The DecisionDesk Volume 1: The Noble Death

Hello all, and welcome to the first installment of the DecisionDesk with Keith Randall. 

Since this is the first of what I hope to make a somewhat regular column, I want to take a minute to lay out my goals for the DecisionDesk. 

Like many of you, I have had more free time on my hands during the last year than I would have normally preferred.  The time I would have spent traveling to GTs has instead been spent around the house (mostly taking care of my new one-year-old son – so I can’t complain too much!), and playing Universal Battles.  Since the original lockdown, I have played in every Call to Arms, have played in both Always Sunny Tournament, and played innumerable PBEM (Play By EMail) games (mostly with DoppleKeith and relative newcomer but PBEM aficionado Kris DeGrow). 

I have also watched the Queen’s Gambit twice – not because I am a huge fan of chess – I only ever learned how to play well enough to beat my older brother consistently – but because of the journey and disappointment experienced by the main character in high-level competition which (*spoilers*) end with her winning the World Championship speaks to my inner power gamer.  Anyone who plays me regularly knows I hate to lose – now, I’m not a dick if I do lose, but I hate to lose and will dwell on each loss for weeks, if not months, especially if that loss is particularly notable (I’m looking at you, Kris Kapsner). 

Why am I telling you this?  Well, one nugget of the Queen’s Gambit and competitive chess instruction inspired me: Chess Puzzles.  In case you don’t know what Chess Puzzles are, they are specific chess positions that present a challenge to players to solve specific problems.  The situations they represent may never happen in a competitive chess game, but they do create a set of circumstances players can use to challenge and improve their understanding of the game.  While this system doesn’t completely port over to Kings of War, I’m sure everyone reading this has had that one game where they faced a situation where one specific decision was the difference between a win and a loss, or a loss and a draw.

I realized that it may be useful for my improvement at Kings of War to look at some of these situations that have tripped me up in the past and analyze what options I faced and what I now believe the be the best course of action.  For the first few columns I plan on using situations from some of my more memorable games (i.e. failures) of the past, but eventually, I will pull from other games – either games I am stalking on UB, or situations I have seen from others.  I may modify some of the situations to drive a point home, but hopefully, that won’t affect the analysis too much. 

The Problem

For this inaugural column, I present you, The Noble Death:

This situation occurred to me in 2019 at the tournament in my hometown, TNT.  It was round 4, and I was forced, yet again, to match up with the inimitable Jeff O’Neal, the Goblin Menace of the Southeast.  [Note: This game was played under the Second Edition Rules, but that doesn’t affect the ultimate analysis]

We were playing Push, and on the top of turn 6, the board looked something like this [Note: this is not an exact representation of the board status – I do not have an eidetic memory, so some license may have been taken to prove my point]:

 Here’s the scene.  I have the bottom side of the board, and Jeff has the top side. My regiment of Forest Shamblers (middle right) is making a beeline for safety.  They hold two tokens, and I need them to fully cross the middle line.  The only danger they are facing is the battery of Rock Lobbers – after a move, one normal Rock Lobber and the special character Rock Lobber from 2nd have line of sight.

I have two Elven Princes left alive as well (one in the forest (hereafter Warmachine Hunter, or WH), and the other nobly staring down the Rabble horde in the middle of the table (hereafter the Sacrifice)).  On the bottom of 5, the Rabble Horde had done 4 wounds to the Sacrifice who was stubbornly refusing the give up three tokens.  A tournament-specific special character was also looking at the Sacrifice, so with four wounds already, he was likely toast.  I had a Forest Warden remaining as well, lower left.

At this point in the game, I have two objectives: 1) Keep the Forest Shamblers alive, and 2) keep the 3 tokens under the Sacrifice on Jeff’s side of the board.

To accomplish this I have a few options:

1) Use WH to disorder one of the Warmachines who can see the Forest Shamblers.  Even one good hit from the two Rock Lobbers can lead to dead Forest Shamblers and an automatic loss.  This course of action would secure the win at the end of 6. [Spoiler – this is what I did]

After this move, there is a low probability the Forest Shamblers die, and even if the Sacrifice dies, at the end of 6, I win, 4-3.  In the situation of planning for a win on 6 with the possibility of on loss on 7, I always take the win.  The downside is, after killing the Sacrifice, the Rabble Horde takes the tokens and turns around.  This puts the Forest Warden in their flank and sets up a 10-inch move across the centerline to win the game for Jeff – 6-4 on a turn 7. [More Spoilers – we rolled for a turn 7]

2) Alternatively, WH can go block the Rabble Horde.  If they kill Sacrifice and take the tokens on 6, WH can be there to stop the Rabble Horde from crossing the centerline, guaranteeing my win.  Gamble the win at the end of 6, secure the win on 7.

Here WH moves partway (they were hindered) towards the Rabble Horde, but they are close enough to stop the Rabble from killing the Sacrifice and marching back across the middle line.  The problem here is that the Shamblers are subject to significant artillery fire, and a few good hits could mean an 8 on a nerve roll kills the uninspired /14 unit and I lose on 6 and 7.

3) It wasn’t until after the game that I realized there was a third option.  The Sacrifice could bail.  And if they did that, on 6, the Rabble could only take one turn after grabbing the tokens.  Then on 7, they had no ability to march 10” across the centerline.  They could only turn 90 degrees and move 5”.  In this scenario, WH could still disorder a Warmachine and protect the Forest Shamblers – leaving me with a high probability of winning on 6 and a guaranteed win on 7 once the Forest Shamblers reached the full safety of the woods.

But…I missed it.  This is why we play with a clock and in a competitive environment – players have to find the right move at the right time to win. I may have been a little worn down from watching two Hordes of Elven Archers, two Hordes of Drakon Riders, and an Elven Kindred Dragon Lord die horrible deaths under rock after rock…but that’s no excuse!

I hope you enjoyed the first column of the DecisionDesk, and learned something from my head-slapping mistake.  I look forward to trotting out some of my other greatest hits (i.e. most anguishing losses) in the future.