SBVT06 New GMT Scenarios

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

mk20336 (Red) 5 banners   16 blocks lost
JimDauphinais (Blue) 4 banners  23 blocks lost

This scenario - as per description - should be piece of cake for Army of the West / Red ones. I played it couple of times and t never was! The overwhelming firepower of Jim's green units obliterated by entrenched units. Only the sally on my right - supported by Cavalry - allowed for a breakthrough. On top of this, the mortality rate among leaders was really high.

Thanks to Jim for flexibility in scheduling the game!

 
 

Round 3 - G36 Sekigahara 1600 AD (Opening Attack)

PCScipio42 (Red) 1 Banner, 26 Blocks lost

JimDauphinais (Blue) 5 Banners, 10 Blocks lost

I feel this is a very difficult scenario for the Army of the West (Red) player as the Army of the East (Blue) player goes first and starts with 2 Samurai Spearmen Cavalry and a Cavalry Leader in his front center line only two hexes from a relatively weak line of Red infantry.

As the Blue player, my initial hand did not disappoint.  I had Order 2 Center, Leadership and First Strike.  In addition, for Dragon cards I had Shot Proof Armor and Brave Leader.  I was in a very good position to just plow into the Red line.

I opened with the Leadership card and hit the left side of his center line.  However, my initial combat rolls were not that effective despite inspiring both attacks.  Nevertheless, I reduced one of his Ashigaru Bowman by half.

He countered with Tiger Tail left to bring up his Samurai Spearman Cavalry and Samurai Spearmen Infantry units along with a leader from his back center and to have his left Ashigaru Arquebusier take a shot at my Samurai Spearman Cavalry unit that had the Leader with it.  He got one hit, but I played Shot Proof Armor to stop it.

I followed up with my Order 2 Center card.  I slipped with my two cavalry units one hex to my right so that I could hit his Arquebusier hanging at the end of his front line while still finishing off his reduced bowman.  Amazingly, his bowman lived and my attacking cavalry unit took two hits on his battle back.  However, with my other cavalry unit with the leader I got 2 hits and 3 flags on the Arquebusier on the left end of his line sending it running to his back field.  Then, in Bonus Close Combat, I was able to get two hits and 2 flags on one of his Ashigaru Spearmen units and sent it to the backfield as well.   Between my aggressive inspire plays and his retreats, we were now each down to 1 HF each.

He came back with an Order 3 Center.  He pulled his Bowman, which was now down to a single block, to the side and hit my weakened cavalry unit with his own cavalry with inspiration from the attached leader.   I immediately played First Strike. His attack was devastated.  His cavalry unit took two hits, I gained a H&F and, worst of all for him, his leader became a casualty.  In return, he only got one hit (though my weakened cavalry unit was now down to 1 block) and a H&F.

At this point, I played my next lucky Command card draw, Order Heavy Units.  I used it to continue my attacks and to start bringing up my third Samurai Spearmen Cavalry, who also had a leader with it.  Also, given my position and his low HF count, I continued to aggressively inspire and attack with my two cavalry units that were in the thick of it.  It paid off.  Both his weakened cavalry unit and his weakened bowmen unit went down though I finally lost my weakened Spearmen Cavalry unit.

At this point it was all downhill for Red as my Samurai Spearmen Cavalry unit with the leader that was in the thick of it was still undamaged and now deep behind the Red front line near three of the weakened Red units.  The game was over shortly thereafter.

Forrest played a good game.  The starting situation, cards and dice just weren't on his side for this game.











  

SEMI-FINALS - G35 SURIEGEHARA 

Match 1

goshublue (Ashina /Blue) 7 banners
Jim Dauphinais (Date /Red ) 4 banners 

A bloody battle of attrition with 2 leader kills on each side. Dangerous business as always being a Samurai Battles leader. The Ashina went up the centre immediately and killed an Ashigaru spearman and samurai infantry, after which Morikuni committed seppuku, dropping the Date to 4 command. The overextended Ashina samurai tried to withdraw in the face of the Date cavalry advance but not far enough to escape the ensuing Cavalry Charge. This resulted in an even trade of samurai unit kills on both sides which didn’t give the Date the advantage they deserved. The Ashina took out the battle with a Shogun play to kill a Date Samurai spear on their left. 

Match 2

goshublue (Date/Red) 7 banners
Jim Dauphinais (Ashina /Blue) 3 banners 

This one was quick because early mobility for the Ashina forced contact in the centre. First an Order Red and Move as the Wind, then an Infantry Onslaught. That put them up 3 banners to 1, but left them overextended and the return momentum swing was quick and brutal. Kawauchi’s unit was killed on a lucky 3 hit First Strike and he committed seppuku, dropping the Ashina to 4 Command. Then a Date Cavalry Charge killed 2 units and a leader and forced an Ashina loss of honour roll. A return Cavalry Charge by the Ashina didn’t stop the enemy momentum, as the Date advanced on their right, pinning and eliminating arquebus units and forcing Yoshiro to seppuku on his baseline, dropping Ashina command to 3. The last roll of the dice for the Ashina was a 3 dice Shogun play that only ordered blue and the final banner fell as their ashigaru spearmen died on battle back. 

Well played, Jim, and thanks for some very enjoyable games. This was a good, straight up scenario with a nice mix of units and terrain. It’s impossible to quantify but the hand disparity from early seppuku in both games may have been the difference. Just note that there are 3 missing hills and a Red Ashigaru spear unit that Jim spotted in the scenario booklet and set up before we played……there are a few of these errors in the scenarios and I guess it’s important to cross check the originals first. I don’t have the patience to sift through them all to check but we should keep a list as they crop up. We also found that notification of card draw was not appearing in the text window. I haven’t encountered that before and am not sure why it would have happened.

Brent.

Game 1

Cavie (Date) - 7 Banners won, 17 blocks lost
Eric Y (Ashina - 3 Banners won, 34 blocks lost

Battle began with some push forward from the Ashina while the Date fell back and re-organized.  A few well timed ranged shots brought a few units to low strength but not eliminated.  

Date Shigezne went down early but did not make too much of a difference with the Date's right flank.  It moved forward to press while the left also engaged creating a bit of right to left flank alternating battle turns.  A few Flying Geese moves as well as Ambush & First Strike ended up bringing the game to its conclusion.  Good battle for the Semi Final rounds.   Hopefully the module can be updated with the correct terrain and units.

Good game with Eric.  I'm looking forward to our 2nd game soon.

 
 

Game 2

Cavie (Ashina) - 7 Banners won, 24 blocks lost (+2 for seppuku?)
Eric Y (Date) - 6 Banners won, 27 blocks lost (+2 for seppuku?)

This was an excellent game which had swings in momentum for both sides as you can see by the final banner & block count.  So much happened in the 2 hour game that I with this summary you will lose hearing much of the fun this game had - the log file could be worth watching.

Game started with the Ashina benefitting from excellent cards - 2 Flying Geese, Tea Party, a successful Personal Challenge, and Hold & Shoot accompanied by Fire by Rank gave an advantage changing the Date strategies right away.

Mid game the Date was able to respond with some very successful attacks while the Ashina tried to reorganize.  Sepukku helped each side gain needed Honor & Fortune while each side tried to sum up how to approach with units out of range.  

End game included some crazy odd beating rolls both in 5d complete misses and 4d complete hits.  Some exciting Dragon card plays in the end game kept things interesting, like the Hold and Shoot against Shot Proof Armor.

This is a good scenario and I had a fun in both games.  Thanks for the game Eric and I hope we can play again sometime!
 

SBVT06 FINAL - G34 TAKAKURA CASTLE 1585 AD

Took some time to get around to it, sorry, but all done and dusted. This is a pretty lopsided scenario, with Red likely to suffer. In addition to the usual highish luck factor in Samurai Battles, the castle SSR goes a long way to deciding the outcome......lose it early and  Red lose a command and are behind 2 banners, all in one fell swoop.....hold it and they might have a chance of making a show of it. That's how it panned out here.

Match 1
goshublue - Blue (Allies) 9
Cavie - Red (Date) 1

This one decided the tie. The first blue banner was a leader kill on Takakura Oumi in the castle and that meant it fell soon after. The advancing red units were slaughtered, Arai Village taken and the allied cavalry rode down the fleeing Date arquebusiers. 

Match 2
Cavie - Blue (Allies) 9
goshublue - Red (Date) 6

With luck the Date held the castle and their full command for the entire game and that made all the difference. In fact, they made two Cavalry Charges into the Allied centre and at one point were up 5 to 2 banners with depleted greens and blues stuck on the Allied baseline and lit looked they might win it. Dan did a great job, though, with a 7-1 banner turnaround. for a comeback victory with a couple of 1 block cavalry I just couldn't get at. This game was notable for us almost emptying the H&F pool after me making a ridiculous Tea Ceremony roll for 6 H&F and Dan doing likewise with a Head Collector.

A couple of great and enjoyable matches. Well played, Dan. Nothing you could do about that first match.

Thanks to everyone for participating in a fun tournament and to Mark for organising it. This is a hefty scenario pack to get through and this is a great way of experiencing these scenarios with a variety of great players.

Brent.

Congratulations to Brent and his well deserved wins and achievement as tournament champ for these scenarios!

I had a ton of fun playing these scenarios with everyone and was lucky enough to get some extra games in after the initial round.  Especially appreciated these last two games with Brent.  Even though the odds are tough for the Date, the first game was played very well by Brent and he deserved each of those 9 banners earned.

2nd game had some wild rolls you may want to see in the log file.  The craziest was when I attacked Brent's Arquebus with a Cavalry Charge rolling 6d.  The Arquebus survived and played Revenge rolling a return 6d......dice came up with 6 swords!!!  

Once again, lots of fun playing with everyone and thanks to Mark for organizing.  Looking forward to the next tourney.