SBVT06 New GMT Scenarios

Round 3 - G36 SEKIGAHARA 1600 AD (Opening Attack)

mk20336 (Mikal) (Red: Army of the West) Banners 2 Blocks lost 20
beckerdo (Dan) (Blue: Army of the East) Banners 5 Blocks lost 17

Both armies spent the first few turns repositioning ranged units and battle lines. The East army was able to eliminate two arquebusiers (AA) while the West army hurt a cavalry (SSpC) who was able to retreat before death.

In a powerful combo play, the West army played a red command card with Katchu Keiba Victor which allows 2 additional hex movements. Hideie and SSpC gained a banner and tied the block count at 9-9. However Fukushima and the East cavalry SSpC struck back and eliminated the West SSpC. Hideie survived and rode off with dishonor.

Both sides regrouped. Hideie attacked again, but the Army of the East had lots of good die rolls to turn him back once again. The Army of the East attacked again with Infantry Onslaught, but the the lowly East bowmen were able to attack back with 2 samurai casualties and the death of Hideie.

Fun game. Agression from both sides. The banner count says 5-2, but the luck of the dice were with the Army of the East.

Round 4:  G37 SEKIGEHARA 1600AD (East of Mt. Nangu)

Won: JimDauphinais (Blue: Army of the East) Banners 5, Blocks lost 15
Lost: Boredbeyondbelief (Red: Army of the West) Banners 2, Blocks lost 21



It started slow with some sniping by both sides with ranged fire along with some positioning.  I then, as the East, played a Shogun Command Card assisted by a Katchu Keiba Victor Dragon Card.  This allowed me to hit his line with two Samurai Spearman and one Samurai Spearman Cavalry.  Both sides took significant losses and Bored, as the West, followed up with a Serpent Command Card assisted by a Move as the Wind Dragon Card.  I countered the Dragon Card with an Insult Dragon Card reducing the effectiveness of his counterattack.  At one point I lost a leader and then he had one committed Seppuku (at the end of the game he revealed he was sitting with all left cards in his hand at the time).  Eventually the East gained the upper hand largely due the East's single Samurai Spearman Cavalry unit not wanting to die despite being down to 2 blocks, conducting a wild Cavalry Charge and then being down to 1 block while being fire on several times by one of the West's Arquebusier units.  In the end, I brought up reserves and that was enough to clinch a victory for the East.

Jim Dauphinais
 

Round 2:  G33 OKITANAWATE 1584 AD 
goshublue (Blue: Shimazu) Banners 5 Blocks lost 15
PScipio42 (Red: Ryuzoji) Banners 4 Blocks lost 32

I know it's been identified but watch the H&F counters here because they're in error and need to be corrected before starting (I wouldn't have noticed...thanks for picking it up, Forrest).

One of the most entertaining games of Samurai Battles I've played in a long time.....and as wild and swingy as Samurai Battles can be.

Key events. A Ryuzoji samurai  infantry with attached leader copped a four flag roll against it and had to take two of them, forcing a loss of honour roll with nasty results. Seriously low on honour and at risk of another loss of honour roll, Takanobu seppukued on a retreat, putting the Ryuzoji down to 3 command but that was balanced out by killing two Shimazu leaders on close combat checks in quick succession. Leaders dying everywhere.....because it's Samurai Battles. These leader kills took the banner count to 4 to 2 in favour of the Ryuzoji and with a 1 block Ashigaru bow stranded on my right flank I assumed it was all over, even with my command advantage. Somehow that 1 block unit escaped to the castle, survived an arquebus fusillade and then snuck behind the palisades to safety.

It still looked bad as the Ryuzoji infantry lined up to storm the palisades, needing just one banner to win. The Shimazu rearranged their line along the palisades and milled for Dragon cards......and that proved decisive in a dramatic come from behind win. Wise Advisor pulled a Hold and Shoot and combined with Panic, the Shimazu archers and arquebusiers blew away two full strength samurai infantry and a leader (of course) in one turn to pull 3 banners to take the battle.

Well played Forrest and then you for a very exciting and enjoyable game.

Brent.

Edit: Realise reviewing the log we forgot a deck reshuffle from a Shogun play by the Ryuzoji. That would have limited the Wise Advisor drawing options so may have turned out differently.

Round 1:  G32 TEDORIGAWA 1577 AD 
goshublue (Blue: Oda) Banners 5 Blocks lost 18
DanieleC (Red: Uesugi) Banners 1 Blocks lost 13

An unusual scenario that is all about positioning. The Oda had the cards to get their left and right flanks across the river and keep them there for the rest of the battle despite serious block attrition after Uesugi plays of White Dragon, Cavalry Charge, two Order Reds and a Shogun (this last somewhat nerfed by a White Fox Spirit). 4 banners for the Oda just from the scenario SSR for 3 units across the river each turn, the final banner when Nobunaga's cavalry advanced across the river to eliminate a depleted Uesugi bow cavalry, inspiring with his last H&F. As the block count shows, the Oda were on the point of crumbling on their flanks with several 1 block units holding out and saved by the bell. 

Thanks for an entertaining game Daniele and for your good sportsmanship.

Brent.

Round 1: Tedorigawa

JimD (Oda) Banners Won 2, Blocks Lost 22
Cavie (Uesugi) Banners Won 5, Blocks Lost 8

Uesugi was able to use an excellent command draw to help initiate some opening assaults to initially keep the Oda at bay and weaken early surges.  Hold & Shoot got the Samurai Cavalry Bowmen some early shooting off and then Cavalry Charge to follow up later were definite bonuses for the Uesugi side.

The Oda made a good drive to move their forces from the river and get into the Uesugi side and gain one banner, but the Uesugi kept pushing them back and finally used 'Panic' to end the game.

This scenario looks to have a lot of replay to it where different strategies and dragon card plays would make it worth playing a few more times to see what happens.
 

Round 3 - G36 SEKIGAHARA 1600 AD (Opening Attack)

Daniele (Red: Army of the West) Banners 1 Blocks lost 24
Mark McG (Blue: Army of the East) Banners 5 Blocks lost 7

This scenarios seems a pro-Blue scenario at best, and when Blue start with a Cavalry charge, it just gets worse.

Daniele took the hammering in good humour, including losing a Personal Challenge of his 8d vs my 5d. I can hardly recall winning one of these ever! Not Yoshitsugu's day.
A Cowards card rolled 2 flags, give Blue 6 HF loss which they didn't recover from until the Sepuku of Ii Naomasa.
Both of those leaders is in the block loss count..

About 30 mins of play, 7 Command cards played.
 

Round 2 - G33 Okitanawate 1584 AD

DanieleC (Red: Ryuzoji) Banners 4, Blocks Lost 29

JimDauphinais (Blue: Shimazu) Banners 5, Block Lost 24

This was a fairly even affair.  It also took some time to play out as we each had our hand size drop.

As the Shimazu (Blue), I opened by moving out of the Palisades and attacking as I had a Serpent Command Card in my opening hand that I could enhance with an Ashigaru Attacks Dragon Card, but nothing very helpful for using my ranged fire units on my wings.  This attack was fairly successful and drove Daniele's front line back.

Daniele came back with a counterattack using an Order Heavy Units Command Card.  It didn't go particularly well as one of his units was eliminating forcing a retreat of a leader when he had only one HF left.  As a result, the leader was sacrificed and Daniele was down to 3 Command Cards.  However, for another of his attacks, I responded with a Personnel Challenge Dragon Card that gave me 7 dice to his 3.  However, Daniele prevailed as I rolled no swords and Daniele rolled 1.  I dropped to 4 Command Cards.

From this point there was quite a bit of back and forth that lasted quite a while as we both had challenges with getting good cards with our reduced hand sizes.  Eventually, Daniele largely destroyed my left wing, but I gained the upper hand in the center with a mounted Samurai Spearman with a leader.  We were at 4 four banners each.  In the end, a Hold and Shoot Card won it for the Shimazu (Blue) as Daniele had a unit down to a single block that he could not protect from both my Samurai Spearman and an Ashigaru Bowman I had gotten into range. 




 

Round 5 - G38 SEKIGAHARA 1600 AD (Assault against Ishida Mitsunari)

DanieleC (Red: Army of the West) Banners 5, Blocks Lost 21

beckerdo (Blue: Army of the East) Banners 1, Block Lost 28

The battle starts with both armies being cautious, avoiding advancing and shooting with arquebus. No unit lost at this time; the western army sees its leftmost arquebusiers weakened and in need of retreats being replaced in the front line by the bowmen, while the eastern army suffers not many losses except for the samurai lead by Tanaka Yoshimune, that reduced to 1 need to retreat back to save themselves. The battle stands still until the Army of the East advance in the center lead by Hosokawa Tadaoki, using a leadership command followed by an infantry onslaught. The first assault is almost repulsed by the Army of the West which suffers not much losses. Then the second wave from the Army of the East starts, and here maybe the turning point of the battle as the attack of the Samurai cavalry, led by Hosokawa Tadaoki is pushed back by an insult dragon card timely played. This allows the red army to retread behind the palisades, in a safer zone of the battlefield. Exposed to the western fire the eastern samurai are forced to retread to save the last block and this gives more time to the blue army to reorganize. At this point the focus switch to the western right flank where the ashigaru and samurai supported by the arquebusiers attacks the opposing blue ashigaru. The fight is cruel and despite being left without their leader, killed in a personal challenge, the red samurai honors the death of their leader by killing three blue units and their leader being as well able to survive an attack from the opposing cavalry thanks to a Timio Success that stops the advance, although this will only postpone their defeat . Here we see another change of action that moves to the red left flank where the two samurai cavalry fiercely combat each other. This time the personal challenge is won by the western army and the blue cavalry, alone and without leader cannot stop the slaughter despite a first strike attempt. Longest game played so far, lasted almost two hours, very near to a cautions chess game and well played by Dan. The fact that Blue plays with four commands cards opposed to the six of the red did not helped Dan and on top the dice’s gods were not on his side this day.

Thanks for the game Dan and for your sportsmanship. 

 

Round 4 - Sekigahara

DanieleC (red)    - 2 banners, 30 blocks lost
gotigerssc (blue) - 5 banners, 9 blocks lost

We started out with skirmishing in the woods on my left where I found some success but the dice would not cooperate for Daniele. Then fighting moved heavily to the center where both of our cavalry got involved, but too much damage had been done to the Army of the West at this point to fully recover. Kudos to Daniele for possibly setting himself up to get a third banner, but a timely Timid Success halted his plans for a Legendary Combat dragon card. The real story here is that the dice bounced my way more often than not and despite that Daniele rallied really well. 

 

Round 5
Scenario 38

Red- PCScipio    5 banners   17 blocks lost
Blue- gotigerssc 2 banners  21 blocks lost

Game started with long range sniping with arquebusiers, Justin advanced his left was hit by a cavalry charge that allowed Red to get a 4-0 lead. Savvy and well timed dragon cards (which were becoming annoying to me) prolonged the battle and closed the score to 4-2 before red could secure the last banner. Thanks to Justin for pointing out an error or two of mine and for being patient.