So from the hardy North ( well, Liverpool), Greg, Colin and I headed down to Board in Brum Wolverhampton way for a 4 game event: Fire & Freedom
Greg was running Lannisters, Colin Nights Watch and I was using my trusty Mance Freefolk list...
Spearwives with Mance Rayder
Cave Dweller Savages
Mammoth
FreeFolkTrappers
FreeFolk Raiders with Jarl - Advanced Raid Leader
Freefolk Raiders with Raid Leader
FreeFolk Raiders with Raid Leader
NCU's: Craster and Ygritte
Obviously, in a tournament and with time pressures, my reports will be more summarised than usual, but I've tried to record the pertinent points of the ebb and flow of the games
The first ASOIF event I went to was down in Board in Brum (when in Walsall) back in February 2019. Oddly enough, where I first met Colin too...
Board in Brum website https://www.boardinbrum.co.uk/
My first opponent for the day was Brian Clarke, playing Baratheons and running a strong, armoured list as below...
First Game mode was A Game of Thrones. Terrain was randomly generated, giving a wall centre right, and two stakes (palisade standing in)
I set up my left Trappers, Raiders, Spearwives, Mammoth, Raiders, Cave Dwellers, with Jarl's Raiders held off to outflank... Brian's Baratheons were from my left Wardens with Master, Noble, Wardens with Stannis, Champions of the Stags, Wardens with Master.
Baratheons went first on Turn 1, with Mel activating and influencing my Trappers while healing her Wardens that fuelled her flames...
First round was usual manoueverings, with both Wardens marching onto objectives and my FreeFolk. This is the end of Baratheon activations, before i advanced up my force to face off directly.
I played the Long Plan at the End of the round as expected Mel to activate early and I wanted Wildling Diplomacy...
End of Turn 1 positions...
NCU's end of Turn 1.
TURN 2. I activated the Mammoth to charge through the Baratheon Cavalry, inflicting 2 wounds. Mel activated as expected...
I played Wildling Diplomacy, but Brian went ahead and took the bags. I killed the Dragonstone Noble as a result. First blood (VP's) to me and all going to plan...
Ignoring the Mammoth, Brian activated and charged his cavalry into the raiders and caused 5 wounds. I used Surrounded and exposed to put vulnerable and panicked on the Champions of the Stag.
I then activated Ygritte on swords to allow Mance's Spearwives to launch spears and hit the flank of the cavalry
With an overwhelming assault card too...
6 hits was nice (due to critical blow and sundering)
And Mance's Counter Strategy stopped some Baratheon card shenanigans!!!
This left the Champions on 4 wounds, with a panic check to follow...
With me playing "There's Too Many" the Champions tested on a -4 and would suffer +3 wounds on failure (ie they would be wiped out). On the first roll, Brian managed a 6 and a 4 with 1 wound. I had him re-roll the 6 and the 1 (for the sake of it). He rolled as below!!! AAARGH!!!
Such a nice card!!!
I had moved up my Raiders to protect Mance's flank, and Stannis charged into them...
Activating the Spearwives proper, I failed to penetrate the tough armour of the Knights...
Realising the Cave Dwellers could hit the Champions in the other flank, the Wardens took a 4+ charge and connected but didn't do much damage..
The raiders hit the Champions, but their armour proved resolute...
End of Turn 2 saw the Baratheons under pressure but with Stannis on objective scoring 3 VPs to my 2. The Cave Dwellers struck hard but missed a lot, their lack of hits rebounding on them (with 3 auto wounds too due to 1's). The Trappers were down to 2 due to Mel and Jaqen combo...
TURN 3
Mel killed off the Trappers but the Champions of the Stag, who were again hit in the flank by the spearwives.
With another There's Too Many. Alas for me, needing 10+ again, Brian's Champions lived up to their name and passed... 3 times they'd rolled 10+ to stay alive was to be applauded!!!
The Cave Dwellers got hit by themselves and wiped out by the Wardens reflective armour, then went and charged the Mammoth while the Stag Champs finished off the Raiders they were engaged with
The Jarl's raiders arrived too late to save the day...
We had about 10 minutes left of the game at the end of round 3 with the score7-2 in the Baratheons favour. Mindful of not getting a full turn in, and the superior position and point scoring ability we ended there with a Crushing Victory for Brian and his hammer wielders!!!
Excellent game, and result for Brian as he has only played a few games. You don't need fancy units when you have solid armour and solid dice. I didn't do much wrong and had I killed those pesky Champions I would have been well positioned to flank Mance. Still credit where it's due, Brian played his force perfectly and I do appreciate good dice rolls...
For Game 2, I was up against Simon Millership and a friendly Night's Watch list, which was very well painted. His force consisted of Jon Snow in Veterans, Sworn Brothers, Sworn Brothers with a recruiter, Ranger Trackers and Ghost, with Aemon and Walder Frey NCU's...
Hopefully it wouldn't be an appropriately named game mode, as we played A Feast For Crows. Random scenery through up a pair of bogs, a stake, a wall and a corpse pile as laid out below...
I set up with Raiders on the left, Mammoth, Raiders, Spearwives, Trappersand Cave Dwellers working across. Simon set up opposing from my left with Sworn Brothers with healer, Jon Snows Veterans and Ghost, then Sworn Brothers and Ranger Trackers facing my right side...
I figured I'd try and hem in on my right and gang up there so i opted to go second to allow my Jarl's unit to come on turn 2 first thing. The Two things of note in turn 1 were my using Wilding diplomacy which Simon let me use, and me rolling the required 3 on D3 + 1 to kill Ghost
And also my movement 7 Cave Dwellers getting a charge in after a free move up with Ygritte on horses
Turn 2 saw me a point ahead due to a dead Direwolf. And first activation was Ygritte on the horses for the Jarl's Raiders...
Nicely behind the objective holding cavalry, and Ygritte influenced Mance's Spearwives...
Aemon did some healing on the trackers while I used Craster to get the Trappers to fire a volley into them
I wanted to get revenge on cavalry after the last game
And the dice were helpful!!!
To compound it all, Jon and his Veterans failed a charge on the Mammoth, and had took 3 figures out to reinforce the Trackers (heal them with a card)
With the failed charge, I now had a cunning plan...
But it could wait as I got stuck into the NW cavalry, who kept blocking hits and healing things
With more activations, I was able to let the Sworn Brothers activate on my left before using raiders with raid leader to flank Jon Snow's Veterans, killing 3.
On my right, the Trappers took a few Sworn Brothers down (who had also healed someone else up) so the 5 attacks incoming on the Spearwives wasnt too bad
After using Wildling diplomacy to kill 2 more of John's Veteran, the Mammoth went in. I really dont get all the negativity about the big, hairy fella, as sure his trample and auto wounds arent as good but he has 8 wounds, good saves and hits like a Mammoth (especially with a raid leader engaged). He wiped out the remaining veterans!!! (Twice in fact, as you cant see it here but he was weakened. So after killing Jon and all the rolls, Simon realised and as I had hit with all it was easy enough to re-roll all the dice and only fair. but with only 5 hits, Simon's dice still failed him and he failed his saves)
Tactics board end of Turn 2.
Free Folk 4 VP's from 2 objectives and 2 units destroyed, NW 1 VP from an objective...
Eager to avenge Jon, the Sworn Brothers flanked the raiders killing them in an orgy of bloodletting and a badly failed panic check...
On the other flank, Ygritte on swords allowed the remaining rank of Cave Dwellers used overwhelming assault with 8 dice, re-rolls, critical blow and hitting on 2+'s to simply overwhelm the Ranger trackers...
The turn ended after this major pile on, as the Jarl's raiders took the right objective and the Cave Dwellers took the one the soon to die Brothers would create following the Cave Dwellers flank charge...
The game ended Turn 4 with a 10-3 crushing victory for the Free Folk!!! The scenario favoured my numerous activations as the Watch had to split two units per side and I really lucked out in card combinations, dice (ghost dying early was massive) Simon's dice really failed him in this game (Jon's failed charge). Glad to say he got some better luck in his next games, as he fielded a decent list ( there were 9 of 26 entrants using the Watch, and while I may not have seen them all, there were a fair few crossbows, hunters, conscripts and at least one catapult.
My army again, as it was time for best Painted Voting...
The winner of Best Painted was Chris Baker's beautiful Bolton army, complete with table tactics board he makes. Sorry this picture just doesn't do it justice!!!
But this one does!!! They were simply exquisite and the well deserved winner...
GAME 3 v John Ashley's Lannisters...
The next scenario was A Dance with Dragons and John's list was quite panic playing heavy as below
Random terrain through up, from left to right: a weirwood tree, corpse pile, stakes and a wall
John set up his Lannisters concentrating heavily on my left, with Roose's Guardsmen, Flayed Men, Black Guard and Ramseys Guardsmen...
I deployed one unit of Raiders on my right to head for that objective, while I faced off on the left with Raiders, Cave Dwellers, Mammoth, Spearwives and Trappers from left to right
Turn 1 was a straight forward mass advance, with John having Cersei on the crown and me looking to bolster my numbers with an Endless Horde card to add a Raiders unit (next to Trappers and up near the stakes below). I also got the letters, while John also played bribery on Mance's Spearwives meaning they always used their lowest attacks stat. Tyrion also used his counterplot to stop me fishing through my deck with The Long Plan card.
End of Turn 1 tactics board...
TURN 2
First up, I had Ygritte takes the horse and brought on the Jarl Raiders behind Roose's Guards. John ignored them, The Flayed Men charging in against the Mammoth, scoring 4 hits...
And my dice saves were, well, bad... Still, with half wounds the Mammoth held its position passing with a -3.
I replied with Mammoth striking back with Craster on the swords...
Six dice hitting on 4's required...
Pretty sub-par rolling by me...
As the Lannisters advanced, a second Bribery card was played on the Trappers, so they only fired 4 arrows from their bows needing 4+
Hmmm!!! 14 attacks so far this turn requiring 4+. John commented on my bad luck, but I assured him it would swing back for turn 3 (I always believe in a positive mental attitude helping the dice)
Of course, losing 4 Trappers to Lannister justice didnt improve things for me...
Bribery on both my missile units wasn't ideal as the Lannisters closed in...
However, Roose had marched up on to the left objective and the Blackguard had moved to counter the Jarl Raiders threat, so I charged in against Roose with the Raiders with raid leader and scored 4 hits, causing two wounds but suffering three from Lannister justice...
When one of the NCU's activated, John continued to take the zone allowing Wildling Diplomacy to go through, doing 4 wounds on the Flayed men...
Added to what the Mammoth did when it activated, the Flayed Men were reduced considerably...
On my left, the Raiders had been reduced by Crown panic, but with the leader the charging Cave Dwellers could hit hard. John played subjugation of power, killing four on the way in...
But the dice didn't wait til turn 3 to come good...
The charge of the Cave Dwellers had reduced Roose's Guardsmen down considerably, but the Flayed Men were healed up too...
The Spearwives activated last...
Despite the reduced attacks because of Bribery, they scored 5 wounds when they charged in after lobbing their spears, though they only actually scored one wound. ("There's Too Many forced them into a high panic check and they took 4 from that) I had secured right objective, and the raiders had destroyed stakes to clear a path to Ramsey's Guards.
End of Turn 2.
Lannisters 3 VPs (Ramsey on objective and Roose, who scored two as commander
Free Folk 1 VP for Raiders on right
John took teh swords for a free attack on the Mammoth for a few wounds.
I then activated the Jarl's Advanced raid leaders Raiders, who rear charged Roose's Guards in the rear, benefitting from other Raiders Raid leaders boost and wiping out the unit. The un-activated Raiders took the objective...
The Spearwives suffered badly at the hands of the Guardsmen, failing their panic and Ramsay's fuelled by slaughter restored their ranks...
The Flayed Men attacked the Mammoth...
but my dice had returned and all four hits were saved...
Board end of TURN 3...
Mance and his Spearwives had retreated using the horses rather than face Ramsey, then launched a volley and attack into the flank of the Flayed men. However, this panicked the Mammoth that trampled into them and the Trappers. The Flayed Men were reduced to one wound, with my activation first. The Black Guard ignored the Jarl's raiders are there were no points there and John sought to concentrate his forces as my army closed in...
END of TURN 3
Lannister 4 VP's Ramsey held one objective
FreeFolk 4 VP's I held two plus had destroyed Roose's Guard
TURN 4
With the game very close and time running out, I didn't take as many picture as I would have liked as I was concentrating hard. However first up I played Regroup and reform to put Mance in the Raiders well out of harms way and heal up the Spearwives a bit. I then activated the Mammoth for the obvious trample, inflicting the required wound to finish off the Flayed Men. Ramsey charged in and finished off the spearwives, hen retreated back to face off against the incoming horde. I took the crown to prevent Lannisters hitting me, and I successfuly hit Ramsey, who dropped the token behind him, then used an NCU on horses to take it back...
As it calmed down a bit, I rear charged Ramseys unit on a 4+, influenced by Ygritte to get the extra inch
They hit hard, dropping the objective but picked it back up when his order panicked me
End of Turn 4
With the Lannisters heavily out-activated, time had ran out...
LANNISTERS 6 VP's
FREEFOLK 7 VP's
That was a really close game, and fair paly to John, he didn't give an inch. So many tokens were dished out on me, but I managed to cope (just about). Losing Roose denied John 2 points for the objectives, and I lucked out with the Mammoth fleeing due to a panic check I'd caused, freeing him up to finish of the Flayed men. Have to say, there were some bad rolls on both sides but in the end the Freefolk numbers told as I was on 10 activation from early on...
Game 4 saw me pitched against Scott, the only other Freefolk player, with a more "elite" list than I, with a bit of everything infantry. He didn't have a Mammoth!!! The scenario was Honed and Ready, which I hadn't played and Scott's list consisted of the following:
Mance Rayder (C) leading unit of Followers of Bone
Spearwives
Thenns
Cave Dweller Savages
Raiders with Cave Dweller Alpha
Raiders with Raid Leader
Raiders with Spearwife Matriarch
NCU's: Craster and Lady Val
We set up as below, left to right
Scott's FreeFolk: Thenns, Raiders with spearwife, Spearwives, Mance in Followers of Bone, Raiders with Raid leader, Cave Dwellers, Raiders with Alpha
My Freefolk: Raiders, Mammoth, Mance in Spearwives, Trappers, Raiders, Cave Dwellers. And Jarl's Raiders off board...
Only 3 terrain rolled, as below...
First Turn. It was very quick, I lost a Trapper to a failed crown panic despite Mance and everyone kinda piled forward. The Spearwives and my Trappers were all 8.5 inches away, as nobody wanted to get volleyed and charged. I got the letters for 5 useful cards...
TURN 2
Both Mance's and their respective armies faced across the valley but who would make the first move!!!
Well, as Scott had first activation he did and charged my Cave Dwellers with his needing a 3+ to engage. He failed...
What followed next was a veritable scrum. I charged in with my Raiders to get the set for bonuses the Raid Leader gives. Scott then did the same, before I took the swords and activated my trappers to shoot into melee. As other things happened on the left, i then activated my Trappers to charge, having used coordination tactics to gain 3 extra hits... Definitely advantage me on the right!!!
On the left, the Mammoth charged (Not trampled) into the Spearwives but only killed 3. I then got flanked for 4 wounds but passed morale.
Having healed 2 wounds up with Craster once per game, I then made all 3 saves from the Spearwives attacks...
As the Thenns and Scott's right Raiders sat on objectives, as did my left Raiders and Cave Dwellers (though engaged), Mance, who had advanced slightly with Diversion tactics charged in against false Mance and his Followers, passing morale and inflicting heavy damage whiel also taking the objective in the centre to edge me ahead at the end of Turn 2
My Freefolk 4 VP's, Scott's Free Folk 2 VP's
TURN 3
The Followers of Bone activated off the swords but their attacks whiffed and the spearwives were ok..
Scott's Cave Dwellers on my right were wiped out by my raiders..
After healing up, False Mance as I'd taken to calling him and his Followers gave a right kicking to my Spearwives, before panic check...
But my dice were solid...
The Mammoth was still holding its own against the Raiders and Spearwives and I was healing up any wounds I suffered
I had cleared 2 units from my right, and had also brought the Jarl on to threaten the rear of the Scott's Raiders on the objective...
Well, little more than threaten as the charge resulted in a single paltry wound, and Scotts Raiders passed the panic well
Lady Val gave the Spearwives a free retreat (of an inch) to the Spearwives, who then volley charged my Mammoth... Fortunately the thrown spears were ineffective, but the hits were high from the charge
Scotts Raiders with the Alpha slapped my Jarl's unit that bushwhacked them pretty hard...
End of Turn 3
Rather than risk another horrific visage failure, Mance and his Spearwives retreated from combat, maintaining their 2 pts for the objective
Scott's Free Folk 4 VP's
My Free Folk 7 VP's
The Mammoth was attacked by the flanking raiders off the swords, and this time the armour failed, though the big guy didnt panic.
Start of my turn I used Regroup and Reform to heal up the Spearwives and shift Mance over to the Trappers, while also healing the Spearwives from the zone and using Crasters once per game to restore 2 wounds to the Mammoth
I recharged in with the Spearwives, with an impressive flurry of attacks hitting in combat...
On the far objective, the Raiders with the Aplha took a charged from Cave Dwellers and survived...
Mance in the Trappers flanked the Followers of Bones, but made little impression, and my remaining few raiders on the right took the objective my Cave Dwellers had left...
With only the Thenns Scoring for Scott, the game ended with an 11-4 victory for my real Mance Free Folk...
That was real blast, and the Mammoth really earned his place in my list. Scott just went for it, and I edged it on the right while the Mammoth stymied his forces on my left. Really good fun, and went Scott won Most Sporting Opponent. He is thinking of getting a Mammoth now.
So that ended the event for me, with 3 Wins (one more a draw in my favour v John), and that crsuhing defeat at the start from Brian's Baratheons. Did i tell you he'd only had a few games before this event? I no he did an even dozen times...
All in all, a great, well run event by Simon and the Board in Brum boys. Special mention to the chippy lunch too, and they also sell Irn Bru (it's the little things!!!) 4 great games v new opponents and 4 different armies, all played friendly and fun, no rules issues (though we are all still getting our head round changes).
Oh, and for the doom merchants and nay-sayers out there bashing Free Folk nerfing etc, the Mammoth survived in ALL four games. Just saying...
Forgot to mention (as I was busy), Greg and his Lannisters won 1, lost 2 but had to go after third game. That was balanced as someone else had to go too I believe...
Colin on the other hand, was playing table 1 after first game and didn't move from there, ending with 3 Crushing Victory's and a Standard victory...
Thus earning a well deserved first placed with his Night's Watch...
Simon on the left, organiser and top man at Board in Brum. Colin Deane (Kolco for you TTS players), top of the 26 man event...
Great day had by all, and a unique award for the winner!!!
Ps... If you want to know how to beat Colin, read my previous battle report...
EVENTS IN UK (I know about)
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
Rich and his boys at Justplay in Liverpool are running one too on Sunday 8th August... Event Tickets | JustPlayGames
Other Events:
North of the Wall, John Craig is running The Siege of Pyke at Common Ground Games in Stirling,a 4 game event on 11th July,. Its a four hour drive for me, so ruled out for a one day I'm afraid. https://www.facebook.com/events/4027498000641474?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22group%22%7D]%7D
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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