Battlecry 2014

[BrettPT]

We have this 4 round 800 point tournament coming up on Feb 15&16, here in Auckland.
12 confirmed entrants to date, should be a good weekend.
Still space available if interested.

Cheers
Brett

[sonic]

Well had a great first tournie. Sorry had to leave early after getting hammered that last game but made sense to start travelling early. Now to put all that learning to practice and see how lists really work.

[BrettPT]

Well had a great first tournie. Sorry had to leave early after getting hammered that last game but made sense to start travelling early. Now to put all that learning to practice and see how lists really work.

And very well done to you Steve. A very creditable 4th placing , brilliant result considering you had never played before, and the tournie was packed with FoGN grognards.

I'll post results and some comments on the tournie in the next couple of days.

Cheers
Brett

[KeefM]

And having put together a playing list based on what you had vs what might be "optimal" too !!

An extremely good showing !!

Well done Steve.

[sonic]

yes an excellent experience and it gave me plenty of info about list design and how different units operate in combination. So already looking at different optimised list designs and terrain choices and placement thanks to all those guys I played.

[Blathergut]

Give us some examples!! Dead. and I are the only two playing the rules here.

[sonic]

I am afraid that "my" examples will only be basic observations from someone who hadn't played before this weekend and now has had competition experience against some experienced players, so it may not be particulalry useful.

[Blathergut]

ah, ya never kno...all thoughts appreciated!!

[BrettPT]

Here's the results for Battlecry (4 rounds, 800 point armies). Keith took 1st place over Mike on countback.

1st Keith (1812 French Infantry Corps) 82
2nd Mike (1808 Ottomans in Balkans) 82
3rd Kit (1815 Anglo-Allied) 70
4th Steve (1812 Saxons) 67
5th Kendall (1815 Prussians) 57
6th Andrew (1813 Allied mixed Corps) 50
7th Brett (1809 Tyrolean Revolt) 48
8th Stuart (1814 French Cavalry Corps) 37
9th Alan (1812 Westphalians) 36
10th Richard (1806 French Allied Contingent) 32
11th Philip (1814 German Confederation) 28 (best painted)
12th Shaun (1814 French Infantry Corps) 11

Great games, played in good spirits, my thanks to all participants.
I'll post some observations and photos in due course.

Cheers
Brett

[KendallB]

Steve, was any of my advice on list and tactics useful?

[sonic]

Yep, that Large Vet Grenadier unit was very good and soaked up a lot of hits very easily, in fact it never routed over the whole 4 games. It was pointed out it could have been better with a gun, but that was my fault not your advice. Also massing the two gun batteries worked when I did it. My charges weren't particulalry well done, I never got the knack of timing the preparation necessary but my shooting was pretty successful, most of the time helped by good dice when it was needed, and average and bad dice when it didn't matter much.

[KeefM]

Many thanks to Philip and Brett for organising yet another great competition. Four games against four great people is no bad way to spend a weekend - especially when seeing some amazingly presented armies too!

My playing list is posted under the 'army design' thread - the motto going into it was "dance like a butterfly, sting like a butterfly".

The strike power of the LC isn't great against infantry, but can be good against even opposing shock HC if you can get 2 into 1. Otherwise the overall idea was to pin an opponent down with the horde and shoot a hole with the light and veteran infantry and artillery. The LC could then easily expose any weak links that appear.

The exceptional general was to maximise attacker chances and therefore get to select terrain.

Terrain minimisation was useful but not essential due to having 3 light infantry units. If needing to face a 'panzer division' of heavy or shock cavalry then going for heavy terrain was viable too. Choosing a small stream makes sure a defender can't narrow the table too much and has a 50-50 chance of zero impact on movement.

This was a relatively easy army mix to use cos of limited unit types and coordination issues. It is also quite swift - double brigade moves with LC can put you in charge reach at the end of your first turn to exploit any deployment mistakes.

It's main weakness is in a lack of punch. The LC take up a bit of space and so leaving room for the shooting to have effect can be tricksy.

And it all went completely awry agin Mike's Turks when I did none of those things AND made a really basic mistake of forgetting all about intercept charges. A mad scramble followed ...