AAR Thebes Iñaki H. vs. Belphegor

[Belphegor]

This was actually our second run at Thebes. For this battle we switched sides. Iñaki had something he wanted to try, and I wanted to stop him.[;)]

I don't have a complete set of screenshots, so hilights and commentary won't take you through a complete game, but I hope that you will find this at least partially illuminating.

The problems facing Alexander when taking Thebes (as I see them in the game) are as follows...

1. Clean up the Theban cavalry
2. Deploy quickly and stick to it.
3. Try not to spend too much time under the Theban archers on the wall.
4. Arrive at the objective in strength enough to take it.

I don't think I accomplished many, if any, of these. I have shrunk the screenshots to fit better, the colours and detail is quite nice, my fault if you can't see it here.

It all started out one fall day when I decided that I was going to teach those renegade cities a lesson ..... (fade to flashback)

The first oder of business was to deploy from the route march. My cavalry on the left formed up and moved to the high ground to see what lay in front of them. The main body deployed to watch the hill on the right, and form on either side of Alexander. Kallias ( the archers) moved in support behind the right flank.

The cavalry on the left found only a small amount of Theban cavalry in view, and moved forward to press the attack. This went for a few turns, meanwhile, the phalanx formed to the left of Alexander, Nicanor's swordsmen to the right. The Theban cavalry on the right surrendered the high ground in exchange for some manueverability; the right flank therefore established themselves on that ground, the archers taking the heights for a firing position.

Once again to the left flank, my cavalry wing and the Theban cavalry (some infantry now spotted) jockey [:D] for position.

Screenshot one shows us 5 turns in, my cavalry coming behind the Theban forward positions, Alexander holding the front.

[Belphegor]

Next turn...

Missed, as you can see Iñaki has his own plans, and doesn't really care how disappointed I am that I didn't crush him this turn. Not to worry, I am still in formation, and still in position to hit his following infantry formation. Alexander will take the other cavalry head on in a glorious charge. On the right you can just see Kallias targetting the Theban gate defenders; protected from danger by the infantry on his right. Nobody there you say? Oh, but there is I tell you. Way out there... somewhere. I saw them a couple of turns ago before they disappeared into the fog.

[Belphegor]

Ahhh, that got his attention. His cavalry has turned, and mine will carry on. Note that two cavalry seem just to be riding down, away from the gates. True, I wanted to keep my formation roughly together ( you will see it disintegrate in the following shots) plus Iñaki has some cavalry behind me, I don't like it there.

Alexander and the infantry push on after their victory last turn and head to the walls. Some Theban swordsmen come out, Nicanor pivots to deal with them and Kallias adjusts his fire.

[Belphegor]

Here's where things start falling apart as far as my coherent cohorts are concerned (Alliteratively speaking.)

Alexander continues his assault on the defenders; the Theban swordsmen that sortied wisely withdrew before taking too much damage. Calis, out of place on the cavalry wing moves to rejoin while the rest of the cavalry take their time beating up on some Theban infantry. Notice the Theban cavalry moving up behind me, one of the reasons I turned my cavalry around rather than heading for the objective.

[Belphegor]

I missed a turn's screenshot, don't know what happened. But only one turn after that and the entire situation has changed! Who is really in control here? I think I have some great attacks going, but spoiling attacks by Theban cavalry that I bypassed are really going to hurt me in the upcoming turns. I should have concentrated more on eliminating that threat before moving on to the gates. My lines are a shambles, and I must turn to face threats from numerous sides. Not good when you have less troops.

[Belphegor]

Iñaki's counterattack closes in; Alexander alone at the wall; and troops intermixed and generally a free for all. No lines any more. And no time to form any. Fight to the front and hope for the best.

[Belphegor]

What I wanted to show you here was the difficulty Iñaki has placed me in. Apart from the 'no right way to face' I have to now guess at where he might be by the time my initiative rolls around, thus you will see attacks aimed at open areas in the hopes that he will be there when they land.

[Belphegor]

It's turn 13. Way longer than I had hoped it would take. I am giving up my position on the wall to consolidate my forces and hopefully hurt his. We are both still far from breaking so it looks like I will need to take that objective. I can't do it alone. Some of my troops have routed, and are quite frankly in the way. With no solid lines, I still can't predict where his troops will be found. The melee continues.

[Belphegor]

That goes on for 4 more turns. The results, can be seen here. It's turn 19 of 20. I have just enough troops to take the objective, and I need the objective to win. Unfortunately he has enough troops to stop me too. And in good position.

I will let you off the hook now and say that I did win, by 16 points, at the end of the last turn, finally taking the objective.

[Belphegor]

I almost didn't win this one. I actually thought I wasn't going to win it. As the armies got tired, they were more unpredictable and broke at the most annoying times. IF I had avoided the general melee under the archers, If I had kept a solid line and ONE forward direction I think I could have produced much better results. As it is, most of both armies lie in the fields but I was victorious.

[bartholimew]

stumbled into this and had to say I had no Idea things were so far along. Having played other era minitures I noticed general rules are applied for bonus attack vs positions and defence. So what a battle is going to be like is now pretty clear to me. It looks good. I'm wondering what the campaigns are like. Are they linked battles or branching? Is there a grand strat layer?

[Lucifuge]

It looks good. I'm wondering what the campaigns are like. Are they linked battles or branching? Is there a grand strat layer?

Yeah thats my one misgiving about the game as doesnt seem to be a strat layer to the game. Website just lists a grand campaign follow Alexander's conquests but is there any branching in it or is it linear? Would be nice to do differently then Alexander, though guess you can say when a guy never loses a battle and conquers most of the known world why bother trying to do differently Screenshots look really good even with the blurriness so definately looking forward to it, that time period needs far more game titles.

[koiosworks]

For historical purposes, the campaign game is 'on a rail'. Meaning that you fight the battles of Alexander in the same sequence that he fought them. However, in the campaign, your forces carry forward with you from battle to battle gaining experience along the way. Between each battle you can buy new troops, purchase training and new leaders etc... It is something like Panzer General in this regard. Also, there are full blown cut scene sequences between each battle in the campaign explaining the history around the current situation.

Maybe some of our playtesters can pipe in on the campaign. that is the area we have focused our testing on recently.

[Belphegor]

The campaign definitely teaches you to be cautious with your forces. The performance of elite troops are way better of course than regular warriors so the more troops you can bring to elite status the better your next battles will be. In the middle battles I wince every time I lose good troops.

What that can mean sometimes for me is not to fully fill formations but take a few 1/2 formations and blood them in one battle, to fill them out later. Filling them out later means you take a hit on their training, but at least you have more chance of bringing more vetarans to later fights.

[Hertston]

ORIGINAL: bartholimew

Is there a grand strat layer?

No, but it would be superfluous IMHO, at least in the Alexander game. TS is based around representations of (mostly) historic battles which would make no sense in the context of a dynamic or branching campaign, or grand strategic layer. The way that forces get carried forward (including "purchasing" of training, new leader, replacements etc) adds a nice sense of continuity and replay incentive without imposing something that really doesn't belong.

TSA is a game that really needs to be accepted for what it is... a new, very playable, fun system for solo and 2 player wargaming with a "miniatures" twist. It stands on that alone without needing anything else.

[Oleg Mastruko]

The graphics make my eyes water (or bleed?) - franky they look absolutely abysmally terrible. I just can't stand looking at any of the screenshots for longer than 2 seconds.

Are there plans to do something about that, and something radical? This is not just "unattractive", this is painful on the eyes, plain and simple. Another job for Marc? [:D]

Sorry to be so negative, but with graphics like these I can't even go into reading about the game mechanics, AARs and stuff. Call me shallow... [8|]

O.

[Belphegor]

The responsibility for the quality of the screenshots is mine. They don't accurately represent what you see on the screen, but I run the screen large in this one and I have trouble compressing the files enough so they can be uploaded. My compression causes the blurring.

Any help with 'not' blurring screenshots would be very much appreciated. The game is run at 1152x864 (at least on my machine) and I try also to reduce them to 1024 x 768 which of course doesn't help their quality. I think you will find that without my tender mercies on the resulting screenshots the graphics are quite nice.

[Erik Rutins]

Oleg,

The forum size limit for pictures unfortunately doesn't do justice to the graphics in game. When I have them running on my big monitor with a good video card, the miniatures and the terrain look very real, they seem to pop out of the screen. Some of the screenshots at www.koiosworks.com are better and also you should try the Flash preview there if you haven't already.

Regards,

- Erik

[Hertston]

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko

The graphics make my eyes water (or bleed?) - franky they look absolutely abysmally terrible. I just can't stand looking at any of the screenshots for longer than 2 seconds.

Are there plans to do something about that, and something radical? This is not just "unattractive", this is painful on the eyes, plain and simple. Another job for Marc? [:D]

Sorry to be so negative, but with graphics like these I can't even go into reading about the game mechanics, AARs and stuff. Call me shallow... [8|]

Not shallow, but you are wrong [;)] .... those screenies really don't do TS justice, and the graphics are just fine (I can't think of a better looking game in the Matrix stable, and bar WitP I think I've seen all of them). Hopefully there will be a demo released so folks can see for themselves. This is a really fun wargame, and I suspect many would be instant converts on trying it.
[/quote]

[Brigz]

ORIGINAL: Hertston

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko

The graphics make my eyes water (or bleed?) - franky they look absolutely abysmally terrible. I just can't stand looking at any of the screenshots for longer than 2 seconds.

Are there plans to do something about that, and something radical? This is not just "unattractive", this is painful on the eyes, plain and simple. Another job for Marc? [:D]

Sorry to be so negative, but with graphics like these I can't even go into reading about the game mechanics, AARs and stuff. Call me shallow... [8|]

Not shallow, but you are wrong [;)] .... those screenies really don't do TS justice, and the graphics are just fine (I can't think of a better looking game in the Matrix stable, and bar WitP I think I've seen all of them). Hopefully there will be a demo released so folks can see for themselves. This is a really fun wargame, and I suspect many would be instant converts on trying it.

[/quote]
I certainly hope so. I'm always interested in ancient era games and have been waiting a long time for something other than the Great Battles series, although I like those games very much. I agree with Oleg. Based on the graphics I've seen so far I would never buy the game even if it was a great tactical system. If you guys think a demo would change my mind then Matrix is shooting themselves in the foot if they don't release one. My biggest gripe is the terrain imaging. It seems to totally distort and hide the figure images and I have a 19" screen. Unless I was able to see the grapics myself on a demo, I would never buy this game. I feel many others feel the same as I do as evidenced by the lack of interest exibited by the small number of postings on this forum.