The CACCN Tournament 2016

Was expecting to lose this one. Against my better judgement, I started with the "Vince manoeuvre" and went after his artillery with my LC, and also his exposed LN. Chased the LN back to the baseline ok, but my cavalry failed to kill a single block and was soon racing towards my own baseline. The dice definitely started against me, and over the coming turns although I took an early lead through attacking the village, my units across the battlefield seemed brittle and Alan had reduced several units down to 1-block. That they were able to escape to the baseline undoubtedly saved me in th long run. My cards were also relatively poor early on, but my hand did slowly improve. I was conscious throughout though that his guerrilla counter could negate one of those new found "special" cards, so I tried at various times to get him to play it. Over the game Alan had 3 or 4 gurrilla counters so it was a constant theme. In the midgame it felt like we were trading blocks. I was quite happy with that, edging closer towards the 8 needed and staying just ahead.
Eventualy, I went for a concerted attack on my left, managed to get my LT into daylight beyond the hills, and safe from his artillery and GR. Attrition had reduced his artillery over there to 1-block as well. Somehow, I had managed to keep my neck in front, just, but at this point I saw real opportunity to effect a couple of quick kills and set up an unlikely win. Alan countered on the other flank with his HC but that quickly stalled and my battling back was devastating. The dice had definitely turned by this time.
A couple of First Strike cards had kept me in the game, I felt. Also Alan's choice to fire his artillery separately rather than in combined arms probably let me off the hook. I could understand that he was hoping for good dice so he could attack two different units at times, but each time it backfired and my defenders were able to survive.
An enjoyable game, cat and mouse for a while, and one which even halfway through I thought I was going to lose. When I watch it back, I'll definitely choose the solitaire option so I can see which cards we had at the time. And at the end, take a look at all those 1-block Frenchies on the baseline. It could have been so very different!

Alan T. (Spanish) vs. Tony L. (French) at Tamames - French Win 8-5.

Alan - hope you don't mind, I am attaching the log file on the CCN site here as well.



I think the log file will tell all but to give my perspective on this battle, Alan did have me on the ropes with a well-executed cavalry charge forcing me into 3 squares at one point though a first strike early mitigated what could have been an epic disaster for the French. The 3 cards taken were Cavalry Charge, LGM and Rally, fairly decent cards to not have available. My squares were able to hold and in the ensuing turns, I had no flank cards to use but was lucky enough to get cards that would allow me to chip away at the Cavalry trying to pin me down (Fire and Hold, Forced March). while playing these cards, I was able to draw Elan, another Cavalry Charge and a Bayonet charge. Once the initial Spanish assault was blunted, I was slowly able to pick away from the pinning forces until I was able to finally come out of squares (or being eliminated in one units case) and play the back-to-back Cavalry charge and culminating in the Bayonet charge to win the game.

To be honest, I was sweating it out as I was down to 3 command cards and felt that eventually, the Spanish would destroy those square units and put me in a bind. I think what kept me from losing my nerve was that I had those good cards in square and if I could ease the tension, I would be able to turn it. At one point, I believe I was causing more casualties with flags than hits! As he did point out, not getting guerrilla counters did probably allow me to win the attrition battle on the French left.

In spite of all that, I think that Alan played a well-conceived game and the loss can be attributed more to the opportunities I had and the lack of guerrilla counters that he was able to collect.