Our first KO Champion is DAVOUTHOJO!!

[ericdoman1]

Hi Chris/Davo

OK will do the final, still not 100% about my army build so bear with me. Shame you can't have a mix of sup/avg,unprot/prot/off spr and imp foot:)

[ericdoman1]

Hi Chris

Have posted challenge pw = thefinal

[batesmotel]

Challenge posted for 3rd/4th consolation round with password "hidde".

Chris

[ericdoman1]

It has begun.

I am afraid I still do not know how to paste a screenshot onto a digital forum/thread link.

Chris has won initiative his army size is 47 mine 36.

He has a steep hill within his deployment zone on his left, about 7 hexes wide. Just to the front and left of this are some woods about 12 hexes in total. Over to his far right there is a largish gully with broken ground surrounding it. I am guessing about 25 hexes.

To the right of his steep hill he has 6 cav lt spr/jls and behind are 2 camels. There are 13 bps missing but have guessed what they are by using the Nubian list in DAF. In front of cav and steep hill is a screen of lf (8bps) and on top of the steep hil he has his mf sup bow (11) with some poor def spear behind. 3 of the average swordsmen are covering the other flank of the steep hill.

I am on the other side of the map. I have deployed in amongst some woods/plantations . To the front and my right is a clear hill. I am near enough opposite the gully broken ground and his cav. I have a screen of 14lf while my almughavars, cav and knights are packed into a 12 hex wide block of troops. I was expecting Chris to deploy on the hill but there is no way I could beat him frontally. I am using the prot off spears this time. If I had chosen imp foot I may have been tempted to storm the hill frontally. As it a + for off spears, Chris would have a + for being uphill and then he has his support shooting, on top of the shooting I would have received before going in. Imp foot would have given me more of an edge, ++ on impact but I was wary about his lancers. Thing is he prob only has 3 to 6, whoops.

[davouthojo]

Overall
I'm not feeling confident.....Eric usually beats me, he is on fine form at the moment and his Superior MF army is about as bad as it gets for my bows....mostly disrupt-proof, I can't hide in the rough and they move fast. On the other hand, I wasn't confident vs Anders and that turned out OK!

Terrain
I win the initiative, but it does not help me much. I was looking for a map with lots of hills to park my archers on, but they seem to be rare in these small scale maps. At 500 points many of them look like the Himalayas! So I am stuck with just one hill to anchor my line and a couple of scattered others. I set up on and around it - time is on my side, the Catalans will have to force the pace.

His Army
He has a bunch of knights - the Moldavian knights hurt me hard, I still have no counter. This time I must keep my lancers away from them! He has a large raft of lights, boosting his BPs considerable - his core troops are expensive. His main force is 17 MF Almughavars. Unfortunately he has taken the protected version - I was looking forward to shooting up unprotected ones! He has armed them with Offensive spears, not impact foot - interesting choice. It weakens his impacts against my archers - on the steep hills, my archers will win on impact now - but it means my lancers are at evens on impact. My lancers may be a liability - they have no POA plus on impact against anything in his army! Will need to keep them out of the way. I have flexed my army a little, maxing out on cavalry and taking more of my archers in LF format than I did vs Anders.

The Plan
He has set up on the other side of the battlefield to me. I suspect this means we will be fighting across the width of the map as we both wheel in to contact. Attrition is still my friend, but it will be less effective than it was vs the Moldavian cavalry (hidde grinds his teeth remembering those 7/8%s appearing............) I send my archers forward to gain more fire time, and swing my left wing round. with less missile power than me and most of his troops prone to impetuous charges, Eric won't be messing around, so I can react as he sweeps his forces over. Game on!

[davouthojo]

A trick that has trapped my archers...normally LF cannot charge MF, but eric charged my LF next to them, which evaded, enabling him to catch the archers.

I don't understand why all three drew the impact combats though....I should have been on 4 dice vs 2, Superior and impact fire....Eric was taking a risk that they disrupt, then I can fragment on impact and rout in melee..leaving him little ahead....maybe my dice are going to turn later

[ericdoman1]

I should have gone for cav rather than knights as I could not catch his mf bows .

As for my gamble, that was the reason way I was very rash.

As for the impact phase itself. I would be up on impact my lt spear. I believe I would have 2 dice needing 4s, Chris would have 4 dice needing 5s but would reroll 1s.

I reckon that is about a 50/50 situation.

On top of that prior to me charging in just to hopefully increase the odds. I shot at his mf sup bow with a number of units. Got a double figure hit with one but not much with the others. For shooting I need 3s to hit him, as he is unprotected. I expected 1 to disrupt and then who knows what could ahve happened 1 of my lf routing him. Dream on

[batesmotel]

At impact, the spear should have FOUR dice for 4s, the bow should have SIX dice for 5s ( four impact dice + 2 support shooting).

So basically impact combat is pretty much even.

Chris

[ericdoman1]

Chris but I am only LF. I thought they fought/shot 1 per 2 bases. The more I think about the charges the more I realise it was quite stupid now.

Should have just moved up and shot. He would have to turn and move away.

He has an 11 bp advantage and I can not afford to trade off so soon in the game.

[batesmotel]

Oops, that's what I get for reading this on my phone. So you should have had 2 at a +POA vs. 6 at -POA. You definitely should have been smashed. Guess you getter hope your luck holds on through the melee. At least that's on 2 attacks vs. 4 but veryone is at even POA.

Chris

[ericdoman1]

There we go, knew it was stupid. Based on that what are the odds for 3 of the lf to charge in and for each one to win. I think 1 result was 15 vs 0 in my favour. If I can continue with that hopefully Chris/Davo will resign right now As we both know I am quite lucky on ocassions but lucky. I needed that luck in far more important combats.

How goes it in your game vs Anders?

I know botha rmies quite well and have guessed what both of you may use.

[davouthojo]

What are the odds of 3 LF drawing impacts against superior archers, then drawing 2/3 melees?
I reckon about 1 in 100....

I am trying an attack on the Catalan right flank with my cavalry, the light spears are at +1 on impact vs his MF. Got lucky in one attack, with his MF fragmenting, then got unlucky with my lancer anarchy charging in and getting disrupted. With the knight on his flank, he is toast. It is all on this fight, I am withdrawing on the other flank.

[hidde]

What are the odds of 3 LF drawing impacts against superior archers, then drawing 2/3 melees?

Aha, now I see what I did wrong...
I should have used my skirmishers and not the cavalry!

[ericdoman1]

Chris will be showing a screenshot soon. (Hey Chris where is that pm showing me in dummy terms how to attach/paste screenshot onto these sites)

Yes my LF have done incredibly well and FIFA are investigating this in great detail:)

I had the chance at the very beginning to march an lf up to Chris' base edge which would have slowed down his sweeping attack dramatically. I didn't and that will be decisive. Simple just march an lf to stop him from marching around, DAMN.

One of my LF has fragged (referee!/umpire!), the others remain OK but as Chris has pointed out 2 of his lancers went charging into my MF. His sup lancer disrupts my one almughhavr, his average lancer fraggs the other. Lt spear cavalry are better agst me than lancers and they are my big worry as they are disrupting me every ime through charges which is not good. That is the reason I went with off spear. I am on evens vs lancers, if I remain steady I will be on evens vs his supa rmoured but good factors agst the average. Vs his cav if I can remain steady my factors are very good. SO far not going to plan. Should have used IMP foot LOL.

Quite a lot of his troops are heading or are already on the hills and there is nothing I can do about it. He has a small force of cav and other troops that have slowed down a larger force of mine.

I will most certainly lose 4bps, Chris will prob lose one (I hope not though) on my turn (2 fragged units and a rear charge into disrupted mf). Chris now has the upper hand. There are going to be some very important tests and some important combats on his turn. That will make or break this game for me. Also Chris will have 1 or 2 important tests but not really game breaking for him. Based on me having the luck so far. If I fail my tests and Chris passes his, Lady Luck has left me again. I have to make the important tests, which just states the pressure I am under. It will be game over then if I fail them.

[davouthojo]

Attack on Erics left flank is going well....I am getting a bit of my luck back there! Though I still think eric is net ahead - the final tally on his LF attack: 3 Nubian archers routed vs 1 LF fragged.

Eric has locked in several routs of my troops - once he gets them in contact they are certain routs. Superior types do tend to last though - hopefully long enough for the right hook to arrive. I am trying to scurry away from him across the rest of the line, I will have to count on my right flank - was surprised Eric left this open. If I can take the knight down.....

[ericdoman1]

14 vs 12 in my favour at the moment after my turn.

The 2 fragged units you see both routed and the disrupted mf is fragged so toast. I took a gamble by charging my mf (behind fragged mf) into his lancer. My knight is now facing his arm lancer but his rear was ready to be charged. Evn though I lost 42 vs 2! I remained steady. So that will slow him down a bit.

Not sure how or why but the camel, remained in contact with my steady almug and so I should really do some damage on him. In the top left corner. You can see a number of my Almugh. They will be heading off towards the top left and left as there aer troops they can take on. Unfortuantely they happen to be some sup mf bow with cav lt spr nearby. I will be charged by 2 on Chris' turn. So far I think I am just ahead on luck but I think out of 7 charges made by Chris's cav, lancers and lt spears into my ALms, he has disrupted them all, 1 was fragged. Chris is ahead tactically that is a dead cert and has capatlized on my mistakes.

[ericdoman1]

Chris 29/47 vs eric 24/36

If the above screenshot was used, after Chris' now all you would see would be 1 kn and 4 lf. The MF I had have moved out of picture with the remainder. All of my other troops are in rout.

If you then go to the first screenshot the remainder of my troops are either a few hexes away from the front of the hill or close to the wood near the hill. On Chris' trun her will ceratint take out 6 to 7 bps of mine. I should take out about 3 to 4 of his. Not a good trade off.

Now if one unit can hang on inthere on Chris's turn and my cic should win agst an mf even though we are both disrupted. I will ahve a chance of taking out 5 or 6 bps of Chris. Too many important combats here to mention without the visuals but Chris' 11 bp adavntage from the beginning will prob tell. Again those units I would wish to fight are now perched on top of the steep hill. His unstoppable flank sweep will have notihing in it's path except for a kn and some lf. The kn will be swamped shortly but hopefully he can take out a unit of camels before he evaporates.

Either or the comp has been brilliant. So thanks Pete and looking forward to the next one.

[stockwellpete]

Thanks Eric - and it looks like a replay is a distinct possibility here.

[davouthojo]

28 each, but still very close, I will lose 2 units to rear charges this turn. I made a mistake going after Erics' CIC (the knight on the left edge) - I did not frag him on impact, losing 2 units of mine stuck in combat with rears exposed. The good thing about taking knights on with cheap troops - when you lose, it takes the knights out for a couple of moves in pursuit. Is this a trick or historical?

Erics flank is gone, leaving me with a problem - where are the last BPs going to come from? if my camels hold I will get a rear charge on his knights, but his lights are too nimble to trap, and I can't get to his spearmen near 50%

Giving a full shot, since the battle is spread across the map. My left has gone, the remnants have fled to a refuge on the hill, while the right wheels round.

[ericdoman1]

Drawing to it's climax now or ending morelike.

I know I keep banging on about it but marching 1 or 2 lf to Chris' rear edge would have slowed down his cav quite considerably. Where you see them now. Well they would be 1 or more turns away from that position.

Just that simple move has cost me the game, DAMN LOL.

On Chris' turn had some good combat opportunities as well. my kn vs his camel prob on about 60 to 12, alm vs mf uphill 42/27, alm vs disrupted mf 52 to 21 and alm vs sup bow on top of steep hill 52 to 21 (surprisingly). These scores are near enough exact.

The camels became disrupted and that's it. OK so my go, same factors and only the camels drop a level and become fragemented (Problem now is the kn will prob be rear charged and the gen is close to the camel so it may well be saved). The mf sword on a hill (yes it is just a single clear hill), is very clsoe to auto rout.

However some of my alms coming up in support are on 63% so they too are very close and 1 may well be charging in, whether I like it or not. If I had routed those units that I have now had 3 turns of fighting agst I would be on the hill and prob fighting cav (maybe they may have just wanted to run away) or poor def spears and that shoud be a no contest. Also further awy from the inevitable rear attacks made by his cav. One of my alms has now got to fight a lancer, very shortly and so he will be double teamed which again could be the end but he really should be on the hill by now.

Apart from the odd rear charges and Chris' lt spear charging on impact into my mf. I have been either on evens, up and or up big in the majority of combats in this game. I think Chris luck has swung your way dramatically. Not that I am at all bitter:) Grrr:)