Below is Part Seven in a series from David Waldorf covering a Manoeuvre tournament “March Madness” style. Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 can be found here, here, here, here, here, and here. Enjoy! -Rachel

Pregame Analysis

The Austrian Empire is the stronger team according to the tiebreaker rules. But the Ottoman Empire has stronger units overall, double the number of cavalry, and their attack cards are better. If they play aggressively, they should have a good chance of winning. The Austrian Empire should stay cool and tactical, keeping a good line and advancing over the midway mark when it counts.

Gameplay

The Austrian Empire sets up first on the south side, and the Ottoman Empire second on the north. Both setups are fairly typical, with the Ottoman Empire alternating cavalry and ground troops. At start, the battlefield looks like this:

Things start out very chess-like, with the Ottoman Empire hardly discarding any cards and simply advancing units, while the Austrian Empire also moves multiple units forward, but burns through more cards.

The first side to suffer a loss is the Austrian Empire, when their 1^st Infantry Regiment (which previously failed to rally after a committed attack) gets surrounded, and then eliminated by the Ottoman Empire’s Arab Cavalry.

But the Austrian Empire retaliates in their very next turn by reducing and driving back Ali Pasha’s Cavalry with the Johann Dragoons, and then eliminating them during pursuit.

The Austrian empire’s 4^th Infantry Regiment tries to engage the Albanian Feudal Corps, only to have them strategically withdraw to a hill and launch a supermassive committed attack. The attack value is five times the defense value, which eliminates the 4^th Infantry Regiment. However, this leaves the Albanian Feudal corps reduced to a very weak “2”, and the Austrian Empire springs an ambush on them—which, shockingly, fails as the d10 ambush is up also as a 2. One turn later, since the Albanian Feudal Corps are still reduced, the Austrian Empire’s 3^rd Infantry Regiment bombards them out of the competition. At this point, with each empire having lost two units, the battlefield looks like this:

The Austrian Empire continues to rush toward nightfall, storming through their deck even as the Ottoman Empire manages to push deeper into Austrian territory. The Austrians push back, bombarding the previously reduced Regular Cavalry out of the game with 2d6.

Things again become chess-like, with the Ottoman Empire trying to even the score and the Austrian Empire digging in with redoubts. Then the Austrian Empire eliminates the Irregular Cavalry in one massed attack, and begins to look for a final target to score an attrition victory. The Ottoman Empire, meanwhile, becomes extremely cautious, still trying to even the score a little while containing the Austrians. They launch a massive attack against a redoubt that the Austrian’s 14^th Infantry Regiment is sheltering behind, failing to outright eliminate them by one point. However, in the subsequent pursuit of the retreating and reduced enemy, they do in fact eliminate them.  Now the battlefield looks like this:

The Austrian Empire burns through the last of their cards and restarts their deck. The Ottoman Empire desperately tries to hang on, driving back the Austrian’s 3^rd Infantry Regiment twice to force them back over the center line, even as nightfall approaches fast. Again both sides make chessboard calculations, having nearly equal amounts of control over enemy territory. The Austrian Empire makes what could be their final move, and at the end of their turn, the battlefield looks like this:

The Ottoman Empire dumps their whole hand and draws their last card—this will be the final turn. In order to win, they will need to gain one more space. Their plan to do so is to use the 1^st Janissaries to drive back the 9^th Infantry Regiment, since they have a card for the 1^st Janissaries and are prepared for a committed attack.

But with an inexplicable lapse of attention, they move the Greek Feudal Corps south prior to the attack, unwittingly giving the O’Reilly Chevaulegers control over an additional space. Their attack is successful and the 9^th Infantry Regiment is driven back, but the net result is that the number of controlled spaces is still tied. The first tiebreaker rule says that if both sides control the same number of spaces, the win goes to the side that has eliminated more of its opponent’s pieces—which means that as night falls, the Austrian Empire wins. The final battlefield looks like this:

Analysis and Discussion

This was an amazingly tight and tense game that literally came down to the very last game turn. The Ottoman Empire should have won, but failed to make a critical calculation. If they had been thinking properly, they could have shifted the Greek Feudal Corps unit over to the east instead of moving them south. If they had done that, they would have won the game.

The Austrian Empire was victorious, and will go on to face France in the finals. They made it this far, but do they have what it takes to knock out the best army in the contest?

Find out next week, when we bring you the final round.

Previous Article in this Series: Manoeuvre Tournament Part Six: France vs. Russia

Next Article in this Series: Manoeuvre Tournament Part Eight: France vs. Austrian Empire

Author: David Waldorf