Total Confusion in Mansfield Mass

I'll give a quick Convention report here.

Our group arrived around noon Friday, consising of:

Myself
Chris Dixon (Lord Of The Dead)
Tim Sheehy (GoIndy)
Brook Villa (does not post here, but really should)

We where all registered to play in the Star Fleet Battles tournament, but planned on getting in a couple BG:FW pick up games as well. The SFB tournament turnout was atrocious this year, so it turned out that we played a lot more BG:FW then expected! We met Ultiville for the first time doing his demo thing after bugging Chad in the dealer room and purchasing more stuff. It turned out that we where going to get the opportunity to play in a tournament on Saturday, so we ditched SFB to do so! There where 2 other players, one of which was Dave Cheng (another SFB player and play tester for Kingdoms). We only had time for 2 rounds, but here's a brief description of my games.

We used the Kingdoms scenario generator for the battles and we where to construct a 2000 point army that we would use for all the fights. I chose Dwarves because it's no secret that I love those stumpy little guys. My army weighed in at 1988 points and here's the tale of the tape:

1 Longbeards
1 Antonian Horsemen
3 Battle Axemen
1 Spearmen
1 Dwarven Militia
1 Miners

The philosophy behind this army was simple: Use the horrifying offensive firepower of the Axemen and Longbeards to take on all comers while the Antonians helped out a Militia unit set up on one of the flanks to smash an enemy flanking unit. The Other flank would have the Spearmen in case my opponent had Cavalry on that side.

Game 1 - Tim Sheehy with Orcs. Scenario was Ticking Clock. Or whatever the one that lasts 8 turns is called. No terrain or special conditions.

Tim's army was very similar to mine. It had an Axemen, 3 Swordsmen, 1 Spearmen, 2 Goblin Raiders, 1 Wolf Riders and a Healer Mage unit. We where both pleasantly surprised to note that neither of us brought any ranged units. We set up our lines such that many of our heavy-hitting guys where matched up against our weaker guys. On my left flank I had the militia backed by the Antonians facing Tim's Axemen. On my right flank I had my spearmen ready to take on a Swordsman unit backed by Wolf Riders. Tim's commands where basically to charge straight ahead and slaughter the offending Dwarves. I had my Spearmen angle slightly out to hold a terrain objective that was close enough to the map edge to prevent his Wolf Riders from riding around thim to pinch. I then angled the Battle Axemen and Longbeards on that side to face the Swordsmen that where on his flank and the Spearmen that where next to them. I knew that this would lead to my Longbeards getting pinched, but I had faith that they would hold a few turns as I planned on using almost every rune card I drew on them for the morale boost. Things started well when the Orc Axemen failed their courage check as soon as the Antonians pinched them. The bonus was that the Milita unit they where facing succeeded in their route check previously even though they got knocked into the red. The Axemen died before they could run off. It was all downhill from there, though. Tim's combat rolls where only slightly better than mine, but I failed more than twice as many courage checks as the Orcs did. If you can imagine that!

A microcosm of the game occurred where My Longbeards got knocked into the red while being pinched by Orc Swordsmen on the front and Spearmen to the left. Let me start by stating that the Longbeards where exclusively attacking the swordsmen, yet the swordsmen did equal damage to the Longbeards! When I rolled for the route check, The Swordsmen got knocked into the yellow this turn also rolled one. They needed an 11 to succeed and they did so. I had played a rune card that turn, so I needed a 14. I failed. And the Longbeards where killed on the return strike. So my plan of failing almost every meaningful route chack that game played right into Tim's hands. Things where actually looking good for me until my troops lost faith in the cause. That being said, Tim was playing a solid game and it would have been close with all route checks being equal.

Game 2 - I forgot this guy's name(and it's a shame cause he was a pretty cool dude), but he was playing Umenzi. He had only played BG:FW once or twice before this tournament, and it showed in his deployment. His army was actually not that bad. I don't remember specifically what his core units where, but he had 1 Shaman, 1 Worthy, 1 Chosen, 1 Berserkers and 1 Atlatlmen unit. I think he had 10-11 units total, so not quite the Umenzi swarm. The scenario was Total War with a large, 3 tiered hill running right up the middle of the map. There was a special condition for Assassin Wars (1-3 damage distributed among enemy units at the end of each player's turn determined by die roll). This was going to be a quick and bloody game!

He made a mistake right off the bat by deploying his Chosen as a backup unit. I was thrilled to see this as that was the only unit I truly feared. His swarm came charging over the hill and the Dwarves charged up the hill (at no penalty, ha!) to meet him. As my courage dice went for me last game, they went for him this game. The poor guy failed at least half of his route checks and within 3 combat rounds of engagement half of his guys where either crippled or dead. I think I only failed 2 route checks all game. Then again, I didn't have to roll for many. He was able to get his Chosen lined up with my bloodied Longbeards, but they held on long enough to get some pinching help from a neighboring Battle Axemen unit. The Chosen folded. By the time he surrendered I had lost 2 units. The only unit he had remaining was his nearly untouched Worthy.

The Assassin thing was fun. He was able to get a few more damage in on my than I did to him, but it didn't help much. I will say that he placed his damage well as he constantly targeted my Antonians and Longbeards!

Sadly, my 1-1 record wasn't enough to win 1st or second place. Brook and Chris actually tied for first. They where 1-0 going up against each other and they tied the scenario - LOL

Sunday morning I got to play against Ultiville's High Elves with my Umenzi tribe and it was a wonderful (if brutal) learning experience. I was not helped by the fact that I once again couldn't pass a route check to save my life, but I probably would have lost anyways. I also made a couple of small but annoying army setup blunders that caused me to waste a few command actions later in the game. Nikko is indeed a Demon with the High Elves and I had no answer for his Bow Riders or Knights. The only way I was able to inflict damage on the Knights was by using the Death Curse! It was really great to see the High Elves used to their greatest potential, though. Thanks Nikko, let's do it again some time!