EDBAG battle for the mountains

Last night was the fourth night of the EDBAG HoTT campaign and there were six guys out. The goal of the campaign is to get four mountain spaces on the Board and Dave was close at the beginning of the night (holding three). That made him the target.

First game saw the dwarves come to the aid of the misunderstood imperials who (quite innocently) wandered into the realm of the ice queen. This game was going badly for the ice queen (think "swearing and thrown dice" bad) until she managed to ensorcel both Darth Vader and the Emperor and thus pushed back the invasion.

Over on the other table, Dennis and Scott squared off with Bruce supporting Scott. Dennis managed to bag Scott's stronghold with a sneaker and win his second mountain. These two forces would face off again in the second game with a general kill win for Dennis, thereby taking one of Scott's home territories. Dennis was unstoppable!

The imperials dusted themselves off for a second go at the ice queen, this time with the help of Bruce's imperial Romans (us emperors got to stick together). This went better for Dave despite some gamey terrain play using lurking probe droids. Dave's dice came around in this game, though!

As Dave advanced into heavy blaster fire, the Emperor and Darth Vader made an end-run to bag the ice queen's stronghold. We had then a long period of back and forth as the stronghold held out against sabre thrusts (for five or six turns--how many sixes are on that die!) and the stormtroopers (rather luckily) pushed back the icemen. Eventually Dave's luck ran out and the stronghold fell just before the stormtroopers crushed his army. The imperials scored their first mountain square.

Up next: Some 25mm terrain and then some 15mm cavalry.

EDBAG HoTT Campaign Night 2

Last night was the second night of the EDBAG king of the mountain HoTT campaign. In turn 1, both Dave and Terry managed to grab mountains, joining Dennis with one mountain each. I joined Bruce as an allied contingent in game one, facing down Dave's Winter Queen army.

You can see me way over on the left (three bases of storm troopers) trying to join the fray across the river before Dave bagged Bruce's camp. No joy for me--I almost made it to the river before the game was over.

In game 2, I was also unable to be an attacker or a defender so I again sent an allied contingent (otherwise I would have just sat around). The way the geography in my part of the campaign map works, it looks like there is only about a 50% chance I can be an attacker or a defender in a fight each turn (otherwise I'm an allied contingent) and the chip draw means that I will only be the attacker 50% of the time that I'm a major combatant. And attackers will almost always face a defender and ally!

So, some strategizing was required. With that in mind, I decided to try and even up the odds for the next time I get to play attacker. I decided to join Dave defending a mountain against Dennis' imperialist ambitions (errr... sorry, desire to restore his historical territorial integrity). Stopping Dennis is in my interests. But I also decided to be minimally helpful in the hope that Dave would lose some elements and be weaker next game.

This didn't work out exactly to plan, with Dennis being down four bases before I even really got on the board. Yes, Dennis would get stopped, but Dave was looking like he'd have no losses at all! So Lord Vader maneuvered in behind his "ally" at a funky angle, causing some recoil woes (and general outrage). And then Dave's dice went south (way south) and suddenly it was an even game.

Eventually, Dave and I managed to take a base from Dennis and we called it a night. Dave rolled back all of his losses (drat) but Dennis did not get the mountain square. I'll be sure to wear my teflon gaming short next night... . I don't think any other attackers were successful that turn so Dave, Terry and Dennis remain tied at one mountain each.

Up next: Some 15mm foot are underway and I finished building and priming some 15mm winged hussars. Next Tuesday I'm playing some Dux Bellorum at the club with Will.

First night of EDBAG HoTT Campaign

The first night of the newest EDBAG HoTT campaign started last night in Dennis' loft. There are 10 guys playing. It is a map campaign (very abstract) with the goal being to take four of the six mountain hexes. We had time for two turns last night and the theme is "fantasy" so armies are a real mix.

The first turn I ended up fighting Bruce's Imperial Romans with my Imperial Stormtroopers. Dave's Winter Witch army sent Bruce a contingent which showed up in my rear. Based on the mechanics, the attacker will almost always face a defender AND allied contingent and that contingent has a 50% chance of arriving in the attacker's rear. Some diplomacy will be required to make this work!

I felt like I had Bruce on the ropes but the dice didn't work out and then I lost. My efforts to use the force to choke him were unsuccessful. I managed to get all of my troops back (replacement mechanic is pretty generous so a loss is more of a set-back in the strategic game than anything). In the second game, I faced Dennis' potpourri barbarian army with Stu as my contingent. Dennis is the only one to capture a mountain hex in the first game so we needed to stop his ...errr... imperialist ambitions.

Things went pretty well for me. Stu's arrival in the rear distracted Dennis' general and Dennis' pips were terrible so he took quite the beating before breaking. I'm not sure my lightsabre sound effects were appreciated. But he got all but one stand back. As far as I recall, no one got a mountain hex is the second campaign turn. Getting four hexes is going to be tricky!

Up next: I have a building underway and some ring wraiths but things will be slow for a bit yet.