The CACCN Tournament 2016

That completes January and Round.1 "Jena". The results (in order played were)

Vince Hughes (French) beat Tony Langston (Prussians) 8-3

Alan Sawyer (Prussians) beat Wayne Baumber (French) 8-5

Tony Reynolds (French) beat Alan Theobald (Prussians) 8-3

Err Vince, it were 8-2, not 8-3.

Yeah I know, clerical error. That's why the standings post I sent out over the weekend showed you top with an 8-2 count

Round 2 for Battle of Tamanes between Alan Theobald (French) and Tony Langston (Spanish) set to take place on Saturday, Feb. 6th at roughly 4 PM GMT (10 AM CST). I say "roughly" since my daughter has a basketball game at 8 AM CST and between the hour game and travei, I should be ready by 10 but depending on factors beyond my control, it may be slightly later but no later than 10:30 am.

Earlier today the other Tony (Reynolds) and Alan (Sawyer) fought their Tamames match-up. Here's a report from the Spanish side.......

First time playing against Alan Sawyer. He had the French and it's a real tough one for the Emperor's boys. Historically, it was a poor decision by Marchand to attack, and that was very evident here. The French began the scenario by launching an attack against the Spanish right. Fortunately for me, I had four cards that could be used on that wing, and the advancing French were rolled back from whence they came in quick fashion. The Spanish were then able to press home and captured four banners in one turn there, including Marcognet. News of the victory to the west of Tamames quickly spread throughout the Spanish lines and, buoyed by that 4-0 banner lead, the Spanish went over to the offensive.
A big problem for the French was the cramped nature of their troops on their right, and the central reserves, none of which seemed to be able to deploy quickly enough to get into the action. As a result, despite one or two local victories, their left wing was completely destroyed, all save for the artillery which ended up pinned against the rear of the battlefield. When the French counterattacked around Tamames itself, the Spanish managed to achieve local superiority there, and by using the only guerrilla counter in the game, managed to have two turns together that delivered the coup de grace. The French had moved into Tamames but, hit with a First Strike card were chased from the village by the Spaniards there. When the guerrilla counter came, they were decimated by fire, To the right of the village Maucune had advanced with an under strength Light Infantry unit and, again, the Spaniards ganged up on the single unit and destroyed it with fire.
For Alan, it must've seemed like whatever he did, he was up against too many Spaniards. In a sense, that's what happened historically too.
This game was also very unusual in that there was no cavalry charge declared, and not a single combat (fire or otherwise) involving cavalry either. Artillery played a cameo role and it was left to the infantry on both sides to do virtually all of the fighting. Some of that fighting was very bloody, with both of us killing three and four infantry steps per battle, so the scenario was fairly short in the end.
A final tally of 8-2 to the Spanish was a fair reflection of the way the battle went, but a poorer Spanish hand at the start would have made it a lot closer.

In the second game of the day for Tamames, I faced-off against Alan Theobald; he taking the French and I the Spanish. This was the "Prime Time" game as all tournament participants save one were on hand at one point or another to witness the spectacle.

First off, one of the best things about this game is that you can play the same scenario and have a totally different experience. This battle went almost nothing like the previous one (reported earlier). Hopefully, my memory of the earlier game is correct here.

Alan began the game with an initial attack by LT troops and proceeded to roll 4 hits on 5 dice, completely wiping out a Spanish LN unit. After this, the LT unit attempted to melee and on a First Strike card, the Spanish score a major hit and scored a leader kill with a double saber roll. The next turn would see the LT unit destroyed. After the quick start, it quickly settled into a back and forth battle with cards not cooperating for the Spanish. At one point the banner count was 4-4, however, I never had cards to capitalize on the Spanish Left, though a guerrilla counter did prevent an Assault Center that would have caused serious damage. Alan did counter with a well-executed cavalry charge that quickly increased the banner count to 6-4 and forcing the Spanish into two squares, removing the La Grande Manoeuvre card from the Spanish hand.

After this, All cards I would receive until the end-game was Right and Center, which did little to help on the left where I needed the ability to act. Drawing two Leadership cards in a row along with a final guerrilla counter, allowed me to position 3 of my 4 leaders into position on the left. Then successfully playing the guerrilla counter allowed the 2nd leadership card to be played to execute a line of fire that failed to produce the desired result (also forgetting the +1 didn't help). The next few turns, all I could do was execute right flank attacks with an artillery unit that whittled a French LN unit to 1block but it wasn't enough. Alan again executed a cavalry charge into the Spanish rear on the left and succeeded in completing the victory.

This was a fun and tense battle that took about 3 hours and played out entirely different than the 1st, where I had 3 guerrilla counters (2 successful) as well as artillery fire and cavalry charges playing a huge part.

C'mon then Vince? Where's the report on the last Tamames battle? I went on late to see if you two were still at it, but it 'looked' like the Spanish had already won big. Couldn't be sure though as all the blocks were misaligned on the board.

My Battle in this month’s Tournament series at Tamames was against Wayne Baumber and obviously I can only write how I saw it from my Spanish side. How things affected him across the table only he’ll be able to say. Having watched the previous two encounters at Tamames, this one again was different to the previous two. I’d decided pre-game that if I started with a weight of cards in my hand for one flank then I would ‘go for’ that flank immediately. My initial 6 card draw gave me three cards for my left including an ‘Assault’ card which is big in this scenario for the Spanish as that would allow 6 units to move. So I had it mind to concentrate there from the off. With the French moving first he did what we both expected which was a card that allowed his in range Legere infantrymen to open fire at a Spanish line unit. With 5 dice he knocked off 1 block and that was to set the tone for much of our rolling through the game. I felt we rolled more flags than usual and generally very rarely threw heavy damage dice. I think Wayne had the worst of the rolling luck but neither of us shone in that department throughout the game. With his initial move not too damaging it allowed me to play my one of only two ‘special cards’ that I received in the game that session which was a Fire & Hold. Like Wayne’s roll, it knocked off 1 block from a total of 9 dice rolled and inflicted a couple of units to retreat.

But it was from here that allowed the Spanish to set up their left flank attack as the next two Spanish cards drawn were a Scout card and a ‘Counter-Attack’ card. The Scout card was played quickly so as to hold 2 Guerilla counters. The Spanish then launched their ‘Assault card and with six units activated the left flank cavalry mass and backed by light infantry. This attack forced 2 French Infantry units into square and did some useful damage to the French Cavalry on that flank. In response the French played a Cavalry Charge card but they were not surprised when this was ‘guerilla’d’. The Spanish played their ‘Counter-Attack’ card on the French Cavalry charge and did their own charge with all the cavalry that had previously attacked. That probably did enough to really weaken the French cavalry there. The Spanish then played another Guerilla counter to ensure three turns without a French reply. With two units in square and around 4 or 5 banners gained by the Spaniards on that flank it seemed the French were chasing the game thereafter. That passage of play decided the game really. The Spanish kept a constant pressure on the damaged flank in order to make French attacks elsewhere very rare. The French came back by inflicting 3 banners of their own in the rest of the game, but it ended there as an 8-3 result. Quite surprised how few Special cards (2) could bring quite a handy win margin, but the Guerilla counters made that difference without a doubt. How much the constant square affected the French only Wayne can say. But with less than average dice to add to the French woes he may have been hamstrung in options that helped the cause? On other thing struck me after the game. It was just how few units elsewhere were used or even moved. I think apart from my left flank I fired an artillery on the right and used a grenadier & artillery from the centre. The mass of other troops just spectated. Wayne also didn’t use many other troops. The action was practically all Spanish left with just a few from centre left getting involved from both sides.

That completes February and Round.2 "Tamames". The results (in order played were)

Bangla Jowls (Spanish) 8-2 Alan Sawyer (French)

Alan Theobald (French) 8-4 Tony Langston (Spanish)

Vince Hughes (Spanish) 8-3 Wayne Baumber (French)

CACCN After 2 Rounds	Player G BF BA DIF WINS Tony Reynolds 2 16 4 +12 2 Vince Hughes 2 16 6 +10 2 Alan Theobald 2 10 12 - 2 1 Alan Sawyer 2 10 13 - 3 1 Wayne Baumber 2 8 16 - 8 0 Tony Langston 2 7 16 - 9 0