War Unleashed battle no. 2

So in this battle, I'm happy to say we could use Figatures - these are used to represent your Unit on the Terrain Map and are free to download and assemble from our website - warriorelite.com

We each had 3 Units. I, again, was the Ang and Ash played as the Dzaa.

Ang Unit Tactics

This battle I opted to have a Unit of Marsh Riders, one Unit made up of a rank of Archers and 2 ranks of ShieldMaidens and one Unit made up of two ranks of Archers and one rank of ShieldMaidens.

All my units could fire at ballistic range and charge range. Due to their rate of fire and being able to fire from rearward ranks, the infantry units also had a conflict bonus of 3 - this means that win, lose or draw the round, if my conflict bonus is higher than my opponent, I would do damage to him. I knew this would be the case against the Dzaa.

So my plan was to keep the Dzaa at range.

Dzaa Unit Tactics

Ash opted for a unit of cavalry, a unit made up of one rank of gunners and two ranks of swords and a unit made up of one rank of swords and two ranks of gunners.

The unit with two sword ranks and one gunner could form a shield cover at ballistic range which would absorb 10 damage. His other infantry unit was set up to compete with the Ang archers until they could close in when he planned to unleash the cavalry.

The total army cost of the Dzaa units was less than the Ang so Ash gained himself a higher Combat Master - champion.

The Dzaa's aim was to close and engage in hand to hand as soon as possible.

The Battlefield

The battle was to fought over terrain dominated by woods. Dotted amongst the woods were clearings. The woods closest to the centre of the battlefield were dense enough to prevent a unit creating a unit composition - i.e. this would prevent the Dzaa swords from creating their shield cover.

Mounted troops could take advantage of the clearings as their speed would carry them over these terrain positions in one go - unlike the infantry where it would take them two goes to accomplish this.

The Battle Begins

During the 'Deployment Phase' both of us got two Vanguard Units - these can make a free move before other units. I also got a Flanking Unit. A flanking unit isn't placed onto the battlefield until after the third duration but can be brought on from any edge bar your opponent.

So after initial deployment and first moves, three Dzaa units faces off against two Ang units.

The Battle Unfolds

I held my Ang units back, forcing Ash to bring his Dzaa units on. After the third Duration I brought my unit of Marsh Riders - my flanking unit - on from one edge of the battlefield which enabled me to combine two of my units - indicated in the above image. This gave me a distinct advantage.

After we had exchanged arrows and bullets for a Duration I allowed the Dzaa to close in to the charge combat level. Arrows, throwing axes and bullets flew.

The remainder of the battle was fought in this position. I kept playing the 'Retreat' and 'Hold' Stratagems to enable me to remain at the charge combat level as often as possible. Why? Because the Dzaa swords can't use their shield cover at that range so can't reduce damage they take. Plus, I had my conflict bonus which dealt 3 damage every round - whether I won, drew or lost the round. This tactic won me the battle.

To the Winner the Spoils

Revenge was mine! My tactics won through. Having a flanking unit at the beginning made Ash wary of his army movement and as a result I capitalised by combining units. Drawing the Dzaa to the charge combat level and keeping them at that range as long as possible was also key - doing little bits of damage every round soon mounted up.

The Dzaa shield infantry - such as swords or spears - are weakest at the charge. At ballistic they can reduce damage by 10 as previously noted and in melee they can form a shield wall and reduce damage taken by 5. So to defeat them, you keep them at charge . . . if you can!

Other Actions of Note

Ash did manage to avoid the woods that countered his unit formations and also brought the 'Terrain Dominance' Stratagem card into play. This prevented me from benefiting from the ability to use woods to guard - basically, this gives you the opportunity to use the woods like a shield and take no damage when you lose a round. I obviously countered this as soon as possible.

Ash kept his cavalry out of harm until we closed and exploited a clearing on the battlefield to charge in and engage my marsh riders. When these units came together at melee he gained the attack bonus for extra impetus which wiped out one of my marsh rider ranks in a single round!! Ash's cavalry fared well and were winning their unit vs. unit fight but overall it wasn't enough.

War Unleashed Battle no. 1

With War for Edadh you play over a battlefield represented by a single Terrain Card. With War Unleashed your battlefield is far larger and so deployment and strategic movement of units enters into the game. A library of these battlefields will be available free to download from warriorelite.com.

We're using dice to represent each unit but watch out for details of official unit counters later this month!

We had our armies prebuilt. I was playing the rebel Ang and built 3 units based around their long range advantage. Each unit had 3 ranks as the bows in the 2nd and 3rd ranks can fire and boost the strength of the unit.

My opponent played the Dzaa Empire and also built 3 units. Two of these consisted of 2 Troop Cards equipped with shields and 1 Gunner Toop Card. This enabled him to build shield cover formations – i.e. the Roman Tortoise – but still be able to shoot at range. His last unit was a cavalry one.

The above image shows the progress of the battle. I'm on the left, my opponent on the right. The more coloured terrain positions in the top left image show where the hills are on the battlefield. All other positions are grass.

During deployment – which you play for – my opponent managed to get 2 Vanguard Units and I only 1. You can move Vanguard Units for free before deploying the remainder of your army. After the deployment phase our armies were set up as shown in the top-centre image. I've circled my opponent's cavalry unit.

My opponent was trying to close as quickly as possible as his army is way stronger in melee. I was aiming to hit him as much as possible at range. After the first lot of movement my archers could fire at one of his units and after the next movement all my units could shoot. My opponent kept his cavalry as safe as possible. At this point 2 of my units could gang up on one of my enemy's units which gives a strong advantage – see bottom-left image.

During the next movement I retreated to keep pouring those arrows down but my opponent did manage to catch one of my units napping and engage it at short range. If my opponent had moved to the position where I have put the solid red circle – bottom-middle picture – I could've again had the advantage of 2 units against 1. Surprisingly he didn't go for this and after the next movement we ended up as show in the bottom-right image and eventually closed to melee where the remainder of the battle was slugged out.

Ang Unit Tactics

3 ranks of bows in each unit meant that win, lose or draw a round the Ang would damage the Dzaa by 4 points! If the Ang won a round they could do up to 17 damage if the unit champion also came into play. This is a lot.

If the Ang could get 2 units shooting at just 1 enemy unit then this would increase the attack and potentially move the amount of damage to 20! In a single round!

Dzaa Unit Tactics

A Dzaa shield cover will reduce any damage taken by 10. This meant that the Ang's bow units would be checked somewhat. But the cavalry can't build a shield cover and so had to be kept safe until they could engage the Ang at close range.

Key Points in the Battle

Although the Ang did get an advantage of 2 to 1, the Dzaa player managed to negate this by preventing the Ang from using its champion whilst the Dzaa could use theirs. The Dzaa had also brought the 'Terrain Advantage' stratagem into play which increased their defence. This compounded by a bad choice of which unit to attack with by the Ang resulted in the Dzaa not taking any damage even though the Dzaa player lost rounds!! Great defence played for and attained by the Dzaa.

The Ang failed to keep the Dzaa at long range for as long as they could've. This played into the hands of the Dzaa who were stronger when in hand to hand.

The Dzaa cavalry ended up charging a spear hedge of infantry – this is a unit formation where you have to have at least 2 ranks of troops all equipped with a spear of sorts. Cavalry would normally do 5 damage to infantry even if the player lost the round when attacking with them. However, a spear hedge counters this. If the Dzaa player had moved his cavalry to engage a different Ang unit it would've had a far larger impact on the game. As it was, the Ang speared the first wave of Dzaa Cavalry and negated all their momentum. Thereafter, the Ang's spear hedge had a distinct advantage over the Dzaa cavalry – a case of the Ang using the right unit formation against the opponent troop type.

The Ang player used his champions' skill cards well. In a round when the Dzaa would've dealt 6 extra damage due to the Mastery Card played, the Ang's played skill card prevented this and kept him in the battle.

The Ang player successfully used the 'Targeted Attack' stratagem to get rid of one of the Dzaa's strongest troops. This also destroyed the shield cover for the unit it was in. If the Ang had played his retreat better he could've gone on to exploit this fully. However, this was not to be.

Selection of which unit to play with when was critical. For example, a round was drawn and the Dzaa – due to having more Mastery Points remaining – could choose which units to be played that round. He could choose to either fight with a unit that was at the charge combat level or one that was at ballistic. If he chose the one at charge he wouldn't have gotten his shield cover bonus to negate damage so obviously chose the unit at ballistic. This resulted in him taking no damage that round but the Ang did.

The Terrain in the Battle

The Dzaa made better use of the terrain this battle. The hills enabled them to use the 'Terrain Advantage' stratagem whereas much of the grass prevented this. On moving in, the Dzaa exploited this fact. At the end, the Dzaa had lost this stratagem but the Ang had obtained it. However, 2 of the 3 Ang units ended up on terrain that prevented them getting the benefit of this stratagem.

Hills also afforded some cover and reduced the damage a unit took when at long range. The Dzaa used this fact as well when moving across the battlefield which contributed to them taking very little damage when being shot at.

A lot of the hills would've countered the Dzaa cavalry's advantage it has when it first moves to melee. The Ang failed to utilise this.

To the Winner go the Spoils!

So my opponent – the Dzaa – won. Poor movement in retreat and the Dzaa's strength in melee led to my downfall. I had burned more of my Mastery Points than he had by the time the units engaged in hand to hand combat and after it was over, my opponent confessed that he knew how to beat me in the 'end game'. It turns out that when I have few Mastery Points remaining I tend to play the same way – something I hadn't observed in myself but my opponent had, which contributed to his victory and my downfall.

Still, next time will be a different story!