Another Thursday evening down at Justplay in Liverpool https://justplaygames.uk/
saw my inaugural use of FreeFolk, playing Stephen's recently arrived Bolton's. Must say a big thanks to Richie and Justplay for accommodating us despite my booking error...
Apologies also for forgetting to bring 2 Freefolk Raider units, but I managed to pinch some Baratheon strays to augment my trays...
I havent seen many people use Mance, but as the King beyond the Wall, I felt I should give him a run out for a few games before trying the "better" commanders...
My force consisted of:
Free Folk Trappers with Mance Rayder (C)
Free Folk Spear Wives with Skinchanger (Bear)
Free Folk Spear Wives with Skinchanger (Bear)
Cave Dweller Savages
Free Folk Raiders
Free Folk Raiders
Free Folk Raiders
Free Folk Raiders
NCU's: Lady Val, Craster and Ygritte
Stephen was fresh from his first victory playing A Song of Ice and Fire and brought a powerful Bolton force led by Ramsey, with Bronn and Brienne attachments.
His list was as below:
Bolton Blackguard with Ramsey Snow(C) and Reek
Bolton Cutthroats with Brienne (who targeted the Cave Dweller Savages for her Knightly vow)
Bolton Bastard Girls with Stormcrow Lt
Stormcrow Mercenaries with Bronn
NCU's: Tycho Nestoris, Peter Baelish and Jaqen H'ghar
First time facing Jaqen and he had did very well on Stephen's last game out.
My NCU's...
We decided to play A Game of Thrones scenario, with the board set up as below. Stephen chose a corpse pile for centre, and some spikes in my half, while I opted for a Weirwood and palisades.
The objectives were, left to right: near Weirwood = free manouver, Near palisades = Heal D3, Centre = 2 VP's but -2 panic, top right, enemy unit take a panic, my right near spikes units melee vicious and sundering but take D3 wounds.
Stephen set up with Bronn and the Stromcrow Mercs on my left as you look from my side, Brienne and Cutthroats centrally, with Ramsey's guard to my right of them and Bastards girls with Stormcrow Lt on my far right
My horde covered my deployment zone!!! Left to right as you look, 2 Raiders, Spearwives, Raiders, both bears, Spearwives, Manc ein Trappers, Cave Dwellers, Raiders
Raymond's Baratheons were also in attendance, facing Colin's Night's Watch...
They blitzed through their game, ending 7-7 all but with the Baratheons tabled...
TURN 1
With Stephen having chosen board edge, I opted to let him go first. I marched steadily up on my right, and advanced on my left to better position my units. Stephen didnt hold back either, advancing undeterred with my numbers...
I had a semblance of a plan in mind regarding bunkering my ranged units behind my Raiders, with Mance's Morale buffing those in short range but a Raider bunker just seemed a bit flimsy...
We played through the tactics board first, I should add. Baelish was placed first on the bags, but took letters, so Craster took swords to prevent Jaqen rerolls but changed for a card, Jaqen took Horses and advanced Stormcrows, rolling a 1 on Mance for no damage. Ygritte took letters, before Tycho zapped my far left raiders who passed their morale!!!
Ramsey and his Boltons close in....
TURN 2
I had a cunning plan, thanks to an enlarged tactics card hand (6 beginning the turn). I placed Ygritte on the swords, letting the Spearwives destroy the spikes while influencing the Bastard Girls to prevent the Stormcrow Lt aiding them, which Stephen didnt counter. Jaqen then took the bags, rolling a 4 to kill a Trapper. Val took the letters, while Baelish took the crown, forcing another panic on my far left raiders...
who failed. Craster took the horses, healed the 2 of my far left raiders and took a card to make 9 in hand...
The tactics board was full, and Stephen then edged up to shoot my second from right Raiders with the Bastard girls, only scoring one wound as I saved one and then, yup, passed my third Raiders panic check...
It was time to enact Mance's cunning plan. With Craster sat on the horses, I played Swift advance on my far right Raiders who moved up, then charged the Bastard Girls...
And smacked them with all 6 hits...
Stephen made one save, but then promptly failed his morale check to lose 8 and dogs in total...
In response, the Blackguard advanced up, while taking the objective that would cause me a panic check on scoring, with Ramsay taking his displeasure out on Reek, killing him while putting a panic on my right FF raiders...
At the start of my turn, I played Meticulous Planning, dropping it and Distraction Tactics, to pick up the second Swift advance, which was played on my second from right Raiders to try and emulate the first units attack on the Bastard Girls. To make doubly sure, I played Group assault too...
And yeah, my Meticulous Planning seemed to work quite well...
Have to say my right hook had worked stunningly well, far better than I had hoped...
The rest of the turn saw my centre position itself for turn 3, with Bronn's Stormcrows marching up towards my far left Raiders, who had taken the objective there. I marched up the Cave Dweller Savages to entice Brienne
On scoring, I had one objective which allowed my Cave Dwellers to Advance up near the palisades and threaten the Cutthroats flank. My far left Raider were forced to take a third panic check, but the Weirwood tree helped them out...
END of TURN 2
FREEFOLK 2 VP's HOUSE BOLTON 1 VP
Stephen didn't hang about, eager for blood, and charged the Stormcrows in killing 5 Raiders on my left. But they again, passed a morale check... I countered with Ygritte on the Swords, shutting down Ramsay and allowing the Spearwives I'd moved up to launch some spear at the Blackguard, who lost two men...
In response, Jaqen took the bags, allowing Bronn and the Stormcrows to try again. But Stephen rolled very poorly, and I only lost 1 man, passing my morale again. And Jaqen merely killed another Trapper...
I charged home with the Spearwives, losing two on the way in to Horrific visage but they cut down 3 Blackguards with the Sundering spears helping.
The Skinchanger's bear failed to charge into Brienne's unit due to the corpse pile but passed its panic check
Ramsey's unit withdrew using tactics board, allowing him to reposition and then charged in against the Raiders who had threatened his flank. With Wealth and Cunning, the Freefolk were reduced to 3 men...
However, I used Regroup and Reform to bolster them up again...
I did attack, losing more men to Horrfic Visage, and Brienne repositioned as she lost 3 men to the Crown as the enemy gathered around her. I took the healing objective and dropped back my FF unit onto the right hand objective, while my central Raiders added the centre objective too.
END of TURN 3
FREEFOLK 6 VP's HOUSE BOLTON 1 VP
TURN 4
At the start of the round, Stephen played Cruel Methods, Bronn and his Stormcrows hitting them 4 times...
And the plucky Raiders managed to save 3 of them...
Sadly, they finally succumbed to a failed panic test...
Which would allow the Stormcrows to surge forth to threaten Mance's Trappers...
I decided to sacrifice Mance and try ending the perfidious Ramsey but he managed to hold on as the Spearwives rolled abysmally (I couldn't really complain too much, on balance)
Bronn and the Stormcrows charged the Trappers in the rear, totally savaging them but Mance and a sole trapper survived.
I had Ygritte take the swords, negating Brienne and allowing the Spearwives another go at Ramsey...
Which they duly delivered on, cutting down the Bastard!!!
Jaqen took the bags, and switched from targeting the doomed Mance, while the bags allowed the Stormcrows to finish off Mance...
And Jaqen killed the Skinchanger with the last remaining bear...
The Stormcrows had worked their way through two units for no comeback on them, but the Freefolk were still around in abundance...
And as the Spearwives elected to move and throw theirs spears at Brienne's Cutthroats, who were reduced down to 3, Craster then took the crown...
which finished them off with a failed morale check
END of TURN 4
FREEFOLK 13 VP's HOUSE BOLTON 2 VP's
The final view of the battlefield, with both commanders slain...
Well, its fair to say the rust from the Covid lay-off has finally been removed from my dice. Anyone who has ever played me regularly over the years will know just how lucky I can be with dice, and my dice in this game were shockingly good. I also got a good early combo to increase my already sizeable unit supremacy, getting the two Raiders to charge home against the unsuspecting Bastard Girls and getting max hits.
Stephen is still relatively new to the game, his dice didn't help him and you can/t legislate for me being spawny. I should not have passed as many morale checks as I did. The left hand raiders should have been gone long before they did, which would have freed Bronn's Stormcrows up to hit me harder on the left, but as it was, I simply overwhelmed the Bolton line with numbers...
A good start to my Wilding adventures, though as I'm due to face Raymond's Stannis Baratheon's next outing, I'll try not to think about how it went down in the series...
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