Round 4 scipio1zama vs stormwalker
Match 1
scipio1zama (Macedonian): 6 banners
stormwalker (Spartan): 7 banners
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!