King Magnus’ ambition to be ruler of all the British Isles led him to declare war on William Rufus’ Anglo-Norman kingdom in the south of England. Magnus challenged William for control of the province of Mercia, a challenge that the Norman accepted. Magnus’ voyage from Man was uneventful, as was that of his ally Angus of Scotland. His forces consisted of his huscarls (3×4Bd), household knights (1×3Kn), fyrd spear (7×4Sp) and archers (1×2Ps). Angus came with 1×3Cv, 1×2LH and 1×2Ps.

William met the invaders at a place where a road forded the river Avon, a place called Stratford. His army consisted of knights (4×3Kn), spear (5×4Sp), crossbowmen (1×3Cb) and archers (2×2Ps). In addition he had the promise of assistance of Gruffudd of Wales, who hearing that the Scots were assisting the Northumbrians, elected to help the English lest the Northumbrians grow too strong. He came with 1×3Cv and 2×2Ps.

The battlefield was level, apart from the river and the road and a wood and a low hill that faced each other across the road. Due to pre-battle manoeuvring, Magnus managed to meet William from the direction he desired, securing the hill to his own advantage. William deplyed his entire army on the right of the river with his spear in the centre and knights on each flank. The archers and crossbowmen were in reserve.

Magnus deployed with his huscarls in the centre, the knights in reserve and the fyrd on each flank. He expected the Scots to arrive from the same direction as him, while the Welsh would arrive on his right flank.

Initial Deployment: William on the left and Magnus on the right.

On the first turn Magnus’ entire host advanced in a line, while the English army, lacking direction (1 PIP) could only advance some of their army. Neither of the allies arrived.

Turn 1: the two lines start to close.

On the next turn it was Magnus’ turn to lack PIPs (1 PIP); therefore he held back the knights, who were going to be used on one of the flanks. William was more active (5 PIPs), and contracted his line on the right to let the knights advance. Both sides continued to wait for their allies.

Turn 2: William's knights move to the front.

On the third turn Magnus wheeled his line on the left and extended it on the right. William went to investigate the river, discovering that it was paltry. Angus arrived and deployed on the left flank, on the other side of the river. Gruffudd seemed close behind (5 PIPs), but William had to keep waiting.

Turn 3: the Scots arrive as William crosses the Avon.

On the next turn Magnus dithered (1 PIP), opting to continue his advance. William brought all his knights over the river and sent forward archers to delay the enemy’s advance. Angus, keen for a scrap (6 PIPs), sent his light horse forward to delay the king and hurried after them. The Welsh still did not show.

Turn 4: Scots light horse face off against the English king.

Then suddenly it was all over. Magnus continued his advance, recoiling some archers, and William decided to attack the impudent Scots horse. The odds seemed very good (1/3 chance of destroying them, with only a 1/12 chance of being destroyed), but these Scots were in a fell mood and William, advancing ahead of his men, was unhorsed and killed by the quick-moving Scots (5+2 v 2+6). His household troops fled and the battleline began to waver and retreat. In the retreat two elements of 4Sp were destroyed (reflecting the casualties caused by the loss of a C-in-C).

Turn 5: Angus' light horse crow over the body of the English king.

• Aftermath

The Scots earned 2 prestige points for their victory. The English, in disarray, retreated from Mercia, which the Northumbrians took possession of. They then sent for William’s brother, Henry, in Normandy and prepared for more fighting in the summer.

The Northumbrians could advance on England proper in the next season, but they would be without the support of the Scots, who can only support within two moves of their army. There was a bit of a diplomatic incident over the body of William. It was reported that it was decapitated and the Scots would not give it back. The Normans said this was barbarous and unchivalrous behaviour. The Scots denied this and said it was typical of the Normans to make such claims, reminding them that on the contrary the Scots had been a Christian people for a good deal longer than the Normans, whose ancestors were not long ago committing pagan atrocities across Europe. Such a barb, however, got at their allies the Northumbrians, not long Christians either, and all round tempers flared.

Stories abounded as to why William had crossed the Avon; one that gained a good deal of credence was that he’d spotted a fine looking hind, and being a keen huntsman had set off in chase of it. The Scots got to it first and an argument ensued over whose catch it was. Versions vary as to how William was killed; some claim he was struck by a stray crossbow bolt!

• Review

An interesting start to the campaign. Henry steps into a difficult situation. William could claim, with some justice, to have been very unlucky. Yet, there is a certain amount of risk in committing one’s general so early. Had he won, however, he was set to give the Scots a good mauling. As in the previous battle (for Ceredigion), victory was decided without the close-order infantry coming to blows.

Deployment

Ogres (from left to right):

3 Yhetti
4 Bulls w/ BSB on hill
5 Ironguts w/ Tyrant
4 Ironguts w/ Butcher A
3 Leadbelchers w/ Butcher B behind some trees
10 Gnobler Trappers deployed right outside WoC deployment zone on the left behind trees
1 Gorger waiting until later

Warriors of Chaos (from left to right):

Tentacle Spawn
Throgg and his 4 Troll friends
5 Marauder Horsemen
5 More Marauder Horsemen stacked behind the first ones
20 Warriors of Chaos w/ BSB and Sorcerer
5 Warhounds screening the Warriors
5 Chaos Knights w/ Khorne Lord
5 Warhounds screening Knights
Claw Spawn

WoC wins roll for first turn but lets the Ogres go first.

Ogre Turn 1
All ogre units move forward, being careful to stay out of charge range.  Leadbelchers are too far away to shoot.  Both Butchers attempt to buff the ogre fighting units but spells are either failed or dispelled.  WoC uses one Dispel Scroll to prevent Trollguts on the Ironguts and Tyrant.  One Butcher is able to cast Bonecruncher on the Marauder Horsemen, killing 2.

WoC Turn 1
Claw Spawn rolls enough to hit the Trappers.  Other Spawn shambles forward.  Throgg and company march forward towards the Leadbelchers.  Wounded Marauders move up behind the trolls.  Other Marauders run back behind the WoC battle line to the other side.  Both units of Warhounds move forward into the path of the Ogre line, trying to draw out the charge.  Knights and Warriors edge up a bit.  Claw Spawn kills 5 Trappers in combat and the rest run off the table.

Ogre Turn 2
Both units of Ironguts charge the Warhounds in front of them.  Both units of Warhounds flee back through the WoC line but all other units pass panic tests.  The Yhettis move forward and to the center to threaten the WoC flank with the Bulls slightly behind them.  The Leadbelchers move slightly back and shoot at the trolls, causing 0 wounds.  All attempts by the Butchers to buff units is dispelled or fails, but 2 wounds are dealt to the Trolls by Bonecruncher.  WoC uses 2nd Dispel Scroll.

WoC Turn 2
CHARGE!  Trolls, Warriors, and Knights all declare charges and succeed.  Claw Spawn rolls just enough to hit the Yhettis in the side.  Wounded Marauders move behind the Butcher’s Ironguts and Tentacle Spawn moves toward their flank.  Sorcerer tries to teleport out of combat but is easily dispelled.  The Khorne Lord challenges and the Tyrant accepts.  The Lord deals three wounds to the Tyrant and receives 2 in return, both living to fight another round.  The rest of the Knights deal 6 wounds and lose two of their number in return.  Knights win combat but Ironguts stick around.  The BSB challenges the Ironguts and kills the champion.  The rest of the unit deals two more wounds.  In response the Ironguts kill two warriors and deal a wound to the sorcerer.  The Warriors easily win combat and the Orges run off into the Marauders behind them and die.  Throgg challenges the champion of the Leadbelchers and chops him up.  Other trolls kill another and one troll is killed in return.  The Leadbelchers break and are run down.  The Claw Spawn can’t wound the Yhetti and gets 1 wound from them.

Ogre Turn 3
No movement, shooting or magic.  The Tyrant is killed by the Khorne Lord and the rest of the unit breaks and are run down by the Knights.  The Yhetti kill the Claw Spawn.

WoC Turn 3
All units reposition to face the remaining Ogres and Travis surrenders.

Result: A Massacre in the name of the Chaos Gods!

Played Top yesterday, with both of our tournament lists, and it turned out to be a damn good game.

High Elves: army summary, Lord on Star Dragon, BSB with 5 Dragon Princes, Lion Chariot, 2 units Lothern Sea Guard, White Lions, 2 Bolt Throwers and  a scroll caddy.

Ogres: army summary, Tyrant w/Iron Guts, Butcher w/Iron Guts, Butcher w/3 Lead Belchers, BSB w/Bulls, Yettees, Gorger, trappers.

Ogres took first turn, ran forward, and cast Stubborn + Toughness spell on 2 units.

HE’s charged and broke the tyrant’s unit with the Lord, Star Dragon, and Lion Chariot. The Dragon Princes got a flank charge on the Butcher with the Iron Guts, but since they were still stubborn, after 2 attemts to dispell that damn spell, they hung around.

Ogres had the Yettees run over a unit of Lothern Sea Guard and overran into one of the bolt throwers. Butcher with Iron Guts refused to run after losing another round of combat with the Dragon Princes. Everything else shambeled forward.

High Elves turned around the Star Dragon and Chariot for attacks on the unit fighting the Dragon Princes, but they DP’s finally got the Ogres to flee, but failed to catch them. The White Lions charged the BSB+Bulls unit, lost combat and stuck around. The Bolt thrower in combat lost horribly and drew the Yettees off the table but the nearby unit of Lothern Sea Guard decided they had enough as well, and took off via Panic.

Ogres rallied the Butcher+Iron Guts. They destroyed the White Lions, had the Gorger show up and magic’d off the last HE Bolt Thrower.

High Elves charged the Dragon into the Bulls w/BSB destroying them, and rounding on the Lead Belchers. The Dragon Princes charged the Butcher and his Iron Guts again, failing to route them again. The Lothern Sea Guard kept on trucking. The Lion Chariot scared off the trappers.

Ogres had the lead beltchers unload on the dragon, and used a bunch of magic against him to only cause 2 wounds. The Butcher with the Iron Guts won killed all the Dragon princes and wounded the BSB once. The trappers failed to rally

High Elves charged the Dragon into the Lead Belchers and Butcher, destroying them, the Lion Chariot kept pushing the Trappers, and the Lothern Sea Guard rallied and faced the oncoming Gorger + Yettees. The BSB w/o his Dragon Prince mates fell to the butcher in combat.

Ogres charged and routed the Lothern Sea Guard, and game over as  no other moves could be made.

Summary, Magic worked out great for the Ogres, they kept on becoming stubborn and tough, which made them hard as nails to break, which is what the High Elves needed to have happen to get the win. When the Tyrant was destroyed first turn, I thought it was over, thought the Dragon Princes were going to roll the Butch w/Iron Guts and then mop up the other side, but they just couldn’t make them run, and when they finally did run, they failed to catch them. The High Elves, known for their dispelling ablities couldn’t stop the gut magic, or pass a leadership test. Excuses I know, but those missed things proved to be fatal.

In the end, I’d have to say a draw on points. The Ogres had only the Butcher, 3 yettee, and the Gorger left, while the High Elves had a Mage, the Lion Chariot and the Lord on the Star Dragon. Certainly was a fun game though, and proved finally that fighting Ogre’s isn’t always a walk in the park.

Good fights in Eve are hard to come by. Most fights are lop-sided at best, that’s just Eve – not a complaint at all, simply a fact. ‘Better to blob than be blobbed’ is a common refrain. But sometimes things come together to get a real, evenly-matched brawl, and there’s nothing like it. The buildup of intel. The rush of adrenaline on landing and seeing the overview fill up with reds. The chaos of target calling. The cold spike of fear when you’re primaried. The relief when your logistics pull you up out of hull. The giddiness of victory. No other game comes close imo. Great fights like this are the reason I play eve.

We formed up a decent sized roaming fleet this Sunday with high hopes and were not disappointed. Nearly two straight hours of back and forth fighting in and around Amamake. PVP heaven, and a great way to head off for the holiday.

Round 1
We started the day moving out with roughly a dozen BCs, 2 guardians and a few heavy tacklers for support. I was FCing and piloting one of the guardians. We didn’t have to go far to find targets. Scouts spot a Minnie FW gang of about 20 or so, mixed, cruiser heavy that passed through Amamake ahead of us. Time to bait in top belt. The Minnies take the bait, with us warping our gang in at about the same time as them. They outnumber us slightly but we’re quite a bit heavier, so, understandably they bug out. We manage to grab a couple, give half-hearted chase to Auga, but they’re moving fast.

Round 2
A few minutes later as we’re finishing looting and about to head out, an Amarr FW gang is spotted in Auga – fifteen or so with a few BS and a variety of BC/cruiser and tacklers. We warp to Auga to engage, unfortunately getting split on either side of the gate as it appeared that we would need to jump to them for a fight. Battle is joined in earnest on the Amamake side when the Auga FW gang jumps through and another half dozen or so Amarr land at range, including 5 (presumably) snipe fit zealots. Go time!!

Primaries are called, things start going boom. We start working on their BCs with the most gank/tank, they do the same. We trade 3-4 losses each, our logistics are starting to turn the tide and tank their damage, when in jumps the Minmatar FW gang, having shipped up to BCs and up. They start shooting us too, turning the whole thing into a nasty menage, with us getting f-ed in the middle. Call is made to de-aggress and gtfo. We warp off or jump as necessary, Minnies pew the Amarr, hold the field, and set to looting. At this point I have learned a valuable lesson – I’m trying to do way too much – maybe a more experienced FC could simultaneously fly a logistics, call targets, and run a cov ops scout on a second client, but my sub-par talents are not up to the task; and it hurt our performance with slow target calls and slow reps. I hand target calling off, we re-ship to RR BS and get ready to go again!

Round 3
Fifteen minutes later, Minnies are still looting, we’ve re-formed and warp onto them from both sides of the gate (half our fleet was still in Auga having jumped through). We catch what we can, they bail, we pick through the rest and reset in Amamake for a few minutes. Quick bios, rep overheated guns, get sorted. As we undock to head out, de ja vu…Amarr gang cited in Auga, inbound. At this point we’ve got roughly 15 total, with ~10 RR BS, and they’re 30+ with roughly 12 or so BS (six gd tankaddons), another 8 or so BC and various support / tackle. Everyone aligns Auga, fleet warps to gate, landing as they jump in. Time for an ol’ fashioned brawl!!!!

/calderus rex does his happy pew pew dance
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Primaries are called, starting with lesser tanked BS and ewar – we knew their Abaddons would be very heavy on tank, so mostly left these to last. Overheat everything, guns blasting, drones swarming like angry bees, FC furiously calling targets and everyone watching broadcasts. We’re burning through their BS and tanking ok even though they’re jamming and neuting our logies, and primarying our BS with less tank. We lose a rokh (if you bring a shield ship to an RR fight, you’re instant primary), a domi that I believe got bumped away from the BS cluster, and couple of our tacklers, but they’re losing more. Their DPS starts dropping and we manage to pull a phoon out of deep structure, turning the tide. They’re switching primaries, but we’re able to keep up when the Minnies again jump in. However, this time its just a few skirmishers and we’re in full blood lust mode and don’t really notice – just more targets on grid. As our tank holds, they start to bug out, we spread points, and mop up the rest. Finally tally for round three was 7BS, 8BC, and a few support killed to 2 BS and 2 support lost.

We hold the field, looting everything we can. Frankly, we’re not paying very close attention, and, as we warp off one of our BS gets tackled. Our mods are burnt and we’re low on ammo and 800s, but our FC says hold, warp back to gate and save the gang mate. Unfortunately some people have already docked, others re-align and start to warp…right as our tackled BS says ‘o sht, there’s a Minnie gang here…whoah, 7 typhoons, and a bunch more.’ Derp. Order to break warp is given, but a few ships are already in warp, including both of our logies. We’re scattered and unorganized, so FC makes the call to stay out rather than trickle in one at a time; net result is in the process of de-engaging we lose three more ships (plus the initial tackled BS). Doh!

Our killboard for the fight is a mess because of the long running engagement, the various 3-way action causing people to appear on both sides, and us changing from BCs to BS, listing many of our pilots two (or more) times. Overall tally on our KB was 2.8B in damage done, with .6B received; 48-9 k-d; however, there are a few losses from our side on other corps boards and I suspect there are a few more kill mails floating out there as well.

Regardless, epic fights, great fun, much love to our FW opponents for one of the best days of pew pew I’ve had in Eve. Fights like this are the reason I play this game so I’m always very appreciative of opponents that will bring it. GFs to all involved!!

Merry Christmas to everyone. I’ll be largely out of game over the holiday and am working on a couple of more general posts. Specifically one on advanced combat probing as well as one to explain what my goals are writing this blog. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

It’ll be a little vague, but here’s the AAR on my most recent WHFB  battle: 2000 dwarfs (me) vs. TK (my arch-rival Vince):

My dwarf army list:

• Lord with runic weapon and armor
• Thane with Battle Standard
• Runesmith with two dwarf dispel scrolls
• 20 Longbeards, CSM
• 20 Warriors, CSM
• 20 Warriors, CSM
• 10 Quarrelers, CSM
• 10 Thunderers, CSM
• 10 Miners, CSM
• Cannon w/Engineer
• Cannon w/Engineer
• 7 Trollslayers (just to use up some points)

My opponent (based on what I saw)

• Tomb King on a Chariot of Fire
• Hierophant (Icon Bearer)
• Some hero-level BSB
• 3 chariots
• 10 light cavalry
• ~20 skeleton warriors
• ~20 heavy infantry
• 4 swarms
• Bone Giant

From left to right, I went Warriors, Trollslayers, Quarrelers, Longbeards w/Lord, Cannon, Warriors w/BSB, Thunderers, Cannon.  My plan was to use the Cannon in the center to shell the giant (or the Trollslayers or tooled-up Lord as backup), the Quarrelers and Thunders to whittle away the infantry blocks and just hold up against the two cavalry units which are reputedly pretty lightweight.

Yeah, it didn’t go that way.

Vince ran the chariots up one flank (the warriors) and the cavalry up the other (the cannon).  The swarm took out the trollslayers (ignomiously) and then the giant rolled up on the central warrior unit with the light cav behind as my longbeards were hit by the skellies on the front and the chariots from behind.

And the central cannon exploded on turn two, despite the engineer re-roll.

All told, a crushing defeat that will go in the Book of Grudges.

Defense of the Northern Barrens

Siegfried’s Garrison vs. Hunter Cadre Gamma
===========================================
Scenario: Cleanse, Pitched Battle
Date played: Sunday, December 06, 2009

The subjugation of the planet Sycorax is in its fourth week.  From the east rumbles the heavy tanks of Brimlock’s 17th Army, a renegade Imperial force fighting for independence from Tau subjugation.  To the north stood the conquest and occupation Tau forces led by Shas’o Eldi’Shi.  The massive drop of Black Templar’s elite soldiers and material, led by Marshal Siegfried, has changed the xeno’s mission from one of simply quelling a rebellion to an all out planetary campaign.

In an effort to neutralize Black Templar strategic maneuverability, a Tau army commanded by Shas’el Ka’kunas has advanced upon forward operating Thunderhawk facilities in territory 16.  Marshal Siegfried himself has chosen to lead the relieving effort and has mobilized the garrison of the nearby Fortress Pistolero.  Such was the timing of the Tau advance that Marshal Siegfried was forced to attack after sunset, giving the Tau a slight advantage considering their technology.

Siegfried’s Garrison

——————–

(CT) 5 Command Terminators
+ Marshal Siegfried, Assault Cannon, Assault Cannon, Chainfist, Lightning Claw
(Z) LRC Zitadelle

(E) 8 Crusader Squad Echo
+ Power Weapon, Meltagun
(R7) Rhino Greif

(F) 9 Crusader Squad Foxtrot
+ Power Weapon, Meltagun
(R0) Rhino Gotz

(I) 6 Crusader Squad India
+ Power Fist, Meltagun
(R6) Razorback Prinz

(J) 10 Crusader Squad Juliet
+ Power Fist, Plasma Gun
(R3) Rhino Adler

(VN) Venerable Dreadnaught Norman

(LSD) 2 Landspeeders Squadron Dino
+ Multi-Meltas
(EBS) 5 Elmar Bike Squadron
+ MM Attack Bike
(LSF) Landspeeder Squadron Fokus
+ HB/AC

Hunter Cadre Gamma

——————

(SeKk) Shas’el Ka’kunas

(CTB) 4 Crisis Team Beta
+ Shas’el Kles’Car

(CTE) 3 Crisis Team Epsilon

(ST) 3 Stealth Team Alpha

(H) Hammerhead Grav Tank

(PF) 8 Pathfinder Team Alpha

(D) Devilfish Transport

(BTB) 3 Broadside Team Beta

(BTG) 2 Broadside Team Gamma

(FW) 12 Fire Warrior Team Gamma

(K) 12 Kroot Assault

(K&H) 21 Kroot Assault with Hounds

Deployment
A Night Fighting rules strategy card is played by Andrew.  The entire game will be at night.

Tau Turn 1
Fortunately for me, the darkness limits a good amount of Tau shooting, something Andrew will not let happen again.  He is still able to shake a Landspeeder from Squadron Dino and destroy the Venerable Norman.  His Stealth Team appeared out of the darkness just long enough to explode Rhino Adler on my left flank, killing two Marines and forcing them to dismount.

Black Templar Turn 1
The avenue of approach on the left side of the table is just too open so I deploy heavy on the right side and begin my push up that side.  I’m hoping to use the hills, brick wall, and trees occupying the center of the table to split the board in half, slow and restrict Tau movement, and give me a greater likelihood of cover saves.  Crusader Squad Juliet is able to briefly spot the Stealth Suits and lays down suppressive fire.

Tau Turn 2
Landspeeder Squadron Dino’s cover of speed and darkness are no match for the Tau’s advanced technology as both are shot out of the sky.  CS Juliet takes heavy casualties and zeals into the woodline.  Smoke and darkness conceal the LRC Zitadelle and the Rhino Greif, but both still take heavy fire.  Zitadelle is immobilized and shaken while Greif’s storm bolter is sheared off and the crew and passengers are shaken.  A unit of Kroot with Hounds outflanks and occupies the southwestern wood-line.

Black Templar Turn 2
With Zitadelle immobilized, Marshal Siegfried and is accompanying Terminators dismount.  The are able to spot a nearby unit of Broadsides, appear to kill a drone, but are unable to break the suits with their volume of fire.  The rumbling of multiple Rhinos is enough to break the Kroot.  Razorback Prinz comes in from reserve.

Tau Turn 3
CS Juliet is hunted down while Razorback Prinz takes fire.  Massive fire is put into the Terminators but only a single Marine falls.  They zeal towards the nearby Hammerhead.  The damaged Rhino Greif is put out of action.  Four dismounts are killed from continued incoming fire but the remaining Crusaders zeal toward the fleeing Kroot.

Black Templar Turn 3
A Meltagunner inside Rhino Gotz is able to disable the Hammerhead’s Railgun as the transport continues rumbling forward.  In this map a small red explosion is seen near the Hammerhead.  This is for a downed Terminator who dies from the Hammerhead explosion… which happens in Turn 4.  Marshal Siegfried and retinue are able to charge up the hill and engage the Pathfinders.  This would normally be a situation for the alternate use of “Accept Any Challenge, No Matter the Odds” (which for those that don’t know, provide BTs with the Preferred Enemy USR) which is to re-roll your hits in an attempt to miss and remain in close combat.  But, seeing as Brother Frigo, my Emperor’s Champion, is not in this army I don’t have AAC.  Im forced to slice through 5 Pathfinders who rout.  CS Echo feints an assault toward the Kroot, but assault the nearby Broadsides instead.  The feint is enough to keep the Kroot running.

Tau Turn 4
Concentrated Tau fire heavily damages the Razorback Prinz.  As much firepower as possible is put into the Terminators, including Railguns, but only the Marshal is wounded.  Landspeeder Fokus takes fire and loses its propulsion and assault cannon.

Black Templar Turn 4
A reminder at this point, the mission is Cleanse which requires controlling table quarters with scoring units.  Immobilized vehicles, dedicated transports, ICs, and any unit below half strength are not scoring units.  Everything else is.  I have a bike squadron come on from reserve but are only able to destroy the remaining shield drone of Shas’el Ka’Kunas.  The Meltagunner inside Rhino Gotz is able to finish the job this time by exploding the Hammerhead.  CS India dismounts the Razorback and is able to assault both the Stealth Suits and Crisis Suits.  The Marshal and two Terminators assault the Broadsides and the CS Echo now assaults Shas’el Kles’Car and his escorts.  I draw or lose all the assaults.  I’m really missing my EC at this point.  But… I do have lots of Tau wrapped up in close combat.  That’s good!

Tau Turn 5
With most of his units in close combat, Andrew’s firepower is limited.  Still, his commander kills a bike while the Devilfish finishes off Razorback Prinz.  The Crisis Suits kill the remaining two members of Crusader Squad Echo and consolidate.  CS India gets the upper hand, breaks Crisis Team Epsilon and the Stealth Team and runs them both down.  The Marshal and Broadside Team Beta continue to tussle.

Black Templar Turn 5
Unscathed, Rhino Gotz speeds toward Crisis Team Epsilon and drops CS Foxtrot.  I usually have good success with breaking Andrew’s Suits, so this is an attempt to do that and hopefully take this table quarter.  Unfortunately, I only kill one drone and do not force a morale check.  Bike Squadron Elmar moves westward looking to contest the SW table quarter.  They are able to stun Pointbreak, the Devilfish.  CS India continues the impetus of it’s previous victory and assaults into the wood-lined Fire Warriors.  Marshal Siegfried breaks the Broadsides but is unable to pursue.

Tau Turn 6

Crisis Team Epsilon and Shas’el Kles’Car kill Marshal Siegfried and move to avoid CS Foxtrot.  Despite a nearby Medical Facility, Marshal Siegfried would not survive his wounds.

Black Templar Turn 6
CS India continues to pick away at the Fire Warriors but is unable to gain solid ground.  My bikes move further into the SW quarter attempting to kill the Devilfish; they stun it instead.  This movement was a mistake as I am now withing shooty range of the Kroot.  CS Foxtrot with any and all remaining firepower send rounds downrange at the Crisis Suits.  I am unable to assault them over the hill.

Tau Turn 7

CT Epsilon destroys Rhino Gotz, Shas’el Ka’Kunas finishes off my Landspeeder to the east, and the Kroot are able to kill two Marine bikers… reducing them below 50% and leaving them unable to contest.

Black Templar Turn 7
All available fire is put into Crisis Team Epsilon but enough survive to contest the NE table quarter.  CS India is able to defeat the Fire Warriors and run them down.  The game ends in a Tau victory with 1 table quarter to my 0.

A servitor at Fortress Pistolero was able to intercept the following message:

*** Tau Communique Intercept ***

Shas’o Eldi’Shi expresses her relief that Hunter Cadre Gamma was able to complete their mission.  If the mon’gue’la had been able to use the newly completed airstrip, the strategic balance in the region would’ve undergone a dramatic shift.

However, it was a costly victory.  She is dismayed by the heavy losses sustained in the sector, as nearly half of Gamma’s engagement capacity was lost in the attack.  1st Shas’el Ka’Kunas and 2nd Shas’el Kles’Car must use more restraint in the forward deployment of Crisis Teams.  Each life is sacred to the Tau’va, and may not be needlessly sacrificed.

Also, the Shas’o has begun an official inquiry into the effectiveness of the Forward Recovery Teams.  Although few of our suit pilots were killed, most of our damaged suits were deemed Inoperable.  That may be acceptable back on a Sept world, but we must be more resourceful on this gue’la planet.  She expects better results next time.

*** Communique End ***

Tau List played by Andrew consisted of:
Tau Commander with 2 Drones
Tau Commander with Bodyguard
12 Fire Warriors in a Devilfish
6 Fire Warriors guarding the objective
3 Crisis Suits with 2 Drones deepstriking
2 Railgun Crisis Suits with 2 Drones
Hammerhead with Railgun
Piranaha Squadron

My Black Templar list consisted of:
Marshal on a Bike, PW, Iron Halo
Attack Bikes with H Bolters
Damocles Command Rhino
Crusader Squad in Rhino 3 (CS3)
Crusader Squad in Razorback 6 (CS2)
Crusader Squad in Razorback 7 (CS1)
Emperor’s Champion w/ AAC
Landspeeder w/ Multimelta
Vindicator w/ PotMS
Predator, TLas, H Bolter

Deployment for Capture and Control, Dawn of War

Turn 1- Tau

Turn 1- Black Templar

Turn 2- Tau

Turn 2- Black Templar

Nothing much to talk about up until this point.  I’m trying to avoid the long hill on the eastern part of the board which is 6″ tall, a sheer cliff on all sides, and completely blocks line of sight.  Perfect for Tau, and Jump Infantry of which I have none.  Instead I’ve concentrated my armor on the western side of the board.  I’m willing to go head on with his Railguns using the cover of the trees.  Some fire has been exchanged but no damage to either side.

But…. Razorback 7 starts the turn by immobilizing itself in the woods while Rhino 3 decides to lodge itself on a stump 12″ later.  EC with Crusader bodyguards dismounts looking for work.  A 6-man Crusader squad dismounts Razorback 6 looking to put its Heavy Bolter and Meltagun into use on the Piranhas.  My Landspeeder deepstrikes and stuns the Hammerhead.

Turn 3- Tau

A good turn for Tau.  The Piranhas destroy my demolisher cannon, Crisis Suits 1 stun the Landspeeder, and the Tau COs and bodyguard almost wipe out the Crusader squad nearest my objective leaving the Heavy Bolter.  His Crisis Suits (CS2) mishap on their deepstrike and I get to place them.  I’m hoping to get them in close combat and I risk his fusion blaster shots, which immobilize Razorback 6.

Turn 3- Black Templar

The Attack Bikes led by my Marshal come on and put fire into the Piranhas along with Razorback 6.  The EC with friends finds a good path through the trees and assaults the Crisis Suits.  The fight goes well and seeing their tenuous position decides to book it.  The EC runs them down.

Turn 4- Tau

The stunned Landspeeder is finished and the Tau CO’s find an angle on the side of the Vindicator, immobilizing it.  The Piranhas continue to worry about the Damocles.

Turn 4- Black Templar

Lascannon fire from the Predator and Razorback 6 destroy the Hammerhead’s Railgun and cause CS1 to flee off the board.  Yea, one lost drone and they fled on an 11.  Ouch.  The thorny Piranhas take some effective fire while the EC and the remainder of his escorts once again find a good path through difficult terrain and bring the one Tau Commander into close combat.  The Damocles moves 12″ in an effort to call fire on the Fire Warriors to the north.  At this point my plan is to call in the arty strike, cause a leadership test to the Fire Warriors, and hope they follow the Crisis Suit lead.

Turn 5- Tau

The remaining Piranha, unable to shoot, makes itself a moving target.  Andrew then does something he’ll probably never do again…. brings his Gun Drones in close combat with my EC and single Crusader.  At this point he doesn’t know it.

Turn 5- Black Templar

The Attack Bikes and Marshal flat out toward the Tau objective hoping for Turn 6.  Not hoping for Turn 6, my remaining solo Heavy Bolter Crusader defends my objective.  Now able to target the added drones, the EC hacks 3 down in close combat causing the Commander and remaining drones to run.  Both units are run down.  Once again, ouch.

Turn 6- Tau

The Piranha hits the fuel tanks on the Damocles, the remaining Crisis Suits annihilate the Attack Bikes, and the Devilfish’s Fire Warriors drop close to my objective killing the heavy bolter Crusader.

Turn 6- Black Templar

Both my Marshal and EC assault, both win combat, both Fire Warrior units break, both are run down.

The game ends a draw.  Both Andrew and I are in the process of building our ideal armies, and we’re both about the same 5th edition experience levels, so it’s always a good match.  This was no exception.

I announced this battle three months ago, but I only got to fighting it this week. With it fought the King Magnus campaign is now ready to go. This was a battle fought between me and Steve, of Small Sagas fame.

Gruffudd ap Cynan acquitted himself so well against Earl Robert the other day that I felt he deserved a shot at leading the Welsh in the up-coming campaign. Therefore, in the summer of 1103, fresh from his victory over Earl Robert, Gruffudd ap Cynan decided to challenge his son-in-law, Gruffudd ap Rhys, ruler of the South Welsh, for control of Ceredigion.

The North Welsh army was totally in line with the list: 1×3Cv, 8×3Sp and 3×2Ps. The South Welsh one was more varied: 1×3Cv, 2×3Wb, 2×4Bd, 1×2Ps and 6×3Bw. The blade were Wexford Viking allies.

Thing went Gruffudd ap Cynan’s way initially, as he found local noblemen sympathetic to his cause; this meant that Gruffudd ap Rhys was the attacker, trying to regain control of the region. Gruffudd ap Cynan used this situation to his advantage, bringing his rival to battle on a very flat field. It was intersected by a road and had a smallish steep hill in one corner and two small woods in opposite corners. Gruffudd ap Cynan even got the edge he wanted (more correctly Gruffudd ap Rhys got the one he didn’t want). Gruffudd ap Rhys deployed with his archers massed on one wing and his close-order troops and retinue on the other. Gruffudd ap Cynan met this by deplying a group of three spear and supporting skirmishers on the road. They’d use it to get clear of the wood. He deployed the rest of the army in line to meet Gruffudd ap Rhys’s close order troops.

Initial Deployments: Gruffudd ap Rhys on left, Gruffudd ap Cynan on right.

On the first turn Gruffudd ap Rhys had enough PIPs to order a general advance and get clear of the woods. Gruffudd ap Cynan had 6 PIPs and advanced his column up the road, advanced his line and used the psiloi ability to make multiple moves on the first turn to bring the psiloi on the left flank to the right.

Turn 1: Gruffudd ap Cynan's column takes care not to advance too far.

On the next turn, Gruffudd ap Rhys continued to advance, while Gruffudd ap Cynan managed to get his troops out of column, something of a rarity for me when using roads!

Turn 2: Gruffudd ap Cynan's column is now neatly deployed.

Gruffudd ap Rhys advanced with some caution, while Gruffudd ap Cynan, like some latter-day Leonidas against Persians, ordered his spear to charge the opposing archers. The archers forced the wings of his formation to recoil. Not feeling confident about facing Gruffudd ap Rhys’s heavy troops, Gruffudd ap Cynan opted to wheel his right wing and anchor it with light troops on the hill.

Turn 3: Gruffudd ap Cynan's spear are forced back by a hail of arrows.

Not dissuaded by the shooting (in fact the second time round it was totally ineffective), on the next turn Gruffudd ap Cynan’s left wing closed with the enemy. If the centre won its combat the wings would have tasty odds of 3-1. However, the archers proved tougher than expected and the centre was driven back. The other two combats were now at even odds, and Gruffudd ap Cynan was perhaps fortunate not to come to any grief, recoiling one and having a stalemate with the other.

Turn 4: The charge of the Northern spear is ineffectual.

At this point Gruffudd ap Rhys had the chance to ruin the Northen attack, flanking both sides of the formation. The left element was destroyed, but the right one very nearly destroyed his attacker (2+3 v 2+6).

Turn 5 (Gruffudd ap Rhys): The Northern attack on the left is in trouble.

Gruffudd ap Cynan is now feeling less confident; putting on a brave face he sends his spear back into the fray, and tries to extend the line with the skirmishers. His right flank continues its advance. His spear is again driven back, as are the skirmishers from archery.

Turn 5 (Gruffudd ap Cynan): The spear still cannot make headway against the archers.

Concentrated archery fire caused no serious damage to the left wing and Gruffudd ap Cynan responded by having his spear turn to face the archers that had earlier flanked them; these were supported by an element of spear from the right flank. Heavily outclassed these archers were put to flight.

Turn 6: Gruffudd ap Cynan gives the southern archers some payback.

Gruffudd ap Rhys’s archers now turn on the northern skirmishers, a tasty target, but fail to do any serious damage. In response, Gruffudd ap Cynan sends his spear and skirmishers into combat with the archers on his left wing. He is driven back in the centre, but on the wing, his skirmishers put the opposing archers to flight (1+3 v 1+1).

Turn 7: Success for Gruffudd ap Cynan as more archers fall.

The tide is now turning on the Southerners. The combat on their right wing has sucked up their PIPs while their heavy troops have not managed to get to blows with the enemy. In their turn they fight the spear in the centre to a standstill.

Turn 8 (Gruffudd ap Rhys): Gruffudd ap Rhys's Ostmen and spearmen look on as the archers do all the fighting.

Finally Gruffudd ap Cynan sees a chance to end the battle and personally leads the attack on the now depleted archers. In some tough fighting two more elements are broken and Gruffudd ap Rhys abandons the field.

Turn 8 (Gruffudd ap Cynan): Gruffudd ap Cynan lead the attack that sees the southern archers fold.

Turn 8 (Gruffudd ap Cynan): Gruffudd ap Cynan, looking suspiciously Scottish surveys the feild he now controls.

• Review:

Spear against Bow in the open ought to be a fairly unfair fight, but Gruffudd ap Cynan made it a close run affair, which might be expected when three spear take on six bow. However, had that initial combat gone his way, it might have been all over much quicker. I doubted the wisdom of Gruffudd ap Rhys’s deployment; two blocks of archers might have worked better. He needed to get his blade and warband in amongst the spear, where they would have had the edge.

With this victory Gruffudd ap Cynan gained control of Ceredigion and would lead the Welsh in the King Magnus campaign. I was a little disappointed by this, as I felt the South Welsh would have been more interesting, as they’re the only army with lots of archers, while there are a lot of spear armies in the campaign already.

However, I have to admit that Gruffudd ap Cynan is a more impressive historical figure, and this battle provided the impetus for me to create a troop type that, in my opinion, better reflects the North Welsh spear: it’s crazy that their home terrain of ‘Hilly’ forces them to deploy steep hills that they can’t fight on effectively. Therefore, in this campaign the Welsh and the Pre-feudal Scots 3Sp will be Sp(L) .

Fun little camp last night in Amamake that even resulted in a nice fight. Now, I’m not really a big camper. Frankly, I find it boring. Pwning noobs and the unsuspecting with rrbs overkill just doesn’t entertain me for long periods. Taken too far I think it dulls real PVP skills – the kind you only build hunting and fighting people who plan to fight back. But some people like it, goofin on comms can be fun, and sometimes you can even get a good fight out of it.

So we formed up for some random camping, not really much of a plan. Lot of traffic coming through Osoggur gate. We’ve got a properly setup camping gang – HIC, arazu, rapier, dual logies and maybe ten-ish rrbs. Kill a bunch of nubbins, lols, fun. Everyone’s getting a little bored and loose, scouting is getting lax, we’re about to pack it up soon. I’m flying a guardian and I was asked to change my fit to be dual cap trans in case of fights, which forced me to remove my whoring lazor, so couldn’t even whore on the kills. Meh.

Suddenly in warps 4 Megas and a Domi – interesting. FC calls primary, but I’m literally thinking to myself ‘no big deal, they’re just gonna jump through’. Gate activates, in jumps seven more. Looks like it on!!

Primaries are called, RR in place for both sides – pure slug fest. Our Guardians overload reps, but they manage to DPS through it and take down two of ours. I’m actually wondering if people were caught off-guard and our RRBS pilots didn’t get reps onto broadcasts fast enough. Meanwhile we’ve primaried and are chewing up their Megas – very little tops the face-melting dps of a Megathron at 0. Their lack of logies starts to show, as finally our reps catch up to their damage. Once we kill 3 megas, we’ve taken enough of their DPS off the field that we can just about tank the rest – we manage to save our third BS on the edge of hull. FC continues calling primaries, burning through most of the rest of their BS, then the call comes to spread points – they’re bugging out. End result, we lose 2 battleships and kill 7 BS and 3 BC. Killboard is a bit funky b/c of the camping kills mixed in.

Great Fight to Important Internet Spaceships; hats off for having the balls to bring the fight even outnumbered. We were quite surprised they didn’t primary our logistics first. Had they done so we almost certainly would have lost more ships. Because they didn’t, they hit an absolute wall on their third primary, one of our other geddons. I’m sure glad they didn’t though, as that would have cost me my guardian.

Also, interesting read on DUST514. Love the description of EVE:

“Eve is the MMO with the best stories – the MMO rife with tales of complex backstabbing and glittering amorality, where players form corporations rather than guilds and move about the terrain as spaceships rather than pixies. It’s unashamedly grown-up in its depiction of a sharp-edged universe in which a very human kind of malevolence lurks in the next star cluster, and it’s unashamedly different, too: a long-view game where the outcomes of a smart plan may unfold in months rather than minutes, and which, with its fanatical players and evershifting alliances, seems unbothered by the ticking clock which lures many of its competitors into constant talk of sequels.”

Worth a read.

Fly wreckless!!

Monday night saw some good fun fights around our new home. Started out playing in Amamake in frigates, just three of us. Actually was two frigs and a thrasher. No organization, just fun. Before long we were joined by a few corp mates just bringing whatever they felt like, so we ended up about a half dozen frigs and destroyers backed up by two falcons, lol. Falcon backed frigs is, admittedly, a bit lame. We didn’t exactly plan it though, just a bit of play. Grab a few kills, have some laughs, and decide to move on.

We’re moving on when word comes of a bait domi sitting in top belt. I never met bait I didn’t want to take, so we re-ship into BS – overkill for one domi, but we assume he’s got friends – it is Amamake after all. So we send in an onyx for tackle, point on domi, jump the gang in. Right as our gang goes into warp, local spikes, predictably, and a phoon lands on the domi. We only have the onyx + about 4bs, iirc. We see at least 5 or 6 more BS and a falcon in-bound, on top of the domi and phoon already there. Being a little skittish in the new area, the call is made to get out since we’re not sure how large the gang may be in total (amamake is a bit crowded). Upon landing we align and head out, all ships escaping except for me unfortunately. Unfortunately they spot met trying to burn away (in a slow as molasses abaddon, lol) and manage to catch up with a web before I can get to speed. Pop. Turns out the domi may not have been with the inbound gang, as they popped him too – would have been an interesting three-way. This is what happens when you take obvious bait in unfamiliar territory. Oh well. I look forward to our next run-in with The Defiant boys.

So we (I) re-ship, re-group and try to get a fight out of them in Amamake, but they take off once their GCC is up. We decide to head out in our RR BS gang, pick up a couple of logies for rep, leaving our gang at roughly 8x BS, 2x Logies, and a CS I think, with a hic tackler; I think we had a scimi tackler too, but he gtfo before the fight below, so, not really relevant. We don’t have to go far before we find more fun. We spot what looks like the tail end of an Amarr FW gang, at least 2x Guardians and 2x Geddons in Auga. Catch one Geddon in Auga and our Oineros is able to jump through into Kourm and catch the other Geddon. This is where things get very interesting. So, what looks to us to be the rest of the Geddon’s gang lands on us in Auga. We’ve popped the Geddon and are de-aggressing to jump, with our Oneiros on the other side. The gang that lands on us in Auga is roughly 2x Maelstrom, 2x Phoons, Pest, Scorpion, Vulture, Scimitar plus roughly a half dozen or so cruisers and tackle – and local is continuing to climb, lol. In hindsight, turns out this gang is Minni militia, chasing the Amarr, but we did not know that at the time. They eye-ball us, but we’re de-agressing, so we all jump through to join our lone logi in Kourm. Everyone jumps and a nice old fashioned brawl ensues. Woohoo!! This is why I play this game.

However, right from the bat, disaster strikes for us. Our second logi DC’s on jump in – leaving the first logi aggressed, unsupported, and getting gate gunned to shit. And its a huge stinkin minmatar regional gate. Not good for an RR BS gang, lol. Everyone piles on the Amarr geddon, and then our first logi dies in short order – gate guns did nearly half the work on him. We’re absurdly spread out, trying to re-group so RR can help, but that’s a losing battle. Meanwhile, Minni scimi burns to range, a falcon de-cloaks, and a Hyperion, Domi, and another Geddon have joined them. We’re outnumbered, out-ewared, lost our logies (one down, one jumped) and spread out – in short, we’re screwed. Nothing left to do but call primaries and kill everything we can. We proceed to trade BS, roughly equally until we’re down to just 3 remaining and our DPS is shite b/c the falcon and scimi are nullifying two – so we de-aggro and jump. End tally of the fight (on our KB) was 6 killed, 6 lost, roughly similar isk – and one helluva good time.

If the logi doesn’t DC I think that fight goes differently, as the logi pair would have given us time to get our RR in place, but meh, this stuff happens. Huge props to minnie militia for bringing a great fight. We are adjusting our tactics (huge gates suck balls – very different from black rise) and can’t wait for the next round.

We head home, re-ship, try to catch them looting but move too slow. Oh well – we still have a full gang and everybody is pumped after a great fight, so we head out on a rather long roam, ending up heading all the way to BWF and LXQ, but not getting any more good fights. Just a bunch of ganks on the way – final tally I think was three ruptures, vaga, damnation, brutix, manticore, vexor, and four whored macro-haulers. Overall very fun night; I think I made the wall of shame when I learned that Arnher != Anher, especially when you’re flashy. In my defense it was past one in the morning and martini rex was in full effect – police pretty much gave me a FUI.

Once again, GFs to everyone around Amamake, especially the Minnies. Looking forward to more fun!!

A fine battle was had yesterday, I’ll try and recap what I can.

Armies:

Orcs and Goblins, generalled by Roarb.

Yellow Fang: Orc Warboss, on a Chariot, Shagga’s Screaming Sword, and some protective stuffs

Snakits: Black Orc Big Boss, BSB, on a boar, +2 attacks from items (with the big un’s)

Betiz: Goblin Big Boss, on a wolf, One Hit Wunda, Brimstone Bauble (missle)

Fezzi: N. Goblin Shaman, 2 scrolls

23 Big Un’s, full command, ad hand weapons

20 Orcs, full command, ad hand weapons

30 N Goblins, full command, spears, 3 fanatics

20 N Goblins, bows, 2 fanatics

7 Goblin Spider Riders, bows

5 Squig Hoppers

2 Spear Chukkas

1 Rock Lobba

1 Doom Diver

1 Giant (Durkka)

Warriors of Chaos, generalled by Steve:

Khorne Lord on Jugger

BSB

Throgg

Socerer

20 Warriors of Chaos

5 Knights of Chaos

4 Trolls

5 Maurader Horsemen

5 Maurader Horsemen

5 Chaos Hounds

5 Chaos Hounds

2 Spawn

Deployment: (I’ll do this from the OnG perspecitve)

Orcs and Goblins, from left to right, 7 spider riders, behind a tower, 1 spear chukka, doom diver, 5 Squig Hoppers, 20 N Goblins (bows and shaman), 20 Orcs, General on Chariot, 23 Big Un’s with BSB, 30 N. Goblins, Giant, Goblin Big Boss on Wolf, on the hill on the right, the Rock Lobba, last Spear Chukka.

WoC, left to right (OnG perspective), 5 Maurader Horsemen, 5 Chaos Hounds, Spawn, Trolls with Throgg, 5 Chaos Hounds screening the Knights of Chaos with the Lord on the Jugger, 20 Chaos Warriors with Soc and BSB, Spawn, and all the way on the right the last 5 Maurader Horsemen.

Turn one started with the Orcs and Goblins: The turn started with alot of fighting, the Spider Riders fought each other, the 20 N. Goblins saw that and surged forward 3 inches, the orcs next to them thought it best to beat on each other, as did the 30 N. Goblins on the right side. The doom diver was able to land on the Knights of Chaos unit and took out a couple.

Turn one WoC: The Maurader Horsemen surged forward, as did the chaos hounds, triggering the first 2 fanatics from the 20 N Goblins. One fanatic hit the 5 hounds killing 4 of them, and blocking the knights and trolls from moving forward much. the Warriors kept pace and stayed back with the knights. On the far right the Mauraders quickly closed the gap towards the warmachine bunker on that side.

Turn two OnG: The Spider riders still hadn’t sorted out the fight, so they beat on each other some more. The squig hoppers managed to get into combat with the spawn on the left side, doing one wound and losing 2 themselves. The rest of the orcs moved up a bit, and readied for combat, the Warboss on the Chariot getting ready to charge, hopfully getting a flank. the Giant moved towards the Mauraders on the right to hopefully stop the warmachine massacure about to happen there.

Turn two WoC: The Spawn on the right moves forward to trigger the fanatics from the 30 N goblins. Now there’s 5 fanatics spinning around in front of the core of the Chaos forces. The Khorne lord decided to risk it and charged threw one fanatic, and taking only one wound, to hit the chariot with the Warboss on it (oops, bad distance guess there by me) The Khorne lord procedded to take the orcs head off and chase the chariot behind the orc lines. The Mauraders on the right demolish the Spear Chukka over there. The spawn on the left and the squig hoppers continued their fight, and the squigs promptly ate their fill of spawn meat, killing it in the process.

Turn three OnG: The spiders finally able to move, slide over to block an upcoming charge from the mauraders on the left against the warmachines on that side and the Squig Hoppers bound into thier backs, chasing them off.  The fanatics wipe themselves out, 4 of them in one turn (super doubles and 1 hitting another one). The Giant charged and obliterated the 5 Maurader horsemen on the right who had just taken out a spear chukka. The rock lobba fell apart while trying to fire. The goblin big boss on the wolf saw his oppertunity, and took it, charging the Khorne Lord brandishing his 1 hit wonder, doing one wound to the lord. The lord promptly cut off his head exploding the brimstone bauble in the process which took out the lord in a mass of shapnel and green light.

Turn three WoC: The Trolls charge the unit of 20 gobbos on the left flank, and promtply destroy them. The last spawn, on the right flank charges the 30 N Goblins in the flank, who hold their own. The Warriors charge into the Big Unz, winning combat by 4, the orcs, on a reroll couldn’t pass thier leadership test, but then ran only 4 inches.

The rest is fuzzy by turn, but it basically came down to the remaining orcs fighting the Trolls, winning combat and chasing them off. After that no real moves could be made. It ended up pretty even, with the Trolls rallying, the unit of Warriors with the bsb and socerer, against the small unit of orcs, the giant, the large unit of goblins, a spear chukka and a doom diver. No table corners were to be had, and we were even on standards, and general killing.

All in all, a very fun game, pleanty of ups and downs. The MVP award for the OnG has to goto the little Goblin Big Boss who could, taking down the Khorne Lord.

My biggest mistake, not judging distance correctly and getting the chariot smashed up by that Khorne Lord. Secondly, I should have used the giant better, instead of just destroying a low cost unit, and the spawn, he’d have been better off bashing some Warriors of Chaos.

S6.com is about to come to an end, with Lethal’s World Wonder very close to clinching the victory for LMFAOD:

But right now, it’s time to appreciate the second-place World Wonder held by Codename, for how well it was played, how much defense it was able to have, and how it was able to take hits from the enemy’s biggest armies and still keep going.

Codename held the lead for a good portion of the endgame, and many of the attacks launched on it by Space Lizards did a lot less damage than expected, due to the huge number of defenses contained there. Space Lizards would have to come back to Codename’s World Wonder several times with massive armies that would easily flatten other Wonders. I don’t think there’s ever been a World Wonder that took on this many huge attacks and still managed to finish a close second.

The total defense at Codename’s was comparable to Cassini’s World Wonder from the alliance SBD on the last Server 8 – but keep in mind that SBD only had one World Wonder to defend! (and I think Codename still comes out ahead by a fair margin for total defenders)

So without any further ado, here are some of Codename’s Greatest Hits:

This Ram army couldn’t bring the wall all the way down, despite its impressive size:

From earlier in ther server:

And I’ve already posted this one, but it deserves to be posted again:

Here is what some of the Server 6 players are saying about Codename and how well defended his Wonder was (click here to read the whole thread):

Alha: Even if Lethal’s WW is very likely to be the first to level 100, I think yours was the one who won the game for you by taking all the hits.

Odinstaff: It’s been an honour playing with you Code.
Your dedication, sleep less nights and the pounding you took proved an inspiration and we rallied behind you.

I will say every WW holder except Adelwar deserves to win.
But I feel Codename earned it.
Reddadude and BrushMonkey gave up the defense they had to ensure Code had enough to close out and I admire and salute their sacrifice.

Splatter: I’d like to give the entire Code team props for holding the huge def over the extended period of time they did. I’d also like to recognise the large group of people behind the Code plan management. Even though the account suffered a huge amount of attacks, those plans were always kept safe and only a minute amount of build time was lost, if any.

Author: CODENAME took down so many hammers that CWL had almost nothing left to go after lethal. Great job and I am proud to have you with us for the win. We could not have done it without you and this win is shared by all.

with this server nearing its end, there’s a lot to look back upon, but I think the amazing defense mounted at Codename’s World Wonder will be one of the things from this Server 6 that is remembered the most. Not surprisingly, Codename is certain to finish as the #1 defender.

This is possibly the best Endgame Analysis Thread I’ve ever seen. This guy puts me to shame:

http://forum.travian.com/showthread.php?t=130199

I’m going to do a big quote from Globetrotter, and it will pretty much summarize what’s happened in the game since my coverage broke off. (If you’ve already read this, scroll down to the bottom to see an awesome battle report and hear what’s coming up in the future)

As I mentioned previously through the hammers stats, this last week has been one of the bloodiest ever. Huge hammers were unleashed from all sides and sent out on their final journey, carrying all the hopes of ensuring the success of their own people – even the last player in the current top #10 attackers of the week has scored more than many previous #1 top attackers …
WWs were zeroed, others simply changed hands… Leading WWs standings were shuffled over and over again, with one of the leading WW almost reaching its target, only to get delayed after its adversaries put up a desperate final effort to bring it down… Competing alliances finally made their merge official, and even started coordinated attacks against enemy strongholds… In short, an eventful week…

The first major news to be mentioned is of course the loss of 2 WWs for SL / OZ, with Lubricious losing his WW to the enemy after Phoca’s loss the previous week. This therefore gives SL / OZ’s rivals the advantage of 9 WWs v/s 4. However, needless to remind the public that the WWs of Adelwar, Hamper and Zorlin will not be contending for the race (especially that Zorlin has followed Adelwar’s steps in keeping only one village, the one with the WW). Therefore, this effectively gives an advantage of 7 to 3 WWs in favor of MFD+LOD+ONE+SE.

The second major news was the long awaited confirmation about the merger of the northern alliances. For some time, MFD and LOD had declared having a NAP only, and that they would not target one another until late into the game, depending on how the game went. But now, their official alliance was sealed as most of their WW holders rallied under the same tag: LMFAOD. They were also rejoined by their southeastern fighters and allies.

As for the week’s events and WW standings, well, lots of happenings there:

November 30th: The opening of the week saw Codename still in the lead @98, but still licking his wounds from previous strikes that managed to take the WW down a couple of levels as he had the level 100 very likely queued. Nevertheless, he was still 7 levels ahead from the nearest contenders, i.e. Sparticus (91), Fire&Ice (91), Shakal (90) and Bandrit (90).

But, with Sparticus also severely hit on November 25th, and practically stuck on level 91, the only real contenders were actually the 3 SL / OZ WW holders and of course, Codename. Or so it appeared to be the case at first sight… (but we’ll get to that later)

In order to secure Codename’s lead and give him enough time to rebuild, the LMFAOD command HQ had mainly one choice: strike at each and every SL / OZ WW hard enough to put it completely out of the race. Should the triple strike be successful, Codename would get a safe home run and give victory to all.

December 1st: And so, hostilities against WWs were resumed on the 1st of December; surely, hammers were already on their way a few days before.

Bandrit’s WW was the first to get a taste of what MFD was capable of… 92 was the level of the WW… 0 was its state at the end of the strike, with 6 hammers used. Lubricious’ WW was to follow. In Lub’s case, not only was the WW zeroed, but the village itself was captured by the SE coalition hostile to SL / OZ dominance, with the help of its northern allies.

December 2nd: That day wasn’t any quieter, as it was Fire&Ice’s turn to be at the receiving end of enemy hammers. After a lone hitter managed to damage its WW from 92 to 91 the previous day, the WW was finally damaged by a couple of levels more, and infrastructure suffered quite a bit. And this time, MFD had sent some of its own hammers to assist those of LOD, in one of the first joint operations against an SL / OZ WW.

Now, with 2 WW practically severed, and only one more to take down, the LMFAOD group felt that victory was finally within its grasp again, especially that armies were already en route to hit the 3rd SL WW under Shakal…

But this was again without counting on SL / OZ tenacity and will to fight… The same day Fire&Ice was struck, their leading WW under Codename came under huge fire from the biggest hammers seen so far on the server. The WW took a 3 level hit from 98 to 95, and infrastructure was damaged. Surprised? Well, knowing SL / OZ, one should expect anything and everything…

December 3rd: the northern armies finally landed on Shakal, knocking his WW from 92 to 84, and inflicting infrastructure damage as well, putting him behind Simethered’s WW.

BUT, as all of these leading WWs were taking hits, one of them was silently and continuously presenting itself as the real contender to the win. With a very steady growth after he got hit very early in the race, Lethal was catching up slowly but surely, and as WWs were knocked down or slowed down in front of him, he finally stole the leadership from Codename late on December 3rd… By the looks of it, he even has the infrastructure to go all the way…

But has he really gone unnoticed all that time? Surely LMFAOD hoped so and had in any case enough time to stuff him with defense, while on SL / OZ side, everyone hoped for yet another surprise.

December 4th: LMFAOD kept striking hard at Fire&Ice. With defense being shifted around between her WW and Shakal’s, LMFAOD seized the opportunity of striking at her non-stop, in an attempt to prevent her from rejoining the WW race. As a matter of fact, most of her villages came under fire, and it was recorded that she had lost a lot of pop overall. Shakal was already badly hurt, so it was very likely that LMFAOD would keep an eye on his recovery before striking again. Besides, he had the Natars heading his way…

As for Lethal, as expected, SL / OZ’s reaction wasn’t going to be long to come. By mid-day, 6 hammers tried the impossible to hurt his progression. As his name states, he was indeed lethal, for the sacrifice of those 6 brave armies was almost in vain. 2 Great Warehouses were hardly scratched, nothing that Lethal can’t recover from.

The WW standings shortly after the hits on Lethal are as follows (December 4th @ 13:00)

With those results on Lethal, one could state that SL / OZ have launched whatever they had left… “the dregs at the bottom of the barrel” if I am to quote one of the leaders… Having said that, Lethal now is in fact the favorite for the final sprint, and the road to the finish line seems clear for him (unless something unexpected occurs…)

I will probably show some more graphs once the WW level 100 is reached in order to show the progression of each WW holder. For now, I will stick to the following graph:

The graph includes the top 7 WWs of this week, and their progression over the past 2 weeks; you can clearly see Codename’s frustration, Bandrit’s WW collapse, Sparticus’ neutralization, the ups and downs of Shakal and Fire&Ice, and especially, Lethal’s steady progression, the current new WW race leader.

Codename:

Dec 2nd @ 19:30 (opening salvo, the others being spaced by a couple of hours)
The Rammer:
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=1067779be70

The Cats:
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=106647840b8
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=106792af78f
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=1069756cb99

Note, I separated the Rammers from the rest, as its owner deserves recognition for the amount of rams (and catas) amassed in this single strike.

Despite the huge ram-hammer, the wall wasn’t completely knocked down. This gives an idea once again regarding the defense behind Codename’s walls, as seen in the BR below:

http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=106275bc0c9

Lethal:

Dec 4th @ 12:00
http://4travian.org/log/44d319456130…fe77af9375b9bf
http://4travian.org/log/85d565893caa…d1dcd711c68771
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=11026144001
http://www.travian-reports.net/us/ra…id=1102647d27d
http://www.travian-reports.net/us/ra…id=110268332fd
http://4travian.org/log/9a9d4ce5d11e…14dc9b5904a640

Thanks to the amazing defense there, the impact of the hammers was minimal. It was clear that SL/OZ lacked an additional ram hammer to secure the way.

On the SL / OZ front – 3 out of 3 WWs
________________________________________

Bandrit:

Dec 1st @ 07:10
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=10352196e5c
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=103523bc0f9
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=10352410975
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=1035250dd1f
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=103528e9906
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=1035276f25f

Decoy or no decoy, overkill or no overkill, the hammers here were impressive and did their job. Bandrit’s WW went from 92 to 0 in no time, with only the 3 last hammers aiming at the WW.

Fire&Ice:

Dec 1st @ 08:43
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=10332878cdd

Despite being a lone hitter, this hammer still managed to take out one WW level.

Dec 2nd @ 07:47
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=10557001bfc
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=105571e2bef
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=1055691cfaa
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=10557744938
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=1055914e990
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=105609b344c
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=1056406fe3e
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=10565939804
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=1056681a395
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=1056787ce5c
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=10570491884
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=105867f1cba

The defense put up at Fire&Ice seemed also pretty huge, as many of the hammers that had targeted the WW did less damage than what they could have done on other WWs. Fire&Ice seemed to be at that time SL / OZ’s bet for the win.

Shakal:

Dec 3rd @ 19:09 (opening salvo – the other strikes landed a few hours later)
http://logmyteuton.com/show.php?q=1920509275821402362
http://logmyteuton.com/show.php?q=1221559377891595096
http://logmyroman.com/show.php?q=1423519780173562320
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=10719332da4
http://travian-reports.net/uk/raport.php?id=334917f316c
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=107196fd6da
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=10720025d50
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=107194b5abf
http://travian-reports.net/us/raport.php?id=107186b8a9d
http://logmyroman.com/show.php?q=1620509388184250201

Shakal wasn’t spared, and before defense could be moved from Fire&Ice to him, LMFAOD were already on their way to him. There was no need for major hammers out here to do the job.

================================================== =============
Voilà for the latest with the info at hand. I hope to have delivered so far a very fair analysis of the events, staying as objective as possible. For those who are wondering who’s side I played on, well… let’s say that it is a small alliance in the SW who’s leader has held a WW and unleashed quite a number of decent hammers throughout the end game

(Seriously, I cannot get over the dedication and thoroughness that Globetrotter is showing in his analysis threads on S6.com. And the battlereports that other people are sharing too are very impressive and comprehensive. Follow this thread and you won’t miss a thing.)

Here’s a real gem of a report from that thread, showing the huge defense at Codename’s World Wonder:

I’ll try to post more on S6 later. I’ve got a lot to write about between this and S1.com, S7.com, other servers, and more on Travian 3.6. Not sure if I’ll be able to get to it all. But I promise a big wrap-up on S6 when it all ends. I have some colour commentary to add to Globetrotter’s play by play.

I apologize again for not being able to stay up to date with everything that’s happening on Server 6 at Travian.com (not to mention Sever 1 and Server 7). I’ve been very busy, and keeping up to date with a Travian endgame can be very time-consuming. For a good wrap-up of what’s been going on, I suppose this thread is the right place to start (I’ll try to read through it all when I have the time).

It’s obvious that a lot of destruction has swept across the server, and here are some highlights of it. First let’s look at the current standings:

Geez, where do I even start? In the space of a week, several World Wonders have changes hands and the map has been re-drawn.

I didn’t spend much time talking about it earlier, but LoD and MFD merged their sides together, in order to fight against Space Lizards/CWL/Oz and their allies. Back when this was a three horse race, CWL and Co. were the biggest alliance of the three, but as you can see now, Space Lizards have lost their world wonders. I wouldn’t have expected to see such big losses like that, from a well-organized and effective Meta-alliance. This is the first time I’ve seen something of the sort.

Space Lizards have lost both Phoca and Lubricious’ World Wonders, and Bandrit’s is surely out of the game at this point. It must be a bitter pill for them to swallow, but LoD and MFD combined must have just been too big for them.

LMFAOD stands for LoD, Myth, Fun, One, and Dino. I assume the “A” is for “and”.

Convienently, the acronym can also stand for “Laughing My Fucking Ass Off Dieing.”

 Now that they hold 7 of the 9 World Wonders that are still in contention, the LoD and MFD Merged alliance looks like they will almost certainly win, once they can recover from whatever damage the other side has inflicted on them.

After the alliance merged, but before Space Lizards lost their World Wonders, Codename looking to be on the verge of victory, but the other side manged to take it away from him. But the defense at Codename’s World Wonder was huge, and this big hammer didn’t do nearly the amount of damage it normally would:

The defense at Codename’s World Wonder must have been huge in order to turn that monster away. Congratulations to Brezzok&Anarchy and the defenders of Codename for both doing a great job.

But Codename’s World Wonder looks to be in trouble now, as Codename has been reduced to just 5 cities. And besides his World Wonder city, only one of them has a population over 300 (He actually had only 4 left but then he managed to conquer another recently). So it looks like he’ll have a hard time protecting a World Wonder construction plan from this point on.

Still, even with Codename in trouble, LMFAOD seems to have an overwhelming advantage. I’ll try to stay up to date with this server and do a final report on it when it ends.

Another fun fight last night in EOA. Coming back from a short 0.0 roam – couldn’t find any gangs, but ganked a cyno-falcon, vaga, and vexor. But on our exit gate we find a medium sized camp. They’re a bit too heavy for us to fight straight up as they have 3 BS, 5 BC and some support, vs our 3 BC, hac, and some ewar, so we try to bait and split them.

No luck on that, until an onyx chases one of our cane’s to a 150 off the gate. Cane warps and onyx decides to slow-boat back…purrrfect. We setup a warp in, when he hits 100 from the gate we go – ganked onyx. Manticore gets too close, trying to help – no more manticore. Unfortunately I am trying to do way too many things at once and screw the pooch on my warp in, warping to gate – its bad when your FC can’t follow his own orders. Jump out, burn back, jump back in. Its a huge regional gate, and I appear in a good position to just burn away toward our gang. So, I go – get primaried by their gang, apoc is hitting me hard. I think I’ve reached a safe range, they’re getting through my shield, so warp to a planet – second mistake, failing to turn off mwd first. Slow alignment (mwd pwns agility) allows a thorax I didn’t notice was chasing me (third mistake) to get a scram on me right before I warp, and I pop before I can get him off me. Looking at the kb, reveals 4th mistake – if I’d just range disrupted the apoc I’d have been fine, as he was doing all the damage. Meh, live and learn. Mates pop the thorax – so trade is onyx, manti, thorax for curse. Not too bad, but many mistakes on my part cost me my ship.

Not being satisfied though, we burn home, re-ship to get heavy enough to take them on, and come back. Camp is mostly still there, two of their BS have left but they’ve picked up some more mixed. Oh well, screw bait, let’s go. We jump in en masse, primary the scorp, who melts in seconds (honor tank ftw) and then the 2x brutix. After that, their dps is minimal, we spread points and keep working through primaries, taking any opportunity to pew ewar and bombers as they appear (expensive and fragile) and kill what we can before they run / de-aggress and jump. Net result: scorpion, brutix, brutix, cyclone, arazu, drake, drake, hound, hyena down with none lost. I think they had a hic and possibly another drake that manage to de-aggress and jump as well. They primaried our raven – the right call on their part with a damnation on the field – but the combination of us melting their dps quickly, the huge regional gate (lazor boats >> blaster boats on regional gates) and their lack of tackle allowed our raven to escape in structure – nice piloting Trouser.

Was a very fun couple of fights. Props to the Ihatalo guys and their friends for sticking around. So nice to be fighting people who want to pvp, not just run away like Faction War blobs.

I love this dominion thing. I’m sure its a giant pain in the ass for the 0.0 guys who’ve had their world’s turned upside down. But the re-invigoration of 0.0 and the influx of new residents is wonderful – cause I get to shoot them . Stuff like these freighter convoy ganks are pure win.