Cancon 2018 Aftermath - Part 2

This is a continuation of my report of the recent Clash of Kings tournament at Cancon 2018. You can find the previous part here.

Game 2: Invade
Nick Prosser, Brotherhood

Well, my first game was a bit of a struggle. But now I had practice and I was heading down the tables to play other people who also got schooled in their first game, so things were looking up. Next up with Nick with his Brotherhood army.

Nick had arranged a screen of Villein light cavalry for his main units, and had lots of flying Forsaken guys on his flanks.

Look, I remembered to Vanguard! Yay me!

Nick got the first turn and advanced under the cover of the Villeins.

So by this point I was formulating a "plan". I wanted to waver all the Villeins whilst I got into position, so that Nick would be stuck responding to what I did the following turn. Not a fancy plan. But better than nothing.

The Drakon went in alone against the Villeins on the right and failed to waver them. Oh well, they were still slightly in the way. My shooting accidentally over-performed and routed the middle unit.

The Forest Shamblers really should have wavered their Villeins. But they didn't. So my plan was a complete bust. Oh well. In order to try to ensure that I'd be able to get them into the main event sooner rather than later, the Wild Guard elected to show their flank to the Forsaken lurking on my left. If they wanted to fly into difficult terrain for a flank attack, I'd take that. They didn't, alas.

I had decided the Stormwind Cavalry would have to wear a charge from something, so had moved them within range of just one of the Forsaken units. They took the invitation and charged. Hurt a little. Could have been worse.

Having failed to waver the Villeins, the Drakon was forced to endure a multi-pronged assault from a flying hero and the peasants themselves. He wore it pretty well. He was doing his job.

The Forest Shamblers wore a combined charge from the Villeins and one of the main Brotherhood regiments. That was ok. I was tough and the Green Lady was there to give them inspiring. Right? Actually no, she was about 6.1" inches away. My fault. I'm sure I could have gotten her there. The Forest Shamblers routed.

The Forsaken on my flank were clearly not going to be baited easily. How annoying. Good thing I was largely ignoring them at this point, hey. I drew lots of false confidence from the presence of the hindering terrain.

Poor Forest Shamblers. I had let them down. They most likely would have endured with a re-roll.

The Drakon shrugged off his assailants and didn't even waver. What a boss! (I have somewhat pessimistic expectations about these things)

The Stormwind Cavalry also didn't waver, but took more damage than I had hoped. They were going to struggle to win this fight. And... I was not likely to have anything to send to help them. Maybe some shooting. Maybe.

Actually, I take it back. Clearly the Drakon did waver (those low expectations are there for a reason), but he had still done his job. He had helped expose the flank of the Forsaken hero and my Palace Guard did the rest. Then my shooting wavered the Forsaken lurking further on the flank. Excellent.

With the help of Bane Chant, the Sea Guard had charged and dealt with the Brotherhood regiment, whilst the Wild Guard handled the already-damaged Villeins. My Tree Herder decided it was his turn to show a flank to the Forsaken. One day Nick would be tempted by my juicy juicy flanks...

Juicy juicy....

Right, so now we had the main event. In the interest of trying to avenge their brothers, both remaining Brotherhood regiments went straight into the front of the Sea Guard. Had he remembered what spears and the Phalanx rule did? Honestly I don't think so. In their defence, they did do some damage. but they were not close to wavering my unit.

My turn for terrible revenge. Wild Guard into the flank of one unit, Sea Guard into the front of the other. It was a good plan, but I only had enough Bane Chant for one unit. I don't even remember who I cast it on, or if it worked. The Sea Guard routed their unit and the Wild Guard failed in their mission to deal with the others. Honestly that was probably the wrong way around, as the unit facing the Sea Guard would still have done limited damage. But the other unit was now in their flank.

The Palace Guard charged and routed the wavering Forsaken, then turned back to deal with the guys who were still being mean to my Drakon (who was still wavering like a boss).

Right. So. As a rule, it's a good idea to make sure that there are no enemies in your rear. Like when a Forsaken unit declined repeatedly to charge the flank of your Wild Guard and Tree Herder, and eventually flew clean over the head of the Tree Herder and had turned to look back into the field from hard on my flank. I had developed tunnel vision and completely forgot they were there when I reformed the Sea Guard. It was entirely my own fault. And yes, it cost me the Sea Guard. Sigh. Juicy flanks indeed.

Speaking of tunnel vision, I also forgot that the Stormwind Cavalry had abruptly succumbed to the efforts of the other Forsaken unit, who had turned back to look at my other units. Just didn't see or think of them when I was turning the Palace Guard back toward the main battle. As it happened, the way Nick rolled, they would have died to a frontal charge. Would either of us have expected that to be the outcome though? No. Again, my fault. I am an amazing player.

One of the heroes (I think they were Exemplar Hunters) had made it into my back field and was cleaning up my Bolt Throwers. Nothing I could really do about that. It was easy work for him.

OK, so I had taken a winning position and thrown it away with a serious case of peripheral blindness. Time to see if I could salvage the situation. The Wild Guard and Tree Herder went into the Brotherhood regiment. And bounced. Come on, guys!

The Drakon finally routed afte the sustained pressure he had been enduring. I think my shooting (maybe the mage) removed the hero over there, but my flank was now non-existent.

The Villeins and Brotherhood dealt with the Wild Guard, then went in after the Tree Herder. He was a bit tougher, however. He wasn't going anywhere.

As is usually the case, I really only started to focus on the objective right at the end. I couldn't possibly win. Most of what I had left were non-scoring Individuals. The Tree Herder was the only thing that could score by being in my opponent's table half. Nick had already moved his Forsaken over to my side, so I was doomed to lose. I could reduce the margin. however. The Tree Herder charged the Brotherhood regiment (which was also just over the line on my side), routed them, then went back D3". I think he needed to back up 2" to score. He went 1". No points for me.

In the end it had been a pretty fun game, with things see-sawing and not a lot left on the field by the end. Of course I was aware that I probably would have won the game if I hadn't had a fit of blindness and forgotten both regiments of Forsaken, but that's OK. I wasn't too annoyed at myself.

Result: Loss, 6-15

You can find the next part of my report here.