Slitherine

Final results are in...
Klay 38/45 vs Paul (Londo) 38/38.

A great gentlemanly battle! two even sides and even players. we did identical damage, but my army was bigger as I chose a troop commander vs an inspired commander. Paul hoped the inspired leader would add some resiliency to his army. which It did for a while, but around turn 9 I broke the leader in the center scrum. I worried he would recover so I sent a skirmisher (certain death for him) to pursue the broken leader and diminish his morale...interestingly I dropped the commander to 58% before the jackels killed the skirmisher, and the commander DID recover, but not until the final turn was he up to disrupted. the difference was a few things...
1) higher break point for me (due to bringing cheap troops like women and children and buying a cheap commander)
2) local advantage...I had some advantage on his left flank, and pressed hard there, and eventually cleared out that flank and began pinching the center troops (it only takes a couple of extra troops to make a big difference on the melees
3) on his right he slightly outnumbered me, with more heavies and more skirmishers...I ran away! I had enough room to run away and avoid combat for a long while...eventually when the center was more or less decided I could come back to the fight, but I saved my break pts by avoiding contact
4) I managed to get some rear support in the early goings in the center...so even though I made a rookie mistake initially, I weathered the storm and ended up getting almost an even trade in the center.
5) in the end my extra troops and flanking ability on his left allowed me to attack some rears, get to his camp, and also---best of all get to his women!

Of course, history is written by the victor, and perhaps I had some slightly better luck in the center, which might of made all the difference...in the end a satisfying victory for me, to beat a premiere player...thanks Paul for a worthy opponent. My first Trophy 'chip.
If possible, perhaps Paul will post a screen shot of the end??
Klay

Londo wrote:

voskarp wrote:

klayeckles wrote:...
note to the wise...you need same quality level to provide rear support and be in good order!...

?

Yeah, I'm a bit puzzled by that too. The help file says you get +1 in cohesion tests for "adjacent friends other than skirmishers to the rear". No mention of needing to be same quality or in good order.

well I can't speak for the digital version of the rules folks, but as an avid tabletop player, that is the requirement for rear support...same quality level, good order, non skirmisher. I assume that is all true in the digital version as well...but it would be a good question for the programers!

Congratulations on your victory, Klay - and well played Paul. It was a really exciting final and thanks to both of you for doing the AAR. Unfortunately the FOG Wiki has expired now so we cannot check the answer for rear support. We will just have to wait for the new version now.

The next Slitherine Trophy will start on September 1st 2015.

klayeckles wrote:If possible, perhaps Paul will post a screen shot of the end??

Your wish is my command!

This is the screenshot at the end of the game.

I have 6 hoplites left (albeit 2 disrupted and 1 fragmented), but Klay only has 2 (1 disrupted), so I can say I won the hoplite battle eventually. But Klay looted my camp, and destroyed enough of my MF, LF and cavalry, to get him over the line.

I can however claim the eternal glory of achieving a victory with one of my Helot mobs (against an enemy LF). King Londonidas can be seen on the lower right, having recovered from rout, err I mean having made a tactical withdrawal, and now leading the Helots in a heroic last-ditch stand.

If I had my time over, and knew what Klay would be taking, I'd forego the inspired leader in favour of a field commander, and use the extra 25 points for maybe 1 extra average hoplite, 1 Thracian, and 2 LF. Or I'd take Medieval Irish - the only army in all of FOG, in my opinion, that is a match for Classical Spartan.

Thanks to Klay and all my previous opponents for some great games, and to Pete for organising this.