This was an incredibly close game. Like, easily one of the 3 closest games I've ever played. A few notes:
Chariots vs. Antonians is not a good match up for the Chariots if you have a good toughness-boosting command card, which I did.
I used a couple unites of Hammermen. I love Hammermen against Historical factions as well as Umenzi. 1 of them wound up on the losing side vs. Merc Hoplities but that was expected and they did leave a dent before they ran off.
The game was really all about the match up between the Longbeards and Elephants on the hill. Both of us played cards on the initial charge and both of us honked this attack. Then both units did like 3-4 damage on the following turn. Then the Longbeards honked the following attack while the Elephants did well. My luck rounded out when The Beards did a ridiculous 4 damage in 1 turn, leaving the Elephants with 1 yellow box. The Elephants obliged by blowing the route check. I had a red card in hand that I could have played on the free attack and I chose not to. I had 4 dice at the point (in the red + Rune) needing 6s and 3s and I thought that surely I'd do at least a point of damage to force a red check since he had no cards in hand at the time. If that happens and the Elephants failed the red check, the game ends right there. Well I whiffed on that attack, so off they ran. But The Beards did achieve some furhter glory when they got flanked by Merc Hoplities and they fought the phalanx off as the Hoplities failed their red check. So there where some serious manliness points achieved by the Beards.
The Elephants where brought back into the fight and I was able to engage them on the Hill with Axemen who where still in the green that had the Rune marked. The Elephants had the high ground but I had a might card in hand and Ron was again lacking cards at this point. Surely I can do a point of damage with 9 dice on the charge needing 3s and 2s. If the Elephants fail the red check I drive them off the Hill and could claim the Hill since The Antonians where in a position to tie them up next turn. All I had to do was make sure the Axemen didn't honk the Fear check so I played a Rune of the Wary, giving them an effective courage of 15.
I roll a 16. DOH!
I get no damage and I eventually have to pinch the thing with Antonians to bring it down. If you look at the final picture, you can see that I was 1 turn away from getting a unit to the top of the hill, claiming the terrain objective that would give me the points to win the game. But my inability to do that final point of damage to the Elephants at the right time prevented the Elephants from having the opportunity to fail a red check on a 9.
Now before you get to thinking that I'm carping about lousy luck costing me the game, Ron also had some outrageous failures of fortune. He'll probably remember those better than I since we have a tendency to remember the abuses of the Dice Gods while we forget the blessings of those same gods. Regardless, Ron played well here and there was serious tension throughout the game. I really don't mind losing games like this much, it's the experience itself and we both had a blast playing it.
