This battle was to test a general strategy which I am told is dominating the game. You use an army containing 4 archery formations, 2 Fireburst sorties, and a series of screening units. The strategy is as follows.
It is my contention that this strategy works because people don't place blocking terrain near control points. To test my hypothesis, I set up a test game with Nate on the Valley of Honor against a balanced army containing 2 archery formations, 2 turtle formations, a Sniper unit, and a trio of striker units. I consider this to be a balanced army. The one unusual element is the Snipers; I brought them because I thought they would be useful against the Fireburst guys.
Nate and I played this game with the beta version of the special abilities. In particular,
These rules are still in beta and subject to change. Nonetheless, I wanted this particular play-test to be based in the game's future rather than its past.
This army was designed by Torgan, and is intended to be typical of the classic undefeatable ranged army.
Of the three striker sorties, Gulug's Gauls is especially good against defenseless units (Raven Divisions) and the Hammer of Discipline is especially good against irregular units (Mythic Arrows). In actual fact, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy: the importance of these correspondences is that it explains why Nate set up his army with the Ravens and the Firebursters toward the back.
The Valley of Honor features two control terrain points in the center, each guarded by a hindering terrain and a blocking terrain.
Nate deployed his archers in the center. The screening terra cottas and the Mythic Arrows were placed to the side. The remaining fast sortie (Rushing Blades), was put in position to take the left control point.
As mentioned above, the choice of who went in front and who went in back was influenced by particular vulnerabilities for the units going in back.
I placed the Titi Testudo on Nate's left and the Line of Steel on his right, with the intention to take one control point with each. In the center, I placed my two artillery units and the four sorties.
As usual, Nate won the dice-off and took the ambush turn.
Nate's ambush move reflected his adoption of the winning strategy. Instead of making a fast grab for a control point, he moved an artillery unit forward with a terra cotta to screen it, and brought up the Fireburst unit for support.
I moved my forces forward slowly in concert over the next two turns. (I apologize, by the way, for the lighting quality. Apparently, the family has more pressing needs than a professional photo studio lighting setup for the dining room table, and the stupid sun was shining.)
By the fifth turn, Nate had archers covering both control points. Because of the blocking terrain on his left, the Principle of Archery was pushed farther forward than the Elite Phoenix Division on the other side. With the control terrains covered, Nate ended the dance by pushing the Rushing Blades onto the left control point.
What we discovered here was that sorties suck when it comes to holding control points. I moved my Flamma Coniciens forward just a bit so it could shoot the Rushing Blades.
A Fireburst took out 3 figures, leaving 4 hit points. The attack was 6 dice to 2, with Fire Arrow, giving me a 76% chance of making the kill, and I was not disappointed.
I was now ahead 2 victory points to 0. Expecting retribution, I moved the Titi Testudo and the Hammer of Bellona forward for support.
Normally all sorts of violence would have followed this action, but Nate wanted to stick with the winning strategy script, so instead he continued moving his archers forward. The Kyudo archers were now positioned to cover almost all of the left control point without moving, meaning they could use Way of the Bow to punch through the armor of my turtle units. The other two artillery units covered the right control point. The Raven Division could also attack the left control point, but it would have to move first because of the blocking terrain. This was not a big problem, because unlike the two forward artillery units, there was no screening unit to move out of the way.
I decided to take out the Principle of Archery. Without this unit's Way of the Bow capability, the only real threat to my turtle units was the Fireburst power of the Mythic Arrows. I moved the Flamma Coniciens forward and used Fireburst to take down three figures. Then I brought Gulug's Gauls out from behind the blocking terrain and based the Kyudos.
The key to this is the speed of the Gallic Berserker figures combined with the Hustle ability of the Priestess of Bellona, which enables a Gallic striker unit to move 12 steps, a huge distance, and one that enables the unit to detour around stuff. In order to get past the blocking terrain and cover the control point, the Kyudos had to put themselves at risk from virtually all of my Gallic strikers. In this case Gulug was the closest, (which is a good thing, because he's also the slowest).
Although Gulug's Bully power would have no effect against this particular target, the unit still attacks with 9 dice, which is pretty formidable. I did 5 more damage.
This entire process had consumed 6 order points. With the remaining 2, I shot the Kyudos from the Flamma Coniciens. I had a 66% chance of making the kill, needing only 3 hits (thanks to Fire Arrow. In actual fact I did 7 damage.
I now had 4 victory points.
Nate could not afford to leave Gulug alive amongst all his near-defenseless archery units. The Elite Phoenix Division could not get a line of sight; however, the forward Raven Division had no problem. The attack was 9 dice to 0, but even with Good Fortune, it was abysmal, and he only did 3 damage.
Gulug had 4 hit points left, so a Fireburst would not be enough to kill it. Nate shot with the other Ravens. Because the line of sight was hindered by 2 intervening units, the attack was 7 dice to 0.
This finished the sortie, and Nate now had 2 victory points to my 4, and he had 4 order points left. He moved the left Mythic Arrows forward and used Fireburst to do 3 damage to the Flamma Coniciens.
Finally, Nate moved his right Mythic Arrows forward to get it into the game.
In order to attack the Flamma Coniciens, the Mythic Arrows on the left had to put itself into position to be counterattacked. I felt if I took the Mythic Arrows down, there would be nothing to stop the Titi Testudo from dominating that control point. I used Fireburst to do 3 damage, and then shot them normally. The attack was 6 dice to 3, with Fire Arrow, so I had a 43% chance of killing the unit. In fact, I did 6 damage, killing the unit and bringing the score to 5 victory points to 2 in my favor.
I had five order points left. I used two to move the Flamma Coniciens straight back two steps so Nate would have to move forward to attack the unit again. I then used my last two order points to move the two units on the right behind the blocking terrain for safety. Unfortunately, since Gulug had come from that side of the board, I was without any striker sorties on that end and felt vulnerable.
Nate had lost three units and I had lost one, but he still had three artillery units, so the winning strategy was still possible. He used four order points to move the two Raven Divisions forward, filling the gap left by the defeated Kyudo unit.
Nate now moved the Mythic Arrows on the right to cover the control point and used the nearby Terracotta Patrol to get control of it.
With two order points left, Nate pushed to move the Mythic Arrows farther forward and flamed my Shanyu's Dirk into uselessness.
It's worth noting that because of the position of the blocking terrain, there was no line of sight to the larger Line of Steel: the snipers were vulnerable because they were further back.
This was very depressing, because I was planning to use the Sniper ability to cripple the flamers and now it was completely useless. Worse, Nate now had a control point. I was, however, as mentioned previously, low on offensive power on that side of the table. I decided, therefore, that I would have to let Nate have his victories over there for the time being so I could cripple his remaining archers.
I moved my Sagitarii Column forward into position to shoot both of his forward archery units.
I shot the Elite Phoenix Division first, 8 dice to 3, doing 4 damage.
I pushed to shoot the forward Raven Division next. The line of sight had to go through a screening Terracotta Patrol, so the attack was only 7 dice, but there was no defense. Again, I did 4 damage.
These were both substandard rolls, but not spectacularly so: the expected damage in both cases was 5. I decided to bring forward the Hammer of Bellona to cripple the Ravens more thoroughly, hoping for a better result. I had to push to get them in contact; unfortunately, the picture was taken before I pulled out the Priestess of Bellona, so you have to use your imagination a little.
That attack was 7 dice to 0, and because of Charger, it cost no order points. I did 5 damage, and the Ravens were down to 3 figures.
That ended my turn. Nate started with 3 victory points from the control terrain, tying the score at 5 each. Next, he used Fireburst to kill the Shanyu's Dirk, giving him the lead at 6 victory points to 5. This part was obvious.
It was time to kill the Gauls. He shot the Hammer of Bellona with the rear Raven Division. This was a 9 dice to 0 attack, but he rolled poorly, doing only 4 damage.
Rather than push the Ravens to finish off the Gauls, Nate decided to attack with the nearby Terracotta Patrol. It consumed 1 order point to put them in base contact with the Hammer of Bellona.
The attack was 6 dice to 0, and did 3 damage, which was exactly enough. The terra cottas took 1 damage back from the Gallic Berserker ability.
Nate now had 7 victory points to my 5 and 3 order points left, but his Elite Phoenix Division had not acted. He used one order point to regroup them for maximum offense and then shot the Sagitarii Column 7 dice to 4. Unfortunately, the roll was poor and Nate did only one damage.
This was bad luck, but it's worth noting that even if Nate had done the expected damage of 4, the Sagitarii Column would still be able to shoot back at full power, since 7 of its slots are concerned with support functions (movement, defense, and Precision). Nate's archers were doomed in any case; the difference made by this bad roll was that the Column was going to be harder to kill in the long run.
The rule is: if you can shoot me, I can shoot you. Worse, because the Elite Phoenix Division had regrouped to shoot, it had no defense. I used 2 order points to shoot back at them using the Sagitarii Column. Now, the expected damage on this attack is 6, and I rolled a critical hit, but because I also rolled two 2s and two 1s, I ended up doing only 5 damage.
Nate's two forward archers were down to 3 hit points each. I used 2 order points to move the Flamma Coniciens forward into range of the Raven Division, and then 1 order point to Fireburst them for three damage, killing them and gaining 2 victory points. This also splashed the Terracotta Patrol for one more damage.
Next, I pushed the Sagitarii Column to shoot the Elite Phoenix Division again. This killed the unit, making the victory point score 9 to 7 in my favor.
Nate's situation was now pretty dire. He had one artillery unit, two fodder sorties, and a Fireburst thrower. I had two artillery units (albeit wounded), two full-strength turtles (one self-healing and the other rigged for heavy combat), and a long-range striker sortie.
The winning strategy was officially over. Nate was facing a superior artillery force and would have to use standard tactics to defeat it.
Nate started the 15th turn with 3 control terrain victory points, putting him ahead 10 to 9. He used two order points to bring his rear Raven Division into place to shoot the Flamma Coniciens.
The Flamma Coniciens still had 8 hit points, so there was a 65% chance it would take two shots to kill it (for a total of 6 order points when you factor in the move). This proved to be the case. The first shot did 5 damage.
The second shot did 3 damage, thanks to a Deadly-style critical hit.
The Ravens were pushed and couldn't do any more damage. Nate needed, however, to take out the Sagitarii Column. To do this, he moved his nearby Terracotta Patrol into base contact (which wasn't easy, because it was facing the wrong way and had to turn around.
The expected damage from a terra cotta unit attacking at 6 dice to 4 is only 3, and there is a 40% chance of 2 points of damage going back. Nonetheless, Nate rolled extremely well, and did 4 hits on the Sagitarii Column with no back damage.
I had to get rid of the terra cottas, so I moved up the Hammer of Discipline to base them.
I had a 70% chance of killing the terra cottas in a single attack, after which I could push the Hammer to base the Ravens, taking them out of combat. Unfortunately, luck was not with me, and I did only 3 damage.
I was forced to push the Hammer of Discipline to attack again. This time, I did 7 damage (though I only needed 3).
I needed to do something to keep Nate from getting too far ahead in victory points, since the score was now 13 to 10 in his favor. I used an angle turning trick to get the Titi Testudo onto the left control point.
I had 3 order points left. I used 2 of them to shoot the Raven Division with the Sagitarii Column. I did 6 damage.
With my last order point I regrouped the Sagitarii Column for defense.
It was Nate's turn. He got 3 victory points, making the score 16 to 10 in his favor. Now, at this point, Nate's archers are completely helpless against the Titi Testudo, which has 12 defense dice against a ranged attack. At full strength, the Raven Division has an expected damage of 1. Able to bring only 5 dice to bear, the effort would be pointless. In addition, the blocking terrain was affecting line of sight, requiring that the Ravens move forward where the Testudo would be in a position to have them for lunch.
The Sagitarii Column had 4 defense dice while the Hammer of Discipline had only 2, so the logical step was to shoot the Hammer. The first shot did 2 damage.
Pushing to shoot again did 2 more damage.
Nate now decided to try weakening the Line of Steel. It would be a slow, chancy process, but he had order points to burn, so the cost seemed minimal. First, he moved the Mythic Arrows into position so they had line of sight.
A Fireburst attack downed one Shield Golem and injured another. The next step was to make a ranged attack. This was 3 dice to 11, but if by some miracle a hit got through it would down a second golem.
It was my turn again, and I got 3 control terrain victory points, making the score 16 to 13 in Nate's favor.
It was time to kill the Raven Division. I moved the Hammer of Discipline into base contact.
I regrouped to attack, 6 dice to 0. This had a 90% chance to kill the Ravens, and it worked flawlessly.
The score was now 16 to 15 in Nate's favor. I needed to slow down his victory point acquisition, so I regrouped the Sagitarii Column for movement and attack, then moved it onto the right control point. This put me in range to shoot the Terracotta Patrol, and I did 4 damage (3 hits plus 1 for Fragile).
With my last order point I used Artificer to heal the downed Shield Golem on the Line of Steel, bringing it back to full health.
Nate decided to kill the Sagitarii Column so he could get back the control point. He moved the Terracotta Patrol into base contact and then regrouped the unit for attack.
Nate needed 4 damage, and he got it.
The score was now 18 to 15 in Nate's favor. To seal the deal, he needed to kill the Hammer of Discipline. He moved the Mythic Arrows onto the control point (first regrouping them to turn them around) and Fireburst the Hammer, killing it and putting him 2 points away from winning the game.
I got 3 victory points from the left control point, making the score 19 to 18 in Nate's favor. I now used 5 order points to move the Line of Steel onto the control point in base contact with the Mythic Arrows. 4 order points moved it into position, pushing.
A 5th order point, and Artificer healed from the push.
The situation for Nate was desperate. On my next turn I would win. The Terracotta Patrol could conceivably push to get to the left control point and contest it, but the Titi Testudo could kill it easily and he'd only be delaying the inevitable. The only possible chance for victory seemed to be throwing everything at the Line of Steel to kill it. The strategy was to attack with the Terracotta Patrol, back up with the Mythic Arrows, use Fireburst, then shoot.
The first attack with the terra cottas did 3 damage, downing one Shield Golem and injuring another. Unfortunately, it also did 1 back damage, which downed two terra cottas because of Fragile.
Pushing to attack again was at only 2 dice to 7. Unfortunately, all this did was kill the terra cottas.
Nate now broke away with the Mythic Arrows and used Fireburst. Because of the existing injury, this downed 2 figures, leaving the Line of Steel with 5 hit points, 4 defense dice against close combat, and 8 defense dice against range.
Nate tried the ranged attack first. There was only a 17% chance this would do damage, and in fact nothing happened.
At this point, the game was over. Nate needed five hits to win, and the most he could get with any additional attacks by his only remaining unit was 4.
The winning strategy is based on the presumption that you can dominate the control points with 3 artillery units, so 4 artillery units guarantees a win. This may be the case in the default battlefield setup in the rulebook, but it is not the case when the control points are protected by blocking terrain. The terrain creates an artillery choke point: my two artillery units were able to hold Nate's entire army at bay while my striker units tore him apart.
Normally, when Nate and I play there is a dance period where everything gets into position followed by a rapid exchange of violence. Nate missed this. Although by any objective standard it was a close game, it felt to him as if I was killing things while he was jockeying for position, and therefore I was always in control. By the time we were at the halfway point he was wishing he'd never heard of the winning strategy.
In the early days I built my army around turtle units, and because these are archery-resistant and everybody was playing archers, I won most of my games. For this reason, I still build turtle-based armies, but it seems more and more the real key to winning is the strikers. The strikers not only pose a strong threat to your opponent, they provide a nice way to bring the more exotic close-combat special abilities into the game. This helps to keep the fun factor elevated.
That makes a huge difference.