Back to Russia for their 4th strategy card. The Russians now trail by 1VP. It is time for them to get more aggressive and take some risks. The Russians draw the Gavrilo command card again:
Gavrilo is going to have to leave the safety of Pskov and risk Hermann heading South towards Pskov. Staying put would protect Pskov from attack but does not earn any VP for the Russians and the Teutons have pulled out to a concerning lead. Gavrilo must head West. He has only 2 commands but the Arts of War card Druzhina grants him a bonus action giving him 3 commands to work with this turn.
Gavrilo will head due west into Teutonic lands leaving the safety of Pskov behind. First command will be to march to Isborsk, 2nd command to Kirrumpah and then the third command will be used to ravage Kirrumpah.
The ravage command grants 1 provender in empty regions and in any other space you get loot as well. Kirrumpah is a fortunately a town so in addition to the provender he gets loot. Loot works like just like provender except it is alive and can move slowly on its own. Loot is essentially livestock.
You can use both loot and livestock it to feed your army. This will allow Gavrilo to spend the just acquired loot and provender to remove the moved fought marker and avoid the consequences of starving troops. The ravage also grants 1/2 VP for Russia and cuts the Teuton lead to just 1/2 VP. Pskov is left behind, vulnerable with just its inherent garrison.
Gavrilo’s move puts him adjacent to Odenpah and the location of the Teutonic lord Yaroslav. Given that both Knud & Abel and Hermann have been active the entire turn it is a good bet that the Teutons are not planning on activating him Yaroslav.
Even if they put a Yaroslav’s command cards in their command deck he would not likely present a combat challenge to Gavrilo. He simply does not have enough troops and would very likely lose a battle should he try to attack.
The Teutons are now up for their 5th command card. They pull the 3rd and final command card for Knud & Abel.
Knud & Abel are going to continue to ravage Russian lands. With command 1 they move Northwest to Koporye, a Russian fort. The fort is immediately placed under siege, since there is no enemy lord present, the fort’s intrinsic garrison is doing the defending. The first siege marker is automatically placed when any lord arrives at an undefended enemy fortification.
Knud & Abel used their Arts of War capability to Ravage the fort at Kaibolovo located in the adjacent area to the Southwest. They then use their final action to Ravage Koporye in their current location. These actions total 2 VP, 2 Provender and 2 Loot from the two ravaged regions. Knud & Abel spend 2 provender to feed leaving them with 2 loot on hand. The Teuton side takes a 1 and 1/2 VP lead over the Russians.
Knud & Able have no more command cards in the deck so they are done for the turn. There is 1 Teuton card and 2 Russian cards left to play for turn 1. We will complete turn 1 in our next post and see how the Russians respond.
Strategic Buffoonery 