Recon 2003 Report
By Tim
Sharrock
I used my new Tupi Army:
Magician General with anaconda
Hero on large Frog
Behemoth (a
Megadodo)
Two Riders (on large tarantulas)
Three Shooters
(Tribesmen)
Lurker (Anaconda)
Water Lurker (Piranha)
My first game, and my only loss, was against Alan. Alan was the appointed defender, and set up several smallish woods - no water for the Piranha. Aslan (paladin) and the children (hero general) advanced quickly towards my right flank - guarded by the shooters and the Megadodo, only for Aslan to fall to a shooter. Battle continued in the area - the dodo turned to face the children but fail a chance to get a kill, and was then forced back over my rider. (I chose to fight my dodo's combat first, when I could be push back over the rider, rather than risk Alan's giant pushing back the rider, and blocking the recoil room.) In quick succession the dodo and the hero fell to the giant-children combination, and I must have lost another couple of elements somwhere - probably a shooter to the beasts and a rider. 14-6 down, and I forgot to bring on the lurker when I had a chance.
My second game was defending against the pretty Zulu army, played by Jim. They consisted of eight warband, including the general, and two heros. My main battle line - the dodo, the hero, two riders and a shooter made straight for the double-ranked warband, while the magician and the two remaining shooters hoped to stop the heroes reaching my stronghold. The matchups worked well - behemoth against the warband general - but it took several turns of pushing and shoving before the Megadodo managed to beat and kill the pair of warband including the general. 4-0 to me.
The third game was with me as defender again, against the dwarves of one of the Daves (a hero, two shooters, and eight blades, including the general). My lurkers deployed against a shooter in the marsh - destroying it, but then both being forced to flee the battlefield in the next bound. The dwarf hero, remaining shooter, and a couple of blades came down one flank - and my hero a rider and a couple of shooters moved to intercept. This went well - with an ensorcelment of the hero, and the remaining elements surrounded and destroyed over a few bounds. I lost one shooter, I think, and the two lurkers counted as lost, so 12-2 to me.
My fourth and last game was against Brian's demonworld elves - hero general and two riders, aerial hero and two fliers, and three beasts. Brian defended with his hero-groups on his right and beasts near a patch of rough on his left. I set up as facing the beasts, and hoped to drive the hero, magician and riders round to his stronghold before the hero-groups caught up with me. Brian's aerial hero and friends caught and killed the dodo, and my shooters failed to deal with the fliers. The beasts came at the hero and rider out of the rough - I lost the rider, and the lurker, but the hero killed his wolf, and then turned on the second, with the magician close behind. Brian's aerial group then overflew the shooters, and, with the beast, had front-and-flank contacts on both my hero and magician, but both attacks failed, against the odds. the dice continued to favour me: the shaman ensorcelled the aerial hero, and the hero's frog ate the wolf-facing it. I had lost another shooter, and this left me 9 points down, but having killed/ensorcelled ten points worth. All I had to do was kill one more element before Brian rolled a six to let the aerial hero escape... so Brian pulled the flyers back out of magic and bowshot range, but my remaining rider attacked the remaining wolves - factor 3 vs 4, but the beasts rolled badly, and were destroyed by mounted in contact. I won, but it was close: 12-9, and relied on too many against-the-odds rolls for comfort!