semi-finals will begin tomarrow

sorry for the delay of beginning the semifinals. round 2 pairings are posting. you all have till next tuesday to complete your match. if their is going to be a problem completing the match please email me.

Well, Jeff showed me what an ass kicking felt like.  I'm renaming him to Left-Side-Jsharp.  A toe-to-toe slugfest saw Jeff play almost all of his cards down the left flank pulverizing my units and never giving them breathing room.  Couple that with 2 of his units being invisible for most of the match (read: die rolls stunk), and a well timed lore card that switched my command cards, Left-Side-Jeff romped me 5-2 in the first.  

He continued to use the invisibility armour in the 2nd game, beating me 5-3, for a 10-5 victory.  Very well played, Left-Side.  

NM  

--Last edited by NelsonM on 2007-02-02 09:54:35 --

Congrats to Jeff on his victory, he moves on to the bracket finals.  The logfiles from NelsonM and his match are posted on the site, as well as the after action report posted on the brackets page.

I enjoyed my match with NelsonM and am surprised at how well the game worked out for me.  I don't know if the replay is all that interesting, but I'd be interested in comments on strategic decisions that people might question.  

I'd like to offer a couple comments regarding our match, one concerning a turning point in this game and the others concerning strategic decisions.

An important turning point in the second game that I'm sure frustrated NelsonM was his attempt to repel my foot onslaught at the early stages of our first serious engagmenet of the game.  Nelson responded to my foot onslaught with a blue banners to bring cavelry forward and fully engage my line with stronger units (cavalry versus foot) and some terrain advantage (one blue on a hill).  His dice rolls had modest effect and my battlebacks had some hits but a good number of flags.  If his dice roll could have been slightly above average to even average my side would have likely collapsed, losing at least one unit, and he might have been able to make a run on catching up on my 5-2 lead from the first game.  I have noticed in a number of my games, turning points such as this and fortunately this one went my way last night.

One strategic observation concerns our decision to play adventure 2 with a custom, six level lore council.  First interesting outcome is our totally different choices.  I picked a Level 3 commander, Level 2 rogue, and Level 1 wizard.  Nelson picked a Level 2 commander, Level 2 cleric, and level 2 warrior.  Nelson and I didn't discuss our logic behind the decision, but we obviously came to the board with a different set of strategic thoughts.  Let me share, perhaps to my future strategic disadvantage, my logic concerning my choice of lore council members.  I like cards that create options and allow opportunities to "outplay" my opponent.  I also like cards that allow a some amount of control over the game, either by influencing movement, command card play (such as with stolen orders), or counterspells.  My thinking about the lore cards is influenced by my experience as a reasonably skilled Magic: the Gathering player and my current plan to approach Battlelore with a goal of playing aggro-control (aggressive, but with a capacity to control the flow of the game).  I feel there's a bit more control assocaited with the the rogue and wizard spells than in some of the others.  And the choices some of the rogue and wizard spells create may give a leg-up to skillful play.  For example knowing when to web, portal, or sneak attack and how to do so require a deeper level of thought, imo, than dice modification (although dice modification can be quite powerful, mind you).  Knowing what lore to dispel is also tricky.  Thus, I am inclined to pick the lore masters that have more cards of this sort and my perfect opening lore draw would include something like a web spell or a portal spell.  After that, I'm hoping to pick up a counter or perhaps a false or stolen orders (I did play a false orders against NelsonM in the first game and slowed down his counter and forced him to play a mounted charge before he could make good use of it, in essence buying another turn to advance forward and control the flow of play).

I suspect NelsonM brought a different set of strategic thinking to the table and it'll be interesting over time to observe how these different approaches match up and evolve based on the units and terrain in play.

The other observation I have concerning my lore council decision is my selection of a Level 3 Commander.  Not only did this give me more command cards to choose from, but it nicely enhanced my play of Blue Banners, Advance, Foot Onslaught, and Counterattack (when used on an opponents appropriate command card).  My being able to move six units up NelsonM's left flank was quite nice and I won't hesitate again to go with a Level 3 Commander.

Anyway, just some of my thoughts and I look forward to Nelson avenging his loss to me one of these days.

jsharp vs. NelsonM: Great matches! Thanks for sending in your logfiles. I was impressed at how much the level 3 Commander effected the command cards jsharp mentioned, especially in a scenario with so many blue banners.

What problems were you guys having with the Vassal War Councils? I noticed a bit of discussion about it early on in the first match. Also, with a level 3 Commander, shouldn't jsharp have started with 3 Lore cards, 3 Lore tokens, and possibly a Stronghold? Or did you guys use modified rules? I'm just curious.  

--Last edited by jspill on 2007-02-02 17:12:02 --

Quote :

jspill wrote : with a level 3 Commander, shouldn't jsharp have started with 3 Lore cards, 3 Lore tokens, and possibly a Stronghold? Or did you guys use modified rules? I'm just curious.

The book is a little ambigious in that it seperates the Commander from the other lore masters in a way that to some may suggest that the Commander doesn't factor into the amount of lore tokens that one begins with, nor the amount of lore cards one is gets to keep throughout the game.  And now that you've brought it up, I'm not exactly sure

It is pretty clear that if they were using landmark rules, jsharp would've had a stronghold.  

--Last edited by toddrew on 2007-02-02 20:19:07 --

I did a little searching, and I found the official answer:
http://www.daysofwonder.com/index.php?t=msg&th=9373

Quote :

Note also the Commander level is not used on the Lore Masters progression table and therefore will not determine the number of Lore cards, Lore tokens and maximum Lore cards a player may hold in his cardholder. Richard Borg

Drat! I have been playing it wrong, and I am supposed to be my group's rules lawyer! Now that I look at the player's guide, I see that the Progression Levels table on page 56 has all of the lore master symbols except the Commander. Of course, the sentence above that states that "the Wizard and all other Lore Masters use the following level progression table." Ambiguous, indeed. I'm glad we have the official word from Borg!  

--Last edited by jspill on 2007-02-02 21:22:30 --

Semi-final round is over with jsharp, Bilben, Coltsfan76, and Toddrew advancing to the Bracket Finals. Congratulations.

Well, I am finally back home, and can post to congratulate Bilben on his lopsided victory over me in the bracket semis. I was outplayed from the very beginning by a superior opponent, whose skill is matched only by his class. He is truly a gentleman, and I have to say these were extremely enjoyable games despite their outcome.

From the very beginning, Bilben showed great patience, in contrast to my recklessness, and waited for my units to destroy themselves against his stronger positions, not even losing a flag in game 1. Bilben did get some amazing rolls to wipe out some of my units, but the dice did not alter the outcome of the game, only accelerate it. By game two I played a little more conservatively, and although the match was closer, the end result was the same.

Congrats Bilben!

And a HUGE thanks to BnB for organizing this tourney. It is great fun, and being able to play virtually (from anywhere in the country, even during trips) is incredible. I am eagerly awaiting the next tournament.