Domains at War

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...

If a unit has, for example, three hoof attacks at +8, does that number include the +2 from charging? It'd make sense for it to, since hoof attacks are made exclusively while charging, but it'd also make sense not to include it just for consistency that all attacks on a charge are at +2 above printed values.

If two commanders roll equal initiative, and have equal strategic scores, you determine who goes first randomly. Should the determination be made when init is rolled, or do you wait until their turn starts? This is actually very important as it determines whether you can plan on going first or not.

The Auran Light Cavalry disengage and move to either side. One of them takes hits from both the horse archers and the skysos light cavalry, knocking off half their HP and disordering them. They stand firm though, so they complete their disengage. One of them makes a ranged attack after disengaging! I withdraw to avoid it. Then he brings his Medium cavalry around to flank and prevent withdrawal, except, you know, too late. Order of operations is very important. Otherwise that could've been really bad!

His heavily cavalry are able to charge into the gap that leaves though, and hit my Light Cavalry five times! They moonwalk backwards into the elephants, and then are forced to end movement because they're threatened, but since you can't end movement inside an ally, they bounce another hex. Two hexes of withdrawal is worth 8 points, so their attack goes from 20 to 12. Not bad!

http://imgur.com/bz3gZkO

He then moves Tarkaun up a little ways and rotates him to face my slingers, setting him up for a charge next turn. Poor unarmored sods. They're just men with rocks! To make matters worse, Danir's bowmen squad fires arrows at them with his composite bowmen! Fortunately, the thick white togas of the south repel arrows and my slingers are unharmed. Danir's footmen scootch up a bit.

Next, Mennic finally activates. His heavy infantry move up to back up Danir's. He himself flies boldly to Tarkaun's side, wizard and king back to back against the barbarian hordes! I'm a sucker for van art, and this is van art at its finest. Mennic can't do anything though, besides have one of his archers shoot my poor slingers. They take one hit which they negate by doing the southron shuffle (withdrawing.)

http://imgur.com/5DJduiy

Valanna and Peyman roll off, since they tied. Valanna wins, so it's her turn! Stay tuned for tommorow's exciting conclusion!

I'd do it at time of initiative determination, as it's a part of that process.

I cannot describe to you how upset I am over not cutting off your retreat with my Medium Cavalry before you could Withraw! Arrgh! That had been exactly my plan, but then I noticed I could make Ranged attacks after the Light Cavalry Disengaged and went, "Oooh, shiny!" completely forgetting my plan. Damnit!