Finally, a game in 2021. And its back to Justplay Games https://justplaygames.uk/ on a Thursday night for A Song of Ice & Fire...
Inspired by the narrative games Chris at Sunday Slaughter ran https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yu4YiY7eRw Raymond "Mr Ray" and I got our first "real" game in in 6 months, using new units, cards and 2021 rules, and we went for a thematic Mance led FreeFolk match up against a cavalry heavy Baratheon list led by Stannis, The One True King
As luck would have it, we randomly rolled scenario and the dice came up as A Clash of Kings...
Raymond's force for Baratheon consisted of the following:
Units:
Stannis, The One True king leading Baratheon Wardens
Champions of the Stag
Dragonstone Noble
Flayed Men
Bloody Mummers Zorse Riders
NCU's: Axel Florent & Petyr Baelish
My hardy Free Folk consisted of the following, set up from left to right:
Freefolk Raiders with Skinchanger
Mammoth
Cave Dweller Savages
Mance Rayder in Spearwives
Thenns with Walrus Clan Chieftain
Off board: Freefolk with Advanced Raid Leader
NCU's:Ygritte and Craster
Terrain was (left to right) Corpse Pile, Weirwood tree, Woods, Palisade.
My Tactics Board and Raymond's Turn Marker
Getting to use Carl's Black's awesome dice trays again was nice...
And while Raymond was looking forward to our battle, Colin and Paul were already underway.
Very pleased to say that despite not gaming properly, Raymond (Mr Ray), Greg (Greggers), Colin (Kolco) and Stephen (PsychoSte) have been keeping their hand in with various Table Top Simulator events and also our 5 players locally are now into double figures with quite a few people interested and chatting online...
Thought I'd take one picture from Raymond's point of view. Think his list, while being fluffy was also aimed at stopping my digs at how slow he moves. For me, I keep hearing the FreeFolk have been "nerfed" etc and the Mammoth isnt worth it. Well I love to be the underdog... Raymond set up left to right with Flayed Men, Dragonstone Noble, Stannis and his Wardens, Champions of the Stag and Mummers Zorses...
In new A Clash of Kings, each Commander gets two once per game bonuses, with Stannis having attack at max ranks and weaken defender. Mance had Vicious and Critical hits
Colin and Paul (Nights Watch v Greyjoys)
My Skinchnager eagled the Wardens, I had taken sides and Raymond took 1st Turn and took horses with Petyr and used letter, I had Ygritte take letters and influence Stannis's unit to reduce move to 3" and then axel took crown. I passed my first morale...
I used Val to represent Ygritte's influence...
A quick first turn saw the Freefolk advance right up, with Predictable manouevers allowing the Spearwives to close within spear throwing range, when Craster took the swords.
Pretty sure my plan was to hang back with Mance and the Spearwives and use his leadership, but tactics were never my strong point and did quite a bit of damage, while the Dragonstone Noble countered with various cards popping out, I still managed to come out of it quite well...
I also played a card that after the Dragonstone noble attacked, which allowed the Mammoth to advance.
TURN 2
Ygritte took the swords and the Spearwives attacked, but didnt do much damage.
Mindful of the auto wound capability of the trample, Raymons had the Zorse riders flank the big fella with Ours is the Fury too
Fortunately, my dice saves were pretty good
And with Mance and a weirwood nearby easily passed the panic
I had Craster take horses and bring on my Advanced Raid leader raider unit...
I brought them on on my left to threaten the Baratheons flank and rear, hoping to draw the elite Baratheon cavalry away from the Mammoth or Mance...
In fairness, it was the right thing to do but the Champions of the Stag were pretty lacklustre!!!
The models are awesome but that's really just an excuse to show you Raymonds dice
3 dead Freefolk from a heavy cavalry charge seemed good to me as an exchange but panic test was due...
With the new morale of 7+, the FreeFolk were resolute...
The Spearwives dropped a few more wardens, and the Mammoth turned to attack the Zorses...
The Mummers took 4 wounds...
And the Cave Dwellers also made a long charge in but didnt do much, but did use Coordination tactics to allow the Raiders a nice boost
As the FreeFolk closed in on the flank to hit the Zorses for 8 wounds, Final Strike was played and came as a nasty surprise and I lost 7 Raiders...
The Dragonstone Noble retreated and charged in front of the Spearwives, freeing up my flank for the flayed men
Gotta love Mance's leadership which allowed me to pass the panic from the two wounds...
I couldnt risk a flank attack, so activated Mance and the Spearwives and retreated back away from Stannis and onto centre objective
The Flayed Men were not deterred and hit hard...
Still, Mance has faced greater odds and he hung on...
The Thenns flanked the Flayed Men (with Ygritte's influence)
And Raymonds Flayed Men saves were pretty unimpressive...
The Wardens flanked the Mammoth, but with their reduced ranks, they didnt do much damage...
End of Turn 2. With the left objective not fully claimed, and Mance control of the centre being contested by the Flayed Men, the score was 0-0
The tactics board end of turn 2
TURN 3
Raymond activated first, and took the crown to play some card shenanigans (on the Zorses) which would give bonuses when they were wiped out I recall. I was pleasantly surprised and had Craster take the swords, while using his once per game ability to return two Spearwives to Mance.
At the same time, Mance whistled up 4 more Spearwives from the woods (or the Cave Dwellers)
And the Thenns attacked again with the swords attack, and a nasty surprise added for the panic test with There's Too Many...
The Flayed Men dropped to 1 rank but it would have been much worse but for Stannis's Azor Ahai card... The Zorses dropped a few Cave Dwellers
Ygritte on the horses allowed my Endless horde card to be played and aimed for the right flank objective..
The Endless Horde...
The Noble flanked the Thenns
But they were not phased by him...
And Mance was left alone again as they swung In R'hllors Name...
However, they weren't true believers and failed the panic test incurred by not killing Mance from the card they had on. Look at all the cards and orders played within short range of Mance and it wasnt til Turn 5 I remembered his Order!!!
The Champions of Stag managed 4 wounds against the Raiders...
And I finally failed a panic check and lost another 4, leaving the Raid leader
Still, he faced up like a trooper!!!
The Mammoth had finished off the Zorse riders. This freed up the Cave Dwellers, who flanked the undamaged Stag Champions. Despite being weakened, their Frenzied swings allowed them to hit with sundering on a 2+.
No 1's meant not damage to myself...
The bone clubs didn't do much though...
The Wardens added more wounds to the Mammoth
But yet again, the beast refused to run riot...
The Dragonstone noble retreated around and hit the Thenns in the rear but with the Walrus chief only took a wound...
And aced the rear panic test...
Rather amusingly for me, the Raiders managed to wound a champion who promptly failed a panic check for 3 wounds!!!
End of Turn 3
My right side Raiders had advanced up near to the right objective but were unable to claim it. Having killed the Mummers I had scored a point, and also got one as it freed up my Skinchangers Raiders to move onto the left objective.
Freefolk 2 VP's Baratheons 0 VP's
TURN 4
My activation first and with Mance having survived on his own once, I decided he needed to stay alive for his people!!!
More Spearwives appeared and Mance donned a wig and made good his escape...
Switching to the raiders on my right flank, with an objective nice and close!!!
And then I activated first, using the Ygritteon swords to have Savages to launch an overwhelming assault, which was simply lethal given their frenzied swings. 2+ to hit, re-rolls, sundering, critical blow and all in the flank...
The last Champion of the Stag reared up...
And panicked and fled...
With Petyr on horses to deny me he used letters, Craster took letters while Axel took the crown...
Influencing the Skinchangers unit and targetting them, dropped them to 2...
The Cave Dweller Savages flanked Stannis and his Wardens, reducing them and taking a bit of pressure off the Mammoth
And the Flayed Men attacked the Spearwives (now without Mance)
It's a sorry sight to see when you have 4 models left an only roll the 3 sixes!!! Sadly, I had a vulnerable token on...
End of Turn 4
Having lost the Spearwives and Cave Dwellers wasn't unexpected but I had control of objectives while Raymond did not and I'd also killed his Champions of the Stag
FREEFOLK 6 VP's BARATHEONS 2 VP's
End of Turn 4. Clearly I had the advantage due to objective control but my forces were greatly depleted.
TURN 5
Raymond looked to activate Petyr Baelish first, but I played Wildling Diplomacy. The potential to remove his Dragonstone Noble made him rethink his NCU actually taking a spot on the board.
I healed up Mance's unit with Craster on the swords as the game ebbed and flowed. The Wardens tried desperately to remove the Mammoth...
But it's fur proved to thick...
And far too stupid to be concerned about the hammer blows despite now being badly wounded with 6 wounds taken...
Soothing words from Ygritte healed it up with the bags...
The Dragonstone Noble kept chipping away at Mance's Raiders while the Flayed Men struggled to deal with the Walrus Clan chieftain in the Thenns...
The 2+ save granted by a card on the Wardens led to me retreating the Mammoth, as much to give me more options come Turn 6.
End of Turn 6 saw my Skinchangers Raiders score another point.
FREEFOLK 7 VP's BARATHEONS 2 VP's
TURN 6
I healed up Mance again with Craster on the swords, while Raymonds NCU took horses and retreated the Flayed Men to threaten my Skinchanger raiders or the Mammoths rear. I think I had another Wildling diplomacy played to stop last NCU, and then healed up Mance's unit with bags, then charged the Mammoth into to stop Stannis's Wardens taking central objective, as the beast had proven quite stubborn.
The Flayed Men easily wiped out the Skinchanger Raiders, taking the left objective...
When the Dragonstone Noble had attacked my Raiders, after taking a wound from them surprisingly, I played a card that allowed the unactivated Thenns to make a manouever. This allowed them to activate and charge the rear of the Dragonstone Noble, who took a further wound...
And then ignominiously failed his panic check...
The Wardens beat up the big guy some, but he just wouldn't fail a morale!!!
End of Turn 6 saw the Flayed Men control the left objective, and Mance and his Raiders hold the right one thanks to the Thenn's taking out the Noble.
FREEFOLK 10 VP's HOUSE BARATHEON 3 VP's
Well that was a most welcome return to gaming and its fair to say that my innate luck with dice hasn't left me over the UK lockdown. Raymond and I both agree, the game would have turned out differently had he taken the obvious turn 3 opportunity to finish off the Spearwives first activation. Failing too allowed the Spearwives to rejuvenate, survive a turn but also free Mance to join the Raiders.
We may have made some errors with the new rules and cards, but not using Mance's order til Turn 5 was just my lack of practice and learning new cards. The Champions of the Stag are nasty, but with Raymonds poor dice just didnt perform, while all the talk of how poor Mammoths were didn't show and it kept my army alive by holding up the Wardens and taking hit after hit. Some nasty Baratheon card combo's for Stannis, but nice tricks for the Freefolk and Mance...
Regardless of the result, we had a really good game, it could have been a lot closer than end result showed and it was a simply good to be back rolling dice. Lots of new stuff to learn, and plenty of new opponents to play and learn from...
Really looking forward to rest of year in UK, especially the one I'll be running a two day event at Ribble Rumble in December The Ribble Rumble - ASOIF | Facebook
My next event is at Board in Brum in July, which Simon has organised. First ASOIF event I went to was down here, and it was a great day... A Song of Ice and Fire Tournament – 3 July 2021 – Board in Brum
I also know Rich and his boys at Justplay in Liverpool plan to have one Sunday, August 8th, details to follow soon...
Other Events:
Ian has this one down at Boards and Swords, Derby (Great event last February, before the madness, gutted cant make this one) AsSOIAF - Blood on the Trident one day event - 18/07/2021 — Boards and Swords Hobbies
The lads at Imps Gaming in Lincoln have a few lined up, nice venue as been there twice: A Song of Ice and Fire Ticket - Aug 2021 (imps-gaming.com) I cant make the August one sadly, but November is hopefully doable... A Song of Ice and Fire Ticket - Nov 2021 (imps-gaming.com)
Gavin up at Gaming Figures in Redcar will doubtless run a few too Gaming Figures
As will the Entoyment down in Poole, who organise the awesome Beachhead exhibition. Homepage - Entoyment Wargaming and Hobby Centre
All the above venues support the game and sell A Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures. Check them out, or pop in and visit if you are in the area...
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