OT 2018 Round 4

Stanislav27 (Macedonian) - Talonz (Spartan) 5-7
Talonz (Macedonian) - Stanislav27 (Spartan) 4-7

Thanks a lot for the extension of the deadline. For the two of us, it was definitely worth it. Two thrilling and extremely bloody battles. Especially the first one became a huge, bloody brawl very early on with Talonz slaying a Macedonian leader early on and keeping the pressure until the very end. Yours truly attempted a "clever maneuver", feeling certain that the nameless Spartan leader would be chased off the field AND count as a victory banner. Yours truly, however, had misread the rules and thus missed a chance for Antipater to steal the glory by attacking Agis' weakened unit. Talonz was effective in the mop-up operation and seized victory immediately thereafter.

The second one was a more tense affair with action all over the field. The decisive moment was when the well-organized Spartan line withstood a powerful charge by the Macedonian infantry, scored a number of hits on the battle back and then immediately followed up with a charge across the line. Talonz never got to use his Clash of Shield, but did succeed with an audacious cavalry charge on the Spartan right, routing the startled medium cavalry. The depleted Spartan units in the left and centre re-organized however, withstood a final, desperate charge by a Macedonian medium infantry and won the day in the end.

Thanks a lot to Geoff (Talonz) for two tough, but very fun matches!

Logfile from first game and save file from second.

Double Time attack of course.

Polonus (Macedonian) - Nemo (Spartan) 7-6
Nemo (Macedonian) - Polonus (Spartan) 4-7
Both files later this day. unfortunately from second game I have only .sav file, not full log.
First game. Agressive play of Nemo and his light forces on both flanks. But left Spartan flank suffered losses and was soon not so active. Right one suffered later after next few rounds. Seeing waiting Macedonian Nemo decided to advance his hoplites on the left and center. First attack of Spartans didn't broke Macedonian but counterattack of Antipater was met by succesfull First Strike card. Despite of numerical superiority Macedonian infantry was broken few times in hard fight and Spartan gain 6 flags against 4. They very succesfully used Clash of Shield card on both flanks. But Antipater survived and organized counterattack with reserves of infantry and cavalry. Spartan left was beaten and Agis slain by pursuing hetairoi. Meanwhile on the left Maedonian flank Hetairoi attacked with success Spartan MC unit gaining 7-th flag.
Second game - Stormy and crazy fight on Spartan left won by Macedonian 2-1. Crazy Macedonian Warrior attack was repelled next - 2-2. Spartan line tried to use its ranged combat units but when advantage of shooting force was on Macedonian side Spartiates advanced. After bloody battle on the left both sides lost few units but the last one hoplite unit was Spartan and result 4-4. Both Spartiates units were destroyed, as well as Macedonian Phalanx and MI unit. Light Macedonian units on the right shooted poorly on Spartan auxilia on the hills and Nemo decided to form line in center and righ withdrawing a bit his infantry. Agis ordered his last surviving hoplite unit from first clash to join left-center group thus forming new battle line. Succesfull double line attack won the day. Antipater flew, Phalanx and MI were broken and Hetairoi, who attacked earlier without success Greek hoplites and were shattered, died defending its leader retreat.

1) Polonus won both games against Nemo. We are waiting for the report from the winner.
2) talonz-unsubscribed about the planned battle on July 3
3) ympytyar reported that sduke12 twice appointed time of battles and did not come to it. It may be worth it to give sduke the sentence, and to finally play the 5th round?

Thanks a lot. Talonz and I were very challenged by busy schedules and long time difference, but we count on having the game played by July 3.

Apologies to all other generals!

there are plans afoot to get 4 of the outstanding 6 matches played in the next few days, and as it happens I have limited time to draw up the new Round this weekend. So I'm hopeful we can get a few more results before the Round finalises around July 3 or 4.
For Round 5, I am thinking an extended period of about 6 weeks, since I know European summer holidays take players away from home for longer periods.

Hi friends!
The day before the deadline decided to make an interim table on the results of this round.
we have 6 players yet to play, their result is unknown. But they can increase their number of points. So I finished "more results of this round".
With equal points, I also don't know the additional "strength" parameter of each. Therefore, the final list may differ.
1 g1ul10 11 points
2. Tomek 10 points
Carthage 10 points
4. BrentS 8,5 points
stormwalker 8,5 points
6. Cavie 8 points
7. Mark McG 7 points
LeonardoAngelo 7 points
CrimsonCobraX 7 points
10. gottoman 6,5 points
11. scipio1zama 6 points
mk20336 6 points
Gonzo 6 points
14. Armada01 5,5 points
15. Nemo2333 4,5 points (more results of this round)
Mad Doc 4,5 points
Polonus100 4,5 points (more results of this round)
18. EZPickins 4 points
ympytar 4 points (more results of this round)
sduke12 4 points (more results of this round)
PScipio42 4 points
22. toganalper 3,5 points
23. talonz 2,5 points (more results of this round)
24. Prof X 2 points
25. Stanislav27 1,5 points (more results of this round)
26. IvanSirko resigned

Game 2
Mad Doc (Macedonia) 3 banners
LeonardoAngelo (Sparta) 7 banners

Game 1
CrimsonCobraX (Macedonians): 5
toganalper (Spartans): 7

Game 1
toganalper CrimsonCobraX (Macedonians): 7
CrimsonCobraX (Spartans): 3


toganalper 3 poınts : CrimsonCobraX 0 points

Sorry for the late game and reporting.
Both games were wery much fun and interesting. Thanks to Crimson for the great time

Game 1
CrimsonCobraX (Macedonians): 5
toganalper (Spartans): 7

Game 1
toganalper CrimsonCobraX (Macedonians): 7
CrimsonCobraX (Spartans): 3


toganalper 3 poınts : CrimsonCobraX 0 points

Sorry for the late game and reporting.
Both games were wery much fun and interesting. Thanks to Crimson for the great time

Game 1
Mad Doc (Sparta) 5 banners
LeonardoAngelo (Makedonia) 7 banners

Game 2 for Armada01 and Greg O
Greg O - Sparta 7 banners
Armada01 - Macedonia 3

This one was tougher than the final result, the Spartans basically surged in to the center and battled off the Macedonians hitting them from the left and then the right. The dice favored the Spartans, and some decent cards as well. In the end a Spartan LC survived a brutal series of attacks, stopping the momentum from shifting and the Spartans took out the Macedonian MC for the victory.

also, the Hoplites are marked "MH" in VASSAL, and the Medium Infantry just "M"
should be easy to distinguish

g1ul10 wrote: Guys watching a couple of games online I've noticed that there is a bit of confusion about this point so maybe it is better to remind it here: the Macedonian medium infantry units are NOT hoplites in this scenario. You can recognize them from the image. See here

www.commandsandcolors.net/ancients/the-g...pes-expansion-6.html

Deadline draws near, please get the outstanding matches played, or contact me if there is a difficulty!

Round 4 scipio1zama vs stormwalker

Match 2
This battle took us only one hour to finish. The main part of hostilities began with the Spartans advancing "on the double" at the Macedonian line with a great deal of initial success. However, the Macedonian counter attack cost the Spartans three banners. With a subsequent well played Mounted Charge the Spartans easily managed to tie the score. But then the Spartans quite unfortunately lost another medium unit together with its leader due to a failed attack on a Macedonian AUX unit. This mishap lead to a swift Macedonian victory.

Many thanks to Mike for playing!

Guys watching a couple of games online I've noticed that there is a bit of confusion about this point so maybe it is better to remind it here: the Macedonian medium infantry units are NOT hoplites in this scenario. You can recognize them from the image. See here

www.commandsandcolors.net/ancients/the-g...pes-expansion-6.html

Game 1
Carthage (Macedonians): 7
Giulio (Spartans): 5



Looking for a cheap tactical advantage on hills, I made the big strategic mistake of splitting the Spartan line into two pieces. Caspar exploited my weakness with an effective assault with heavy and medium infantry in his center-left. My Spartans fought bravely, but at the end paid their numerical inferiority.

Game 2
Giulio (Macedonians): 7
Carthage (Spartans): 3



Antipater was killed by 1d Spartan range attack in the very first round. After the initial shock, the Macedonians recovered organizing a compact formation around the remaining nameless leader and advancing in the center. Caspar moved the hoplites forward but their attack was quite ineffective, giving me the opportunity of a devastating Clash of Shield. The lack of cards in the center impaired Spartan reactions while Macedonians chewed the enemy lines one piece at a time. The death of Aegis III ended the game. "He had fought gloriously and fell with many frontal wounds." (Diodorus)

Game 1
Mark McG (Macedonians): 7
EZ Pickens (Spartans): 1

Fortunate to have ample time to bring the Macedonian might together, and after some cavalry sparing on the Right eventually yielded 1 banner for the Spartan MC, and a bit of desultory missile fire on the Left, the Macedonian machine kicked into gear with a huge Line Command and powered through the Spartan defenders. Heavy Infantry with leaders are NASTY!

Game 2
Mark McG (Spartans): 7
EZ Pickens (Macedonians): 4

Having observed in the first game the importance of the Spartans keeping the initiative, and blessed with a Double Time card in the initial draw, I sent the Hoplites in to do their best and bring me home 2 banners. In the event they sold their lives for more than that, 3 banners and gaping hole in the Macedonian line. A momentary disaster with Spartacus ordering NO units, but John didn't have great cards. From there I had a series of Order Light and Move-Fire-Move cards that rolled well, routing the Macedonian LC with a flag, and trapping Light units on the Left.

I was pretty fortunate with my combat rolls in both matches, which is always a joy! All up both matches finished in 2 hours.

Round 4 scipio1zama vs stormwalker

Match 1
This was perhaps the most intense and the longest CCA battle that any of us have ever played! The battle took us 3 hours to finish.

Both armies began with the same idea in mind: harass the enemy with ranged fire attacks with a hope of scoring an easy banner or two. Well, after about an hour Mike pointed out that we were "getting nowhere fast..." with this tactic. At this point, the Spartans lost their patience and decided to attack by playing the Double Time card. Not a bad idea. The only problem was that it failed miserably. The Macedonians withstood the attack, counter attacked and decimated 4 Hoplite units together with their leader. Following those heavy clashes the score was 5-0.

At which point, the Macedonians did something unexpected: they pulled back their slightly weakened heavy forces and decided to secure the last two banners by returning to the initial tactic of harassment. Again not a bad idea and something that those more experienced players tend to do quite often. At first, all was going well for the Macedonians: a cavalry clash on their left wing gave them yet another banner and pushed the remaining Spartan light forces towards the edge of the board. And then the tide started to turn. Thanks to a string of Order Light Troops and Order Center cards the Spartans managed to regroup and started gaining the long-awaited banners. This change was partially due to the just-the-right cards and partially due to some very unlucky rolls as the dice seemed to conspire against the Macedonian army. The Macedonians tried to dispatch one more Spartan unit, most of which were reduced to a single block, but to no avail. The score was 6-5. With a final combination of the Double Time-First Strike-Double Time cards and naturally a bit of luck the Spartans secured the last two banners.

Mike, thank you for playing. This was the most demanding game I have ever played!

Round 4 Megalopolis

Game 1
Armada01 (Sparta) 7
Gottoman (Macedonia) 5

Macedonia advance on their Right flank and Center while Sparta Reacted. Sparta played 2 mounted charges and 2 I am Spartacus and was able to eak out a win.

Round 4 - Megalopolis

Game 1
Cavie - (Spartan) 7 Banners
Michal - (Macedonian) 2 Banners

Game 2
Cavie - (Macedonian) 7 Banners
Michal - (Spartan) 4 Banners

In both games the Spartan right flank/Macedonian left flank saw most of the action. The hills on that side of the field were fought over and most of each battle was decided there. Michal suffered very bad dice on both games and on that side of the battlefield also ended up losing leaders in both games due to my good dice. Hoplites got a chance in each game with the a Mounted Charge order which was fun to see. The 5th block on the special hoplites was a factor as well.

Round 4 Megalopolis

Game 2
Tomek (Sparta) 7
BrentS (Macedonia) 3
What glory and sorrow brought that day. At the end Sparta won the battle but the noble Agis was dead and the victory didn't change much. It was short and vicious affair. The sacrifices bought Sparta the favor of the Gods and they were given powerful cards (Mounted charge, two line commands, Command medium and command mounted). With such gifts and a formed battle line there was not much to plan - straight ahead. Spears , stones and arrows were flying both ways but it was a battle to be decided by the clash of the shields. The spartan king died, but then a miracle happened and the old Antipater also followed, as well as his two taxis. it was over.

I'll be travelling between 8-22 June, which will effect my internet access. So please bear with me regarding any questions or updates.

Getting the ball rolling.....

Round 4 Megalopolis

Game 1
BrentS (Sparta) 7
Tomek (Macedonia) 4

A very tight match that could have gone either way. It started on the Spartan right flank with ranged attacks and cavalry skirmishing causing attrition until a Spartan Darken the Sky forced the Macedonian light cavalry off the field with a double flag. However, a Mounted Charge counter by the Macedonian Medium Cavalry forced my both cavalry into flight and down to 1 block each. The Macedonians moved the action to the centre, advancing two Auxilia to pepper my hoplites but they had no leader support and I took the opportunity to Double Time my phalanx into them, killing one and knocking the other down to 1 block. The Macedonian line duly advanced and hammered mine. I played the Clash of Shields I'd been holding for this moment and the Macedonians Counterattacked it....for a total of 3 hits in 15 leader supported dice between us.....Clash of Daisies . With our centres shattered and standing at 3 to 4 banners each, we rushed to consolidate. I was able to get my broken cavalry in from my right flank next to a leader, rally them and then advance them to within striking distance of the Macedonian lines...this proved critical. The Macedonians used a Line Command to move up, with a probable winning attack to follow. With an Order 2 Centre the Spartan Medium Cav penetrated through a gap in the Macedonian line, joined by a detached leader, to attack the weakened units sheltering behind, killing a 1 block Warrior and 2 block Medium Cav for the final 2 banners.....luckily, because he would have been cut off the next turn. Great game with lots of drama, strong play by Tomek and bold, desperate plays. Looking forward to part two tomorrow.