The d30 for this battle resulted in a 25 - Infiltration. Only one defending unit starts the game on a hill deep in the Targar side of the board. Five other units wait just off board, with two entering on Turn 3 and the other 3 on Turn 6. The Targar's four units all enter on the north in Turn 1, and have to get two units off the board in the south by the end of Turn 15.
Lady M'Motherson quickly ordered her men-at-arms to stall the levy left guarding the hill, while her three units of knights charged...
Quickly getting into the Necromancer King's rear, moments before reinforcements could arrive to stop them.
This scenario doesn't make for a very balanced Medieval game, with the emphasis on fast moving mounted units. They can work in other genres, and with more foot-heavy armies, but here? There's no way for the Necromancer Forces to stall the Targar Empire. Even if the Necromancer had put a faster Knight on the hill, it would have been pinned in place by the men-at-arms, and the three Targar Knights still would have had a cake walk to victory.We might have ignored this result and starting over with a new die-roll for the scenario and forces, but after talking it over decided to let it stand. Sometimes the dice just come up snake-eyes, and sometimes armies find themselves in unwinnable situations through no fault of their own.
This puts the standings at 2-1 in favor of the Targars, with 2 more battles to go. The Targars still have the initiative, but as we saw today, anything can happen...
Hey Warren, great blog I've been following for years. I've also been working through one hour war games, and I think you might have misread this scenario. If laid out as described in the book, the earliest that a blue Calvary unit could exit the board would be turn four. Blue deploys on the southern table edge within 12 inches of the sw corner, and leaves off somewhere in the northwest corner. To move directly from the sw to the nw would be 36 inches or three turns. Add the extra diagonal distance and the red reinforcements will arrive a turn before the fastest blue can exit along the road.
ReplyDeleteOops. I mean starts in southwest and leaves the northeast.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, and it sure feels like I did something wrong. Part of the problem is that my battle mat is a couple inches shy of 36 inches, so it's just small enough for the cavalry to make it in three. To even up the scenario we probably should have cut movement down to 12 inches for cav and 5 inches for foot troops.
DeleteOn the other hand, would that really make a difference? If one Blue unit shows up on Turn 3, it can only block one of the Red Knights. The other two Reds can still bounce out and around the lone Blue Unit.