Forest for the Trees

[DogOWar]

     2 weeks back (yeah I'm slow) Canonball, Troy, annd I got together to get it on with some really cool terrain that Canonball has been working on for us.  Special thanks to canonball for alll the efort to make our gaming experience even cooler.

Motives:  The Devout are trying to push into the lands of the SOK.  The firstborn send help.

# of Players:  Canonball playing FB, Troy plaing Tribe of THe Goddess, and yours truly playing the dastardly Devout.

Points: 1500 for Devout, and 750 apiece for SOK and FB.

Victory Conditions:   To the last man or monster!

Setup:   Devout on one side and FB/SOK on the other.

Deployment: Standard.


FB/SOK


Devout


Look At The Board



     The game started out very well for the Devout.  The FB put its marksman in the LOS of my Warped Lord and fell under its influence do to a possession spell.  THe Marksman immediately downed 2 SOK warriors and a Black Sistah'.  The FB respond with a nightwalker appearing on the board and hurling dirks at warp lord, inflictiong a wound.  Fortunaltely, I had Dark Eyes on the board who promptly took out the nightwalker, which was about the only thing they did this game.  A general advance on both sides ended turn 1.

     Turn 2 opened with a vortex spell on the Devouts left flank which killed an SOK warrior while the rest leaped out tof the way.  Darkeyes mix it up with FB and get creamed.  Abyss Crawler advances underground to threaten the center.Risen archers on the left flank ever so slowly advance, while max unit of SOK warriors on their right retreat from vortex.

     Turn 3 begins with a failed spell by warped lord a move by the SOK towards the FB side of the board, all except the Wyrd who is waiting for an oppurtunity to spell my butt.  Abyss crawler pops up and tramples FB swordsman and almost wipes out a unit of macemen who were moving up the center.  FB and Devout both move to secure the flanks by the Alamo (ruined building).

     Turn 4,5 and 6 see the Abyss crawler go down, 2 new vortexs on board on the right flank of Devout in front of the Alamo, and a giant melee in the middle of the board between FB and Devout.   Massive, massive carnage insues, with the FB losing most of their foot troops and repulsar while the devout loose swordman and tormented.  Action begins to swing to the flanks to avoid Vortexs which are really staring to hamper play for both sides.

Pics of Turn 3-6









     Sistahs cream cursed and the rest of the FB/SOK alliance star to head across board for Warped Lord and Risen.  Wyrd hammers Risen archers with spear of llyr  and then dies from return fire.  Devout abandon right flank after Damned creams the Sistahs.  Let the race for the Warp Lord begin.


Pics From Turn 9 or 10







     In the end the repulsar wipes out riisen then falls to 2-handers and damned.  SOK are shot up by risen before repulsar nils them.  The Warped Lord possess the last FB Swordsman and woulds repulsar.  End of Game.

    Things a alittle fuzzy as I waited so long to post this It is a little confused.  I'm sure Troy will help me out with some more details.

[troy-the-just]

hard to remember the details, but the Devout's plan worked, SOK could not engage due to vortex and archers, my forces were basically useless, very frustrating, i should have just charged on through, i learned a valuable lesson.  FB took early casualties, that combined with my inability to engage, gave the Devout the time to move forces around, it was frustrating, but well played by Dog.  More importantly it broke my string of 13 straight victories!!!!!!  (of course cannonball still has a string of like 24 losses or something)

it was fun, looking forward to a re-match, we are going to try to do a large game over the christmas break

[Wedge]

Not knowing all your terrain rules for that table...

Your SoK will never do well on a board like that.  THere simply isn't enough cover or hard terrain to hide behind.  SoK must advance quickly and engage quickly to win.  Your best defense is a good offense with them.  If you are facing one or more groups of archers and template spells or weapons you are going to lose in the open ground.  Take it from an SoK player with lots of experience.

[troy-the-just]

wedge, i appreciate all suggestions.  up until now my whole chronopia experience has been playing CL elves, which i am adapted too and love.  I like the SOK and will stick with them, i just need to feel them out, any suggestions are welcome.  thanks much

[DogOWar]

THis is actually the second time Troy played on this board.  He won the firsst time against FB with a max warband of crossbows and a Repulsar Marksman, I believe.  With the terrain placed the way it was, it was tough to get all, or even most of my archers to have targets, the view from the top being a little deceptive.  Really the biggest hang up for everyone, including me, was the vortexs.  Usually when I cast vortexs they just move off the board after a turn and are just there to hinder.  THis time around they pretty much stayed put, but nobody wanted to take a chance, including me, which ended up being very frustrating.

[joshuaslater]

It's so good seeing pics like that and hearing a great battle report.  Kings to you!!

[DogOWar]

Thanks Josh.  This was a long drawn out battle.  I drew up the Devout on the fly and made a quickbattle plan, which actually worked out!!   I think I'm starting to get the hang of the Devout, which is fortunate, since my commander was ready to "recycle" me in the carnal pits due to my numerous failures.  My record has been pretty good last few games.  Out next battle, right after X-MAS, is Troy and I vs. Canonball.  We will be assaulting a stygian pyramid that Canonball is constructing.  We are having a noon til done battle.  I'm going to try to take better pics and due a mor cohesive battle report.  Damn booze slows me down!