Judd and I rounded out this series of a four scenario set with a spectacular finish. It came down to a 4 to 4 banner standoff. This game included two dragon card attempts by me to kill his leaders: a Ninja card, and a personal challenge. The Ninja failed, but I did get a kill with the Personal Challenge. I also forced one of his leaders to commit seppuku. However, both of these "wins" don't give banners, and while they did rid me of two of Judd's leaders, I did not advance in banners.
This game is the last of four that pit the glorious mounted samurai against gunners behind palisades. We both learned early on that it is very hard to get troops out of the palisades. Red (Oda) always has an advantage in the series. On this fourth scenario in the set however, there is one weakness in the line of defense: Oda's right flank. I decided going in to attack on his right to try and exploit the hole. However, that was also my left where I lacked enough cards. I pushed in and did some damage, but it was hard to follow through. The Dragon cards though did help to kill leaders. I finally ran out of steam, and had to push towards his left where the fences were. I got stuck and started to stall there. It was four banners to four (he got one banner via the one unit card). At this point I decided to pull everyone on my right back and try to move to the left and mop up his worn out troops. It almost worked. But Judd used an important rule to move leaders by discarding Dragon cards. This saved him from certain defeat. He was able to go on the offensive with more courage, and backed up with a Panic card hit my blue unit infantry. Red wins 5-4. Judd was able to get the White Dragon card to add one to his hand, then lost one card due to the seppuku, and then won it back again with a dip into the discard pile. He also got all the cav. charge cards, while I had none. It was al really close game and as you can see in the next picture, I went way into his territory while he did the same to me.
Great game Judd! One for the books.
After all four scenarios in this battle, Red won all four.
