War Phase - Turn 5 // madchemist
Highlights:
madchemist's elite tank hunters attack Rovsea's elite garrison at 06.04, dealing 11 damage and taking 8.
It's still madchemist's turn.
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War Phase - Turn 5 // madchemist
Highlights:
madchemist's elite tank hunters attack Rovsea's elite garrison at 06.04, dealing 11 damage and taking 8.
It's still madchemist's turn.
My tank hunters should have 1 more move still, so move to 07.03 to 08.03
10.03 to 07.03, attack and move into 06.04
Purchase 2 scouts at 11.04, move one to 11.07 and the other to 14.07
End turn.
10.03 to 07.03, attack and move into 06.04
Purchase 2 scouts at 11.04, move one to 11.07 and the other to 14.07
End turn.
Epilogue: Winds of Winter
Grey was the last to launch its counteroffensive. Their men fought with valour, but the cold severely hampered them. In the Southern pocket, Grey units were running short on food, let alone winter clothing or ammunition. Whatever little supplies managed to get through allowed them to make incremental progress - but ultimately, they were nothing more than symbolic attacks.
In the North, while supplies were more abundant, the cold was worse. Grey's elite units managed a valiant counterattack onto Yellow soil, as the first faction to do so, but despite their advantage over Yellow forces, they didn't get far. Blizzards set in earlier than expected and as tanks grinded to a halt, so did the stormtroopers supporting them. However much they wanted to, no faction could bring their troops to advance any further.
As the fighting ceased, the commanders looked towards the international stage, where more and more countries suggested intervening in the Empire's civil war if no peaceful solution was reached. Italy and France supported the Greens, while the United Kingdom advocated a three-state solution, but everyone's attention was on the U.S. and U.S.S.R. As leaders of the Capitalist and Communist worlds, respectively, their clout could decide the fate of these negotiations.
President Truman was the first to break the silence. The United States had privately negotiated with all parties, but found that their democratic ideals were most adequately represented by the Yellow faction - or as one reporter said, "General Rovsea was the only leader willing to accept the humiliating demands imposed upon them by the American imperialists". As early as the end of January, U.S. Army troops which had previously occupied positions in Germany were unloaded in Yellow-held ports.
Everyone expected a Russian answer. Although General Madchemist reportedly despised "that Communist pig" Joseph Stalin, he was smart enough to realize that Soviet troops were critical to his faction's survival and asked for their support. According to the Soviets, two infantry corps had been deployed to Crimean ports, ready to rush to the Grey faction's aid - but none came. Unbeknownst to most, the Soviet Union had ceded the Empire to the American sphere of influence at Yalta, and they would not break their agreement... damning the Grey faction to a forced surrender. Green Command, too, realized the futility of their situation and surrendered. Much to the glee of his enemies, General Aedan was subsequently arrested and would have to face a tribunal under suspicion of war crimes - oddly enough, he was one of only a few soldiers to be prosecuted, leading some to suspect that this trial had something to do with General Madchemist's quick surrender.
The war which had taken tens of thousands of casualties over the course of 9 months, which had crushed the country's hopes of ever becoming prosperous, which for the former Empire meant becoming the sole European state more devastated than Germany, was finally over. Now, it is up to President Rovsea, with the United States' Marshall Aid and the newly elected Prime Minister, to lead the country to a brighter future. Not an easy task, by any means...
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The game ends in a YELLOW VICTORY BY TERRITORIAL RANKING.
Congratulations, Rovsea!
Tally:
Rovsea: 130-85 (+45)
madchemist: 109-84 (+25)
aedan: 90-85 (+5)
barkardes: 21-88 (-67)
Much like TH3's tally this one doesn't quite add up, but I think the differences are pronounced enough that this count is valid. Please let me know if you want a re-count.
After Action Report
This was one of the closest games in BFD history and definitely a very interesting one - although from a GM's perspective I would have loved to see some more all-out war between Rovsea and madchemist. I feel one of the main reasons why this game was so exciting are the changes in the 5th game, which weren't quite as apparent then due to that game's reinforcement system dominating strategy. One-turn-kill strategies received quite a blow in the BFD 5 update and players have adapted their defensive strategies to take them into account. In my opinion, the game is better for it.
While tactics were important as ever, diplomacy came close to deciding this game. While that is inevitable in a 4-player competitive game, I do feel like some thought should be put into future maps to subtly enhance the tactical aspect of the game.
One of the major questions of this game was whether or not veteran infantry were correctly balanced. Veteran infantry were used this game, both as starting units and as promoted infantry. Although at time of writing these units haven't seen any combat yet, I feel they were adequately balanced; assault pioneers proved useful as starting units and both elite tank hunters and stormtroopers could prove critical for the final turn in a way which justifies their cost. It's without doubt that the "old" veteran infantry were too strong and it seems taking away some of their defensive capabilities was an adequate solution.
An interesting idea brought forward by Rovsea was to allow for improving units with reinforcement funds. For example, upgrading an armoured unit to elite armour for $30. I'd suggest allowing this in some way or another in future games. He also brought up airplanes as an option - but neither of us came up with a way to make that work in an interesting way without making the game overly complicated. Should anyone have ideas with regards to airplanes, though, I'm eager to hear them.
Furthermore, Rovsea advocated a notion which I don't necessarily agree with, namely that players should be able to buy (Blitzkrieg) tokens as reinforcements in order to make a delayed strategy viable. In my opinion, reinforcements are a useful counterbalance to one-turn-kill strategies in that they are more useful if you're fighting close to your own territory. This only works if reinforcing units take some time to travel to the frontline, so I think it would be unwise to allow for "instant" reinforcements like tokens and paratroopers - but feel free to discuss.
Finally, I'll gladly close off the general review of this game by noting that scouts were used to good effect by two players. They remain a situational unit, but I'm glad that they're no longer as inviable as they used to be.
barkardes
barkardes went with the classic strategy of going for the quick armoured kill on his opponent. This has worked admirably two or three times before, and it almost worked this game. His setup was adequate defensively, enough to buy him a turn against an enemy blitz, but otherwise offensively oriented. His strategy of using militia to disable the neutral minefields was notable; I wasn't sure if everyone would realise that these minefields weren't quite the barrier they appeared to be, but barkardes definitely did.
Unfortunately for him, aedan had set up his units in a way to directly counter this kind of strategy. Deception is the bane of blitzkrieg, since (as we saw happen this game) the advancing armour will push against the wrong targets and once barkardes found out that he had been fooled, he had already overcommitted. barkardes did use scouts to good effect, finding two poorly guarded artillery pieces, but they didn't foil aedan's overall plan.
If barkardes could have done anything better, then it would be reading aedan's strategy from his deployment. I'm not sure if he underestimated his opponent, but from the fact that aedan's "troops" were deployed on both borders in significant numbers, it should have been clear that he had gone for a deceptive strategy of sorts. Had barkardes realized that, he would have known not to push through his blitz strategy and instead adapt with a more value-oriented setup in the diplomacy phase.
In the very end, barkardes tried to ask for madchemist's help, but he was defeated by aedan before madchemist could betray his trust.
aedan777
As noted, aedan went with a setup heavy on decoys and supply centers. This had the dual effect of keeping enemies at a distance and making sure that no one player could take him out in a single turn, at the cost of some $50 which could otherwise have been spent on fighting units. In my opinion, certainly in hindsight, this was worth the cost. I was more baffled by his use of artillery; deploying them in front of his tanks and only behind a thin veil of infantry was a gambit which cost him another $40 for no reason.
For a new player especially, aedan's grasp of the game's combat tactics was exceptional. Once barkardes had overextended into his territory, aedan did a good job of isolating barkardes' armour and pushing towards his heartland with minimal casualties. Promoting his infantry to Assault Pioneers was really helpful here as it allowed him to clear the minefields without investing in another engineer unit.
aedan, understandably anxious about being attacked, then tried to prevent an incursion into his territory by claiming that he'd go all-in against the first to attack him. This would have been a valid strategy, were it not for two things; first, that madchemist had a significant presence in blue territory, second, that aedan left one of his newly conquered industrial centers completely undefended. These two oversights paved the way for madchemist's dodgy interpretation of an attack and ultimately led to aedan's doom, as in order to maintain his credibility he was forced to overcommit to the east.
I think that diplomacy would have solved this matter far better to begin with than an ultimatum. Had aedan offered madchemist the oppurtunity to seize a predetermined amount of Blue territory and one industrial center peacefully, then he would have taken away both of his opponents' incentives to attack him and fueled a war between Rovsea and madchemist; putting him in the very position now occupied by Rovsea in this game. Holding too much territory before the end of the game is a burden, one that aedan could easily have bestowed upon madchemist under the guise of benevolence.
Rovsea
Rovsea, as a veteran of BFD, played a good game. His strategy of waiting to attack was more effective than he may have thought, even without a Blitzkrieg token as reinforcments; madchemist was forced to leave a large portion of his army in reserve to face Rovsea while aedan gradually moved more troops away from his northern border. Furthermore, his assault pioneers and engineers could construct roads which in turn allowed for quick movement of reinforcements to the front.
Initially, Rovsea went for a mixed setup, one capable both defensively and offensively. This makes sense, considering his delayed strategy. Elite garrisons and elite armour are tried and tested means to defend an industrial center, which made his defensive setup solid without having to "waste" funds on additional supply centers. Still, a dedicated attack could have taken him out in one turn, but I think this was a calculated risk.
In my opinion, when he finally did launch his attack, Rovsea made a major and potentially game-losing mistake in attacking madchemist. Many of madchemist's offensive units were tied up in the fight against Green, but from cost analysis it was evident that he still had a strong defence in place. While aedan had sacrificed his entire defence against Rovsea in order to oppose Grey, Rovsea seemed set to win the game. Yet he jeopardised this victory by throwing units into a risky offensive which (if unsuccessful) could be immediately countered and swept up. Had Rovsea instead opted to spend his $70 worth in reinforcements on a defence denying madchemist the use of his roads, I think his victory would have been secured a turn earlier.
madchemist
madchemist's strategy was hybrid in that it was both defensively and offensively capable, and relied on supporting his armour with elite infantry. He may have slightly overvalued non-veteran elite infantry, but considering that manipulating engagements to gain veterancy is relatively easy, the strategy was definitely viable. He guarded his supply center with elite armour almost the entire game, and rightfully so - but defending his industry with non-elite garrisons was a tad underwhelming, seeing as a large part of his army was elite.
Although madchemist's plan revolved around attacking barkardes in force, he was quickly forced to rely on his backup plan to defend against Rovsea. Due to the constant threat against his right flank, he couldn't properly deploy against barkardes and was "cheated" out of seizing one of his industrial centers - at first. Ignoring barkardes from the start and instead attacking Rovsea right away could have been a valid but risky strategy, one which would have put him in a similar situation to aedan had he won.
Instead, he remained in position until he could strike a deal with Rovsea that they would both attack aedan simultaneously. At that point, aedan had gained a lot of ground, so I fully understand why this plan was formed. What I do not really understand is that madchemist thought that aedan would not consider his sally a proper attack and respond. By moving his troops up into close contact with Green and taking one of their industrial centers, he forced aedan to either commit against Grey or fully place his trust in madchemist not attacking. With so many troops on such a small area, diplomacy seemed bound to falter.
I started writing this under the assumption that madchemist found one of the strategies to win. Unfortunately, it seems that despite playing well he missed a chance to win his first game of BFD. A fact quite indicative of this game, really, which was played exceptionally well by all players on a tactical level, but dominated by a few errors which caused the game to be more close than any before.
Thanks to @barkardes @aedan777 @Rovsea and @madchemist for playing, I'm looking forward to fighting you in the next game! I hope you all enjoyed playing. And thanks of course to @ThunderHawk3 for supporting me as GM this game
BFD Challenge: Win the game as Grey on Turn 5. You do not need to attack any hidden units.
A hearty congratulations to Rovsea for his hard-fought second BFD victory. I watched this game with great interest.
I will say that I preferred my reinforcement rules better. I also have several ideas for how airplanes should work. I generally imagined them not as units, but rather as a sort of reusable token, and very expensive. I also considered adding airports to the game. I have a lot of ideas for ways to change or add to BFD, but I'm not going to make any changes for the next game (assuming I GM the next game). Right now I am trying to stabilize the BFD rules for at least a few games so it's actually possible to learn the game and players don't have to constantly adapt to ever-changing mechanics.
On the subject of this game, I'll only say that no one played in the way I expected them to, and a few players probably could have used a better understanding of supply. I think Gen. Marshall covered most of the other relevant points. I agree with his thesis that most players played well, but with a few important errors that dominated the game.
This was the closest game in BFD history, possibly because Gen. Marshall wasn't playing. It was very interesting to watch.
EDIT: I also got Marshall's challenge. Will PM him the solution.
I will say that I preferred my reinforcement rules better. I also have several ideas for how airplanes should work. I generally imagined them not as units, but rather as a sort of reusable token, and very expensive. I also considered adding airports to the game. I have a lot of ideas for ways to change or add to BFD, but I'm not going to make any changes for the next game (assuming I GM the next game). Right now I am trying to stabilize the BFD rules for at least a few games so it's actually possible to learn the game and players don't have to constantly adapt to ever-changing mechanics.
On the subject of this game, I'll only say that no one played in the way I expected them to, and a few players probably could have used a better understanding of supply. I think Gen. Marshall covered most of the other relevant points. I agree with his thesis that most players played well, but with a few important errors that dominated the game.
This was the closest game in BFD history, possibly because Gen. Marshall wasn't playing. It was very interesting to watch.
EDIT: I also got Marshall's challenge. Will PM him the solution.
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I agree with the review.Well-written.
I think I like the reinceforcements mechanics of this one better.
Well,I thought of a aircraft before,so here is my opinion.I don't think that I can balance this,but it may give some ideas.(Also,this one has this game's reinceforcement rule,it can also be imported to other rule by a little work though)
-Airport is a building can be built by an engineer in 2-3(balance issues) turns or bought by a price of 50-60(think of it as all the planes and other stuff) .It has a range of ...(balance issues again)
-An Airport can bombard a hex,with some money(like 5$,since airport is already expensive).If a bombarding takes place,the unit in the hex loses half of it's hit points.Also,That hex can't be used to supply for a turn(until the person who bombed there starts his next turn).
-Paratroopers can be dropped in the range of airport.Since it has a limit,it may be purchased as a reinceforcement.
-When you capture an airport from enemy ,You can use it.Like using Industrial Centers,you have to wait one more turn,though.
I think I like the reinceforcements mechanics of this one better.
Well,I thought of a aircraft before,so here is my opinion.I don't think that I can balance this,but it may give some ideas.(Also,this one has this game's reinceforcement rule,it can also be imported to other rule by a little work though)
-Airport is a building can be built by an engineer in 2-3(balance issues) turns or bought by a price of 50-60(think of it as all the planes and other stuff) .It has a range of ...(balance issues again)
-An Airport can bombard a hex,with some money(like 5$,since airport is already expensive).If a bombarding takes place,the unit in the hex loses half of it's hit points.Also,That hex can't be used to supply for a turn(until the person who bombed there starts his next turn).
-Paratroopers can be dropped in the range of airport.Since it has a limit,it may be purchased as a reinceforcement.
-When you capture an airport from enemy ,You can use it.Like using Industrial Centers,you have to wait one more turn,though.
Thunder did in fact manage to achieve victory as Grey, and it involved buying the same reinforcing unit as in my solution.
Personally, I prefer this game's reinforcements system, but I'll readily admit that I'm not the most impartial person to be judging those things. Without a doubt, though, either system works well.
On the matter of planes, here's the convo Rovsea and I had about it;
Personally, I prefer this game's reinforcements system, but I'll readily admit that I'm not the most impartial person to be judging those things. Without a doubt, though, either system works well.
On the matter of planes, here's the convo Rovsea and I had about it;
The thing about the airplanes is that I actually had considered both the abstracted "pay money for bombing run" and adding three new units and an airbase, which was too complicated. Even his reasoning as to why not make it more complicated I agreed with. That's why my reply is so short; he basically already said exactly what I was thinking.
I agreed that I probably made a mistake launching an assault on MC. In hindsight, I probably should have done some army cost calculations, but to be honest I didn't feel like it because then I'd have to go back and factor in his reinforcements as well. I got greedy and tried to gain ground in both aedan's and MC's territory instead of just ensuring that MC couldn't make any gains or flat out killing him.
Also, Elite infantry and regular infantry are quite possibly useless, as are artillery. Garrisons (elite and otherwise) are scarily cost effective, Armor and Veteran infantry have a lot of offensive power (and some specialized defensive), Engineers are useful support units for constructing roads and zoning off land with mines, or clearing the same from the enemy. On the other hand, Artillery are hard to use cost effectively (without blitzkrieg tokens it takes 4 turns to earn back their cost in dead Infantry and militia), and infantry, Elite or Otherwise, lack flexibility. Elite Infantry look nice, but their reduced offensive capabilities, lack of mobility in comparison to armor, and capability to attack only once in a turn (without a blitzkrieg token) make them pretty hard to use. They can't take out 5 strength units in two attacks, like armor can, and even if they could it would take them two turns to do so. They only get halved movement on roads, so they can't pull off the insane cross-front offensive shifts that an armored spearhead can either. Regular infantry are more of the same, but their two movement makes them harder to use both defensively and offensively. To be honest, I consider militia a more useful offensive unit and garrisons are better defensive unit, and both are less expensive.
Having used some elite infantry myself last game, I must disagree. While in their base form they're evidently worse than other units, the fact that they can promote to a unit type which both costs 2.5x more than it and is likely to be situationally applicable is really valuable.
I liked the veteran infantry; honestly, I think infantry (and just about any non-tank units other than garrisons) are pretty close to useless without the ability to upgrade.
Seems reasonable.
More or less my assessment exactly. Aedan's alternatives were to accept what I had done or to commit suicide. He chose the latter.
The idea was that my front lines would be difficult to breach, given the elite status of my main army. The garrisons were mostly so that nobody would have had any ideas about paradropping units.
Like I said, I was 50-50 on how aedan would respond. The fact that I had clearly not committed my full forces to his destruction should have been indicative of my intentions, and I was hoping that he would see the necessity of him not being allowed to hold 4 industrial centers when his opponents were limited to 2.
Still not seeing it. If my southern army could move, I agree it would have been possible. But I'd have needed to capture 10 more hexes from Rovsea, and I still needed to seize the industry because of its extra value, which took almost my entire army as it was. I don't see anything that can move as fast as what would be required, given that armor wasn't an option.
I'll point out that your elite armour only needed one more movement in order for you to win.
Presumably solvable by buying an engineer and building roads, but that's still not enough, by my count.
If you want, I'll PM you the solution. Either way I'll post it here sometime tomorrow so that others have a chance to look at it.
I see it, it's about getting the elite armour down to 05.11 using Rovsea's road network against him. Can't be bothered to put together the orders though.
Oh, right, industrial centers count as roads for movement purposes. Yeah, that would have altered my calculations significantly, then.
Meh.
Meh.
aedan is right, by building roads at 09.04 and 12.04 and using IC as roads, madchemist could have taken Rovsea's unguarded industrial center. As an alternative to taking Rovsea's guarded IC, or possibly even at the same time (I haven't checked) he could also have taken aedan's IC at 10.12 by building a road at 11.10, sacrificing his infantry into the minefields, tagging the IC with both of his armour, then pushing in with his other infantry.
I think that more or less wraps up the game; so I encourage you all to check out BFD 7, which is once again hosted by ThunderHawk!
