So a friend on Facebook named Erik (not one of the Eriks here) wanted to play Facebook Chess last night. Which was okay, but I thought, "Too bad he doesn't have Regicide."
Then with a little experimentation I realized I could set up a hotseat game in skirmish mode, and use that to mirror our game.
Naturally, I took video. And photos. And wrote up an AAR.
Regicide is simply the name for chess in Warhammer 40K, but the "Regicide" mode itself (I want to stress) is not chess. It's a port of some of the tabletop rules for tactical skirmishing to individual pieces instead of squads (more or less mumble mutter), on top of which are added a sort of house rule for designating figures as chess pieces and then constricting those pieces to move (mostly, pawns somewhat excluded) as their chess analogues, with the benefit that any legitimate chess move for a piece into another piece's square equals an instant kill. But meanwhile the pieces are shooting and hacking and grenading and calling in artillery and doing other normal things you'd find in a 40K game.
This is not "Regicide" mode; because Erik doesn't have Regicide and I think he had forgotten what little I told him about 40K some time ago. This is "Classic" mode, which is just chess with Space Marine vs Ork coloring.
And exploding stomachs. Because, 40K.
So we're actually playing in Facebook chess. I'm only mirroring in Regicide hotseat.
Prologue clear? On with the match.
Quote from: JasonPratt on March 23, 2016, 06:43:16 PM
(not one of the Eriks here)
There are Eriks here??? Who knew? :o
JRP (white, Blood Angels) vs. Erik (black, Goffs)
The whole game has been played, but I plan on only posting a few moves at a time depending on what else I'm doing. Besides that way members can comment. :D
FB assigned me first move, and thus white. I haven't played Regicide enough to unlock, well, anything really, so only a few maps and teams are available to me. Given the limited choices, and my assignment as white, I chose the Blood Angels and for Erik the Goff Orks. In classic mode this means nothing other than cosmetic bling. In Regicide mode, whether skirmish or campaign or multiplayer, you level up sets and unlock more sets, and there can be some genuine differences on the field.
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Here's a king's view of the central two pawns, and the field ahead. I went with a forest path board at dusk. Mist is wafting across the field from my left.
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I open with Pe3. There are good reasons why moving up the King's Pawn two squares is the favorite move for either white or black, but screw that. :D I'm going to try a more defensive structured opening.
As you might expect, this choice will come back to bite me in the ass. Repeatedly.
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Erik wastes no time doing the reasonable usual thing, and sends that Shoota Boy (pawn) to e5.
It might seem weird to a 40K fan that Shoota Boyz are the pawns instead of Choppa Boyz -- for any guests, Choppas are the basic Ork grunts, with crude axes and pistols -- but after all Shootas are just Choppas with rifles instead of pistols, and they're facing Tactical Marines who have rifles. Granted, so would a mob of Choppas, but this is supposed to be chess where both sides are equally matched.
(Yes, Shootas are definitely not equally matched up against Tacs in almost any 40K game, but again this is chess so just whatever.)
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Continuing my defensive plan (although not without pausing to consider other options), I send up the left knight pawn one square to b3. Every piece is randomly assigned personal names by the way (unless specifically assigned names by the player when building a Regicide set perhaps). The first Tac was Pellamon; this guy is Orpheus. The Orkz all have personal names, too, but I don't care. ;D
Erik decides since I'm not moving out very fast, he'll take the opportunity to start working on my left side flank by sending his Weirdboy's (queen's) Stormboy (knight) to a6.
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(Um... I think the Ork 'queen' is being played by a Weirdboy, although I don't usually think of them being in 40K. I'll double check that soon.)
It's around this time that I come to realize that Regicide needs a bit more color for properly distinguishing pieces from each other and from the backgrounds. At least for screenshots.
Erik's Stormboy landed square in the recently-opened shooting line of my Commander-side Devastator (King's Bishop), but being chess I can't just shoot him long range with my heavy bolter: poor... {checking} Tarvos? Tavros? Targo? would waddle all the way across the board afterward to "take and hold" that square with his Hand of Fate, and be promptly shot dead by a mere pawn.
Still, the reason I moved those two previous pawns up was to open a line for the bishop to get out and take up position at the end of a defensive pawn setup, so...
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...I make the 'bishop' trundle out there to c4, almost as far, without shooting anyone at all dead first. Achievement achieved! {clapping self on back}
Erik doesn't care a single poot about my achievement, and demonstrates its worth by defusing it with...
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...a single dang pawn to queen 4. Uh, sorry, old nomenclature; I meant d5.
So I can either trade a pawn for a bishop over the next couple of turns in order to set up some other brilliant plan (or, heck, trade a bishop and two pawns for a pawn, or even trade a bishop, two pawns, and a knight to thwack a queen'd pawn :P ) ... or, I can move trade a bishop for a pawn the other way -- which might be worth it if I suckered his queen down for some purpose, but I can't think of one.
Or I can advance my bishop to be taken completely safely by his knight next turn.
Or I can turn my little Devastator right around and waddle him back to safety somewhere.
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"We've got them on the run," Torgo confidently announces as he Bishops back to D3. Well, it still keeps his options open, and he still remains protected by pawn backup.
QuoteI open with Pe3. There are good reasons why moving up the King's Pawn two squares is the favorite move for either white or black, but screw that. :D I'm going to try a more defensive structured opening.
As you might expect, this choice will come back to bite me in the ass. Repeatedly.
Yeah, I was really puzzled by that move. I wasn't sure if this was some new strategy or what, so I proceeded what for me was cautiously.
QuoteContinuing my defensive plan (although not without pausing to consider other options), I send up the left knight pawn one square to b3. Every piece is randomly assigned personal names by the way (unless specifically assigned names by the player when building a Regicide set perhaps). The first Tac was Pellamon; this guy is Orpheus. The Orkz all have personal names, too, but I don't care. ;D
Erik decides since I'm not moving out very fast, he'll take the opportunity to start working on my left side flank by sending his Weirdboy's (queen's) Stormboy (knight) to a6.
If I remember correctly, I didn't really know where you were going with things, and I don't like it when I don't know what's going on, so I tried putting the ball back in my court by forcing some decisions on your behalf. It was half posturing, half misdirection, and I was surprised by how well that it was working, but it wasn't too long before the tide turned decidedly in your direction.
I think that I have a pretty good opening game, a competent and vigorous middle game, but closing has always been my nemesis.
QuoteErik's Stormboy landed square in the recently-opened shooting line of my Commander-side Devastator (King's Bishop), but being chess I can't just shoot him long range with my heavy bolter: poor... {checking} Tarvos? Tavros? Targo? would waddle all the way across the board afterward to "take and hold" that square with his Hand of Fate, and be promptly shot dead by a mere pawn.
Still, the reason I moved those two previous pawns up was to open a line for the bishop to get out and take up position at the end of a defensive pawn setup, so...
I am of the opinion that pawns are either pivotal to your strategy or the biggest obstacle, but they are almost never irrelevant. In this case, pawns were very pivotal to my strategy.
Quote...I make the 'bishop' trundle out there to c4, almost as far, without shooting anyone at all dead first. Achievement achieved! {clapping self on back}
Erik doesn't care a single poot about my achievement, and demonstrates its worth by defusing it with...
...a single dang pawn to queen 4. Uh, sorry, old nomenclature; I meant d5.
So I can either trade a pawn for a bishop over the next couple of turns in order to set up some other brilliant plan (or, heck, trade a bishop and two pawns for a pawn, or even trade a bishop, two pawns, and a knight to thwack a queen'd pawn :P ) ... or, I can move trade a bishop for a pawn the other way -- which might be worth it if I suckered his queen down for some purpose, but I can't think of one.
Or I can advance my bishop to be taken completely safely by his knight next turn.
Or I can turn my little Devastator right around and waddle him back to safety somewhere.
See what I mean? ;)
Welcome to ELM, yo! O0
Pawns are generally crucial to my strategies, since everything in this game is made of glass.
(Erik has seen some snapshots I posted of the Regicide mirror during the Facebook match, by the way, but all these snaps so far are new from the Shadowplay video I think.)
Have I mentioned yet that I haven't played chess since 1992? Because that seems like it might be relevant. And no, working through the first few missions of the Regicide campaign doesn't count.
What does count, is Erik deciding to send his own king's bishop -- who looks like this by the way...
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...to exactly mirror where I had trundled Torgo the Devastator one turn previously.
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C5, not incidentally, is also a spot currently protected by that knight Erik flanked out already on my left.
As an aside, I thought the Ork bishops were supposed to be Flash Gits -- the heavy ranged units -- but the game calls them Lootas. Maybe they're the same thing; I'll admit to not being entirely up to date on all 40K details.
I have a bunch of options for my next move, but I quickly narrow them down to strengthening my right side defense.
I could do this with more short range pawn movement. But bringing out one of my two back pieces on the right, might serve to edge the initiative back in my favor, since that might suggest to Erik he should respond to my actions over here -- he has so far only weakened his left (my right) side if anything. Convincing the enemy to respond is a key tactic in any wargame, especially one with glass pieces that die in one hit from anything (like for example chess), and Erik has gotten me responding to him right now! Time to break that if I can, while I still can.
So do I go ahead and bring out the big gun, my Librarian (queen)? Or my Assault Marine (knight)?
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While the knight (moving Nf3) is technically less powerful, it does in this situation have the advantage of threatening something which, if taken, couldn't be traded off, namely that king's pawn: the only unprotected part of Erik's advance so far. By contrast, moving my queen out all the way to h5 would only draw out a protected pawn to force me back at no gain for me (and an improvement of his left position); moving it to g4 would simply get it taken by his bishop; moving it to f3 threatens nothing of his except a pawn under guard by his own king.
Roughly speaking, Erik can now either react to me or not. If he reacts by protecting the pawn, then fine but I've gotten the initiative and can try to keep it. If he chooses to try something else, I'll just have to deal with that I guess.
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Instead, Erik mirrors me with his king's knight (that Stormboy landing on f6 in the snapshot).
Getting a knight forward certainly isn't bad, and this move certainly adds protection to his queen's pawn, so that any future tradeoff there should be in his favor. What it doesn't do, though, is protect his king's pawn in any way, shape, form, or fashion. And yet it feels like a response to my advance, so I think I've still got the initiative here.
That doesn't mean I instantly jump Alexos over to e5 to chainsword first blood out of Erik's little minion.
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I thought about it a good twenty or thirty seconds first!
But I can see no downside. He can't strike back immediately, so he's now one pawn down for free; I've advanced the knight to a central position where he could threaten someone worthwhile eventually; and in the worst case scenario, I can (probably) jump the AssMarine back out of danger somewhere safely. And while I'm not definitely forcing Erik to respond, there's a good chance he might do so in a way that leaves me initiative.
Which he does by castling (to the king's side O - O).
If Erik hasn't made an arguably weak move yet, this one might be it. This could help him later, or even soon, but it doesn't help him immediately; and while sending one's king toward a corner reduces avenues of attack against it, avenues of escape reduce in proportion.
This is a wordy way of saying I don't follow by castling, too. Or ever in this game, to give a minor spoiler.
Whether I'll regret that later remains to be seen.
Now my question is: what can I do to keep my initiative going? This doesn't have an obviously easy answer -- not to me anyway. Should I move my white (king's) bishop?
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He has two apparently open lines of advance, but most of the squares are covered in such a way he'd be picked off instantly at no benefit to me I can see. And the few safe squares don't set up anything I can see either.
My Librarian (queen)'s path out right-forward has opened up again, but I can't go very far out without being picked off by his king-side knight. Moving her out would at best only threaten to trade his king's knight for my queen, which duh, no.
Improving my pawn advance layers, especially on my right side, wouldn't be bad, but wouldn't keep the initiative.
Eventually I decide...
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...it's time to bring out my black bishop to a3.
Admittedly, this is still kind of weak, because now I've placed my bishop in danger from his black bishop for no immediate gain: his own bishop is protected by the queen's knight, with possible pawn support coming. And while my bishop is also knight-protected, this locks down my queen's knight. But I've also locked down his queen's knight -- until and unless he moves up some pawn support, which could easily happen.
Still, I've increased directly threatening pressure on his line, and I've set up the potential for a long distance effect up where he's currently trying to hide his king; and I've done so in a way that he can't simply write off as a toothless threat: trading bishop for bishop isn't like trading a knight for my queen. At worst I've complexified his life on that side of the board.
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Much to my surprise, he brings the pawn which could free up his knight by supporting his bishop, forward to b5.
You will notice that in my screenie, I'm helping illustrate this by highlighting how I can attack him with my white bishop.
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There's a reason for that.
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Sure, Tarvos is standing unprotected in the dishonored guts of Erik's pawn spilled across the battlefield, but at the moment no one can threaten him, and I'm opening up more pressure on Erik's king's corner, and Erik is now down two pawns which could translate to fewer options in the late game.
What I don't realize is that I've inadvertently given Erik the opportunity, and the goad, to bust my left side as wide open as the Shoota Boy who's now clogging Tarv's boot cleats.
Yeah, I never enter into a game with the idea of not losing any pieces. It's more like, how am I going to spend these pieces to purchase my adversary's demise? xD
So, what's the problem?
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That guy. Erik's queen rook. He's the problem.
I just fell for a classic pawn bait trap. I zip my bishop out, take the pawn in a safe spot with strong presence, why wouldn't I do that?
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Because pawns have to be awesome or dead for rooks to accomplish much in this game, since a pawn will always normally be in the way of a rook moving forward anywhere. I just got rid of a Shoota Boy in the way of that Nob, and unlike 'real' 40K I can't mow him down at long distance with my heavy bolter if he steps over to the left once; but he can dang well charge down and spackle me all over the ground!
So if he moves one step left, I've got to retreat from that line -- which, granted, I can do safely while still keeping some pressure on Erik's king's hole.
But then Erik can bring his Nob out from the backfield. Even if he can't attack my well-defended left side immediately, he safely pins down a number of things while getting ready to shift leftward (my rightward) across the board (while my rooks all remain neutered in the backfield, and his other rook gets ready to come forward, too) to threaten all kinds of nastiness on my undeveloped --
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-- ---
uh.
Sooooo... Erork just skips all the preliminaries and goes straight to threatening my queen with his white bishop at g4. Where he's protected by the king's knight meanwhile.
To be honest, I foresaw neither that nor the rook maneuvering I described earlier. That was just a hindsight threat I was headslapping myself about after the fact, as an alternate to worrying over what Erik actually did.
Now, my king (at the moment) or my king's rook (if I castle) will zorch his Loota for messing with my Librarian. But trading a queen for a bishop is not good for any coming late game situation. Nor am I particularly keen on the idea of trading a knight for a knight (and allowing his knight to advance closer to me).
So it comes down to two options. I can either bury my Librarian deeper into my left backfield to protect it, or...
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...I can Pg3.
This puts an immediate threat of a bad piece-trade on his bishop, while protecting my 'queen'.
(Although to be honest I had to keep reminding myself that was a bishop not a knight while planning my move; because I'm not used to the 'shapes' of the pieces yet, and because my short-term memory really is that terrible.)
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This time it's his bishop stepping back (Bf5) after a threat advance, to avoid being pwnd!
He has still materially strengthened his left side (my right), while opening up a nascent threat on my left side.
He has also just removed that knight's final protection on my left side.
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Which my white bishop promptly exploits.
By which I mean my Devastator promptly explodes that Boy's Rockit!
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And steps up to a6.
Where my bishop can't really do much, honestly, except move back when Erik flushes him out with Qc8.
...wait, no, what? WHAT??!?
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Qd6. Forks my king's knight and my white bishop. Forks them ENTIRELY OVER!
By far the best move of the game so far. Possibly the best move all game.
Let us consider just how screwed I am, shall we?
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I've labeled the major pieces; everything else is a pawn. (Knights as usual are "N". The little white targeting recticule on Q8, shows where a piece previously moved from, Black's queen in this case, represented in this game by an Ork Weirdboy.)
Currently I have lost no pieces: I've still got all 8 pawns, my queen, both rooks, both bishops, and both knights. I'm up on Erik by three pawns and, just recently, his queen's knight.
Unfortunately, my own queen (played in this game by a Marine Librarian), and both my rooks are stuck behind my pawn line; one of my knights is busy guarding my black bishop; my black bishop can't do anything more than threaten his well-protected black bishop; and my white bishop has gotten tangled in my upper left corner where it's more of a sitting target than a threat. So while I've got a lot of potential power, practically speaking only my king's knight is in a position to do much.
Whereas, Erik has moved a lot of his main firepower forward, and could bring his rooks out within a couple of moves easily, given any opportunity.
What this translates to, in the current crisis, is that I have no way to stop his fork: his queen will take either my only free-roaming knight, or my only free-roaming bishop.
I can't put his king in check, disrupting and perhaps dissolving the fork.
I can't take his queen (and even if I could, his queen and his black bishop are protecting each other, and his surviving knight is also protecting the queen, and also one of his pawns! -- so I'd have to think about how much of a tradeoff I wanted to instigate there).
I can't block the path to my knight, and even if I could he'd just take my bishop.
I can't block the path to my bishop, and even if I could he'd just take my knight. (More precisely, only that knight could block the path to my bishop!)
I can move either piece to safety, but that would leave the other to be taken. (And any place I move the knight, he'll still be in immediate danger of being taken by Erik's white bishop, or by a pawn or the king's rook!)
Ideally, I would move one of the pieces to protect the other, but I can't do that either: my knight is on a black square, and my white bishop is too far away from my knight.
I can move up a pawn (on the F column) to protect my knight, but he'd just take my bishop.
Strictly speaking, the proper trade would be to save my bishop and sacrifice my knight.
But, that really depends on which one of those pieces has a more immediate and important tactical use. If I can use the knight in the next few moves to really mess with Erik, then I should sacrifice the bishop.
On the other hand: the fork could be a way to sucker the queen into a developing trap.
A related option, is to think in terms of this being an extended exchange where Erik is already down one knight. In that sense, if he takes one important piece, but I take two of his, I'm still ahead. And his black bishop could be shot by my black bishop any time. That would give Erik three important targets, but he could only take one. In fact, I'm likely to take that bishop anyway the moment his queen nukes one of my other pieces, since he can't do that and still protect the black bishop.
So in the short term, I'll actually still be ahead on an expanded exchange, with Erik down a knight and a bishop in exchange for whatever I give him (knight or bishop) in the fork.
So I'm not quite as much in a panic as might otherwise be.
Unfortunately, I can't think of anything to do in the short term with either the knight or the white bishop which would justify sacrificing the other one.
In hindsight, I should have sent my knight up to f7, taking the pawn in front of the rook, tempting Erik to rook (or king?) my knight and escaping my bishop afterward. Or I should have escaped my bishop, leading him into a developing pawn trap by taking my knight.
Instead...
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2FBiBG0F.png&hash=e97864845e48cc43e6f1411a6b6b077ecf0d903a)
...I jump Alexos to c4, in front of Erik's black bishop.
I cannot honestly say, several days later, what the heck I thought I was doing here. My guess is that I was hoping he'd pawn my knight and then I could bishop his pawn and escape. "Knight and Bishop are still forked, just differently," I texted.
This is one of those moves I'd have to put a {?} behind in tracking notation. Maybe I thought it was so whackadoo that Erik would suspect a trap he couldn't see, and look for a third option himself.
"Ah, you see more than that as well, I see," Erik eventually replied.
...what?
...wait, what? Is this... my freakish bluff isn't actually going to work is it??
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Well, no, he didn't try to find a third option. But he does pawn my knight!
Do I promptly escape my bishop over c4 and the blasted ruin of that pawn? Does a bishop wear a tall hat?!
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...well, not in this game. And that's a heavy gunner, not 40K's version of a bishop (which is standing in for the chess queen, by the way.)
But otherwise, dang skippy I do.
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Your gene seed will be recovered, Alexos; you have served the Emperor well.
Nice AAR i've added the game to my wishlist, nice variation on chess. But now thats out of the way, shouldn't you be defending Moscow or something :)
No doubt. Go get Barth to send in his turn! ^-^
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 --
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-- oh, right, it's Erik's move, Qe5.
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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.
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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.
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Into my Vol Wall, Erik decides to advance his queen's rook's pawn to a5.
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...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?"
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And up I send Pb4.
Erik agrees to get the slaughter started. Orkz! Orkz! Orkz!
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Your sacrifice, Orpheus, shall not be in vain.
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Pxc4
Celeano prepares to fall beside his brother's remains.
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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...???
So, I can either lose a bishop or a rook, my choice. :P
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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?
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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.
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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.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2FqsIEov.png&hash=c29f9c221fe44770e236059b93e1a174160b505b)
White bishop kicks off with xf7.
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And Erork shall feel the fury of the righteous.
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This is it. If I ever stop kicking ass, I don't think I'll be able to stop him from kicking mine.
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.)
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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.
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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...
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...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...
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...is an en passant!
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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!
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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.
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Bc5.
The Weirdboy is protecting the Shoota, so I can't just 'bolt' my Devastator up there.
What I can do...
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...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.
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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!
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).
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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!
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2FetnvMO.png&hash=485aa62078c1eaad3f32c65156a4a9108425bf21)
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.
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(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2FMKGjM0.png&hash=f6004aac10af8bb506f7d6286829393fef6e45bf)
An exchange of fire follows and...
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...and I will never mock my white bishop by calling him Torgo again! In this game!
Bxd5?
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In this case, that question mark is notation. ^-^
Erik sends his Meganob down the rabbit hole of destruction.
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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
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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?
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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.
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Atreus has been waiting all game to get out of trouble there (and into the game)!
Bxc5 check!
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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.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F923%2Fsr9EV6.png&hash=188e65d247cb1f242f33a04180ac899b21b6ffeb)
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...
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2FskG56D.png&hash=4578b76b208cc245615db780242fa6c80712cf9d)
...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.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2FiIjlyz.png&hash=592a4cdbd8802c51f233599fa37c8d6265a0039b)
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.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2F0KZt3K.png&hash=28c6b3ebd7771c29e07053c958367920e1ce0b5e)
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.)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2FIv9GSC.png&hash=8363563b93bd596b430994f0aede123b5cb3bc17)
"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.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2F6GYvE5.png&hash=4c2462b05c9b01fd391897102ce59917666f2173)
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?
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F923%2FZ2Yd5W.png&hash=e4084eb457ccd114a184ff46847b89bb655a5b21)
Check!
No doubt Erik was laughing when he casually turned the tables to fork my queen and my bishop with Rc8.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2Fl7L46b.png&hash=a21c49bdd31fe76f5d204fdbff1c28d06c7f38ff)
sigh. I know. I know. I KNOWWW!
The best I can think of is the toothless fork of Qd6.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2F6ZEqIr.png&hash=3dc77f4eeea0f5a974a28f7bb90aec58dfe84e6e)
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.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2FBMla1t.png&hash=e14350ca4c65a438d4625dfc8da13b686f4f6fd2)
...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...
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2Frp3VqG.png&hash=55de166bcff533937ae605a175299c700ade9f22)
uh.
wat.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2F7gThKT.png&hash=a0fb0ed3b96238879dfe621a426dd9eb255e60db)
...wait, what? Did I just win?!
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2FWfaKaZ.png&hash=004b84e401f5b3a82772371f0099a67be6f511dc)
...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!