The Battle for {Insert Name Here}

[Siralus]

So, the thundermen lost all of their infantry (bar one) and killed the entire stack?

It seems the Thundercats are go.

[Twoy]

Advance from G8 to H9:
Guardsmen x 1, Ogre x 1, Bezekiwa x 1, Guardsmen x 4, Captain General Genericus, (Att-92, Def-5).

[Twoy]

GK's first strike inflicts 18 hits on allied stack. GM selects targets.
Cwoak Thunder Infantry and Ogre takes 13 Hits.
or
Cwoak Thunder Infantry x 2 and ogre takes 3 hits.
or
other possibilities.

Spoiler: show

COMBAT!
Battle is joined in hex: H9
TIME OF POST (in minutes and seconds): 2618
Attacker:
Total Attack Value: 92
Level of Highest Commander: 3
Number of Units: 5
Stacking Bonus: 1.5
Average Defence: 5.0
Terrain Bonus of Hex: 0.0
Special Bonus: 1.0
Random Percentage: 65%
Total Damage: 117

Hits Inflicted on the Enemy: 102

Defender
Total Attack Value: 32
Level of Highest Commander: 1
Number of Units: 5
Stacking Bonus: 1.5
Average Defence: 1.0
Terrain Bonus of Hex: 0.0
Special Bonus: 1.0
Ambush Bonus: 1.0
Random Percentage: 90%
Total Damage: 48

Hits Inflicted on the Enemy: 18

GK stack destroyed.
CPT-GEN Genericus gains an xp.
CDR Lightning gained an xp from the earlier battle.

[Twoy]

These are not orders yet. I want to get feedback from everyone. I'm hoping that we will have at least one scout survive so that we can scout the route to the enemy base camp.
Turn 6 Move:

A1:
Archers x 8, Captain Ordinarius (Att-72 Ranged, Def-5).

C5:
Gwiffon Riders x 2, Sparrowhawk x 2 (Att-32 ranged, Def-3).
Hellflame Dwakes x 2 (Att-18, Def-4).

C6:
Thunder Lizard x 2, Thunder Infantry x 1, Ewinyes x 2 (Att-66, Def-3.6).

E7:
Thunder Cats x 2 (Att-16, Def-5).

F8:
a. Hellflame Dwakes x 3, Hellflame Dwake x 1, Sparrowhawk x 1, CDR Vis (Att-46, Def-3.67).
b. Gwiffon Rider x 1, King Edmund, Sparrowhawk x 1 (Att-44, Def-3.67).
c. Thunder Bats x 4, Sparrowhawk x 1 (Att-21, Def-2.6).

H9:
Bezekiwa x 7, CDR Agrach (Att-72, Def-5).
Thunder Cats x 4, Thunder Infantry x 1 (-3 Hits), CDR Lightning, CDR Thunder (Att-56, Def-4.85)
(Minus whatever died in the last battle) Guardsmen x 5, Ogre x 1, Bezekiwa x 1, Captain General Genericus, (Att-??, Def-5).

[zilfallon]

The dwake at H8 is NOT at -3 hits. It was healed to full hp at the start of our turn.

Also, a thinkagram from leader of Avewnus troops in field, Agrach:

-King Edmund, my suggestion is, we should march to their base camp as fast as possible. We can stack our scouts with our strong units. This would weaken them against enemy raids, but if we do not do so, they will be hunted in open field, and i believe it is better to weaken the stack a bit, instead of walking into an ambush. We are near their base, so the option of waiting for reinforcements is NOT available. Even if we wait, they will have more since we need at least 2 turns to bring our new units to the front.

[Twoy]

The only option to go further this turn is to send you with your Bezekiwas into I9. If GK has a decent sized stack there, your whole stack will croak because of the ambush damage, and you will do no damage. Or we can wait until next round. If even one of the scouts in F8 survive, it can scout the way allowing maybe half of your Bezekiwas to survive the archery first strike, and then they can do a significant amount of damage to the GK forces.

If you want to try the kamikazee run, I won't try to stop you, but I think it is not in our best interest.

[zilfallon]

-We don't have the luxury to do anymore suicidal attacks. We need to protect our stacks. But how?

[Twoy]

By leaving the scouts at F8, we might have some chance of them surviving. It also requires 3 medium strength attacks to kill them. I believe I have provided them with the best possible defense. We could leave them at E7. That would give them even more survivability and still allow them to scout all the way to the base camp and attack the base camp next round.

[Nihila]

Okay, I'd just like to say that, as it is likely that my base camp will fall next turn, I already have a map for the next game, courtesy of Siralus. There is a road, which acts as a road, and three fortifications which you can only move through when you have them, as well as hills (wavy lines), swamps(light teal), and forests (duh). I will start another thread for that, but I'd like to have feedback on the map so that I can feel good when I start the game.
The Move cost for Hills is 2, Swamps are 2 for Infantry and 4 for Cavalry, and Forests are 2 for Infantry and 4 for Cavalry as well. Terrain Capable units don't take those penalties, and the cost for that is (Hits*Move*.25). Flight is an actual Special, not linked to Move anymore, and it costs (Hits*Move*.5). A unit with 1-3 Move is considered Infantry, 4-5 is considered Cavalry, unless the unit has Flight. I don't really want to take up too much space, so I'll refrain from posting the Siege rules for now.

And I hope that I managed to post it.

[LTDave]

Sounds good, Chief. We need to scout. If we lose a big stack now, we are in trouble.

[Twoy]

What are the little clumps of bushes on the roads and do they affect move and combat?
Where are the mountains?
Why are there no plains?
After we capture a fortress, will we be able to use it as a fortress?
I'm not 100% happy with the distance from our base camp (which I assume is at A1), but I guess I can live with it.
I'm also not 100% happy with the new archery defense rules, which seem to favor the GM, especially with 14 hexes between our base camp and the target.
I was planning to save this input for the end of the test, but I think we might need to raise the cost of ranged attacks before this game ends up with all ranged units.

Also, you need to make a decision on who warlord Nonmine targets with his stack's damage.

[Siralus]

The little clumps of bushes were pretty. If Nihila wants them to do anything... *shrug*

I imagine that the limited variety of tile types was probably so that we can have a fairly basic examination of some relatively extreme different tile types without having to contend with lots of subtle nuance (yet).

[zilfallon]

Twoy, the "new" possible rules we discussed in the other topic will not be applied to this game, i think. It would be a fail if they did, anyway And yes, the map needs mountains and a bit more explanation.

[Nihila]

The bushes look nice. Nothing more, nothing less.
The mountains have gone away for now, I'm trying to just work with 3 fairly basic terrains--high-ish, foresty-ish, and soggy-ish, so hills, forests, and swamps. I don't want 6 or 7 Terrain Types when 3 do just fine.
There are no plains because I feel like forcing us to work with a wasteland.
Once you capture a fortress, you can use it as a fortress--if I want to move through that hex, I need to retake the fortification.
The base camp is at A1, but the fortresses do have the road continuing through them and provide a level of protection from my units.
The Archer-Cavalry-Infantry rules are just thoughts, as a concept for BLAND. They don't reflect what's going on in this game. At all.

I agree on the point about Ranged units, but I think that zil's Special Retaliation (specifically the friendly fire bit) might help to take care of that. We'll see.

If the stacking structure in the post above the combat post is correct, then Nonmine will croak a Guardsman and a Bezekiwa, no other units take hits.

I don't really think that this map needs mountains... and as far as explanation goes, I'll post my campaign blurb after you guys win this test and then let you ask questions. For now, let's focus on croaking each other's units.

Edit: Oh, what the boop, I'll post the campaign blurb now. You're almost done with this campaign anyways, and I have one turn until I lose. Ahem:

"Having taken the base camp of the Gobwin Knob Expeditionary Defense Force, the Northern Alliance gazes upon a wasteland of Forests, Swamps, and Hills. There is a single, massive trail stretching from Orgchart to their base camp, and they know that three great Unaroyal fortifications await them. This is the Broad Way, the last line of defense against the Mono Polians, Unaroyal's oldest enemy. The fortifications fell into disuse following GK's first capture of the city, and the RCC I cleared them easily. However, the fortresses which dominate and control the Broad Way now seem to be in excellent repair. Worse yet, Gobwin Knob has not only the murderous defenses of the fortresses, but Mistress Wanda has fielded 5 other types of Decrypted units to defend the Broad Way, though the Uniepegataurs have been recalled to join the attack on Unaroyal."

As the blurb implies, I'll have some "natural" fortress defenses--the kind of thing that Sizemore might have made, Trebuchet style things, I'll scratch the Uniepegataurs and, to highlight the desperation of Gobwin Knob escalating, 5 other types of Decrypted units will appear. In effect, I'm redesigning my forces, as well as adding 5 more units to increase my versatility. I'll post my entire listing of forces for the next game right now, in H-A-D-M format:

Spoiler: show

Decrypted Infantry: 4-4-4-2, Cost=10. "The bread-and-butter of every army, Infantry is a cheap, valuable source of melee protection. In the case of Decrypted Infantry, we have the bread-and-butter pulled out of every army and put into nice, new livery."
Decrypted Archery: 4-6-0-2, Ranged, Cost=15. "Archers are an excellent force to have in an army, able to perform hit-and-runs on melee stacks. For all your Chief Warlord assassination needs, nothing beats the Mounted Archer!"
Decrypted Sourmander: 8-8-5-3, Ranged, Cost=35. "Sourmanders are a keystone in Jetstone's army. However, these Sourmanders are fighting against Jetstone's ally, so there is something wrong here."
Dwagon: 16-24-4-5, Ranged, Flight, Cost=150. "Dwagons are the signature of Gobwin Knob. Tamed by one Arkentool, they are used in conjunction with another Arkentool's units to provide devastating damage."
Decrypted Cheezburger: 30-10-5-2, Cost=150. "It would appear that an attack on the PRLC is underway, because Decrypted Cheezburgers have appeared, fighting against the MCC:N."
Decrypted Fawie: 2-3-0-5, Ranged, Flying, Cost=15. "Tiny archers, they lie in wait in bogs and forests to hunt humans."
Decrypted Orange Lancer: 6-6-5-5, Cost=35. "Orange Lancers are the signature unit of Unaroyal. However, their name loses some effect when they are Decrypted."
Machine Gun: 13-19-1-0, Ranged, Cost=50. "Unaroyal Defensive artillery, these are placed in the heavily entrenched sections of the Broad Way. Though they should have been destroyed on being captured, most Dirtamancers can repair them."
Decrypted Flutterbys: 8-10-5-3, Ranged, Flying, Cost=50. "Slow moving flying mounts, their wings are covered in scales which are fired at their foes."
Decrypted Horse Artillery: 8-12-4-5, Ranged, Siege, Cost=60. "Is Gobwin Knob attacking Escotia as well? Those uniforms are definitely in Escotian style, if in different colors..."

The cost of Siege is Attack, if you want to check my costs.

[zilfallon]

Do we get new unit types as well? If so, the Pit Commander may decide that sending some Hellflame Dwagons or Cownugons might be good. Or some other mysterius devils.

Also, how is this game over? I didn't realize we were THAT close to our target

[Twoy]

Turn 6 Move:

A1:
Archers x 8, Captain Ordinarius (Att-72 Ranged, Def-5).

C5:
Gwiffon Riders x 2, Sparrowhawk x 2 (Att-32 ranged, Def-3).
Hellflame Dwakes x 2 (Att-18, Def-4).

C6:
Thunder Lizard x 2, Thunder Infantry x 1, Ewinyes x 2 (Att-66, Def-3.6).

E7:
Thunder Cats x 2 (Att-16, Def-5).

F8:
a. Hellflame Dwakes x 3, Hellflame Dwake x 1, Sparrowhawk x 1, CDR Vis (Att-46, Def-3.67).
b. Gwiffon Rider x 1, King Edmund, Sparrowhawk x 1 (Att-44, Def-3.67).
c. Thunder Bats x 4, Sparrowhawk x 1 (Att-21, Def-2.6).

H9:
Bezekiwa x 7, CDR Agrach (Att-72, Def-5).
Thunder Cats x 4, Thunder Infantry x 1 (-3 Hits), CDR Lightning, CDR Thunder (Att-56, Def-4.85)
Guardsmen x 2, Ogre x 1, Guardsmen x 2, Captain General Genericus, (Att-75, Def-5).

END TURN

[Twoy]

Do we get new unit types as well? If so, the Pit Commander may decide that sending some Hellflame Dwagons or Cownugons might be good. Or some other mysterius devils.

Also, how is this game over? I didn't realize we were THAT close to our target

We wil have the opportunity to rebuild our force. I have a major overhaul of min planned.
The game is not quite over. We might be able to take GK's base camp next turn, but it will be very difficult.

[Siralus]

I think Nihil is essentially saying there's nothing to stop us in the base camp.

[Twoy]

Nihila,
What does the siege special do?

[Nihila]

Nihila,
What does the siege special do?

Lets you take down fortifications. More on that when you finish off this game. And, yeah, I'm going to make my bold stand outside my base camp. Starting right now.

4 Sourmanders, 4 Archers enter H9. Attack Bezekiwa stack.

Attacker's first strike:

Spoiler: show

COMBAT!
Battle is joined in hex: H9
TIME OF POST (in minutes and seconds): 4128
Attacker:
Total Attack Value: 56
Level of Highest Commander: 0
Number of Units: 8
Stacking Bonus: 1.8
Average Defence: 2.5
Terrain Bonus of Hex: 0.0
Special Bonus: 1.0
Random Percentage: 60%
Total Damage: 60

Hits Inflicted on the Enemy: 23

Bezekiwas have 6 Hits, so that's 3 croaked, 1 @ 1 Hit. So darned close.
Defender's Retaliation:

Spoiler: show

Total Attack Value: 45
Level of Highest Commander: 5
Number of Units: 5
Stacking Bonus: 1.5
Average Defence: 5.0
Terrain Bonus of Hex: 0.0
Special Bonus: 1.0
Ambush Bonus: 1.0
Random Percentage: 55%
Total Damage: 56

Hits Inflicted on the Enemy: 38

This leaves 2 Archers, 1 Archer @ 2 Hits. They retreat to the Southeast.