I’ve corresponded with Daniel, hoping he’d have a change of heart, but unfortunately he’s confirmed he won’t continue.
I’ll report our match as it was a good one, despite the module issues, and deserves an AAR.
BrentS (Armenian) 6 banners
Cap (Roman) 7 banners
Rome played a perfect early game, making a slow, patient, deadly advance. The Armenians occupied the hill on their right wing with an Auxilia and formed a firing line with their range 3 units on their left, preparing a Darken the Sky……that randomly went into the discard pile due to the technical issues with the card draw. Things went further south for them from there as Rome destroyed the Auxilia occupying the hill with ranged fire and put the squeeze on the light Armenian left flank cavalry, forcing them to evade to their baseline. Some escaped, one died. This left the Armenians with an empty left flank and half their hand now dead Order Left cards…..never a good look.
It’s an interesting challenge playing an army with one leader against an enemy with two or more. Mobility is key and Tigranes really got his step count up. First to the right flank until it was forced back and went quiet, then back to the centre, then a Double Time to the left flank to bolster it against complete collapse, then back to the right flank to join the cavalry for a desperate move to try to salvage the battle.
The dramatic culmination of the battle came when Tigranes advanced his main cavalry force on the right. Sometimes this is a feint to divert the enemy from pressing a weakened position and Rome ignored (or couldn’t respond to) the Armenian cavalry and continued their push against the crumbling Armenian left. Usually the correct move but this time it wasn’t a feint. Tigranes went all in with two consecutive Cavalry Charges, a desperate play to get something out of the battle. It was successful, killing several Roman units and Lucullus on a leader check and coming to within one banner of victory. The counter was inevitable and Rome cut off the cavalry retreat paths, wiped them out and put Tigranes to the harrowing test of a leader escape, which he survived.
With banner count at 6 apiece, Tigranes advanced his infantry for the possibility of a win but his unit was killed on a 4 hit battle back from a Roman heavy, giving the Romans victory in a dramatic and closely fought battle.
Despite our technical issues I really enjoyed this battle. It’s an interesting challenge trying to manage an army with a single leader. You have to put him in danger and it’s a disaster if he’s killed but thankfully that didn’t happen to Tigranes this time.
This was probably a very good result for the Armenians but nothing is certain in C&C. It was set up for an interesting second battle.
Brent.