MOAB stands for Mother of All Battles. It's a neat scenario where one side gets unlimited resurrections while the other side has a few scenarios to defend. For the purpose of this post, I really only want to focus on one.
Defending the Castle:
If you aren't familiar with the castle at Pennsic, it sits at the base of a hill. In this scenario, the attackers could go through the gate or around either side.
Anglesey and the rest of the Bog were working with Atlantia. Our initial job was to be reserves for the center gate. After taking a quick look at the scenario, we knew that the center gate was the easiest to defend and not in need of as many reserves as were originally planned.
Why was the Center Gate the Easiest to Defend?
The biggest difference between a gate and a bridge is that you can stack up fighters on the corners of the gates. While the center gate has two corners, the breaches on the sides of the castle each only have one corner. The breaches are also wider, which means that more attackers will be fighting, which means you'll need more defenders, which means you'll also need more reserves.
Also, remember a recurring theme in this blog, the unit/army that controls the flanks has the advantage. If the middle breaks, you can pull fighters from all sides and get the attackers into a kill pocket. Also, the gate is at the bottom of a hill, so if the attackers make it through, they will have to fight up hill.
On the other hand, if the attackers make it through a side breach, they now control the flank and will have the uphill advantage.
Redeployment Options
Looking for a more vulnerable position in our defenses, we decided to move to the left breach. Here is why I, as Anglesey's warlord, made a mistake. My kinsman, Karuk, suggested that we take the highest ground on the far left. I, on the other hand, was concerned about a hard hitting unit, The Bloodguard, stacking up on the corner of that castle
I was wrong.
I was wrong for the very same reason why we moved over here in the first place. The corner is actually well defended because fighters form a nice kill pocket as the attackers try to push past that position. Even if they managed to break through, they would find themselves quickly surrounded by defenders.
As the battle unfolded, the center gate held strong, the corner of the castle held strong, all while the far left quickly collapsed. We quickly redeployed again (which for us happens quickly since we don't march in formation......we run) and met the Tuchux who were pushing up and around the flank into an uphill position. From here all they had to do was turn the corner and quickly work their way back down the hill.
What was Worse than My Plan?
Before the battle started, an Atlantian proposed an idea to us. Instead of meeting the attackers as they tried to push through the breach, what if we formed a line in the middle of the backfield? "Imagine fighting through a breach and then you see a large army lined up to meet you."
This is the kind of plan that sounds like a great idea when you hear it, and certainly makes for great imagery in a movie. But when gets right down to it, it's actually not a very good idea. In fact, its an example of the misuse of reserves that we've been complaining about for a while now.
Think of it this way; you and your buddies are in a fight. What's better? Let the bad guys beat the crap out of your friends and then come and fight you? Or do you jump into the fight while they are trying to beat up your friends. The purpose of reserves is not to wait until your buddies die before you get into the fight. It's to observe the flow of the battle, find out quickly where more troops are needed, and quickly deploy.
More importantly, the above diagram just shows a bad position. After hearing the suggestion, our vice warlord and myself responded, "I don't think this is a good idea. We've got them in a choke point with uphill advantage down there. If we wait for them up here, we are going to give away all of our advantages."
Takeaways from this: always control the flanks, stop the fight at a choke point, maintain the uphill position if you can, and corners of gates are easier to defend than other locations.
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