (again with the Great Captain, he rolled 2 dice for 7), and we set up the table.

That's the glorious French, i.e., me, bottom left.

Now ordinarily, I try to get towns on my side of the table asap, on the assumption that the less my opponent has to garrison, the better.  This time, however, VP put down a town as his first piece of terrain, and I decided to try something a little more cagey.  In the past, opponents have generally used terrain to build up a real bunker.  I figured I'd hold out, and try to place a town late, in a spot less well protected.  It more or less worked.  As the attacker, I got to place the objective, and I put it in the town somewhat less surrounded by difficult terrain.  Vonplutz deployed, concentrating his infantry in front of the town, with a battery on his right, and his cavalry massed behind woods on his left.  He also put some irregulars in woods on either flank.  Turns out, he had a notable that allowed him to march through difficult terrain without disruption, and it was pretty clear he was going to use that advantage to move through the woods and try and envelope me.

The view from VP's centre.  Note the near-total absence of French.

Even with the choice of towns as objective, storming one remained an iffy prospect.  I figured my best chance of a win would be to refuse a flank, and concentrate on rolling him up from on side or the other.  As such, I set up my infantry in two forces, once in line in the centre, one in column on the right, and my cavalry on the far right.  My battery I deployed on the far left, with a good line of fire down the centre of the table, should he be tempted to advance.

The early stages of the battle were pretty straightforward.  I peppered his forces with a little long-range cannon fire, building my hand, he moved his cavalry into the woods behind his irregulars, and I pushed my infantry columns on the right forward, and then into line, just out of range of his cavalry and musket fire.  Once my lines were dressed, I pushed my infantry forward, and started a fairly uneven musket duel with the irregulars in the woods, who eventually dissolved under the weight of lead.  His cavalry then began to take the brunt of my firing, and I moved up close to the edge of the wood.  At this point, he was stuck; the only way out going forward would be to go through my infantry, and he would be fighting in rough ground if he did.

First I moved them up in column, taking care to stay out of musket and charge range.

At this point, with his cavalry coming under fairly intense fire, VP began redeploying his infantry, concentrating towards my right.  There was one point where I had a pretty sweet (enfilade + mass) shot on his infantry, but opted to redeploy my own troops instead, which gave him the chance to move out of range; this was an atypical manifestation of discipline on my part.

Then I switched to line, and completed the envelopment.

In response, I used a coordinated card to push my remaining infantry forward, and obliqued to the left, both beginning an envelopment of his position, and opening up a channel in the centre for my cavalry.

French infantry advance, and begin to oblique to the left, while the French cavalry reforms behind the line.

This was actually a pretty tense moment for me.  Things were going well on my right, but the only way I was going to win this game would be to break open his centre, and from my side of the table, it looked like an even fight; not the kind of terms likely to produce positive outcomes.

Cavalry ready to move on the centre, his infantry spread out in an effort to contain multiple threats.

However, while VP had been able to concentrate, his much smaller frontage, and the mishmash of terrain, made it difficult for him to bring his lines to bear, or to coordinate his units.  The net result was that I was generally able to engage him piecemeal, generally getting 2:1 odds or better in both firefights and assaults.

That's a unit of guard cavalry in the centre melee.  They rolled a tactically brilliant 6.  

A combination of musketry and preliminary assaults gradually ground him down.  While his morale remained fairly high (I rolled a lot of 1s for morale impact), he was haemorraging units.  After (I think) the bulk of his cavalry and a couple infantry were wiped out, VP asked for terms, and I declined.  I felt a little bad, but only a little.  I've been on the losing side of every war in this campaign, and my allies lost the opening battle.  We needed a win, and I was in a position to provide one.  With VP's forces choked up, and mine deployed in a slowly closing ring, I was pretty sure I could take his morale to zero without losing too many of my own units.

Judging by the focus, I think the Lolland army's status could be described as "shaken" ;)

In the end, it was pretty one-sided.  He just couldn't bring enough units to bear, in the same time, at the same place, to effectively counter me, and the collective impact of a succession of lop-sided battles meant that he couldn't do enough damage to any one unit to break them.  At one point, he broke off, and retreated his remaining units (other than his garrisons) back even further towards the town.  I took the opportunity to rally my units, before closing in.  A final charge with my Guard (the Irish regiment Clare), and his morale dropped to zero, game over.

That's the Irish on the left.  Looking fierce, but fancy.

I caught a few breaks on the dice at key times.  Having remembered to actually use the a la Bainonette advantage, I turned a couple of 1s to 6s in assaults, which allowed me to double the opposing score and break a unit.  The close terrain also ended up working against VP, as it channeled him into small pockets where he simply couldn't operate effectively.



Once we'd finished the post-game, we managed to squeeze into an on-going game of Zombicide hosted by the ever-productive ChrisB.

Good looking board, quality components.

That's me.  Sheldon.  ChrisB painted him in a Bazinga! shirt.

 We were only in the game for a round or two before Watts kicked in the door  of a strip mall, and the world more or less exploded with zombies.  From what I got with my limited exposure, though, the game looks like fun, and I might look into a copy for when the nephews come over.  It doesn't hurt that ChrisB has painted something like 80-odd zombies differently, along with the full range of survivors.  I got to be Sheldon ;)

Post-door kicking situation.  Thanks, Watts ;(

Machete, driving a car.  With machetes.

Some updatey stuff on the weekend, and an unscheduled game next week.  Until then,

FMB

The Battle of Donghet Kocke

Gloire!

Finally (finally!) got in the next game in our Maurice campaign, the first since October.   Actually, there were a few firsts last night:  first game no one played the "That's not on the map" card, and first time I won while attacking (since our very first trial game, I believe).  Of late, I've found attacking a bit discouraging, and while I still think the game is weighted in favour of the defender, and I caught a number of breaks last night, it's nice to know the attacker can win; it rather restores my faith in the game ;)

I was playing DaveB, the gracious commander of the forces of the Dutchy of Fenwick.  We began by drawing for terrain, and got Plains (which seems to have happened a lot, of late).  He had the advantage in cavalry, won the scouting roll and elected to defend.  He also has the Skirmishers national advantage, and used it to good effect; despite my roll of 1 for the number of terrain pieces, we ended up with a total of 10!

I'm on a plain.  I can't complain.

DaveB managed to set himself up quite the little fortress.  He had his best infantry well-entrenched behind a wall, abutting a village garrisoned by his artillery.  Surrounding the down (outside the open area I placed) was a line of forests (plural!) in which he placed his irregular infantry, and on his left, he massed his cavalry in reserve.  Between the woods, rough ground, and hill surrounding the town, not to mention the town itself, he'd presented me with a pretty tough nut to crack.  I figured my best bet would be to pretty much ignore the objective / town itself, along with the tough core of his army, and go after the more accessible stuff (note:  irregulars hunkered down in woods and a massed formation of 5 cavalry units constituted the "accessible stuff" in this case ;).  I refused my left, and massed my infantry and cavalry to envelop on the right, with my guns as the "hinge" between infantry and cavalry.

See that town?  Yeah, I'm not attacking it.

To be honest, I was kind of iffy about the whole prospect.  From my side of the table, there were no good fights available.  I knew that even though he didn't have lethal volleys, getting into a shooting match with irregulars in rough terrain was a bad idea, and my best bet would be to try and gang up on anything exposed, and then hope for the best.

Dawn over the field of glory.

I opened the festivities with a bombardment on his cavalry, who had obligingly presented me with their flank (when resolving, we actually forgot to add the modifier for them being in massed formation, but it all worked out okay).  After a couple rounds of firing, DaveB opted to pull his cavalry back behind the shelter of the ploughed fields outside town.  This made my firing much less effective, and with a mittfull of cards, I started the advance.

Cavalry advance to threaten his flank.

A fairly consistent theme this game was that I generally seemed to have good cards.  Not sure if this was dumb luck, a result of me getting better at using the cards, or my decision to never let my hand fall below 4-5.  Probably a bit of all three.  At any rate, coordinating the advance was helped along by the play of the coordinated card, which let me move both my cavalry and infantry on the same turn.

I watch Treehouse.  Working together is fun!

This let me push forward as an army, and simultaneously threaten both his forward units, and his flank.

The might of France arrayed.

The killing began on the left, where my two units of infantry faced off against his cowardly irregulars skulking in the woods.

Grenzers gonna grenz.

Thanks to the amazing promotion rolls I made back in October, and the way my national advantages are kicking in now that we're fighting the second round of the Silver War(e), my army is actually in good shape; I've got a respectable number of elites to throw out, and I figured that even with the penalties I'd be delaing with fighting in the woods, the relative combat value of the two units coupled with the outnumbering would be enough to push him out.

Pew-pew!

In the end, it was actually shooting that did the trick.  I managed to get enough firepower to bear that his irregulars were dispersed, and my infantry was able to advance and take the woods.

The noose tightens.

This was assisted by the use of the "Find the Way" card.  Normally, I don't get much use from this one, as I'm usually dealing with rough terrain in the context of a charge.  In this case, it meant my line could advance without significant disruption.

This way to the Egress.

While this meant my infantry were now broken up into at least two forces, I didn't see much of a way around it.  I also know that I had no intention of advancing further on my left.  It would mean crossing a fire zone that would shred my infantry before they ever came to grips.  At this point, the units on my left were there primarily to pin down the bulk of his infantry, and leave me free to envelope on the right.  A desultory fire was exchanged on and off for the rest of the game, but it didn't produce much in the way of results.

Looking a little lonely for those Fenwickian regulars.

With the bulk of his infantry occupied on the left, I pushed my centre and right forward, charging both the regular infantry at the bottom of the hill, and the irregulars in the ploughed field (who didn't manage to evade).  We both played modifying cards, which cancelled each other out, but mirabile dictu, I won both combats decisively, and between musketry and the bayonette, both units were destroyed.

Now what?

This left me in a mixed position.  My infantry were now scattered into at least three forces as a result of terrain, and the units that were in a position to attack were fairly well disrupted.  While I might be able to reform and coordinate an attack, it would take several turn, and be card intensive;  I needed to buy some time, and put pressure somewhere else.  DaveB nudged my decision when he shuffled his cavalry a little, giving the impression they were finally going to come out from behind the field, and I thought it might be time to exercise the horses.

Send in the cavalry!

The ground where the final fight would take place was quite constricted.  Neither one of us wanted to go into the ploughed field, and there was a space of perhaps 4-5 base widths between the field and "the edge of the world".  It made it harder for me to get multiple 2 on 1 combats, but on the other hand, it also made it harder for his conscript cavalry to avoid combat with my much better cavalry.

Le Marquis, always in the thick of the action.

At this point, I played the Captured Intelligence card, and helped myself to a "Stirrups In" card that DaveB had been saving for a rainy day.  It made a nice match for the one already in my hand.  DaveB was kind enough to charge out of his own volition, but the combination of my better cavalry, along with playing his own card back at him, meant his cavalry recoiled.  As an added bonus, both his attacking units actually recoiled through the third unit supporting from behind, leaving him in a rather vulnerable state.

Part way through the cavalry melee.  So far we're winning.

On my turn, I hammered my own cavalry home, playing the second "Stirrups In" card for good measure.  Given that in all the resulting combats DaveB was down to straight die rolls, the outcome was more or less predictable, and a few more cavalry fled down the road to Fenwick.

See those pink dice?  Disruption.  Looks bad for DaveB, but it's about to get bloody for me.

Things were going well at this point.  DaveB had some terrible morale rolls, and was down to two morale points.  I still hadn't lost a unit, but pretty much everything in my army was disrupted, and my infantry was broken up into multiple forces.  While I was pretty sure I could break a unit or two of his to win the game, it was likely I'd lose a disproportionate number of my own in return.I figured my best bet would be to offer DaveB honourable terms, which he seemed happy enough to accept.

Dusk falls over the field.  My kingdom for a good Rally card!

This was a game where a fair bit went my way, but I think it was also a game where some of the hard-taught lessons I've encountered seemed to take effect.  I coordinated my army, kept my card count high, thought ahead about what cards I'd need and how to use the cards I had, and generally resisted the urge to go hell-for leather at my opponent.

I'm still catching up on painting from my dive into Star Wars online, so I doubt there'll be a painting post this weekend, but I've got tentative plans for a Bloodbowl game next week.  Fingers crossed.

FMB