Second independent playtest game

[gull2112]

http://gullsbattleground.blogspot.com/2012/06/wuxing-v-dwarves.html

Above is my blog post of the battle.

[Kevin]

*sigh* wrote up a long commentary at your blog, then the evil system wouldn't let me post it and it all got wiped.

Nice report!  It was cool to see an army with 4 Salvaged.

Terracotta units aren't immune to ranged attacks, but they're less vulnerable than they look at first glance.  The ability to Maniulate Qi to make 1/3 into a 2/3 when targeted by multiple ranged attacks is a hidden strength.

Hey, did the Axemen die durign the combat phase of the turn they were pinched?  If so, the Jun Horse Archers would've been disrupted rather than routed (and you could've used them to wreak more havoc later.

What happened with the Imperial Cavalry?  I saw them in the early photos, then...nothing.

[gull2112]

Too bad about the long post getting wiped, I would've loved to read it.

After buying a Jade dragon I didn't have enough points to make my core requirements with anything but salvaged (if I wanted to have everything else I wanted). I would've been happy with Jade nobles, but I wanted to try the dragon.

You know, I've never used manipulate qi for anything but repair, it just never occured to me.


The axemen did die, and when they took their return swing they made it v the horse archers and almost wiped them out. The archers broke and ran. They would have been able to reprise their pinching roles v the next unit of axemen, but James decided to surrender rather than face the inevitable and leave even later for his ride home.

The imperial cav are the unit just to the left of the dragon. The salvaged in front had just died and they had just engaged and were one of the reasons that James decided to throw in the towel as my best two units were unscathed and his line was collapsing.

And I would like to comment that though it may have seemed one sided in hindsight, it was really much closer, until I rolled five dice and got four ones and a two, thus effectivley one-shotting something that should have held for 2 or 3 turns more. Also, it is my opinion that if he would have taken one antonian horsemen rather than another ballista he could have rode around and wiped out my RABs or committed any other amount of mayhem. If his artillery dice were as hot as mine, and mine were as cold as his, it would have been a very different tale.

[Kevin]

The axemen did die, and when they took their return swing they made it v the horse archers and almost wiped them out. The archers broke and ran

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Just a rules note for the future--if you wipe out your opponent during the combat phase, then your unit is "unengaged at the beginning of that courage phase" (when it blows its rout check), so it becomes disrupted & doesn't run away. 

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You're right that it could've gone another way.  Also, IMHO the Antonian Horsemen would've been an awesome unit for James to take, given your army.  They should kill Imperial Cav more often than not, and would've totally swept your RABs,  probably without taking a single point of damage!

[gull2112]

The only thing is that he was counting on my dragon setting up on the left, not the right, so he may have been surprised when his antonian horsemen became dragon chow. But then I might have reacted differently with my imperial cav, ad infinitum...so who knows.

[lazyj]

I felt like I had a good matchup here, thinking I had a lot of power 6 units and some good toughness / courage to let it get used. But hot dice and bad play were my ruin.

The Imperial Cav never really bothered me as a unit in this game. I had them matched up against Dwarf Spears, and figured that matchup was good enough for me. Even when I switched over to have the spears engage the dragon and brought the crossbows in to fight the cav, it was not really a concern. They really didn't live up to their points in this particular game - in my opinion anyway.

In hindsight, I made two major tactical mistakes in this game. One, during setup: I foolishly thought I had predicted where his dragon was going to come and was completely hosed when he chose the other side. So... yeah. Forgot how bad it sucks to guess with Dwarf units on setup and be wrong. 

Second, Mike sent the Horse Archers way out ahead to sit in my flank and plink at me. I thought I might be able to make him pay for such a maneuver by sliding the Battleaxemen a bit to the right and then catch him unawares. Um... yeah. Dwarf infantry does not catch Horse Archers well. Duh. 

So I had a unit of Miners on the one flank way out of position to do anything, and sent them towards the rocket battery to at least soak up some shots. They certainly did and died horrifically and quickly. I also had Battleaxes engaging all by themselves way the heck and gone from the rest of their help and primed to get pinched. Blowing the fear check = not helpful. I was hoping to at least drive the dragon down out of the Green between the spears and battleaxes. Nope. 1 damage box marked on that guy the whole game.

I'd totally forgotten about Mike's ability to boost defense. Though I think he played better by not using it - his Salvaged were just there to tie me down while his big guys (dragon + cav + rockets) chewed me up. They did that job perfectly.

I wouldn't say that the Ballista didn't earn their points. I mean, I got beat hard so I probably could have done something differently. As Mike pointed out, I should have run out and engaged the targets, allowing the parts of my line that never really fought to hit the weak salvaged while the expensive artillery focused on badder targets. Might have been worth it to actually shoot the big guy in this battle. But I did do a lot of damage to those advancing constructs... it's not their fault I wasn't taking advantage of it.

The most depressing part was Mike's perfect use of the re-roll to go from no wounds to five wounds. Pretty much sealed the deal right there. Luckily there was red red wine. (Stay close to meeeeee...)

Gosh Mike has nailed me twice in a row. This cannot continue! I will need to improve the skillz before we meet again.