40K Regicide Classic: Jason vs Erik

Started by JasonPratt, March 23, 2016, 06:43:16 PM

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JasonPratt

In essence, I've traded a knight for a knight and a pawn, and saved a bishop while doing so. I honestly have no idea what Erik thought he saw that he would let the bishop escape like that; I hope he'll comment on it here eventually!

So I'm down exactly one knight; Erik is down three pawns and a knight.

With a material advantage like that, it's dang well past time for me to get more serious about taking advantage of --




-- oh, right, it's Erik's move, Qe5.



He has a pretty horrifying line-up on my right-central side now, and protecting his king at the same time.

He's also threatening my king's rook, which if he took, I'd have no way to keep his queen from rampaging around a lot of my backfield.

Come to think of it, this may be what Erik thought he saw a minute ago, and then thought I was trying to distract him from it with the bishop. Don't know; hopefully he'll comment if he remembers his thoughts there.

He did comment on my report to a different FB chat (before we figured out how to migrate the game) where I acknowledged that despite being down three pieces he's certainly controlling the center of the board well.

Quote from: "Erik"Sometimes I like to throw my pawns under the bus if I'm against an aggressive opponent for the sake of opening up the board for me to position my pieces for greater flexibility in their strike zones.

Considering my notion of aggression is to carefully move a pawn screen forward, I'm not sure what that means in this game! :D But okay.




To clarify my previous comment, you can see that Erik has gotten really strong on my right side. Most of my power happens to be on my left; but it's currently projecting quite well rightward thanks to those bishops.

However, that's the only way I'm projecting power at the moment, since most of my firepower is still tucked behind the pawn line.

And I can't feasibly move anything big out either; not yet, and not with the queen ork threatening my rook and left backfield generally.

Pc3 steps up a knight protected pawn to solve that immediate problem by blocking the queen's path of attack.




Into my Vol Wall, Erik decides to advance his queen's rook's pawn to a5.




...uh, hey, Morgur, you do know you're advancing on, like, 7 Space Marines, more or less by yourself, right? :o

I have to figure that's a delaying tactic, to see who's going to set off the chain-reaction slaughter first. Either that, or Erik is trying to keep me from sending up my b pawn to threaten his black bishop, by adding pressure to b4.

"Sure," I type in chat. "Let's force the issue, shall we?"




And up I send Pb4.

Erik agrees to get the slaughter started. Orkz! Orkz! Orkz!




Your sacrifice, Orpheus, shall not be in vain.




Pxc4

Celeano prepares to fall beside his brother's remains.




Erork opts not to send his bishop into the meat grinder (to be slaughtered in turn my by black bishop), and pulls back to b6 instead.

Just as importantly: Erik has set up a double discovery fork! -- that already landed last turn!

...what the wha...???
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

So, I can either lose a bishop or a rook, my choice. :P




This annoys me so badly that I completely forget my black bishop is still being protected by my queen's knight (and at the moment a bishop for rook trade would be worse for him than for me).

Obviously the smart move would be for me to advance my queen's pawn up to d4, blocking his queen from taking my rook with a protected pawn, and let him eat the bishop/rook exchange.

I mentioned that I had last played chess over 20 years ago, right? Did I also mention that I sucked back then?




Because that seems relevant.

Sending my Librarian (queen) to b3, adds more protection the bishop doesn't need, and adds no protection the rook desperately needs. I'm sure I was thinking along the line of supporting my white bishop's advance soon, but sigh.




To my surprise, Erik decides to make my situation worse by strengthening his center first: by moving his Warboss' Meganob (king's rook) to d8.

That delay was great for setting up a power blitz down the line to alternate between checking my Commander (king) and taking my key pieces!

The only problem, is that I already had no less than three long distance cannons aimed at his king -- whose close defense Erork himself has just eliminated.



White bishop kicks off with xf7.




And Erork shall feel the fury of the righteous.




This is it. If I ever stop kicking ass, I don't think I'll be able to stop him from kicking mine.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

My white Devastator is too close to be blocked, and only the Warboss could take it, but my Librarian is supporting from long distance. So Erork has got to move left or right off the white square. (His own Shootas are blocking any other move.)




Choosing not to hedge himself in, with an option to smash my bishop later, Kf8.

Tac Marine Celeano, who really thought he should have been dead by now, steps forward once.



Pb5 for a discovery check as my black bishop takes aim.

The king can only move one space, and all those spaces are either blocked by pawns, under Devastator sights, or guarded by the Librarian. So either he takes my black bishop with his queen's rook (which I'm sure he has been itching to do for a while), and trades that rook over when my queen's knight retaliates...




...or he blocks my bishop in one of several ways, such as Pb5. A square guarded by his own black bishop, and his queen, not incidentally!

I have nothing else to put his king in check. I can't take his queen, although I could move my queen-pawn up to block. Whereupon he'd run his rook down to safely take my pawn -- since the only thing guarding that pawn would be my king's pawn, which I wouldn't be able to use without opening my Commander to being instantly weirded out by Erork's Weirdboy.

Annnnd so. My assault stalls. The end is foreseen.

What Erork hasn't foreseen, however...

...and what I do not recall ever doing once against any opponent ever...




...is an en passant!




My life is complete. I have finally, once in my life, used that screwy rule where if a pawn advances forward twice from its starting position past a pawn next to it, the opposing pawn can do an oblique diagonal attack behind it!




Checked again by the black bishop thanks to Pc6.

So it's time for Erik's own black bishop to step into the fray again.




Bc5.

The Weirdboy is protecting the Shoota, so I can't just 'bolt' my Devastator up there.

What I can do...




...is send up Tac Marine Kaino, my queen's pawn, to d4.

This keeps his queen from starting a rampage in my backfield (vs. my queen's rock to begin with), and forks both his bishop and his queen. And while Kaino is technically guarded by my king's pawn, that's really only a toothless bluff because I can't move that pawn in retaliation for Kaino being taken without exposing my king to check -- so long as Erik takes it with bishop or rook, of course.

Still, it's the only way I have of continuing to put pressure on Erik and force him to react to a threat rather than starting his own blitz.




Instead, perhaps distracted by his own lonely queen ;), Erik sends his chess queen to d5.

His Weirdboy is threatening my Librarian now, but we're mutually protected: me by a pawn, him by a rook and a knight. Also, his queen is forking my advanced pawn, which is completely unprotected.

With that, we quit for the night, and with the endgame in sight.


Who shall strike down the king and fulfill the Regicide? Tune in tomorrow to find out!
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

#18
The Grand Finale

When we quit for the night, Erork had just moved his queen to threaten mine.

Here's the board with non-pawns marked (since 40K pieces aren't clearly obviously bishops or rooks or knights -- queens stand out more because they both have glowy staves).




I'm significantly ahead on pieces, but at least three of my big pieces (not counting my king, or Commander for the Marines) are currently hobbled out of play. Both my rooks have been stuck in their corners all game -- on my right because I've been choosing to build defenses and prosecute takedowns rather than spend a turn castling; and on my left because Erik pinned my black bishop with his black bishop (he's playing the Orkz, remember, or black for this board, but each side has white and black bishops) and I've needed to keep my queen's knight in place to protect it, and I haven't had a good opportunity yet to move my bishop somewhere to untangle that mess. So that's four pieces (my rooks, my left knight, and my black bishop) completely tied down all game so far. And I lost my king's knight recently.

Erik's rooks are ready to rock and roll -- one of them is threatening my black bishop now (along with Erik's black bishop), which is why I moved my queen up to grant some extra support and make an exchange more costly for Erik. But now my Librarian (my queen) is socked into the sights of Erik's Weirdboy (his queen).

I could move my queen safely, and still offer protection to the bishop. So I'm not really in a problem there; but I'll be reacting to his move, and meanwhile his queen will surely take my far promoted queen-bishop's pawn (up there at c6). Not that that pawn has any serious hope of becoming a queen, but in a way it keeps one of his rooks hanging back to protect Erik's backline where his king, not incidentally, happens to be. I'd rather not lose it if I can.

Nor do I have any options of blocking his queen from taking my queen, much less from taking my advanced pawn.

Wait, am I forgetting the worst part? I am! -- he isn't just forking those two pieces, he's got a triple fork on my white bishop, too!




Now, admittedly, Erik isn't too likely to QxQ, because if he does, my rook's pawn will strike back. But then that starts a chain reaction slaughter in that corner, which will look something like:

his queen kills my queen
my pawn kills his queen
his bishop kills my bishop
my knight kills his bishop
his rook kills my knight
my rook kills his rook

he loses queen, bishop, rook; I lose queen, bishop, knight.

Which, y'know, technically that would put me ahead for the exchange, and I'm already ahead on pieces. But I'd rather keep more of my pieces in action, too.

The other option is that I take his queen. Two of his three forks (the other two pawns he could take are guarded) could strike him down, namely my queen and my white bishop. If that happens, it's going to start a shorter chain reaction where I can end up with a queen centrally placed -- and then if he wants to apocalypse my left back corner, great, I end up with a rook and queen free to move on my left and with nothing keeping me from advancing my pawn (or even two of them) to queenhood!

So, sure: the smart move will be for me to smack his queen right now with my white bishop, and start the sequence and see how far Erik is willing to carry it.

The Weirdboy puts up a shield with his staff, but Tarvos blasts it down.






An exchange of fire follows and...




...and I will never mock my white bishop by calling him Torgo again! In this game!

Bxd5?




In this case, that question mark is notation. ^-^

Erik sends his Meganob down the rabbit hole of destruction.






Rxd5

...wait. -- wait, am I retarded?

I AM RETARDED!

I initiated the exchange, so when I'm done Erik'll be standing there with a knight! Not me with a queen!

(This explains my question mark notation earlier.)

Argh, argh, argh!

Well, huh. My white bishop for his queen isn't a bad trade, even though his rook is now out (and guarding both his bishops, while being guarded by his knight, by the way).

Okay, but: what if?

What if I go ahead and make this exchange continuously worse for him after all?

PxBc5






Oh, was that bishop guarded by your rook? Sure, go ahead, trade a bishop for a pawn. You might as well get something out of that disaster, right?




Oh my God I can't believe he went for it (Rxc5?)!! He could have just sat there with his Rook protected by his knight and done something else; or moved his Meganob anywhere out of the Librarian's sight.

In his defense, Erik was busy migrating our game to a new chat window dedicated to playing chess games.

But his rook just walked unprotected into my bishop's guns.





Atreus has been waiting all game to get out of trouble there (and into the game)!

Bxc5 check!




Erork stomps in high dudgeon to e8, since there's no way to take my bishop or block his attack; and his other moves are either blocked by his own pawn, or still under the gun from my bishop or queen.

I've got a 5 to 3 advantage in power pieces, although that's a little misleading as my two rooks (represented by Terminator Marines in this game) still haven't gotten out, nor my king's knight. But they could be on the way pretty easily, and I've got a 6 to 2 advantage in pawns, including an advanced one who will serve to help keep Erik's remaining rook tied to the back file. Or rank. Whichever, I can never keep them apart. Row 8.

At this point the question is whether I should prosecute with my free pieces, which would make the game a lot more even, or spend some time getting more of my backfield into play.

I decide Pc7 would be a good idea to block his king from moving farther to my left; and since that opportunity seems very temporary, and nothing is in danger at the moment, I move Celeano up.




Naturally this is setting up a diagonal weave on the king: all I have to do now is move my queen up to b5 for check, and his king has nowhere to run (although a block might still work).

With a Meganob to c8...




...Erik prepares to take Celeano, destroying that part of my weave, and threatening my bishop. (His rook meanwhile is being guarded by his white bishop.)

The main weakness to completing my weave trap, is that Erik can bring back his white bishop to block my queen's check, threatening my queen if I stay and being covered by the Warboss himself. On the other hand, I'm not a big fan of his rook undoing my weave. The only way to perhaps stop that, is to threaten a key piece of his, so that to continue he'll have to trade a bishop for a rook.

Thus I move the king's pawn up to e4.




That pawn (Pellamon, first mover of the game who hasn't moved since), I expect to die, whether by knight or by bishop, but if that happens, my next pawn takes whoever moved, and one way or another at least his bishop, maybe also his knight, will be out of defensive coverage for a move on his king.

It doesn't take Warboss Erork long to defuse that trap, simply moving his bishop to d7.




This pre-emptively blocks my queen from even trying to check the king there, and keeps the bishop around for both close and long-range defense. (Also Erik's remaining knight covers the bishop along with the king himself.)




"Hah! The enemy has few places left to run," snorfs Pellamon, glad to still be alive, whom I advance on Erik's knight, Pe5, in perfect safety.

This leaves Erik's knight, indeed, with few safe places to run!

I expect however that Celeano, my advanced pawn, isn't long for this world; and right after opining this in chat, the order comes down: Rxc7.




Your name shall be engraved in the list for this battle, Celeano!

Naturally, I'm not so hot to take that Stormboy now with Pellano, since I've got an unprotected Devastator staring down the rockets and guns of a Meganob.

So, hey: why not force Erik to choose between saving his Meganob and saving his king? Qb8 sounds like a good idea, right?




Check!

No doubt Erik was laughing when he casually turned the tables to fork my queen and my bishop with Rc8.




sigh. I know. I know. I KNOWWW!

The best I can think of is the toothless fork of Qd6.




Sure I'm threatening his bishop and knight now, while guarding my bishop. But in practice I can't take either of those without losing my queen. I resolve myself to lose the bishop and trade that for his rook, leaving my assault in shambles, but at least with a serious advantage for five or six turns later, since I can still bring out my rooks and queen's knight, and advance some more pawns.

But Erik has something worse in mind.




...wha?

Rc6???

Once again, Erik casually mocks me by forcing a choice between my bishop and my queen!

Well, that's no choice. Crap. But as long as I'm moving my queen out of the way, maybe I can put Erik in a protected check, Qe7, and then either escape my bishop or trade bishop for bishop and hunt down his...




uh.

wat.



...wait, what? Did I just win?!




...YEAH! THAT'S RIGHT, I JUST WON! WITH MY SUPERIOR PLAN OF TACTICAL PLANNING! TACTICS!

Joking aside, I really didn't notice that checkmate opportunity until the turn I made it.

I didn't exactly luck into it -- not exactly ::). I played a game of keeping the push on, whenever I had a chance, taking more pieces than he took of mine and defending well with my pawns, even though they got in my way of rook deployment. At the end of the game, I could simply put more force downfield, and eventually an opportunity opened up.

So, yeah, first game in about 22 years, crunched out a win somehow. I can feel my ego trying to tell me how great I am for that!

But this AAR knows better. :crazy2: O:-)

Thanks to ELM for the game, and for commenting on his side of it here at Grogheads!
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!