Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Granada: The rematch
Nearly a year ago, I played Granada: The Fall of Moslem Spain. In that game, I played Spain and David B. played the Moors. That game ended with a strong Moorish victory. It took us awhile to set up a rematch, but it finally happened last night.
For the rematch, we switched sides. David played the Spanish and I played the Moors. I hoped to repeat David's success a year ago. My goal was to take Lorca quickly and then punch my way through whatever defences David had to make my way to Cordoba. To begin with, I set up Boabdil in Ronda and al-Zagal in Illora to fight in the west, and Amir Ali in Vera and Al-Zagri in Majacar to fight in the east. I decided my most important stronghold was Granada, so I put Ali al-Attar there with some forces and kept him there for the entirety of the game.
The 1481 season went really poorly for me. I didn't get a single activation, and through a flukey die roll, the season ended rather quickly. David had set up to protect Lorca with one of his leaders (I don't remember which one), and he had put most of the rest of his leaders in the west to punch through and take Pinos Puenta, Malaga and Granada. He had also kept one leader back just outside of Cordoba to stop al-Zagal's impending invasion.
The first thing David did was rush across the border with Ferdinand and take Pinos Puenta. I only had one infantry unit there, and I had expected it to fall, but even I was surprised at how quickly it fell. Poor planning on my part, but I was less worried about losing Pinos Puenta, and I was a lot more worried about losing Granada.
In 1482, my activation rolls weren't much better, and David had attacked al-Zagal, doing some serious damage to the troops under his command. Over the next few turns, I was forced to have al-Zagal retreat back into Granada to prepare for a strong defence of the capital.
However, David made a small error. He forgot about Boabdil and moved all his units in the west into Moorish lands, leaving Cordoba undefended. At the first opportunity, I peeled off Boabdil's infantry units (leaving just two cavalry units) and shot straight up into Cordoba, taking the fortification without incident.
David was forced to divide his forces up a bit. While Ferdinand tried pounding on Granada over the next couple of years and some of David's other leaders started taking all of the two-point fortifications in the west, he was forced to send one leader back to try to retake Cordoba. Some lucky die rolls kept Boabdil in charge, but after some attacks, he was only holding on by a thread.
The dice started to help me out, though. While David's reinforcement rolls were on the very low end, I started getting half-decent reinforcements. Between 1483 and 1485, Amir Ali and al-Zagri attacked Lorca, only to be fended off twice (in 1483 and 1484). They lost significant forces, but they slowly started whittling Lorca's defenders down. After a battle, they retreated to nearby Oria and Contoria to wait for the end of the year so I could reinforce their numbers. Some good rolls meant I was able to build them right back up again at the end of each campaign year.
As David took every two-point fortification west of Granada, I continued pounding away at Lorca. Finally, in mid-1485, Lorca's defences had been reduced enough al-Zagri and Amir Ali were finally able to slaughter the rest of them and take the fortification, ending the game in a Moorish win.
Now that I've played Granada from each side, I finally understand why the "activate one" option exists. As Spain, activating one unit is useless. You typically want to have as many units activated as possible, as the Spanish player has so much to do. As the Moorish player, I found myself often just waiting for the year to end so I could reinforcements. In a few cases, I rolled well and had the ability to activate three units, but I often found myself unable to really activate three units.
It seems the Moorish player really wants to push time along and wait for campaign years to end while the Spanish player needs the years to go on as long as possible so he can beat on the Moorish forces and take as much ground as possible (and there's no way the Moors can defend all of their fortifications).
While I still think the activation rules are wonky, I have a better understanding of the game now and would definitely be willing to play it again. Perhaps the best aspect of the game is that it only takes about two hours to play it until there's a clear winner.
For the rematch, we switched sides. David played the Spanish and I played the Moors. I hoped to repeat David's success a year ago. My goal was to take Lorca quickly and then punch my way through whatever defences David had to make my way to Cordoba. To begin with, I set up Boabdil in Ronda and al-Zagal in Illora to fight in the west, and Amir Ali in Vera and Al-Zagri in Majacar to fight in the east. I decided my most important stronghold was Granada, so I put Ali al-Attar there with some forces and kept him there for the entirety of the game.
The 1481 season went really poorly for me. I didn't get a single activation, and through a flukey die roll, the season ended rather quickly. David had set up to protect Lorca with one of his leaders (I don't remember which one), and he had put most of the rest of his leaders in the west to punch through and take Pinos Puenta, Malaga and Granada. He had also kept one leader back just outside of Cordoba to stop al-Zagal's impending invasion.
The first thing David did was rush across the border with Ferdinand and take Pinos Puenta. I only had one infantry unit there, and I had expected it to fall, but even I was surprised at how quickly it fell. Poor planning on my part, but I was less worried about losing Pinos Puenta, and I was a lot more worried about losing Granada.
In 1482, my activation rolls weren't much better, and David had attacked al-Zagal, doing some serious damage to the troops under his command. Over the next few turns, I was forced to have al-Zagal retreat back into Granada to prepare for a strong defence of the capital.
However, David made a small error. He forgot about Boabdil and moved all his units in the west into Moorish lands, leaving Cordoba undefended. At the first opportunity, I peeled off Boabdil's infantry units (leaving just two cavalry units) and shot straight up into Cordoba, taking the fortification without incident.
David was forced to divide his forces up a bit. While Ferdinand tried pounding on Granada over the next couple of years and some of David's other leaders started taking all of the two-point fortifications in the west, he was forced to send one leader back to try to retake Cordoba. Some lucky die rolls kept Boabdil in charge, but after some attacks, he was only holding on by a thread.
The dice started to help me out, though. While David's reinforcement rolls were on the very low end, I started getting half-decent reinforcements. Between 1483 and 1485, Amir Ali and al-Zagri attacked Lorca, only to be fended off twice (in 1483 and 1484). They lost significant forces, but they slowly started whittling Lorca's defenders down. After a battle, they retreated to nearby Oria and Contoria to wait for the end of the year so I could reinforce their numbers. Some good rolls meant I was able to build them right back up again at the end of each campaign year.
As David took every two-point fortification west of Granada, I continued pounding away at Lorca. Finally, in mid-1485, Lorca's defences had been reduced enough al-Zagri and Amir Ali were finally able to slaughter the rest of them and take the fortification, ending the game in a Moorish win.
Now that I've played Granada from each side, I finally understand why the "activate one" option exists. As Spain, activating one unit is useless. You typically want to have as many units activated as possible, as the Spanish player has so much to do. As the Moorish player, I found myself often just waiting for the year to end so I could reinforcements. In a few cases, I rolled well and had the ability to activate three units, but I often found myself unable to really activate three units.
It seems the Moorish player really wants to push time along and wait for campaign years to end while the Spanish player needs the years to go on as long as possible so he can beat on the Moorish forces and take as much ground as possible (and there's no way the Moors can defend all of their fortifications).
While I still think the activation rules are wonky, I have a better understanding of the game now and would definitely be willing to play it again. Perhaps the best aspect of the game is that it only takes about two hours to play it until there's a clear winner.
// posted by Chris @ 9:23 AM 
Number of visitors since Jan. 7, 2004:
