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Warring States: Week 3

This is the continuation of a Rally Round the King Local Campaign set in a fictional Iron Age China in which four rival states vie for control of the country after the Center State's imperial rule has collapsed. It uses my random set-up rules and Opposing Generals War Profiles.

Currently, the Southern State (me) is still losing to the Northern State. Here is how the campaign ladder looked at the completion of Week 2:




Misty Trees
My groups are unopposed. I score 2 points (1+1). After scoring, I separated my groups, dropping the decoy one box to get the easy Week 4 point while dropping the rest of my army two boxes and one to the right into Ghost Trees, Week 5 to meet up with my other units later. That will consolidate my entire army.

Plains of Sorrow
General Xiang Gua's groups are unopposed. He scores 1 point. I did not move his groups out of the box nor did I look at them. I decided to wait until after the next battle of Ghost Forest.

Ghost Forest
Both General Xiang Gua and I chose FIGHT for our groups in the same box with the +1 (which can't be seen in the pic above). I hoped that the new enemy group added was a decoy and I would only have to face those 5 Chariots that beat me during Week 1. Unfortunately, the new group was Xiang Gua's 2 Skirmishers and 4 Horse Archers.

Damn.


Keeping with the theme of Xiang Gua's War Profile, his plan was to use the Skirmishers and Horse Archers as a screen to wear down my lines a bit before finishing me off with his Chariots. I wasn't too afraid of the Skirmishers, but I knew the Horse Archers might slow me down, and I desperately needed to reach the enemy Chariots sooner rather than later. I had learned a lot from the Week 1 mistake that had caused my loss, and I wasn't about to repeat it.

My Horse Archers led my Cavalry as far out as we could go. Xiang Gua's Skirmishers and Horse Archers did the same. My Horse Archers sent the enemy Skirmishers packing, causing them to interpenetrate the middle of Xiang Gua's Horse Archers body! In RRtK, skirmishers - which the Horse Archers are - are routed when contacted by retiring troops, so Xiang Gua's own men caused chaos within his own ranks, splitting the Horse Archer body and causing two to rout! This was the stroke of luck I needed!


Xiang Gua had to use his two actions to re-position his separated Horse Archer units into firing range of my flanks. This was a good move for putting pressure on my tactical choices, but it kept his Chariots in place longer - and that was exactly what I needed!

I chose to ignore the enemy Horse Archers. I sent my own body of  3 Horse Archers wheeling and off toward the eastern side of the battlefield, turning them to face the opposite direction (allowed because they are skirmish units) to fire at the Chariots. Meanwhile, my Cavalry charged forward, routing the enemy Skirmishers and staying just outside of the Chariots' range of fire. This, of course, led to a charge by Xiang Gua's 5-unit body of Chariots. The re-match was really on, now!


The melee between the Chariots and cavalry went three go-rounds before the reaction tables forced a definitive result - and what a result it was! In the same turn, the Chariots retired and my Cavalry was routed, but because the Chariots were so close to their starting area, they retired right off the edge of the refrigerator which is just as good as a rout!

Now, I had the upper hand with a strong body of Horse Archers capable of finishing off the separated enemy Horse Archers. The first one with whom I exchanged arrows retired right into the woods, leaving Xiang Gua no choice but to retreat.

I won and scored 3 points (2 +1).

CURRENT SCORE
Xiang Gua 6
Me 7

With a massive campaign victory here in Week 3, I'm a contender again! Here is what the campaign ladder looks like now:


Xiang Gua - or any halfway competent tactician - would clearly do as I did and consolidate his forces, so I did the same with his Plains of Sorrow groups as I did with my Misty Trees groups. Now, the full force of his army will arrive at Ghost Forest during Week 5.

My victorious units from today's battle only drop one spot to Week 4, which means that I'll keep the lead and I'll eventually join the rest of my army - and all of Xiang Gua's forces - later during Week 5.

This is getting REALLY good...

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