Domains at War

Yeah, sorry...I've been way busier this weekend with Christmas preparations than I expected...

*I* meanwhile am less busy because it's christmas so I've been sitting here refreshing and tapping my foot

Oops! Now you're waiting for me again, seeing as I wont the roll-off for tied Initiative. I've never seen someone roll that many 1's in a row!

So! Blobloblah has joined the battle as the Auran forces and deployed his troops. Here's how it looks right now: He's the southern forces, where I'm attacking from the north.

I've chosen to deploy Baal and Peymann in Phalanxes. Since they were already veteran heavy infantry, this makes them super-heavies, and destroying their units outright should prove nearly impossible. It also reduces the number of units I have, which is good, because moving units costs points! Most of my commanders have lower leadership and strategic values than I'd like relative to the number of units they're supposed to be commanding.

I also have fiewer lieutenants, so that sucks. Also, upon closer inspection, I've deployed only three of them! I'll drop the last one now, on my cavalry, because obviously cavalry are important.

 

http://imgur.com/KhXjyAu

The black arrows represent my predictions for the battle. His general starts in a cavalry unit, which is both a blessing and a curse. Cavalry are extremely powerful, and having a high-quality commander ensures that that unit will be effective. He's also stacked lieutenants on it, meaning that he'll always be able to active all of them, even if they take hits. Thus, it's obvious that he's going to want to use Royal Squad as early as possible, and since cavalry go fast, having them flank is a natural choice.

Meanwhile, he's just sort of dumped all of his non-horse units in the middle, and with that lake there, they're more or less forced to move straight forward and be the anvil to his horse-hammer.

 

On my end, I have essentially the exact same layout, except that my commander will be in the center, and I've assigned one division to outflank around the lake. *My* cavalry commander is Jagtai, the peerless barbarian. He's equipped with a sweet bow, the precise shot proficiency, and Eyes of the Eagle, which grants him the ability to target heroes at twice the normal range. Unfortunately, at this scale, that means I have a range of TWO hexes, (Unless mounted heroes count as Large?) meaning there can be exactly one hex between us. So he'll have to get in close. Once he does though, WYVERN POISON ARROWS! BAM! Admittedly, this poison is an unmodifier throw, so if I'm targetting Tarkaun, he survives on a 6+. On the other hand, a 25% chance of insta-death per hit is nothing to scoff at. Also, while we're here, he's got 15 AC. Jagtai's THACO is -2. So Jagtai only hits on a 13+. Or maybe an 11+, if he uses his +2 arrows? Do magic arrows stack with magic bow? I assume they do, because otherwise why mention that he has both?

So a 50% chance to hit and a 25% chance for each hit to kill; that's an average of eight attacks. And in brigade scale, heroes get three extra initiative passes. That's four attacks per round. If I can get Jagtai close to Tarkaun, I'm looking very good. If somehow Jagtai closes on Mennic, the fragile wizard, he'll hit on a 4+ and instagib if he rolls 6 or less. Even without the poison, mennic only has 44 hp, so 1d6+6 won't take many shots.

 

WOW that was a lot of numbers let's get back to strategy. So yeah. Jagtai kills people. Jagtai's horses are lined up with the general's horses. My anvil is smaller than theirs, but more muscular and compact, like corned beef. I also have a second hammer. Flanking is extremely potent in Domains at War because it not only grants a bonus to hit, but also imposes a penalty on shock rolls, making it much more likely to break troops, so I think that second hammer is going to help me a lot. If I use the lake to my advantage, having a smaller anvil won't hurt me much. If I screw up, my general is going to easily be surrounded and cut to pieces. Fun! I'm very excited.

Clearly you actually put thought into your deployment. Maybe I should have done the same?

Speaking of Initiative, seeing as I have it, would you mind if I cast some pre-battle spells? Obviously there's some potential advantage, but I already had something in mind, and just rediscovered that some things need to be cast in advance at this scale (I'm only now reading my Commanders in detail...oops).

I really enjoyed your terrain descriptions.

By all means, go ahead!

The descriptions were pretty good, but I have to say I preferred the artistry of the previous layout.

It is begun.

Sort of...other than indecision, changing my mind, and delaying!

;-D

First turn: Blobloblobah has chosen to delay, and I don't see any harm in letting him have it, so I've moved all my forces up along the lines I drew earlier. Now it's his turn to move his entire army. I'm not too concerned. I'll post a picture and a more in depth update when he does something.

Don't rush me, man!

So, I scooted up a little.

Then, in response, Bloblo HUSTLED his light cavalry directly adjacent to me. I'm unclear to what end. He also charges his medium cavalry to one side of the rocky terrain, and positions his Autarch between them, for a neat trident effect now that I draw it out.

He also shuffles the rest of his units forward, and then makes the decision to seperate Mennic from his unit! I have no idea what that's about. Presumably, he hopes to utilize his spellcasting ability with greater mobility, but I feel like I'm just going to kill him more easily this way. We'll see.

http://imgur.com/QaG88JG

Unfortunately, the dice HATE me, and he gets to go first! So now his too-far-up units are actually very well poised to strike, maybe. I don't know. We'll see what he does. I'd discuss my plans for a counterattack, but he's listening, watching.

 

 

That's always messy when terrain gets up at the edges like that, but everyone's bowmen are well-placed to work around that in your main lines. 

Pushing up the cavalry up against yours probably wasn't a bad idea - keeps you from coming in and harassing his heavy infantry as they seem to work their away around that forest, and his heavy cav is placed to be able to hopefully decide later where to go depending on how the LC fares.

I wouldn't be surprised if he does the same with the LI on the right flank angling off there - make you waste turns getting your HI/LI through them.

Timing looks pretty bad on that HI coming around the forest, vis-a-vis engaging with the line on the right of it.

I really like spectating this, I'm highly amused.

 

 

 

The thing about pushing his cavalry up like that though is that he's made it immediately a story about our horses fighting, except that HIS horses are so close that they're within range of my infantry, which means he risks having them focus fired and wiped off the map.  I think it's very dangerous to throw your most valuable asset in that deep without any backup.

This is amazing! It's like a live stream of generalship.

Man! I can't believe how much time I spend waiting on susan_brindle! (Tongue planted firmly in cheek.)

I am EVERYWHERE!

...just like the placement of my units.

I would comment, but my enemy has many spies...