Kublacon Report: Day 3 (pt 1)

This 7:00am wakeup was simultaneously better and worse than the previous day. It was better because I was simply used to it, but worse because apparantly Captain Morgan had hit me in the head with a club while I slept. But I shrugged it off, got some coffee for my wife and stepmom, then headed down for the BGFW tournament.

We ended up having 5 people, but that became a bit of a blessing. This mean most people would get a bye one round, and I could tell most people needed it. We had a good spread of armies: Hawkshold, Umenzi, Orcs & Goblins, Dwarves, and High Elves. Ajax from the forum came to show us all how BFGW was played.

I took the bye round one, being adjudicator and food gopher. Meanwhile Ajax thumped Scott and Trent layeth the beat down on Manny. With my gold I picked up the Mine and Logging Camp with my gold and readied my High Elves.


Round 2: vs Ajax.
The scenario was Ambush or Trap. I chose the mission and to be defender so that I'd have an extra Command Action, something High Elves could use. My army was: Celestial Guard, 2 Batte Squads, a unit of Elven Swordsmen, Bowriders, Battle Mages, and Archers.

I set up in a line with a lake on my right flank and a small patch of forest on the center left. The battlemages and archers went in the forest. The swordsmen and bowriders went on the eft side of the forest. The Celestial Guard went on the right, flanked by the two Battle Squads. The trio of units were protected by the river and the forest.

Ajax had something like 5-6 Javelineers, a unit of worthy, a unit or two of Atlatlmen, and 4 Shamans. He deployed all on one long table edge, ready to swarm my line.

The game began with my army holding while his advanced to short range to throw javelins. Two units advanced to charge into my Archers and Battlemages. It was pretty reckless putting them on the front line, but if I had put them behind my melee troops, Ajax couldn't just come on from the other side. I figured a line was the least bad situation.

As it was, my archers & battle mages whittled down one unit before they got charged. From there, I directed my units to attack, figuring Ajax'd just whittle them down with javelins otherwise. I made selective use of Sprint, sending my swordsmen on the left after a unit of javelineers and sending my bowriders to charge the unit beating on my archers. Meanwhile the Battle Squads and Celestial Guards got stuck in.

The battle got heated with some sacrificial units being sent into the fray. Ajax flanked my bowriders with his Shamans while I rallied my Battle Mages whose whole job was to eat a flank charge from the Atlatlmen and buy my Battle Squad an additional turn.

It came down to a turn where we both inflicted enough damage to force Courage Checks in key places. On the far left, my Swordsmen forced a courage check on his javelineers (who did the same on my swordsmen). Meanwhile, on the center right, my Battle Squad had to take a check while his Javelineers facing my Celestial Guard had to check. There was one or two other (the Bowriders and/or Shamans I think).

What's important is that both sides passed all check. Which pretty much spelled the end for the High Elves. If Ajax had failed any of his checks, I would've had flank charges into pinches. However, we both stood firm and it just became a grindfest. Unfortunately we had to call the game for time, and extrapolate the results based on what we saw. We called it a decisive win for Ajax, 4 pts for him and 2 pts for me.

Anyway, I took my gold and was able to buy the Tavern and the Barracks, which'd prove fun for the next round. For me anyway. ;-)


Round 3: vs Trent.
With my whopping 5 campaign points I got to choose the mission. I picked Last Stand as the attacker. For the Tavern, I got the Recruiter so I was even more points up on Trent (Last Stand gives me like a 300 pt edge). I decided to get a little tricky and traded around units to get the following: Celestial Guard, Healer Mages, archers, 2 units of Swordsmen, 1 Battle Squad, & Bowriders.

Trent had: 2 units of Goblin archers, 2 units of Orc spearmen (or maybe swordsmen), a unit of Trolls, a unit of Goblin spearmen, and a bomb chucka.

The terrain had a river bissecting the table with some shallows in the center. On the left, Trent set up Orc spearmen, gobling spearmen, and goblin archers. I set up opposite them a unit of swordsmen, the battle squad, and the bowriders.

On the right he set up the Bomb Chucka, trolls, Orc spearmen, gobling archers. I set up my Celestial Guard, a unit of swordsmen, the healers, and the archers.

The game wasn't even close. Not from any tactical genius on my part, but from Trent never having seen Celestial Guard before. He figured the Trolls could take care of them. They charged up, outrunning his Orcs which he lashed to keep them up. The Trolls and the Clestial Guard got stuck in while the Swordsmen and the Orcs duked it out.

Unfortunately, all his ranged stuff was far behind while my archers were right behind the line. Oh and the Healer Mages...yeah that's a brutal combo with Celestial Guard. His Chucka would roll like 1-2 hits a turn despite needing 1s, which would promptly come off the next turn. Meanwhile the Troll discovered that Defense 4 is a tough nut to crack.

On the left, it was simple math: 3 units (one being cavalry) vs 2. I used Manuever Mastery to skirt the bowriders around the flank forcing him to give me his flank if he went forward into my line or turned to face the cavalry. So the Battle Squad fought the Gobin spearmen while the Orcs took the pinch from my Swordsmen and Bowriders.

The irony is that Trent did better on the left than the right. The Troll went down hard which allowed the Celestial Guard to the flank the Orcs. Once they were done, the line simply advanced on the poor the Goblin Bowmen and Bomb Chucka, wiping them out in the last turn of the game.

On the left, Trent managed to rout the unit of Swordsmen with his orcs. The Goblins died a hard death, and the weakened Orcs finally broke against the Bowriders. Amazingly, they lived to run away. Sadly, they never got to get back into the fight as the Bowriders ran them down. The Battle Squad then moved up and dispatched the Goblin Archers.

So a amazingly resounding victory wherein I whiped the Orcs and Goblins off the table. My only casualty was a squad of swordmen in the red, which I had the Command Actions to rally in the last turn as the Bomb Chucka was being carved into kindling by the Celestial Guard.


Round 4: vs Manny.

The mission was Ticking Clock with three terrain pieces (2 small forest and 1 small hill) in a diagonal pattern across the field. We were at 2500 pts this round, and I decided to be mean. Manny called me worse than the guy at the 40K event, but egh, it's Manny. It's not like he's people. ;-)

The source of my evilness? Take the above list from the last game. Drop a unit of swordsmen to upgrade a battlesquad to Elder Blade swordsmen Then add a unit of Celestial Guard. Yeah, I'm a bad man.

Manny had Hawkshold and he took: 2 Longbowmen, 3 Militia, 3 swordsmen, 2 heavy infantry or greatswordsmen, and a unit of Knights. This is from memory so the points may not work out.

Manny put his militia in the center with his swordsmen and great infantry/heavy infantry on the flanks. The knights went on the left flank. I had a bunch of watchtowers at this point, so he had to set up a good chunk of his army. I put the two Celestial Guard in the center, with a swordsmen unit on the right. The healer mages and archers went behind the Celestial Guard. The Bowriders and unit of swordsmen went on the left flank. (I've lost a unit of swordsmen somewhere in there, but I honestly don't remember what they did).

The real action all took place on the left flank, because the terrain in the center slowed down that engagement. His Knights made a beeline for my Bowriders, who I direct controlled to keep them in place while my swordsmen advanced. I knew that if I made my bowriders do some wonky manuever, he wouldn't expose his flank to me so I just kept them in place and shot (doing no damage).

Next turn, the swordsmen flank charged the Knights while my bowriders moved around the other flank. No need to give the Knights a charge bonus & impact hit just for the pinch bonus. So on the turn after, the Bowriders flanked & pinched the Knights. The only problem was that Manny had a unit of swordsmen and Greatswords moving up to flank my swordsmen and Bowriders.

This is where the center came in to turn the game. Manny's Longbowmen had tried to whittle down my Celestial Guard, but the combination of the range, their defense, and my Healer mages meant that wasn't going to work. At about the time the Knights were getting their first flank charge, the Militia met the Celestial Guard.

Yeah, that's a bad matchup.

The Celestial Guard on the left blew right through them and the next turn charged the Hawkshold swordsmen about to flank my swordsmen attacking the Knights. The Celestial Guard would eventually win, while the Great Swordsmen were just shy of charging my Swordsmen against the Knights (stupid 2.5" move). This allowed me to finish off the knights, then wheel and charge reserve units on the left flank.

It basically was all over after that. My right flank took a beating, with my Battle Squad forced to rout. (I think I had the second swordsmen squad there, it's a bit hazy). The eight turn saw me direct controlling to back away, ceding them the forest but avoiding a pinch. I held the central hill and the forest on my left flank. Meanwhile, my Celestial Guard advanced to final rush a unit of Longbowmen, forcing them to rout while my Bowriders turned the flank, giving me two units in his deployment zone.

So it was another crushing victory for me. When we tallied the points, I had 15 campaign points. Ajax had beat Trent, giving Ajax 16 campaign points. I heartily congratulated him as the winner. while shaking my fist in curses. Had Ajax failed any of his courage checks in that one turn of our game and I might've pulled out a draw. That net 2 pt swing would've put me over. Curses!!! 8-)

No seriously, it was good fun. My score was more indicative of the fact that I have a few games under my belt while Trent & Manny didn't get to play much. I have a feeling they're gonna thump me next year.

All in all it was good fun times. The campaign system worked perfectly, and we're planning on running an event again.

Game Count: 12.