Topic: Tactical Decision Game 2.4: The Plot Thickens

[Holy Hand Grenade]

Tactical Decision Game 2.4:  The Plot Thickens

***Note-  read the following thread to follow along with the Tactical Decision Game 2 storyline: 
--Tactical Decision Game 2.0:  The Beginning
--Tactical Decision Game 2.1:  Strategy & Deployment
--Tactical Decision Game 2.2:  Magic, Magic, Magic
--Tactical Decision Game 2.3:  To Charge or Not to Charge


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Tactical Decision Games are a fun way to think through tough situations that Empire Generals face.  It is all about making tough decisions in tough situations… so the next time you face similar situations-  you are ready for them!  Check out Tactical Decision Game 1:  Empire versus the Ogrebus if you haven’t seen it yet to get an idea of what a TDG is all out. 

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I was tempted to go back to the Magic phase this time….but with so much movement and action on the field I decided to give you another round of decisions related to movement.  Hopefully your magic users survive Turn 3 so we can revisit them in the future!   


Team Blue Turn Three

Team B fires up the boiler’s in both its STanks.  Being aggressive despite the wounded tank, both attempt to generate 4 steam points. 

Of course, STank 1 suffers a mishap, rolling a Dangerous Overpressure on the chart.  It has a 33% chance to kill itself, but it rolls a 2 for the number of extra steam points for 2 wounds.  The STank has 1 wound left and is supercharged ready for action!  (Now, if it can just survive the forest!)

STank 2 has no issues.

What do you want to charge?

What do you want to do with the rest of your movement?

List each unit and what you would do with it.  

I will total up what the majority opinion is for each unit and post the winning actions for final review before executing the movement phase.

--STank 1 is 7” away from the Executioners.
--STank 2 is 16” away from the Executioners.
--The Reiksguard are 16” away from the Executioners.


Team Green Turn Three

Your Steam Tank generates 4 Steam with no issues.

What do you want to charge?

What do you want to do with the rest of your movement?

List each unit and what you would do with it.  

I will total up what the majority opinion is for each unit and post the winning actions for final review before executing the movement phase.

--The Demis (DG1) can of course charge the Executioners.  They can also move outside the Executioner’s LOS with a reform and move forward.
--The STank is 12” away from the Executioners.
--The Reiksguard are 16” away from the Warrior Bus.
--The ICK are 19” away from the Warrior Bus.
--The vanilla Knights (Kn2) in the east are 17” away from the Harpies (Hp2).
--DG2 can obviously charge the Hydra, but cannot wheel around to hit the Shades.

[Fandir Nightshade]

Hmmm how many spears are left in the metal witches bunker?

[zifnab0]

DG1: Move forward to within 1" of the Executioners so they cannot wheel past.

Steam Tank: Rumble towards the Spearmen and blast them with the steam gun.

ICK: Move forward, staying 14" away from the Spearmen bus.  Rearrange characters in the unit so that the Lord cannot be in base contact with either Huss or the BSB.  If Lord is in the center of the Spearmen, move Huss and BSB to the edges of ICK.  If he is on one side or the other, move Huss and BSB to the opposite side of ICK.

Reiksguard: Charge Shades, redirect into Hydra if (when) they flee.

DG2: Charge Hydra.

Kn2: Charge Harpies, redirect to shades (if visible)

Other considerations:
Magic: key spells are 5+ ward on the ICK, flaming attacks on the Reiksguard, and Iceshard the Spearmen.

Shooting: Steam gun on Spearmen, HBVG on the Dark Riders to wipe them out.

[Noght]

DG1: Move forward to within 1" of the Executioners so they cannot wheel past.

Steam Tank: Rumble towards the Spearmen and blast them with the steam gun.

ICK: Move forward, staying 14" away from the Spearmen bus.  Rearrange characters in the unit so that the Lord cannot be in base contact with either Huss or the BSB.  If Lord is in the center of the Spearmen, move Huss and BSB to the edges of ICK.  If he is on one side or the other, move Huss and BSB to the opposite side of ICK.

Reiksguard: Charge Shades, redirect into Hydra if (when) they flee.

DG2: Charge Hydra.

Kn2: Charge Harpies, redirect to shades (if visible)

Other considerations:
Magic: key spells are 5+ ward on the ICK, flaming attacks on the Reiksguard, and Iceshard the Spearmen.

Shooting: Steam gun on Spearmen, HBVG on the Dark Riders to wipe them out.

Pretty much this.

Only change would be if the Shades flee Reiksguard then declare charge with Kn1 on fleeing Shades to send them running and then redirect into Harpies (who could bounce right off the board if they flee).

1st Volley gun short range on DR, 2nd Volley gun on Spears.

[Windelov]

updated


photo upload

knights 1 : charge dark riders, if they run then redirect to shades, if whipeout reform to face shades and centre.

IC charge the harpies if we can stay out of overrun path from the big spear unit, they will wipeout the harpies and reform for charge vs big spear unit.

Knights 2 march pass the big spear unit, wheel to face both the bunker.

Reiksguard march on the hill to face big spear unit (any good ideas to how we avoid the harpies blocking a possible charge?)

Stank one should go left of the executioners with 3d6, get out of charge arc and steam kill 2/3 of them with S4 gun, then kill the rest with impact the following turn.

Stank two 2d6 over hill line up for canon vs front rank of big spear.

left Archer detachment, reform march around shades (being able to reform multiple times) and block their route to great cannon

[Holy Hand Grenade]

Hmmm how many spears are left in the metal witches bunker?

I decided to create this Wound & Status Tracker to make sure we are not missing anything.  Of course, if you see any errors let me know.


Team Blue

Grand Master (front right)      Full health
Warrior Priest (next to TGM)   Full health
9 Knights of the Order      9 left

Luthor Huss (front right)      Full health
10 Reiksguard         10 left

Wizard Lord (front right)      Full health.  Used scroll
10 Archers            10 left
5 Archer Det            5 left
5 Archer Det            5 left

5 Knights             5 left

5 Knights             5 left

Great Cannon         2 wounds left

Steam Tank            3 wounds left.  Rusted, -1AS

Steam Tank            Full health


Dreadlord versus Team Blue

Dreadlord  (Gen) (front right)   Full health
Noble  (BSB)    (front left)      Full health
Death Sorc (5th from left)      Full health
47 Warriors              47 left

40 Executioners         24 left 

Supreme Sorceress (front right)   Full health
15 Warriors            11 left
   
12 Shades            9 left

5 Dark Riders         2 left

5 Harpies            5 left
5 Harpies            5 left


Team Green

Luthor Huss (front right)      Full health
Battle Wizard Lord (2nd row)   Full health, used scroll
Captain (BSB) (next to Huss)    Full health
13 Knights of the Inner Circle    13 left.  Rusted.  -1AS

6 Knightly Orders          6 left

Warrior Priest (front right)      Full health
9 Reiksguard Knights       9 left

Helblaster Volley Gun       2 wounds left
Master Engineer          Full health

Helblaster Volley Gun       Full health
Master Engineer         Full health

3 Inner Circle Knights      3 left

3 Inner Circle Knights      3 left.  Rusted, -1AS

Steam Tank            Full health


Dreadlord versus Team Green

Dreadlord  (Gen)          Full health
Noble  (BSB)            Full health
Death Sorc            Full health
Supreme Sorceress (front right)   Full health
47 Warriors              31 

40 Executioners         31 

15 Warriors            3 left
   
12 Shades            12 left

5 Dark Riders         5 left
5 Dark Riders                    5 left

5 Harpies            5 left

[Empire - Ulric]

Of course I have a completely different take............ and a rather aggressive one........now is the time to clean up the executioners.

Charge then with the Demi-Gryphs and with the Steam Tank. We should kill roughly 14 or 15 of them on average before they get to strike (+ a 1 Point Steam Gunning so maybe another kill or 2 with 2d6 STR 2 Hits) The tank will definitely survive the Return Attacks hopefully fairly unscathed and some Demi-Gryphs should also survive. The end result should be the Tank Cleans up what's left of the Executioners on turn 4 and then turn 5/6 it's off to the Warrior Bunker and the characters.

We may wipe out the unit even quicker if we say move our Wizard out of the IC Knights and over towards this fight to try to support our units in combat with an ice shard blizzard on the Executioners and a harmonic convergence (boosted if we can get both the Steam Tank and the Demi-Gryphs in the bubble. Of course the positioning of the now Solo Wizard would be such that the Arcane Ruins block him getting charged by anything and he will need to keep the unit of harpies in his front LoS to be able to thunderbolt them if needed.

In the Shooting Phase the Hell Blaster will clean up the Dark Riders and the Left Flank should be ours.

The only gamble here is......... the tank is apparently 12 inches away. It might be closer once it pivots towards the Executioners before moving forwards but even then we are looking at maybe 10 inches at best which is still a gamble for 3d6 movement. But I'm a gambling man!

Remember we don't want to get the tank anywhere near the Deadlord as he will eat the Tank for Breakfast. The only way we want the tank in that combat is when we multi charge that unit and the Dreadlord will be in Base Contact with something else so he cannot make way and wail on our tank.

On the Right Flank I would also do things a little differently.

I would start with the Demi-Gryphs charging the Hydra.

The Reiksguard charge the Shades. If they flee redirect into the Hydra (If the Reiksguard can see the Hydra, I don't think they can) Also if the Shades flee the Small Knight unit will charge the shades to make them flee again and then re-direct into the Harpies (If they can see them) If the Shades hold from the original charge the Reiksguard will simply be able to overrun into the Hydra once they win combat and the Small Knight Unit will just charge the Harpies.

ICK: Move forward, staying 14" away from the Spearmen bus.  Rearrange characters in the unit so that the Lord cannot be in base contact with either Huss or the BSB.  If Lord is in the center of the Spearmen, move Huss and BSB to the edges of ICK.  If he is on one side or the other, move Huss and BSB to the opposite side of ICK.

The downside here is that if the harpies have not fled and the Knight Unit fails their charge on them then we risk losing the Hell Blaster to a Harpy Charge, however we may be able to clean them up with a Magic Missile. Either way that Hell Blaster is firing at the Warrior block with all the characters. (Another Gamble!)

The basic outline here is to hopefully wrap up the left flank in the next 2 turns and the right flank this turn. so for turns 5 - 6 we can focus all our attention on the Spear Horde with his characters and clean them up. while whittling down their numbers until the final charge

Thoughts?

[zifnab0]

Thoughts?

What about 2 dice to the steam engine and 2 dice to the steam gun?  Use the DG1 to block the Executioners.  It's not as many casualties, but higher odds of succeeding.

If the spearmen dare to move up during the Dark Elves turn, we can ram them with the tank in the side, if not we can charge the Executioners on turn 4.

[grifter]

Posted this on the old thread, what do you guys think?
(just updated it with the info HHG gave me).

Only 31 Executioners left. Maybe the STank should go for them in hopes of breaking them, together with the DG1. If that isn´t viable it should move to protect the HB from the Dark Riders (and get in the way of the Executioners) while the DG1 move behind the Exe´s to clean up those three Bunker-survivors and threaten the Spear Elves´ rear. Hellblaster should fire at the Executioners if we don´t charge them, the Dark Riders if we do.

The Reiksguard should charge the Shades. Or they could move towards the Spear Elves to cover the ICK. ICK could either charge the Harpies or
if that doesn´t seem viable to you guys, I propose moving them forward and slightly to the left to protect the Hellblaster and threaten a charge on the next turn if the Spear Elves don´t charge us first (and there hopefully shouldn´t be that many left after another round of shooting/magic  ).
We want to charge the Hydra with the DG2 (and possibly the Reiksguard, if the Shades run). Kn2 march around the forest to threaten the Hydras flank/the Spear Elves rear.

[Dnic]

I like Empire - Ulric´s plan, with one exception. Instead of attacking the EXE this turn, with our DG1, i will move the DG1 out of EXE´s LOS, and place them for a flank charge next turn.
This way, will it not be so bad if the steam tank fail the charge.

[Noght]

Thoughts?

What about 2 dice to the steam engine and 2 dice to the steam gun?  Use the DG1 to block the Executioners.  It's not as many casualties, but higher odds of succeeding.

If the spearmen dare to move up during the Dark Elves turn, we can ram them with the tank in the side, if not we can charge the Executioners on turn 4.

Well I'd be fine positioing the STank to block Riders and Steam the Execs along with 3 Arty short range + 3 Arty long range while the DG1 swing around to threaten center or rear of surviving Execs.  The forces out east should be fine.

[Fandir Nightshade]

Come on team blue input please!

Well thanks for the lineup ...I think the old rusty bucket of a stank also is down to one wound now.

I guess we should use this turn to demonstrate why we chose an all cav list ....mobility.

Running the stank into the executioners risks a lot without any great yield....the stank has to take a dangerous terrain test and even if it makes it there will be enough executioners left to kill it so we would crash into the unit kill a lot of them ....and die.

I have another idea....how about we clear all the possible chaff away (Harpies, dark riders) then we redeploy our stanks and our reiksguard towards the center and increase the pressure on the dark elves....we should also pool all missle fire and magic missles into the metal witch bunker.

there are 11 spears left one flock of doom could kill one or two models,  so if we could make a flanking cannon shot we should force another look out sir roll.......if she makes it they should be reduced to 4 or 5 models pour in the archers should bring another one down then both stanks make use of their steam guns no look out sir should result in one very dead witch. Three cannonballs concentrated on the unit....the steam tanks also might get something with their repeater guns and if we are a bit lucky next turn the spears in the center face the ic knights, the reiksguard two stanks and two units of knights....yes we will lose the cannon to the shades...but who cares if we get the biggest prize the General....with bsb, and death witch and the spear horde.


That is what I would do....the executioners would be stranded in the corner of the battlefield not able to help out until the game is pretty much decided....if we have enough ressrouces left after turn 4 we might chase them down in turns 5 and 6.

something like this



Redeploy redeploy redeploy

 

[Windelov]

Running the stank into the executioners risks a lot without any great yield....the stank has to take a dangerous terrain test and even if it makes it there will be enough executioners left to kill it so we would crash into the unit kill a lot of them ....and die.

It has 6 steam points, how about using going on the flank of the executioner and use 3 points on the steam gun, a flame template should hit almost all of them with S4, and then we run 'em down next turn = lots of Vpoints and we dont jeopadize it.?

[Fandir Nightshade]

But in the center we will be in trouble if we don´t concentrate on it...the executioners won´t pose any threat if we leave them alone.....also if the stank rolls low and stays in the charge arc...he is dead meat.

He can have a max of 5 steam points..so driving with 3 and cannon balling with 1 or 2.

[Empire - Ulric]

Dreadlord versus Team Green

Dreadlord  (Gen)          Full health
Noble  (BSB)            Full health
Death Sorc            Full health
Supreme Sorceress (front right)   Full health
47 Warriors              31

40 Executioners         31

15 Warriors            3 left
   
12 Shades            9 left

5 Dark Riders         2 left

5 Harpies            5 left

I believe Dreadlord should have 2 units of Dark Riders left still, both with 5 models left. Also the shades should still be at 12 models. (I'm pretty sure we didn't do jack to any of them)

[Windelov]

But in the center we will be in trouble if we don´t concentrate on it...the executioners won´t pose any threat if we leave them alone.....also if the stank rolls low and stays in the charge arc...he is dead meat.

He can have a max of 5 steam points..so driving with 3 and cannon balling with 1 or 2.

Forgot the maximal of 5 steam point. The executioner represents about 500 points, but I agree that we need to take down the metal witch if we are to survive. I think we could make the left archer detachement go around the shades blocking the charge of the great canon.

With 5 steam points, we can roll 2d6 for engine, use one for the canon and two for a steamgun shot of the harpies + the repeater pistol  = panic test for that harpy unit.
 

[Fandir Nightshade]

Great point about the shades!

I guess we should take the whole 3d6 on the engine to get away from the executioners I think even 1 steam point on the gun will be enough and steam gun and pistol on the harpies.

[Holy Hand Grenade]

Dreadlord versus Team Green

Dreadlord  (Gen)          Full health
Noble  (BSB)            Full health
Death Sorc            Full health
Supreme Sorceress (front right)   Full health
47 Warriors              31

40 Executioners         31

15 Warriors            3 left
   
12 Shades            9 left

5 Dark Riders         2 left

5 Harpies            5 left

I believe Dreadlord should have 2 units of Dark Riders left still, both with 5 models left. Also the shades should still be at 12 models. (I'm pretty sure we didn't do jack to any of them)

Yep, that is from a cut and paste job from the Blue Team. Easy to miss stuff.  I will modify the post.

[Windelov]

Great point about the shades!

I guess we should take the whole 3d6 on the engine to get away from the executioners I think even 1 steam point on the gun will be enough and steam gun and pistol on the harpies.

You're right about the harpies, 3 shots from the pistol should take down one harpy and the steam should take 1-2 = panic.

We need to make sure our knights dont get in the overrun path of the spears. I cant really figure if we make this more likely by moving the archers infront of them to the right as you suggest.

[Noght]

Or we could Stank the DR (execs wont be able to charge volleys thus way), shoot Execs with HBVGs, position the DG1 around the Execs for center support or rear charge....

[zakalwe]

Pretty much agree with what has been said so far.

If we don't kill the harpies, shuffling the ICK over a bit should block them from charging the hellblasters for a turn. ! in woood would be out of LOS, i think the far one is too far away.

If the reiksguard are forced to stumble forward, because the shades flee, how would we redress the centre and taking on the bus?

[Noght]

Or we could Stank the DR (execs wont be able to charge volleys thus way), shoot Execs with HBVGs, position the DG1 around the Execs for center support or rear charge....

Or we could just pound the Execs with the STank while they are unbuffed and we are unhexed.  Position the DGs assuming a successful steadfast test for a flank/rear charge.  Maybe we can Iceshard them also....

[Bildskoene Bengtsson]

I'm all for the plan Fandir proposed. Putting preassure on that witch is essential and the execs can wait. Hopefully the woods will strangle some more if they choose to take that rout. Losing the Cannon is acceptable and possibly even good for us since that'll mean that one of dreadlords chaff units is out of the way while all our major units are looking to charge his Spearmen.

[Fandir Nightshade]

I think windelovs idea of sacrificing the 5 left archers to give the cannon another round of shooting has some merits.....it would decrease our chances to reduce the unit below 5 though.

[Bildskoene Bengtsson]

I would much rather lose our Cannon AND have a chance to kill the witch than be safe with the cannon and not kill the witch. There is also a chance that Dreadlord will relocate the Shades to block the ICK (is that even possible by the way?) rather than go for the cannon.