FOG KO Cup Rd 3, Morbio vs hidde

[hidde]

Morbio gets initiativ. He tells me three out of the four maps would have been good for me...but unfortunatly there also were this one.
No doubt he has gathered his troops in front of the camp. The map edge prevent any flanking on one side and as my guys are prone to anarchy I can't rely on holding the high ground.


So, full steam ahead and hope for the best. Sending out some to the right just to see if I can unsettle him a little bit.




Well, it doesn't seem like he cares. And why should he? He can protect his flank fine from the hills


Almost left my knights to far back.




Nothing much. The Seleucid juggernaut continue moving forward...


...as do my ragtag group of merry men!





I was spared from anarchy last turn so I guess it's only fair Morbio don't suffer any either. Really wished he had, though...


It's not easy to rout elite troops. And now the bugger will evade and undoubtedly rally later. Had my first anarchy after this picture were taken.




I don't often feel beaten after five turns but this time I do. No surprise really but I belive I could've handled the positioning of my troops on the hill better.
Together with some anarchy among the Seleucids and (huge) luck with the dice I might, just might have been able to threaten them. Not now...


Make some attacks. Doesn't make a dent in the opposition.
Sorry Pete(and any that are reading) but this will hardly be the most exciting of AARs




I have one attack that feels anything but suicidal and that's the knights.


Nothing much happens during my turn...I send one cavalry towards the camp to try and get some points before it's all over




Well, his depleted cavalry anarchy charge and so will give me some easy points!


Cavalry, happy to be away from the carnage, tries to get those loot points...


I have some attacks, apart from the knights, with favorable odds...they all fail. This will be quick from now on.





Finally I get to make a couple of rear charges! Morbio have been very careful in avoiding just this and now it's way too late.


Lazy bastard...





Camp gets looted and I have some successful attacks on top of that...my score will be decent at least
Last turn soon to come...Morbio will get a bucketload of BP!

[ericdoman1]

Wondering if your opponent can see that you are on never evade or always evade, before he makes his move?

[stockwellpete]

If I was Anders in this game I would have gone into that bit surrounded by the river and stayed there until at least turn 23! And then tried to win by toss of the coin!

[hidde]

Wondering if your opponent can see that you are on never evade or always evade, before he makes his move?

I wrote to Morbio in game chat that I would be showing stuff I don't want him to see. I count on him being a gentleman(and sure he is).

If I was Anders in this game I would have gone into that bit surrounded by the river and stayed there until at least turn 23! And then tried to win by toss of the coin!

The thought occured to me but that wouldn't been much of an AAR!

[stockwellpete]

Here are Morbio's first thoughts about this intriguing match-up (Morbio will not be reading the AAR himself until the game is completed so as to avoid gaining any unfair advantage) . . .

"Know Thy Enemy

I've fought Anders many times before and I consider him one of the best players. The good news is that I've beaten him a few times and I think I won our previous CC match, so I knew if I played well, which includes; army and battlefield selection, and tactics during battle then I have a fair chance. With a 50 point advantage I reckon there's no reason why I can't win. However, I'm at a disadvantage in that I don't have the expansion that the Catalan Company is in and so I had no idea what to expect. Anders has played Seleucids and has played against my Seleucids many times and he knows I like maximum Companions, Cats and lots of Pikes. I googled to see what Wikipedia etc. said about them and this gave me a general idea, but I still didn't know army composition restrictions (minimum or maximum units), drill level, unit quality, weapons or armour ratings. I also googled and found some FoG TT pages, which helped a bit more, but bases and such like meant little to me. So I resorted to asking a FoG PC buddy who sent me a screen print of the army list set to 300 points. My fears were confirmed, there was going to be a lot of MF and this meant that if Anders won initiative (good chance) then terrain would not favour my pike-heavy army. I figured that Anders would go for impact foot swordsman rather than offensive spears since these will do better against pikes and will be even better in terrain. Bottom line: Any terrain other than clear and I'm toast.

Update: My assessment of his army selection is pretty much spot on - yay!

Army Selection
The key to selecting an army is to know what you are fighting against. I'm fairly certain I'll be facing a couple of Knights (compulsory), some cavalry and lots of superior armour MF, probably impact swordsmen, plus a few LF crossbows. I expect that at best I'll be even in numbers and may well be outnumbered. I have more points, but my good HF, Pikes and Companions all cost more and commanders (I want a lot - explained later) aren't cheap and so my points advantage won't give me a numbers advantage.

My average pikes will be slightly up on impact versus superior impact MF, but will be down in melee since the pike advantage will be offset by better armour (armoured vs protected) and then the superior will beat the average. If any of my pike line disrupts it will soon fragment and rout as pikes are poor if not steady. Once one routs it spreads like the plague so I'm going to minimise my average pikes and maximise my commanders to minimise any chances of loss of cohesion. I also want to minimise chances of anarchy because pikes are only really good in a steady line and so 3 commanders will help minimise this. I look at MF options to counter his swarm of MF and the only options are 3 average armoured offensive spear Thorokitai and various average protected offensive spear. I reckon only the Thorokitai are worth considering because the rest will be down on impact and on melee - that's a recipe for defeat. If I can stop the Thorokitai disrupting on impact (using commanders) then they'll have a slight advantage in melee. I can't afford my normal maximum Cats and Lancers with 3 troop commanders, so I chose not to have the Cats and to maximise my missiles to weaken him before impact this will also help me stay on hills if there are any. If he out guns me missile wise then I won't be able to stay on hills and I want to utilise that advantage if I can. Most of my melee troops are all superior to give them a fighting chance. I just need to keep him away from my MF archers, the Thorokitai, average pikes and the Galatian HF as long as possible,

Battlefield Selection
I chose Very Open and given the 4 options to me I suspect Hidde chose Very Crowded. The gods of war favour me (I roll as 6 vs Hidde's 2) and I chose the battlefield from the 4 options presented to me. 3 have woods, scrub and broken ground all over the place. 1 looks mostly clear with terrain in 2 corners and a hill on one side. I reckon that with Hidde moving 1st, with MF and double moves. will get close to the top of the hill, but my LF with Lancer support will be able to contest the top until my HF line gets there. It's the best of a bad job and it may give me some elevation advantage for my weaker units if he tries to flank my main line.

Deployment
I chose to bring the whole battle to the top of the hill, because it will give me some elevation advantage for some troops and will limit the amount he can swarm me, I may even gain some breathing space if he deploys across a wide front. So I set my camp at the bottom of the hill in my right hand corner and I put my good melee troops (Argyraspides and Argyraspides Pikes) in my front line with average pikes (commanders) in the second line. I put a LF screen in front to sprint to the top of the hill to stop Anders getting there first. I set my LF to stand in case he tries to drive me off with his LF, which would mean his MF would get the top and I would then be doomed. I'll use my Companions (Elite Lancers) to fight anything that gets to the top 1st so I can try to ensure it's not Anders. I hope the threat of the Lancers will be enough to make him cautious because I don't want to commit them without support. My lesser troops and my MF archers will follow the main line. I'm hoping elevation will give my MF archers something to fire at each round and my melee troops should have an elevation advantage for any flank or rear attacks.

Initial Moves
First moves go pretty much as expected and I'm able to reach the top on almost equal terms. My Companions see off 1 MF that was at the top, but fail to dislodge the other, it had a height advantage and I am lucky to break off fragmented! It should recover fairly quickly because it is Elite and next to a commander. As expected he retaliates with one of his knights and I'm fortunate to fragment it before he breaks off, lady luck smiles at me as the routed MF manages to rout the knight too!I expect a stand-off for a few turns now as the missile troops seek to make an advantage for impact for one side or the other. Soon his horde will be at my flank and then he'll be ready to attack my weaker troops although height advantage will be mine. I need to ensure my commanders stay close to minimise anarchy and to minimise cohesion loss at impact."

written by Morbio

[stockwellpete]

Turn 5 Update

"Hidde's missiles haven't disrupted anything and I figure the commanders have helped in that respect and this maximised my lines solidity when the inevitable attack came. Hidde's leading MF on the brow of the hill finally attacked - it had to, it was about to drop below 75% and thus lose a dice, and my line held solid. The remaining Knight was thrown against the line and again it held. The gods of war, with help from the commanders, are favouring me. I have managed to rout a few of his units, but the persuit is now stretching my line. I've decided to move a commander to support my superior pike that is getting isolated and this could be a mistake. It can't last long being isolated and is likely to get turned to enable a rear attack on it, so maybe it is a futile gesture, additionally my commander is also open to a direct attack and it is likely to lose melee even if it survives impact - worse still the commander could be killed and that will cost me 2 pikes as well as one of my commanders. My missiles are taking cohesion from most of his cavalry and I'm hoping that I may get 1 or 2 fragmented soon and that means Anders will move them away, at least it will stop him using them to try and goad my impact foot off the hill and will reduce his missile attacks too. I have a good lead now and a few of his units are in combat and will fall eventually. I just hope that my lead is big enough for when my line breaks, I get drawn off the hill, or separated into isolated units. Time will tell...."

Written by Morbio

[stockwellpete]

Further comments from Morbio. hidde is adding the screenshots to his earlier post at the top of the thread . . .

Turn 6
I continue to survive the missile attacks and do well in melee apart from my Galatians, they are to weak against the charge of Anders' knights and disrupt. My melee at the top of the hill goes well and my Companions rout another MF, but now they will spend a few turns persuing the routed unit The good news is that Anders has nothing nearby to rear-charge the Companions while they are engaged in slaughter, with luck they may return in time to attack the rear of Hidde's units. I try to move my disrupted Companions from by one commander to behind the LH comander and facing where I expect the rear of his Knight will be when it disrupts the Galatians as it may well do this turn and the gods of war desert me and bolodlust overtakes then - they charge the knights and do poorly - they were at 53% and now they are at 38%, effectively useless and one hit from breaking. The Galatians do poorly, but they had about an 80% chance of losing, so no surprise there - the only good news is that they didn't rout, but that's what will happen next turn. I can only hope that the pikes next to them don't suffer a cohesion loss as a result. My missile troops continue to do reasonably well and 2 cavalry disrupt again, let's hope they don't rally again! I pepper his commander on the hill with arrows, but no real damage. I expect him to charge my line next turn, especially if my pikes disrupt, if they don't then my superior armoured HF will probably be the target as the odds are in his favour. I move one of my armoured Thorokitai next to it so that if he does attack I'll have an additional unit in contact for melee, this will reduce his number of attacks by one and will mean my Thorokitai get into combat without the risk associated with impact - their offensive spears will give a POA versus his swords and this will give a marginal advantage against his superior troops. All other troops survive their anarchy rolls which are exceeding my expectations! Anders is off to loot my camp with his cavalry and that's fine, I decided to give that up from the beginning, I figured the cost of trying to save it would be too much! All I can realistically hope is that it takes a few turns to loot it, since it is cavalry then I it has a reasonable chance to survive a while. You never know, once his cavalry is stuck trying to loot, I may send my Thorokitai down to rear-charge it!

Written by Morbio

[stockwellpete]

Turn 7
The latest attacks from Anders meet with fierce resistance (aka no rolls go his way) and the line continues to hold. There's a definite sign that a sense of impending doom is coming to the Catalan Company and the attacks are getting more desperate. The odds are now in my favour on every melee attack bar one and this is even - all attacks go well although most of the nemy hold despite terrible losses, although the even battle with my Galatians results in enemy disruption, the following Galatian impact causes fragmentation, it looks bleak for that unit. My Thorokitai anarch charges the fragmented unit to add insult to injury. The enemy will rout next turn and the only downside is that one of my units is going to persue into the open and get a hammering - but it's academic now, there is no way back for the Cataln Company. Ironically my superior pikes, with 80% chance to win and about 4% chance to lose against the knights actually lose and disrupt despite being superior and having a commander present.

Written by Morbio

[stockwellpete]

Turn 8
Anders gets the break he has been looking for and what I've been trying to stop from the start - a rear-charge which then opens up more and I lose a couple of units and lose cohesion on others. It makes the score more respectable, but won't change the result. I'm pleased with how I've played this, but the biggest factor was winning the initiative. In the open, with 2 flanks I would have been surrounded and much more vulnerable and without the advantage of elevation my weaker units would have easily been beaten. My turn sees the destruction of the knight and my Companions are coming back for the looting, which won't be long!

Written by Morbio

[stockwellpete]

Turn 9

The Seleucids are victorious!

Later Seleucids (Morbio) 20/28 v Catalan Company (Hidde) 36/29

Final Turn
Not much to say apart from my remaining troops were just too many for the remaining troops that were in melee. Only my Companions let me down with losing a rear-charge, but the Argyrasides still routed the now disrupted unit.

It was a big challenge for Hidde given the map selection.

Written by Morbio