A Skullrollers warm up. I was using my Pendraken Senguko Samurai (yes, that one, we all know how it works), and Pete was trying out his incredibly beautifully painted Khmer list. This is by no way his final list, but man it was hard. Truck fulls of elephants! Superior foot! Seriously decent cavalry! It would be a hard nut to crack.
My list, yes, it hasn't changed, I just decided to to ambush this time.
Only one scouting card, and I still out scouted Pete's two. (Red is 40%, Yellow and Green is 20% and 10% respectively, so 30%) - who said the Samurai can't scout.
The terrain,Very Dense, Coastal Jungle. Well, the Japanese had to invade from somewhere I guess...
Pete has really gone to town on these. It was very dense coastal, and all my choices disappeared into the sea apart from the village bottom left (and I to represent using Pete's terrain, coz it's cooler than mine)!
Anchor WHAT?
Ankor When? Pete's baggage, awesome!
Deployment, I went with corner sitting (and I'm attacking, so you know I won't be there long)! My two cavalry hold the centre against four of Pete's units. On the right my bows lurk in reserve, my spears and powerbows hold the gap on the right next to the marsh (KaB if you enter it).
See, told you I wasn't going to stay there. That is a 'Death Star' heading for my cavalry made up of elephants and superior cavalry. Squeak!! Lots of potential for things to go very, very wrong here!
Told you they were beautiful! But also scary if you are horse archers on delaying this lot.
The other flank, oh look, more nellies, including artillery elephants, skirting along the beach! Wonder what their sandcastles look like?
This I guess...
Just coz it has to be done, underneath the plastic palm trees for Hammy!
Oh, sorry. Were we playing a game? I'll get back to the report. ;) So, lines had advanced. Artillery elephants had shot at my spears on the right. Pete advanced infantry through the woods, towards my average spears and bows. My cavalry were SLIGHTLY worried by the approaching elephant wall, backed up by superior, short spear armed, dragon riders.
No point standing around, we are, after all, Samurai! CHARGE! Pete's superior short spears with melee expert slammed into my average spears and I took two loses. My Superior, Skilled, Powerbow armed Melee Expert Samurai dealt a nasty shock to Pete's central elephants, on shooting, on impact and melee, the samurai struck down the charging giants (2-0).
That was closely followed by one of his superior infantry units that should have mauled my average spears to pieces. One of my 8s of spears was now down to half strength, their survival was not guaranteed. Sp, no idea how, but I was now on two units up (4-0).
A break through in action. My average spears on the right were suffering under the weight of trunks and tusks, thankfully, from here on in, Pete kept missing them! Phew!
The general situation. After a sneaky run away, the cavalry were back at their starting line. They had not done it for nothing though; their shooting had caused a kill on Pete's left hand elephants (skilled shooters get on better on shooting, one worse for running away, meaning they are rolling average shooting dice, or whites, vs charging opponents when they turn tale and leg it, a bit useful). My cavalry turned and decided to fight Pete's cavalry. For once, my sneaky shooting (green +) didn't do tany damage, so it was down to old fashioned fighting, and although Pete was 1 up, we lost a base each. In the centre, my unit of 6 average spears was shattered by Pete's emergent warriors by the wood, they were hanging on by their finger nails. My archers had also been contacted, and depite being heavily out skilled on impact, were managing to trade hits with Pete's unit of 8 spears. But on the plus side, I also broke another unit of elephants! (6-0)
Now this is not good, elephants approaching quickly while we fight, they'll be on about +5 if they hit me...
Here they come, I caused a wound shooting on the way in, and then, despite being on a black (as bad as it gets on MeG dice) against Red & White (red is brutal, plus white = OUCH) we both rolled one wound! One wound I can shrug off, but Pete had already lost a base to shooting, a wound on approach (white, up to green for skilled, down to white for being an overlap), takes a wound (1:6 chance), and this breaks the elephants. (8-0).
Over in the centre, where I completely forgot to take any shots, Pete pursued my centre spears as they shattered, but being good ashugari, who knew their roles in life and death, they decided to roll a -2 on their run away dice, and only run 1 Base Width. This allowed my Samurai archers, whom had spent the previous turn 180ing, aided by the CinC, to plough into the back of his spears, breaking them and also Pete's whole army! (15-2)
Three factors played against Pete in this great game.
1) Elephants, though powerful, are brittle.
2) His usual phenomenal luck deserted him.
3) This was the first time a freshly painted, beautiful, army had been on table, and following Wargamers Rules for Life, it was bound to lose!
I'm sure any rematch will see me being thrashed completely, but this time, in a great game, my Senguko kept the upper hand.
My list, yes, it hasn't changed, I just decided to to ambush this time.
Only one scouting card, and I still out scouted Pete's two. (Red is 40%, Yellow and Green is 20% and 10% respectively, so 30%) - who said the Samurai can't scout.
The terrain,Very Dense, Coastal Jungle. Well, the Japanese had to invade from somewhere I guess...
Pete has really gone to town on these. It was very dense coastal, and all my choices disappeared into the sea apart from the village bottom left (and I to represent using Pete's terrain, coz it's cooler than mine)!
Anchor WHAT?
Ankor When? Pete's baggage, awesome!
Deployment, I went with corner sitting (and I'm attacking, so you know I won't be there long)! My two cavalry hold the centre against four of Pete's units. On the right my bows lurk in reserve, my spears and powerbows hold the gap on the right next to the marsh (KaB if you enter it).
See, told you I wasn't going to stay there. That is a 'Death Star' heading for my cavalry made up of elephants and superior cavalry. Squeak!! Lots of potential for things to go very, very wrong here!
Told you they were beautiful! But also scary if you are horse archers on delaying this lot.
The other flank, oh look, more nellies, including artillery elephants, skirting along the beach! Wonder what their sandcastles look like?
This I guess...
Just coz it has to be done, underneath the plastic palm trees for Hammy!
Oh, sorry. Were we playing a game? I'll get back to the report. ;) So, lines had advanced. Artillery elephants had shot at my spears on the right. Pete advanced infantry through the woods, towards my average spears and bows. My cavalry were SLIGHTLY worried by the approaching elephant wall, backed up by superior, short spear armed, dragon riders.
No point standing around, we are, after all, Samurai! CHARGE! Pete's superior short spears with melee expert slammed into my average spears and I took two loses. My Superior, Skilled, Powerbow armed Melee Expert Samurai dealt a nasty shock to Pete's central elephants, on shooting, on impact and melee, the samurai struck down the charging giants (2-0).
That was closely followed by one of his superior infantry units that should have mauled my average spears to pieces. One of my 8s of spears was now down to half strength, their survival was not guaranteed. Sp, no idea how, but I was now on two units up (4-0).
A break through in action. My average spears on the right were suffering under the weight of trunks and tusks, thankfully, from here on in, Pete kept missing them! Phew!
The general situation. After a sneaky run away, the cavalry were back at their starting line. They had not done it for nothing though; their shooting had caused a kill on Pete's left hand elephants (skilled shooters get on better on shooting, one worse for running away, meaning they are rolling average shooting dice, or whites, vs charging opponents when they turn tale and leg it, a bit useful). My cavalry turned and decided to fight Pete's cavalry. For once, my sneaky shooting (green +) didn't do tany damage, so it was down to old fashioned fighting, and although Pete was 1 up, we lost a base each. In the centre, my unit of 6 average spears was shattered by Pete's emergent warriors by the wood, they were hanging on by their finger nails. My archers had also been contacted, and depite being heavily out skilled on impact, were managing to trade hits with Pete's unit of 8 spears. But on the plus side, I also broke another unit of elephants! (6-0)
Now this is not good, elephants approaching quickly while we fight, they'll be on about +5 if they hit me...
I bought that wound off before the next impact phase!
Here they come, I caused a wound shooting on the way in, and then, despite being on a black (as bad as it gets on MeG dice) against Red & White (red is brutal, plus white = OUCH) we both rolled one wound! One wound I can shrug off, but Pete had already lost a base to shooting, a wound on approach (white, up to green for skilled, down to white for being an overlap), takes a wound (1:6 chance), and this breaks the elephants. (8-0).
Over in the centre, where I completely forgot to take any shots, Pete pursued my centre spears as they shattered, but being good ashugari, who knew their roles in life and death, they decided to roll a -2 on their run away dice, and only run 1 Base Width. This allowed my Samurai archers, whom had spent the previous turn 180ing, aided by the CinC, to plough into the back of his spears, breaking them and also Pete's whole army! (15-2)
Three factors played against Pete in this great game.
1) Elephants, though powerful, are brittle.
2) His usual phenomenal luck deserted him.
3) This was the first time a freshly painted, beautiful, army had been on table, and following Wargamers Rules for Life, it was bound to lose!
I'm sure any rematch will see me being thrashed completely, but this time, in a great game, my Senguko kept the upper hand.
Comments
Post a Comment