Round 4 Scenario GI05 Battle of Mons Lactarius
Goths - gdnuke won 6 banners and lost 33 blocks
Byzantines - dan.o.becker won 5 banners and lost 31 blocks
This was a really close and hard-fought battle, and the longest C&C 1v1 game that either of us has ever played. Thank goodness it was so fun, too! When it was over 3 cards remained in the deck to be drawn (Cry Havoc had just come up but not been played). The Goths started the battle with a drive on their right with Teia leading but were pretty easily repulsed with the loss of the Heavy infantry. Teia was a quick learner and decided that his all-infantry force needed to stay in the protective terrain and let the Byzantines come to him where the dice rarely exceeded 2 per attack. The Byzantines were also bloodied in the first attacks but had lost no banners, while the Goths were down 2-0. Some good archery brought the Goths their first banner when a Medium Infantry unit reduced to 1 block was eliminated by a long range shot. With the Goth right and Byzantine left exhausted, the action shifted to the other flank where the Byzantines advanced. Fighting raged along the edge of the protective terrain, with the Byzantines giving better than they got. They finally eliminated the Goth leader on the Goth left and his warrior unit, bringing the score to 4-1, but the block count was very close. A well-timed Rally by the Byzantines brought the Heavy Bow Cavalry under John back to fighting form from 1 to 3 blocks, and the Byzantines attacked again, killing another Goth unit and driving deep into the Goth lines. An Ambush with 3 of 5 dice coming up flags drove the Byzantine Medium Bow Cavalry back 7 hexes to their board edge, but the score was 5-1. The Goths had been moving all their remaining troops to the Goth left, and these units were mostly at 3 or 4 blocks. The Goths began to advance on that flank, and began to score banners against the weakened Byzantines there. John and his Heavy Bow Cavalry finally went down, and when the 2 Medium Infantry there were also eliminated in the clump of forest hexes the Goths completed their comeback to win 6-5. So very close! Both sides certainly had opportunities to win earlier and missed by a single die roll. A well-played game by Dan, that I felt lucky to escape with a win. We did ourselves no favors in the bigger competition by bloodying each other up so bad on block losses!
