SBVT07 Oda Nobunaga

Semi-Final: G22 ANEGAWA (Battle Overview)

Match 1

goshublue (Red / Asai & Aaskura) Banners 5
boredbeyondbelief (Blue / Oda & Tokugawa) Banners 2

The armies exchanged early Hold and Shoots which Red got slightly the better of, weakening a Blue samurai infantry which they finished off with subsequent fire. Red then had the cards (Infantry Onslaught and orders for their Cav) to get their left flank off the river and into close combat with the Blue right, thereby neutralising their ranged attacks, and blunting their response with a White Fox Spirit (such a good card). Blue did the right thing in response to what looked to be an imminent overrun, diverting by getting both their cavalry across the river and into the Red centre and right, forcing Red to shift attention and killing their momentum on the threatened flank. Red attempted to withdraw damaged units but the Blue spearmen cav ran them down with a Katchu Keiba Victor and eliminated two. The battle was in the balance here but Blue ran out of centre cards to order their cavalry and stalled. They attempted to mobilise their right with a Serpent Command but the rolls didn’t go their way. Red responded with their own Serpent there to finish off the last two units for the victory. That was all down to card pool superiority for Red. No leader kills (a novelty)….that wouldn’t hold for the second battle. 

Match 2

boredbeyondbelief (Red / Asai & Aaskura) Banners 5
goshublue (Blue / Oda & Tokugawa) Banners 3

Hand up that I had a shocker here. Forgot to start a logfile and the halfway through the battle got myself back to front and started manipulating the Red H&F counter instead of my own. Our pools weren’t near empty and we were able to mostly fix it so that it shouldn’t have affected the outcome but thanks Eric for being so cool about it.

A similar story to the first battle. Red Infantry Onslaughted into the Blue right and caused carnage, including a leader kill on Nobunaga (that should be victory in itself!). There was a bloody exchange of units there, the highlight (lowlight?) being a successful Blue Ninja Assassin on Nagamasa. At three victory banners apiece it could have gone either way but Red held their nerve and won the contest of the 1 block desperados to take the last 2 banners for the win. 

They were close, enjoyable, well contested matches. Excellent play, Eric. Not ideal that the difference came down to an assassin……that never works, let alone being the winner of the tie. I do feel dirty.

We did comment after that neither of us would have given Red any chance of victory, but the Asai & Asakura won both legs. It was also interesting that both battles were decided by action on the Oda right and Infantry Onslaught was the key both times.

Brent.

Semi-Final: G22 ANEGAWA (Battle Overview)

Game 1
Mark McG (Red) 5 banners
gotigerssc (Blue) 1 banner

What seemed a much harder match, with Red taking the offensive on their left. I had what seemed to be a pack of Order 2 cards, and as it transpired, most of the Red victory can be laid to having Blue use some creative card combos to bring their units up to me, roll poorly, and I rolled better in battleback. My Blue Dragon card did nothing, Justin's Turncoats did nothing, but my Wild Winds was magnificent, pulling Cavalry charge from Justin's hand at a time when that was sheer waste. Probably my key move was to get Nagamasa and the Samurai Cavalry across the stream, where he lived from card to card, but battled back magnificently. In fact the 5th and final battle came from battleback, at a time when I had completely exhausted cards to play for him (and his 1 remaining horse)
 
Game 2
gotigerssc (Red) 2 banners
Mark McG (Blue) 5 banners

This game seemed to play much faster, even though I as Blue chose to hold back and shoot it out. The red right caved very quickly, and I could get Ieyusu and his cavalry into the fight. However victory was won on the Blue left, where a leaderless Red assault (using the Flatulent Serpent) broke on the firm Blue line.
 
Remarkable, in both games not a leader was lost.
Good tense games.

Final 1  G28 NAGASHINO 1575AD (Battle Overview)
Mark McG (Red) 6 banners 25 blocks lost
Brent (Blue)  4 banners   20 blocks lost

Blue came up on their left and was subjected to a withering fire which took Masakage out of the saddle, but crossed the river none the less, where upon they proceded to hand out a battleback beating to anything that close combated them. I would guess that particular run of dice will cost me dear.

From there on, the remainder of the Takeda cavalry came up and was systematically gunned down. Takeda losses were 1 leader and 5 cavalry.
Nobunaga challenged Nobukado to a duel, and lost, whilst Baba Nobuhara commited seppuku
Oda losses were a menagerie of units and a leader.

 

Final 2 -  G28 NAGASHINO 1575 AD  (Battle Overview) 

BrentS (Oda-Tokugawa) 6 banners

Mark McG (Takeda)  2 banners

The Oda had a disappointing opening hand and the Takeda played a frightening opening move of White Dragon-Order Red, getting cavalry into the river in all three sections. Unfortunately it petered out for the Takeda from there. They lost cavalry blocks to close combat with archers and arquebusiers and were whittled away by ranged fire, despite a timely Shot Proof Armour play. They had their best advance by Masakage on their left but he fluffed a First Strike and Todaya killed him on leader check then took out his cavalry (after two failed attacks courtesy of Kishijoten) and a final successful advance and bonus close combat (I know Mark thinks he made a mistake here by not taking a second retreat flag to get his cavalry out of killing range but he was close to the bottom of the H&F barrel and that would have been dangerous....tough choice). 

From there the Oda just kept shooting while getting two cheap banners from Order Ones. The Takeda sent their second cavalry wave and an Infantry Onslaught across the river and killed Ieyasu (but the shogunate!?!)......but the Oda took the last banner with an Ambush.

The Takeda can win these Nagashino scenarios (because it's Samurai Battles and chaos reigns) but I would say after multiple plays that it's rare. The firepower of the arquebusiers and the cheap banners from Order Ones for the Oda are just too strong. Yes, the Takeda can do it with some good dice and cards and get across the river to rampage while the Oda get a dud hand and crap dice......but they have to be lucky.

Thanks Mark for some fun, bloody encounters along the banks of the Renongawa, and for setting it up, and everyone else for another fun tournament.

Brent.

 

Congrats to Brent, powering over the top of me again!