After a couple of 1-on-1 games, it was time for the 4 of us to get together for the big throw down.
These games can be viewed here:
http://yourmovegames.com/forum/index.php/topic,4664.0.html and here:
http://yourmovegames.com/forum/index.php/topic,4665.0.htmlThe playing area was widened so that the deployment zones would accommodate 10 units in width with the additional 5 inches around the flanks. Each player had 2000 points to use for their army.
This is the third game of the evening where we where trying out the 2 rules changes below. Here they are:
One of the rules we tested was voting thread 5D
http://yourmovegames.com/forum/index.php/topic,4615.0.htmlwhere the wording for the Pila rule goes from
When a non-cavalry non-skirmisher unit throws javelins (or pila) while on Close, mark off the range indicator. A unit does not make a range attack while the range indicator is marked. The mark is erased when one of the following happens:
--the unit's Standing Order is changed from Close.
--the unit becomes unengaged after being engaged.
--you spend a Command Action in the Movement & Command phase to erase the mark.
To
“When a non-cavalry non-skirmisher unit throws javelins (or pila), mark off the range indicator. A unit does not make a range attack while the range indicator is marked. The mark is erased when one of the following happens:
--the unit becomes unengaged after being engaged.
--you spend a Command Action in the Movement & Command phase to erase the mark.”
The other rules is voting thread 5E
http://yourmovegames.com/forum/index.php/topic,4616.0.htmlWhich essentially says that Pila should lose attack dice when units go into the yellow or red just like all other ranged attacks.
Set Up
Elves Elves Elves! High Elves played by Rob, Ravenwood played by BrookFront rank from top to bottom:
Stag Cavalry
Brownies
Ravenwood Swordsmen
Treant
Ravenwood Swordsmen
4 High Elven Battle Squads
Elder Blade Swordsmen
Second and third ranks from top to bottom:
Stag Cavalry backed by Wolf Pack
Wolfkin
Cygnets
High Elven Battle Squad
Cygnets
High Elven Scorpions
Wolfkin (facing outwards)
I’m not sure if the Elven gentitals… er… I mean GENERALS had any kind of master plan for their build, but they had an awful lot of Speed on the far left flank and a good amount of tankiness going on in the middle and right flanks. See below in the final thoughts section for how I think this worked out.
Orcs played by Chris, Rome played by yours trulyFront rank from top to bottom:
Trolls
Goblin Raiders
2 Goblin Spearmen
Orc Swordsmen
Italian Swordsmen
Veteran Principes
Extraordiarii
Italian Spearmen
Second and third ranks from top to bottom:
Goblin Wold Riders
Cretan Archers
Goblin Bomb Chukker
2 Goblin Raiders
Italian Swordsmen (sulking in the 3rd rank)
Triarii
Cretan Archers
Triarii
Veteran Equites backed by the Immortal Hastati (go blue shields!)
It was easy to go for a points-dense build here because I’d only be responsible for half of the line, but I still wound up with 11 units. Go Rome! Chris placed his Trolls about 1.75 inches from the deployment border and this compressed the line so that we only wound up with a 9 unit front. Which was a bit awkward from my end. The good thing that came out of this is that my side of the line was thoroughly backed up - LOL
Early Turns
Standing orders where pretty simple on my side, but I think Brook may have had something funky going on with his let flank and those Stags. I’ll have to ask him. The Scorpions where targeting my Extraordinarii, which was quite fine with me. The Cretan Archers on the Roman side of the line where targeting one of the Battle Squads (futile, I know) while the Cretans on the Orc side where targeting the Brownies. The Chukker was tossing at the Treant. I don’t recall there being much damage inflicted by ranged units early on.
I was worried about the far Orcish flank because it looked like Chris’ Wolf Riders where going to get plowed by the Stags out there, but I couldn’t believe what happened with the other unit of Stags that charged the Trolls. These Stags blew their fear check so I thought they would be hosed, but when I looked back at this combat a moment later the Trolls had taken 5 damage vs. only 1 or 2 damage on the Stags! Brook told me he played a good card (I can’t remember which) and he rolled a ton of 1s on his “to hit” roll, getting him extra rolls for the nets. But still, that was unbelievable!
Mid Turns
And now it gets messy! I’ll start up top where the Orcs are having a tough time with Ravenwood. The Stags on the outside blew up the Wolf Riders while staying in the green. Brook seemed to feel things where going well on his end so he had the Wolf Pack and a Wolf Kin start sweeping back behind his line towards the High Elven front. The Trolls that got whacked by the Stags previously continued to suck hard and they routed as soon as they went into the red. The return attack inflicted even more harm and the Trolls failed the second route check as well. So the “best” unit on our side went out with a whimper, only inflicting 2 damage in their brief stay with us. It appears that Brook had these Stags whip around the Cretans to go after the Bomb Chukker. The Treant blasted some Goblin Spearmen then pinched in on another Goblin unit, but found itself pinched for it’s troubles. The Orc Swordsmen housed a Ravenwood Swordsmen unit, but found itself flanked by a Battle Squad. This Battle Squad would soon find itself pinched by even more Goblins. Man, are those little jerks annoying!
Things where much better for us on my side of the map, mainly because my dice where not shitting the bed the way Chris’s dice where. I got decent Pila damage from all applicable units and I did average to above-average damage on my charge turn. I played a Strength of Numbers Card on my Spearmen and they really put a hurting on the Elder Blade Swordsmen. Boy are these Roman command cards good!
The Orc/Goblin line continues to collapse as some Stags have now engaged the Chukker. The other Stags ploughed the Cretans on that side and then pinched some Goblins. Goblin units are falling like Autumn leaves but at least they took the damned tree down. The Wolves and their brethren are entering the High Elven end of the fight to give the High Elves some much needed help.
Rome had an excellent attack turn where 3(!) High Elven line units blew their courage checks. The High Elven line simply evaporated! The Veteran Equites vanquished the Wolf Kin, but where badly wounded in the process and the Scorpions where more than happy to wipe them out. The Scorpions then turned their gentle ministrations to my Spearmen and they routed with only 2 red boxes remaining. After this, the Scorpions began shooting at my Extraordinarii and actually started inflicting some damage despite the blue cards I was relentlessly playing on them. My Swordsmen that started in the middle of the map in the 3rd rank had yet so see any action and I sent them back towards the Chukker to see what they could do about the Stags that where about to trample it’s crew into the dirt.
Endgame 
The Orcs and Goblins are now all gone. The Swordsmen that I sent back to engage the Stags did only 1 sad point of damage to them in a fight that went for about 3 combat turns where my only hope was a courage check failure. While that one point of damage did put the Stags into the yellow, they passed their check. The Swordsmen fell. The Triarii engaging the Ravenwood Swordsmen had help from the Cretan Archers, but the Ravenwood Swordsmen still won that fight in the end somehow. My Veteran Principes where able to take out the Wolf Pack and then pinch in on the Wolfkin (which took out Italian Swordsmen) and found themselves flanked by Cygnets, which where the only High Elven line unit remaining. My Extraordinarii took a beating on the way to getting to the Scorpions and finally engaged them. They only did 1 point of damage on the charge (OK, we where subtracting Pila dice due to damage, but this still sucked) and the Scorpions actually inflicted a point on the Extraordianrii – causing them to route! I still had some of my line units left, but I had 3 things working against me.
1 – The Scorpions
2 – 2 Stag Cavalry
3 – My opponents where getting a combined 8 command actions per turn to my 4
I surrendered.
Note – This game would mark Rob’s second win of the night. Hence, he was undefeated this evening. Cheers to Rob! He had good fortune coming his way anyways due to the snacks, eggnog, and booze he brought with him.
Final Thoughts on the game This was fun as always. It turned out to be lopsided at the end due to catastrophic Orc misfortune. Or was it incredible Ravenwood fortune? I am curious as to how much Spirit Guidance was used since I didn’t face many Ravenwood units until later in the game. It was impressive how well the Roman line held up and I certainly got some help on that one turn where a bunch of High Elves routed. Roman courage was decent with only a handful of failures. IIRC Ravenwood only failed 1 or 2 courage checks all game, which certainly didn’t help us. The end game was frustrating for me because my opponents had a vast command action advantage that I could not overcome. Having my Extraordiarii route away from the Scorpions may have been the final straw for me. Taking out the Scorpions would have allowed the rest of my guys to concentrate on the enemy ground troops. I’m not sure how they would have handled the Stags, though.
I feel the high concentration of speedy units on the Ravenwood side really contributed a lot to the Elven victory. The High Elves where set up to tank it out and once Ravenwood had dispensed with the Orcs, Goblins, Trolls and such, they where able to sweep across the board to help out their High Elven allies who where in serious trouble at the time.
Thoughts on rules stuffAs it turns out, both rules tweaks we tried out this game did not pass into permanence. That’s OK with me for the Javelin/Pila fix since it never really came up in any of the 3 games I played as Rome that night. I do recall spending about 3 command actions to “reload” Pila this game and that felt right at the time.
After all 3 games trying out the rule tweak where Pila lose dice as units take damage, I am a real fan of this fix. Not only does it make sense to me logically, but it seemed perfect in terms of game play. I understand and respect Chad’s decision to keep this rule as is, but if it ever comes up again I will be behind this fix 100%.
Heroes of the GameOrcs – I can’t think of any units that performed really well. Chris will have to fill us in on that. Perhaps whichever Goblin Spearmen unit it was that did the most damage to the Treant?
Rome – No 1 unit really stood out for Rome either, but I must say that the entire army worked well in a true team effort as nobody underperformed either.
High Elves – The Scorpions which started off slow but got better as the game went on. And to think that they survived an engagement with Extraordinarii!
Ravenwood – Either Stag Cavalry. They both killed multiple units and where probably the chief deciding factor in the game. Especially the ones that took out the Trolls single-handedly despite blowing their fear check, they where truly blessed!
Baby Everett is bored out of his little baby mind
