River Sabis
Round 3, Game 2
taliapharaoh (Belgic) 8
RiverWanderer (Romans) 6
This scenario was not played as the "River" Sabis, but rather more like the "Siege of Sabis", as my Roman opponent was very patient, probably hoping for even a small percentage of the ranged hits that I enjoyed in game as the Romans. I believe our game lasted somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 turns and 3 hours 15 minutes, which is a record for me I believe. Although Mark did achieve some early hits, I was able to manipulate my 4 card hand to hide most of my valuable units from long-range bows and artillery while Mark continued to plan his eventual assault across the river. Based on my cards and my plan coming in, I completely abandoned the Belgic left, and simply burned and buried any left cards I came across.
After crossing the river on his left unopposed, and true to his siege-style of play, Mark utilized a four-unit Sparty not to rush hastily to my somewhat well-prepared lines, but instead to pepper an exposed W with hits, claiming the first banner of the day. Mark continued to use ranged units and cards, and I was able to simply hunker down and attempt to organize my lines, including reviving a couple of units with a Rally card. No options were off the table in my mind, as I was unable to ever see the DT card, so there were several unorthodox plays throughout the game. My first major move of the game was to bring forward some units with a Medium card, and catch an exposed LI to even the score. This put me in the crosshairs of the X Legion, who quickly countered an annihilated a MC for a 2-1 lead. This was indeed a part of my plan, though Mark had disrupted it somewhat, and my first fortunate CC roll (of many....) was when a W was able to eliminate a X Legion unit on a CoS play.
Although it was 2-2, at this point I was only really going for banner number 4, which would guarantee a 2-1 series win, and I assumed I was in a decent position to wear him down enough to at least get the 4th kill at some point. Mark surgically removed the exposed W from play on his next turn, and again I was facing a compact line of Roman units who were mildly bloodied, but not as much as I had hoped. Then, a possible turning point of the game occurred when I played a MC card out of desperation, without many other options, and scored three hits and a kill on the remaining X Legion unit, MA and attacked the riverine Roman MC unit, scoring only one hit, but adding a double-helmet kill to eliminate Labienus. This stroke of luck gained me the all-important 4th banner, so I was able to play a little more creatively moving forward to play out the game.
The next several turns were a combination of Mark moving across the river into the empty Belgic left, and consolidating his forces around Caesar on the right. His ranged rolls continued to be well-planned, but miss more than the percentages would suggest they should. As Mark moved back across the river on his left, I began moving units forward with a L screen to attempt to cause havoc if possible in that sector. Mark moved his right side units over and goaded me out of position where he evened the score at 4-4, and completely retreated across the river on his left. He played a DT that should've been able to cripple my options in the center, but came up with only 1 hit on a leader supported 4D roll, and my next turn with a counterattack luckily eliminated two units and his leader, continuing the theme of one-sided dice that was evident in both games.
Although I now held a 7-4 lead and sensed the moment was mine to take, Mark deftly retreated his wounded units away from my 4 card hand. Only on Belgic turn 30 was I finally able to push across the river and, aided by a FS and just enough cards, able to eliminate the final Roman unit for the victory.
