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Mark came over back on the 26th, and we tried out Granada: Last Stand of the Moors, which he got recently. I don’t really have money or space, but I’m going to have to look at getting it. The main idea is to reuse the system from Sekigahara, and it does match that fairly closely. There were a number of places where I could figure out rules questions from my knowledge of that game.

It is a bit more complicated. First, there are watchtowers, which are sort of between castles and resource points. The major effect is you can’t get overrun in them, but there’s also combat complications. Second, is the addition of naval power. The decks are a bit more complicated with a number of special cards, which are generally good ideas (I especially like the handful of cards that are just for various special troop actions, but work with any faction).

I happened to be sitting on the south side of the map, and so took the Muslims. Mark won the first turn order bid (and all the others, I declined to bid more than ‘1’ all game), and had me go first. The situation is even more muddled than Sekigahara, with more spaces and more troops scattered about, so figuring on a first move was not easy, especially as my opening hand didn’t suggest any particular forces could be effectively used.

I don’t remember what the exact first moves were, but there are a few vulnerable spaces at start, including a couple of Muslim watchtowers just outside the borders of Granada proper. I abandoned the one at Lucena to besiege Archidona, and took it after moving one of the main armies north. Castles are harder to take here, since you need nine impact to kill a piece inside, unless you can manage a bombard special action to bring it down to 7. Since European castles are notably tougher than Japanese ones, that makes some sense, but I needed the large army to dig him out. Mark had taken the resource point at Vera, but I managed to chase him off with a small force, and then moved the force at Almeria up to cover that flank.

Mark started driving in the border in the north, taking the tower at Huelma, but now I was getting some serious momentum that was only threatened by the size of my own army. I had a good combination of hand and army, and took the tower at Estepa before continuing on to the crossroads at Osuna. There I had the decision of going after the army and resource point at Sevilla, or head north to take the castle at Eciia. There was a tussle on the west edge which lead to me occupying Gibraltar, and blocking the mustering point there.

I think Mark moved the force in Sevilla laterally to protect the north, and I went north after it, taking Eciia and then pressing on to Cordoba. We were both a bit surprised to realize that was a resource point, and not a castle. Mark had kind of been counting on using the fortification there for some time, but…

Afterword

We’d had a late start, and a slow going as we figured out what was going on, so we called it a day there with another Christian defeat in Cordoba. The military balance had tipped over and was turning into a landslide that Mark was not managing to stop.

There’d certainly been some wasted motion, including attempts at naval combat, but that seems to only really matter for intercepting attempted troop movements (logical for the period), and Mark backed out of committing to an early move with that. He probably should have given it a try. It couldn’t have turned out too much worse, and it might have really messed with my actions. It certainly would have been educational for both of us, as that’s one place where strategy can get really different from Sekigahara.

I used my advantages of having played Sekigahara more and more recently well, having a good idea of how to get an offensive going, and keep winning battles. It didn’t hurt that my main offensive army ended up with three leaders in it, and I could always count on five impact before getting to cards (and I had a special unit matching the third leader for a couple more impact…). The hard part was judging just how common the various factions were. I didn’t even see any Banu Bannigas cards until well in, and looking for something for them to do led to the fall of Alhama.

I certainly enjoyed the game, and think they did a great job building on the foundations of Sekigahara. I’m a little concerned that a few too many wrinkles have been added, but the biggest problem is that the map is a bit crowded with more spaces, and more blocks scattered around. This means there’s more going on, and to keep track of, which really complicates things. Lastly, I don’t really care for Compass’ block redesign, since you don’t dare stack them 3-4 high, which makes it hard to see where you have what kind of troops.