Round 4, Match 3 Esco Thomson vs. andre

[Rising Leviathan]

Round 4, Match 3
Esco Thomson vs. andre
Scenario:
Blood and Glory
Map:
11
Deployment:
Esco left, andre right
First round:
andre has first round


Esco Thomson


Lord(Shield, Heartwood Lance, Dragonhelm, Opal Amulet, Virtue of Heroism)
Prophetess(Level 4[Heavens], Warhorse, Dispel Scroll)
Paladin(BSB, Sword of Battle, Armor of Agilulf, Dragonbane Gem)
Paladin(Grail Vow, Lance, Royal Pegasus, The Grail Shield, The Other Trickster’s Shard)
15 x Peasant Bowmen(Braziers) -
15 x Peasant Bowmen(Braziers)
9 x Knights Errant(Full Command, Errantry Banner)
8 x Knights of the Realm(Full Command, Banner of the Eternal Flame)
7 x Knights of the Realm(Full Command, Standard of Discipline)
3 x Pegasus Knights
2 x Trebuchet


Deployment

Spells: (Harmonic Convergence, Urannon’s Thunderbolt, Comet of Casandora, Chain Lightning) Loremaster near tower though.
We both have six fortitude, with both of our General’s units having enough to break us right out. Being Blood and Glory, this will require some unorthodox tactics:

The buildings will help alleviate shooting from the Chameleons, coupled with the 4 wounds, and should keep the Trebuchets firing for a few turns. Trebuchets will focus on the Temple Guard, as a solid hit can land about 10-11 hits, including the Slaan, and should net about 4-5 wounds. Archers will shoot at them, hoping for a lucky wound here or there.

Magic defensively needs to focus on stopping Pha’s early on, and later stopping crucial Timewarp/Speed of Light, saving my Dispel Scroll for that when needed. Offensively, I will linger near the Tower to gain Loremaster until it is time to move. I will attempt to stay out of Becalming Range, and fire off Thunderbolt, Comet, and Chain Lightning to take down more of the Temple Guard. I can use the combat buffs/hexes when the strike occurs. Ice Shard on Chameleons or Salamnders if they are alive. A timely Wind Blast might help position things as well as buy time as well.

The Pegasus Knights will Vanguard forward and will focus on eliminating the dangerous Salamanders as soon as possible. The Pegasus Hero will follow suit, but both will adapt to take out Skinks if needed or prepare to flank/rear the TG. The rest of this is going to be a lot of dancing, and positioning. Without Timewarp up I will have double his movement, and will attempt to avoid getting charged, and line up my coordinated strike. I realistically need two turns of shooting/magic to thin down the Temple Guard enough to charge it with everything



Andre:



Chun'qo Xar'do - Slann Mage Priest -
- Becalming cogitation, Focussed Rumination, Focus of Mystery
- BSB
- Cupped hands of the old ones
- Dragon bane Gem
- Ironcursed Icon
- Lore of Light

Lhiox the Slave - Scar Veteran
- Cold one
- Great weapon
- Light armour
- Charmed shield
- luckstone
- potion of foolhardiness

Xo'pao - Scar veteran
- Cold one
- Additional hand weapon
- Light armour, shield
- Potion of speed

20 Saurus Warriors
- Full command

20 Saurus Warriors
- Full command

5 chameleon skinks

5 chameleon skinks

5 chameleon skinks

18 Temple Guard
- banner, musician

2 salamanders

2 salamanders



Where on earth can the Bretonnians deploy? Anywhere towards the bottom of the board and they'll be taking dangerous terrain tests. Im guessing that the knights would choose the top corner to deploy their lances. But they'll be cramped up there because of the blood and glory deployment. Im imagining the bowmen will use of the buildings/walls available. Im not sure where the trebs will be but I can react to that after they've been set up with my scouts.

I will deploy my temple guard flanked by saurus units, in between the magic circle and the Earthblood mire. With the brets coming from the top corner the forest and watchtower will break up their attack. If they have some plan of attack involving jumping over the fences then im well placed to counter this. The scouts will obviously get as close in as they can to the trebuchets for some first turn damage/destruction. Salamanders will be on my right. They are excellent anti bretonnian weaponry, reducing the knights armour saves to 5+ and only affording the 6+ blessing. The salamanders can then retreat into the earthblood mire once the knights get close. The scar veterans will double up against the pegasus knights and pegasus paladin. Their toughness 5 and 2+ saves should save them from any bowmen.

Obviously the trebuchets are a concern, so early magic will focus on casting pha's protection on my lines and net of amyntok on one of the trebs. If dice allow this could be followed up with banishment or burning gaze to add to the damage. Once the troops are close to each other the shooting becomes less of a problem and the slann can concentrate on casting speed of light to make those knights hit on 5s, and damage spells to take on any pegasus not in combat.

I'm always going for becalming on the prophetess and once she is in range i'll go for big miscasts to try and transfer it to her on a 2+.

In general I want to take out those trebuchets to force the bretonnains towards me. I think the combined first turn skink fire and magical attack will do this. I'm thinking that after a couple of salamander shots those lances wont be nearly big enough to break my lines and In the drawn out combats that follow my ld9, not too badly damaged, saurus blocks


Voting ends in 72 Hours.

Regards,

[Marnepup]

Hmmm...blood and glory for andre again? He just can't catch a break! Comparing the tactics and deployment of both sides, the peg knights are way out of position for sallie hunting, but not as far as esco depicts, since he's forced 9" in from the board edge....and the vanguard move will help to correct that, too. Still, I think the sallies are positioned perfectly to flame the KOTR with the standard of discipline or a trebuchet or two before the pegs can reposition for a fatal charge. All of that, though, is just lights and whistles, neither side has enough artillery to win this that way... What matters to me is that both sides have 4/6 fortitude points tied up in the general's honor guard (why, esco? You could just as easily spread your risk by putting the general and BSB in separate units, so that no single unit's loss costs you the game...).

With the temple guard flanked by saurus blocks that are almost certain to be intact, and the lizzies only being arrayed 5 wide, I don't buy the multicharge. I do think the TG will be badly depleted, but I think not more than two blocks of knights would be able to get in base with the TG, and there's no benefit to multicharging them, since it doesn't add to the number of lances hitting home...so I'm thinking that the non-character-led knight unit(s) will instead tie up flanking warrior blocks to prevent a countercharge that would obliterate the Lord's unit...I also don't think the pegs can simultaneously rear charge the TG and take out the sallies...and the sallies are far enough away that they won't have time to do the sallies first and still make it back to lend meaningful help to the main effort...So the question becomes this: Can the Lord's lance, all on its own, take out the trebuchet-ed temple guard, or will the TG hold long enough for the lizards' superior statlines and numbers to win out? I can't decide...draw, for now....and I'm not at all sure that either side will collect those crucial four points before time runs out.

[Tashin]

I kinda do agree with Marnepup here. Figuring out a clear winner is really tough in this matchup. Esco Thomson wants to dance arround the Lizardmen blocks until he's got a nice position. The problem is, I dont think that he'll ever get a nice position against 3 big blocks of Saurus, and even if he had a semi-nice position, breaking cold-blooded steatfast lizards with their general/BSB within reach is near impossible.

I'll need to think about this some more I guess..
- Tash

[Murdoch]

Where on earth can the Bretonnians deploy? Im guessing that the knights would choose the top corner to deploy their lances. But they'll be cramped up there because of the blood and glory deployment.

I really need to vote on this match seeing as voting ends soon and it's currently O-O-1, HOWEVER I'm not much more confident on the outcome of this match. I'm consistently impressed with Esco's tactics and he's using a solid list but I'm not all that confident that his plan will work well in this match. This is a tough map and a tough scenario for him

Andrea and Esco both have solid plans with their tactics, and in the end, I think Lizardmen will take this home. Sorry Esco but this is just a really close call and a really tough match for the unbeaten Bretonnians.

[Digger]

ahh lets make this a bit more exciting shall we xD


Can i assume the knights prayed? i will...
The Salamanders seem quite devastating but that will only last 2 turns. And they have been deployed on the wrong side of that tower i think. The pegasi are within chargerange from turn one maybe? And then there's the problem that all 3 lanceformations go around the tower towards that templeguard, shortest route being the southside.
It seems to me that the cavalry lances got really lucky that the 3 lizardunits are facing them right across the field. Only the southern lance should have issues with charging through a forest/fences but realistically that will kill off one rank out of 3 lances(ward save allowed). the rest can just move in and multicharge his central unit.. There's nothing stating he will try and avoid a multycharge against his slann, instead it's just a countercharge tactic. on the charge i think they can do a templegaurd unit in one round of combat and finish this before the saurusses even begin their countercharge.

the slann goes down while half the army is still worried about the trebuchets.
Esco: your lance formations on your map are approximatly the size of a single cavalry model :p (deployment zone is 12", a 3 deep lance should be half the zone)

Vote: Brettonia wins!

[Marnepup]

I guess the deadlock needs breaking... I think this is too close to call in the normal votewar format, so I'll do something I normally hate, and bring "what would happen in a real game" into it. In a real game, I don't think deployment would go much differently for either side, with one big exception. The brets have more units and would therefore be in a position to deploy the peg knights last, positioning them to hunt sallies much earlier, making them available to participate in the main show... Edging things to Esco, then.

[Rising Leviathan]

Not a lot of votes here, but a narrow 2-1 win to the Bretonnians.

Regards,