Quarter Final - Sotium
Match 1: gottoman (Rome) 6 - BrentS (Gauls) 4
Match 2: BrentS (Rome) 6 - gottoman (Gauls) 3
Game 1
First play MFM to get Auxilia into the hills. With few available hand options, I broke my own rule and played Mounted Charge second card. We had some log glitch here, probably due to my use of the backtracking button to reposition units (immediate reckless play regret
. Greg had to resynchronise and on review of the log the units are out of position for the rest of the log, so it might not quite make sense. I did take out the enemy Medium Cav we’d targeted but left myself horribly exposed. A flurry of very accurate ranged attacks by the Romans killed a full strength Auxilia and depleted my Cav so badly I had to pull them out of the action and shield them. I like to be in control when defending hills but I was on the back foot from thereon out as Greg skilfully and patiently forced me off the slopes with more devastatingly accurate ranged fire. My left was a lost cause and I grouped for a last stand there. Rome then pushed forward to take the hills on my right. The key moment of disaster came when my Spartacus ordered a single Auxilia (more Sporticus than Sapractacus!) and I broke another of my rules and momentum advanced off the hills. My follow up was a single order with an Order Heavy (you know a Gallic army is in trouble when that’s your best choice play) and my leader was deservingly killed on battle back. It was not about winning now but taking a respectable banner count into the second game. I was able to play a Leadership card that scored me 2 lucky banners before Greg finished me off. I was kicking myself for careless play……to take nothing away from Greg, though, who played very strongly and ruthlessly capitalised on my errors.
Game 2
Greg was in a pub and I suggested he have another pint or two but he didn’t fall for that
. I started with Clash in hand and it’s so frequently useless but I held it just in case…..and it turned out to be the game decider. Greg used Order Lights to get his Auxilia into the hills and strongly set up early. Leery of his ranged attack prowess I advanced with lights into the forest and adjacent to block his firing. It didn’t help because more Gallic light ordering took my medium infantry on the right down to 2 blocks with one attack, setting up for his following Mounted Charge which killed it dead. A cheeky light cav did attack my full strength medium infantry and died on battle back (maybe Greg had snuck in another pint…….joking, I could see you were hoping to kill it with the other Medium Cav). What it did do was leave him adjacent to my Medium Cav and with my infantry line assaulting the hills on the left I was set up for a rare Clash of Shields. It was decisive….3 Gallic units killed and I took the left flank hills. Looking at banner parity over the two legs Greg played Order Medium to push his 1 block Medium Cav deep behind my lines and hope to take out 2 depleted units there but a lucky banner put my 1 block Medium Infantry into the hills where it survived the bonus close combat. I didn’t battle back because I could see a leader escape opportunity to take the match, which I set up with a Counter of the Order Medium, but Greg foiled it with a First Strike…..disappointing because I love a good leader escape, my favourite play
. There was enough left in the order though to take the last 2 banners as my Medium Cav took out a demoralised Warrior on my right flank and my infantry killed another on my left.
One banner in it. Really enjoyable playing Greg as always. Strongly played and thanks for a couple of great games.