105 Koriyama Castle (1540) - October
Yellow - BrentS - 3 banners, 20 figures lost
Red - Cavie - 4 banners, 15 figures lost

It was looking to be the typical Yellow side win through getting the 3 Ashigaru Spearmen off the board through the river passage but game turned around with a lucky Samurai bowmen shot to eliminate the 3rd unit trying to cross over.

Without going into more detail I would suggest watching the log file to see some interesting twists and turns in this one that showed the Red side does have a chance of winning. It was a fun game and the dice (in my favor) definitely played a big roll in the outcome.

Sorry I did not follow up with Brent either - been sidetracked and also started Ancient OT2016 and thought I was done here. Let me know your earliest availability Brent - I do have some time tomorrow if you happen to have some.

Sorry, I'd sent Dan an email a coulple of weeks ago and got busy and forgot to follow up. I'm just starting night shifts this coming week so as usual I'll be completely unavailable until the following week but will try to get them done then if Dan's free. By all means, though, start organising the next tournament. I won't enter as I'll be away for most of May (Japan....lots of Genpei War related stuff planned ).

I've actually done all of the Genpei War Vassal files and the playbook....just been dithering releasing them but I can make them available if you want to use any of them. Some older Sengoku Jidai scenarios I designed that are currently in the module could also do with an update with new graphics and expansion units and I'll work on getting those done before I go.

Brent.

2 matches left.. Brent vs Dan

There are no Finals in this comp, so highest score at the end of the Rounds wins.

Also, time to turn your minds to the next competition?
More Genpei Wars?
Some fan scenarios?
A BattleLore 1st ed tournie instead?

106 Koriyama Castle (1541) - January

Red: plainscape 3 banners, 26 losses
Yellow: g1ul10 6 banner, 18 losses

Todd started attacking the center section aggressively. I lost one unit and one leader quite soon, but I managed to bring there my cavalry. This gave me some advantage (stature and rank) in the following skirmishes in the center. I luckily eliminated a two figure samurai unit with a lack of honor roll and finally won with a Hold and Shot + Fire Arrows, rolling a total of five red squares on a previously intact Samurai unit. But honestly archers were rolling red squares from the beginning, on both sides.

104 Koriyama Castle (1540) - September

Red: plainscape 4 banners, 17 losses
Yellow: Mark McG 3 banner, 16 losses

Well, at least I won one battle this tournament and even this one was really close. It was only on that last move when my opponent's got one of his units killed and then on my turn that I was able to cross the river that I saw any hope of actually winning. It just happened to work out. Thanks to Mark for the fine battles today.

105 Koriyama Castle (1541) - October

plainscape (Red) Banners 1 - Figures 26 + 2 leaders (Seppuku & Personal Challenge)
Mark McG (Yellow) Banners 1 - Figures 15

Not only in an ambush, but no starting Centre cards to get out!
Some steady withdrawal in the Centre got me out of the Ambush, and the flank units cleared the Left woods. Killed off the Samurai Naginata, and their leader Narimitsu committed Seppuku in shame.

However, the real hero were the Mounted Samurai Archers that stood their ground in the centre, and laid waste to the Mori Ashigaru as in battlebacks. Tameyuki challenged Motozumi and defeated him as well. This set the scene for a sweeping Samurai assault to claim victory.

106 Koriyama Castle (1541) - January
Cavie(Red/Ouchi) - 6 Banners won, 7 figures lost
Plainscape(Yellow/Amako) - 0 banners won, 22 figures lost

Not much of a fair battle when the dice hit as well as they do on only one side. Everything was in favor for the Ouchi army even Dragon Cards. A 'Personal Challenge' eliminated one leader and the other was 'Insulted' when trying to step in.

The Ouchi used 2 Cavalry Charges to finish of the game. Todd did everything he could but the dice and cards would not give him a chance to survive.

105 Koriyama Castle (1540) - October

BrentS (Red) Banners 5 Figures lost 9
plainscape (Yellow) Banners 1 Figures lost 24

Well....scenarios like this make me feel better about the attempts at balance in my own design efforts. A win for yellow must surely be extremely rare here. Todd did a great job in a very difficult situation. There was very little close combat in this one and predominantly ranged attack kills. 3 Hold and Shoots in total (two for me including a Counterattack) were devastating. So strong in this expansion with the 3 die ranged attacks (much more potent than Darken in Ancients) and when those attacks aren't hitting they're invariably generating H&F.....and when you have a surplus of H&F it means lots of Dragon Cards......at one point I had 20 H&F and 9 Dragon Cards. Todd's job wasn't made any easier when my Cav Archers eventually did move in for melee, with a Personal Challenge at 10-4 reducing him to 3 Command. The game ended with a leader kill on a first strike. Not looking forward to playing yellow in this one

Brent.

103 Koriyama Castle (1540) - River Enokawu

BrentS (Red) Banners 5 Figures 11
plainscape (Yellow) Banners 2 Figures 18

Having played this from both sides now, I can appreciate this as a very interesting and challenging scenario, one of the better ones from this expansion. A leader death on each side balanced out. The result was pretty much about ranged fire across the river, with a Hold and Shoot helping my cause. Todd charged the centre with a Cavalry Archer where we exchanged a unit kill each. He also made a late push with an Infantry Onslaught against the rightmost ford, where I'd left only one Samurai Naginata in defense, but it was too late as my archers successfuly picked off a couple of 1 figure units to finish the game before he could cross the river.

One interesting thing that doesn't often happen is that we maxed out on 30 H&F between us and weren't able to draw any when we rolled them. At one stage I had 9 Dragon Cards in hand. In playtesting scenarios where there's a buildup before close combat, I found that H&F and Dragon Cards do tend to accumulate to ridiculous levels. in design for the Genpei War scenarios I started to adopt an approach of minimising starting H&F and Dragon Cards for river crossings, sieges and amphibious assaults.

Brent.

104 Koriyama Castle (1540) - September

Red: G1ul10 4 banners, 7 losses
Yellow: Plainscape 1 banner, 13 losses

This one has been fast. I had a good starting hand of command cards and decide to assault with samurai, both cavalry and foot, the Yellow weak units. I lost one unit to the enemy arrow fires but all in all the strategy worked. Not much Todd could have done about it.

duplicated

103 Koriyama Castle (1540) - River Enokawu
Red: Plainscape 2 banners, 22 losses
Yellow: Cavie 5 banners, 15 losses

Game started with some lucky shots by the only Shinguto Ashigaru Archer who scored about 4 hits on two different heavy units. The Shishido army lost patience from this fire and came across the river to knock it off. The Shinguto somehow survived about 10d in rolls from the enemy leader supported samurai bowmen on their right side that came across. This and some 'Timid Success' helped keep the Shinguto from losing ground.

Todd did a great job keeping me from getting across the river for the easier banners but my dice made quite a few of the banners I won quite easy (both my luckier rolls and Todd's not so lucky rolls).

I've played this scenario a few times now and each time I play the Shishido side I find it difficult to sit back and defend the Shinguto from coming across while taking fire. A good scenario for replay and trying different strategies.

105 Koriyama Castle (1541) - October

G1ul10 (Red) Banners 5 - Figures 8
Cavie (Yellow) Banners 1 - Figures 24

The Red army attacked swiftly with cavalry and infantry. The Yellow army tried to keep its position and resist the assault but the early seppuku of a Yellow leader left Dan with just three Command Cards. Moreover, he incurred in a streak of bad dice rolls that made his counter-attack unproductive. A relative fast scenario in which a good initial hand of Cards can be decisive.

104 Koriyama Castle (1541) - September

Cavie (Red) Banners 3 - Figures 17
G1ul10 (Yellow) Banners 4 - Figures 8

Dan started by retreating the two Ashigaru on his left flank toward the river. I had no cards to contest his move and he managed, in a few turns, to exit them both. This put me at two medals disadvantage. After an exchange of arrows, in which my archers seemed to fire better, Dan finally decided to attack. He did not obtain much and with the help of an Ambush I weakened his forces and, the round after, inflicted some losses. After the usual exchange of leaders, one killed on both sides, the scenario ended with the elimination of the last Red Ashigaru. Honestly, the game could have finished with equal probability 4-3 for the Red player.

106 Koriyama Castle (1541) - January

BrentS (Yellow) Banners 6 - Figures 15
G1ul10 (Red) Banners 1 - Figures 29

Well, I was wrong about this scenario. Yellow can win it but only through a hefty slice of luck. Good cards (Serpent Command and the cards to get them all linked first, Hold and Shoot, Order Red) and good dice. Giulio was able to Personal Challenge and kill my ninja leader at 10-5 odds, and then sprung a challenge again on the other flank at 10-4 odds which should have had me down to 3-6 command disadvantage and a slide into slow and painful defeat......but my janky leader won the 4-10 odds challenge, taking out the enemy leader and ninja. Crazy stuff. Giulio did get a cavalry unit adjacent to the command tent and did a bit of damage to the peasant camped there, but my cavalry responded in force and finished it with a leader kill.

I still think yellow will rarely win this one but it is possible with some hefty luck. Not much Giulio could do about this one.

Brent.

103 Koriyama Castle (1540) - River Enokawu

BrentS (Yellow) - Banners 5, Figures 13
G1ul10 (Red) - Banners 3, Figures 15

I didn't know what to make of this scenario but it turned out to be an interesting one. Giulio did a great job of defending the crossing, but I was able to force the passage with a Samurai Naginata unit on the right. It was eventually eliminated after doing some damage. The swing came when I was able to Turncoat Giulio's mounted samurai archers on his right flank, making his previously solid defense there untenable and also giving me an additional river crossing banner. A successful Shogun roll (always edgy about those with 4 dice) allowed me to charge into his depleted units and finish it. A good match.

Brent.

106 Koriyama Castle (1541) - January

Mark McG (Yellow) Banners 1 Figures 24
BrentS (Red) Banners 6 Figures 8

A strange scenario. A couple of lessons learned. Samurai mounted archers aren't effective with Cavalry Charge (didn't know that) and Hold & Shoot is far more brutally effective than Darken the Skies in Ancients due to the range 3 x 3 dice archers......and particularly if you draw two of them for consecutive slaughter, as I did here. I had Mark down to 3 banners fairly quickly, which meant that I only had to take the Command Tent. Two Cavalry Charges and an Insult redrawn with a Ninja Thief for two plays made life difficult for Mark but he defended the tent well and in the end I never took it, but the attrition inflicted on his defenders meant that I was able to take out three of his 1 figure units with a single Counterattacked Advance Centre to finish it. I wouldn't expect too many yellows to win this scenario but will be interested to see if any manage it.

Brent.

104 Koriyama Castle (1540) - September
Red: Mark McG 4 banners, 14 losses
Yellow: Brent 3 banners, 15 losses

Managed to race back to the ford, and then ran out of Left cards.
Centre moved to the Left, and most of the action happened on this flank.

A critical Personal Challenge saw 4 Swords on 9d eliminate the Red foot leader, and the discard was the Left Advance card I just picked up. Eventually another came up, and 1 unit crossed the river, and a further unit retreated across.

The losses on the left were substantial, Red lost 2 units, a leader, a ninja and the leader lost to personal challenge. 2 units exited, and 1 Yellow unit destroyed.

Finally the MSB on the right moved up, and dealt 5 hits to a Yellow archer.. been saving that all game.

103 Koriyama Castle (1541) - January
Red: Mark McG 5 banners, 28 losses
Yellow: Cavie 6 banners, 13 losses

The Ouchi army made an initial push in the center in hope to weaken forces there and capture the command tent. The Amako forces responded with most of the action taken on by their Mounted Samurai Archers.

Battle went back in forth in the center of the field with the Ouchi's Naniginata unit containing a leader and ninja finally breaking through and reaching the command tent. The Amako's Mounted Archers were far up the battlefield and could not get down fast enough to stop the command tent from being overtaken.

Finally the Amako mounted archers pressed the Ouchi's backfield and took the final banner.

It was tough battle where a couple of successful leader checks barely gave me the edge over that 3 banner command tent move Mark made. Seems to be a good scenario to show the nuances the ninja, samurai archers, and mounted samurai archers can add to the game.

103 Koriyama Castle (1540) - River Enokawu
Red: Cavie 1 banners, 15 losses
Yellow: Mark McG 5 banners, 14 losses

Initially Yellow gathered forces, and Red drew back out of range. Yellow then pushed up on the Right (2 fords), but were repulsed in the Centre Right. Yellow then pushed on the left and were driven back, and finally the Cavalry broke into the Centre.

Dan had some hard luck with rolls, and a particularly friendly clash occurred between the Mounted Samurai Archers, where three sequential combats caused no loss (15d no hits). Finally I did for him, and then fell immediately to an arrow shot.

This scenario seems pro-Yellow

105 Koriyama Castle (1540) - October
Red: Mark McG 5 banners, 21 losses
Yellow: g1ul10 4 banners, 26 losses

This was a very close battle, with the end determined by a lucky escape for a Red MSB at the end.
Red were going pretty well, 4-2 up until a Hold & Shoot with Fire Arrows combo ripped apart the Red lines. Game could have ended right there. It staggered on another 3 card plays by each foiling the other's plans.

Thanks Mark for reporting. Two first strikes and one ambush gave me a warm sense of safety, even if none of them was particularly effective. All considered, I can say I had an excellent hand of cards. Please find the log file below.

103 Koriyama Castle (1540) - River Enokawu
Red: Mark McG 0 banners, 14 losses
Yellow: g1ul10 5 banners, 9 losses

Early loss of Mounted Samurai Archer to archery fire, and lack of command cards to withdraw.
Yellow then just proceeded to cross the river virtually unscathed whilst Red lost the other MSB.

End result, 2 Red losses, 0 Yellow losses. 3 Yellow units across the river.

need to start playing some matches.
My upcoming weekend looks free(ish) at this stage, first in a few weeks.
So if anyone is available, drop me a email or PM to arrange a time