Tag: Strategy games

We pick up the gameplay following Knud & Able’s continued ravaging of the Northern coast. Gavrilo has left the safe confines of Pskov to begin raiding the Teutonic regions to the west. The Russians draw the next card:

Gavrilo’s final command card is drawn. Let’s take a look at his situation on the map and discuss his options:

Gavrilo Has 2 commands and the Druzhina Arts of War card for a bonus of +1 command which gives him a total of 3 commands. It is tempting to move Gavrilo back to Izborsk so that he will be in a friendly location for the imminent Levy Phase. If he stays in Teuton lands he will not be able to participate in the upcoming Levy. This would be the smart play, I think, in a longer game but as it stand there is only 1 more turn in the game. I think Gavrilo must press on and try to keep the VPs close. He decides to move further West.

An important consideration is Yaroslav. He is on the map and could potentially take advantage of a levy to make him a more formidable opponent. He is also just a few hops up in ODenpah. Let’s look a little closer at Yaroslav’s situation.

Note Yaroslav’s service marker is on Turn 2. This means he will end his service and disband as soon as this turn is over unless he can find a way to extend service. He does not currently have coins which would allow him to move his marker 1 space to the right and extend to turn 3. If, however, the Teutons have a command card in the deck this turn for Yaroslav, then he could use it to tax and then extend service in the levy phase. The Teutons have not mobilized him for the entire turn so he most likely does not have a card in the deck.

The Russians, however, cannot be certain and so must be wary of Yaroslav potentially activating.

Gavrilo moves West to Adsel, then continues West to Wenden where he ravages gaining 1 loot and 1 provender. This takes 3 commands and yields enough booty to feed his troops. The Russians close in on the Teuton lead by gaining another 1/2 VP. Play switches back to the Teuton Lords for their final card of the turn.

It turns out Hermann is the last Teuton card. It’s been a while since we have seen Hermann. Let’s take a look at where we left him:

Hermann levied boats for transport so we need to keep in mind that he cannot carry anything with him unless he travels by waterway. It would also be useful to take advantage of the imminent levy phase. It looks like we can get one more ravage in and still make it to friendly territory.

Hermann will head West to Gdov, ravage and then head North following the coast of Peipus all the way around and back to his home seat at Dorpat completing a grand circuit.

Following the coast makes Gdov and Dorpat adjacent by waterway so Hermann took carried the provender he looted at Gdov with him to feed his troops. He ends his turn where he started back at Dorpat where he will get to take advantage of the upcoming levy phase.

The Russians get Vladislav’s last card. We last left him busily raiding the Northern Teutonic lands. He will continue to ravage the North. He moves west to Wesenberg castle and raids the countryside collecting provender and loot and then moves off to the Southwest arriving in Jerwin with his final command.

Vladislav ends his activation in Jerwin and that ends the campaigning season. There is a few administrative steps that occur before the next turn starts. Both sides must deal with wastage. Any lord with more than 1 type of assest must discard 1 asset.

Knud and Abel have 4 ships so they must discard 1 ship. Gavrilo has 2 Arts of War cards so will get rid of Luchniki and Hermann has 2 boats and discards 1 leaving him with just 1 boat. The trials of a campaign season are hard on equipment and transportation assets.

Since we have not yet sieged and stormed a keep or had a battle we will endeavor to set one up for the next turn which we will start in my next post.

The first turn card play continues with the Russian player. The Russians pull Lord Gavrilo from the command deck. Teutonic lords did not start with the usual strategy of immediately sieging Pskov so Gavrilo has been on the side lines thus far. Let’s take a quick look him:

Not knowing that the crafty Hermann was going to try a ravage strategy the Russian player absolutely loaded Gavrilo up with assets during the Arts of War and Levy phases. Gavrilo was given both Arts of War cards and he also mustered all three of his available vassals. This is all because Gavrilo sits in Pskov the usual early target of the crusaders. This has made Pskov difficult to take but has created problems now that the Teutons have chosen a more mobile strategy.

You can see why Pskov is a tasty target. It is close to the Teuton’s starting locations and Gavrilo is generally weaker than his Teuton opponents. It is very tempting as the Teutons to send Hermann & Gavrilo directly to Pskov for a siege and storm. This is why Gavrilo loaded up. The problem is what to do with him now that he is not likely to be defending his keep.

Gavrilo has 2 commands at his disposal. He is loaded for war with 9 units mustered. This means that moving and fighting costs him 2 provender. Gavrilo also mustered vassals instead of transports so he cannot take any provender when he moves. In short, early logistical decisions have hampered Gavrilo’s mobility.

We also need to consider the tactical situation. Gavrilo is between Hermann in the North and the yet unmentioned Lord Yaroslav in the West. Hermann is only 2 marches away from Pkov and has 1 card remaining. Should Gavrilo leave Pskov, Hermann could put it under siege and force Gavrilo to fight outside the Fortress. This would not be good. Worse when you consider that Yaroslav also nearby.

Yaroslav is not quite as yoked as Gavrilo but is probably strong enough to weaken Gavrilo enough for Hermann to complete the job. Here is Yaroslav’s mat for comparison.

It is both frustrating and boring but I think the best decision is for Gavrilo to stay put and see if Hermann moves out of range. The VP are still even so it is not yet time for rash decisions. Instead of sallying out Yaroslav can use a tax command.

Taxing will take Gavrilo’s entire card but gives him 1 coin token which can be used to extend the service of a Lord by pushing the service marker on the calendar to the right 1 space.

The Russians will be hoping to see Hermann’s card drawn. Since there are only 2 lords on the Russians side we know Yaroslav still has 2 command cards in the deck. Knowing Hermann is done for the turn would allow Yaroslav some much desired operational freedom. For now he is stuck holding Pskov.

Hermann’s card is not pulled. Instead, play returns to the Northern coast with Lords Knud & Abel.

Knud & Able have their own concerns. They have an large army (7 units) that requires 2 provender to feed and they only have 2 commands per card. They have to get a lot done with just 2 commands. The raiding Arts of War card will help with this situation. Here is Knud & Able’s mat:

The Raiders Arts of War card will allow Knud & Able a free ravage action as long as it is to an adjacent location connected by trackway. The order of operation for this turn is important. They will need to move first then ravage since they do they did not levy cart transportation and can’t take provender.

For command 1 Knud & Abel march to Vod. They use their raider Arts of War card to ravage Ingria which is adjacent by trackway. The ravage grants 1/2 VP and a Provender. Then with command 2 they ravage Vod where they are located for the 2nd Provender giving them a total of 2. This is enough to feed their troops and remove the moved fought marker. The 2nd ravage also earns another 1/2 VP for the Teutons.

That ends Knud & Ables 2nd command card. The score stands at 2 1/2 points for the Teutons and 1 1/2 points for the Russians. Gavrilo is going to need to start taking some risks or the game will be over.

We will take up the action with the Russians in the next post.

It is the Russian’s turn to pull a card from their command deck. We pull Lord Vladislav’s activation card. He will get 3 commands. The problem is trying to figure out what to do with these commands. We know the Teuton Lords will continue to attack and raid. We need to find a way to counter the Teutons before they accumulate too many victory points through ravaging. Let’s take a look at the Northern part of the map:

Hermann is active to the South but he levied boats for his transport so it is likely he will stick to the waterways. He is blocked from going North or East from his current location unless he drops his provender. Hermann did not levy carts. Knud & Abel are in the Far west but they have access to ships. Knud & Abel’s play mat shows their muster activity:

Knud & Abel mustered 1 vassal and 2 ships. They have enough ships to sail with all the cavalry units on their mat. Teutons need 1 ship per horse unit and this is exactly what they mustered. Three ships to haul the horses and 1 for the provender. Odds are good they will sail with their first activation. I have this on good authority since I am playing both sides of the game. Sailing takes the whole activation card but would allow Knud & Abel to land at any northern settlement with a port.

It is questionable whether Vladislav has the troops to win a battle against Knud & Abel who have powerful knight units. Vladislav’s levies are less capable:

The triangle pieces are cavalry units and the rectangle pieces are foot units. Here is a chart that shows the capabilities of all the units in the game:

The 4th column shows armor ratings for the various units. Any unit suffering a hit makes an armor roll using these ratings. A dice that comes up in the range listed on the armor table cancels the hit. You can see here that knights cancel hits with a roll of 1-4 making them the most armored unit in the game and very difficult to kill. Vlad cannot go toe-to-toe with the Teutons as things currently stand, the knights are too powerful. Losing a battle would give even more victory points to the Teutons so we need to find another way.

Instead of defending and battling we could focus on counter-raiding the Teutons. We can ravage the west and claim victory points to cancel their effort to raid. To ravage we need to be near Teuton territory so that means we need to move West.

This move puts Vlad on the border where he can use future commands to counter raid. Vlad used all three commands to march. This gives him the dreaded Moved Fought marker so he must feed his troops. He has a provender on his mat and uses it to feed his troops which removes the marker. He is fresh out of provender so finding more will be a priority during his next activation. There are command for this problem.

This ends Vlad’s activation and play returns to the Teutons who may once again draw a card.

The Teuton player draws Knud & Abel. Note that This Lord(s) only gets 2 commands in each activation. They are slightly less capable than Hermann or Vladislav. As anticipated Knud & Abel take the sail command.

This action (as noted in the requirements above) takes the entire command card to execute. Knud & Able sail up the black sea and land deep behind Russian lines at Neva. Sailing gives a unit the moved fought marker so Knud & Able spend their only provender to feed their sea sick troops.

Play moves back to the Russians. We will pick things up in the next post with the Russian response.