A Feast for Crows: Freefolk v Neutrals

 My penultimate league game with my Neutrals saw me travel to Greg's Freefolk dwelling, with him calling the scenario and opting for A Feast for Crows.

Aden is keeping the League up to date on his blog: Wardens of the North-West

As usual for the league, I'd opted for a random list to face him, which consisted of:

Stormcrow Mercenaries with Vargo Hoat (C)

Stormcrow Mercenaries with Bronn

Flayed Men

Hedge Knights

Bloody Mummer Zorse Riders

NCU's: Tycho Nestoris & Petyr Baelish

Greg's army was a scary Freefolk horde led by The Weeper!!!

Followers of Bone with The Weeper (C)

Followers of Bone with Rattleshirt

Spearwives with Tormund Giantsbane

Freefolk Raiders with Raid Leader

Frozen Shore Chariot

NCU's: Mance Rayder, Styr & Lady Val

Set up was two corpse piles with objectives, central weirwood,  stakes centre left, weirwood centre right  and wall back right

TURN 1

Set up was From left to right

Greg: Weepers FoB, Chariot, Spearwives, Rattleshirt and his FoB, Raiders

Me: Zorses, Hedge Knights, Flayed Men, Bronn's Mercs and Hoats Mercs

Greg got me to go first and out activated me so I was straight up at em!!!

I've finished, only Greg to go on my left with Weeper and Chariot. My plan was to mash his centre and right and ignore the Weeper

Board at End of Turn 1

Blurry tactics board...

My left looked a little weak...

But the centre and right looked imposing!!!

TURN 2

Endless Horde!!!

And more raiders to contend with...

Still, I had a cunning plan and activated my Hedge knights who charged into the Spearwives...

Seven attacks, seven good hits

Greg got so excited with his 4+ saves though... Until i pointed out it was 5+ basic and I had sundering too. Still, three saves is still good going

With Tormund next to a Weirwood, they passed morale and Rattleshirts mob decided to have a go

My saves were good

But I did take a wound and lost 3 on panic!!! Still, i made the charge in with Bronn and Mercs, and took 6 wounds of the lords o bones, while losing a rank to their horrific visage

I then had the opportunity to Issue Commands and the Hedge Knights hacked the Lord of Bones to bits...

5 casualties before the morale check...

They failed!!! Greg retreated his Spearwives with Val, then cam into Bronns Mercs with his sear throw and attacks!!!

But my panic check passed easily...

The Raiders charged in and took the Mercs down to 2... While the newly arrived Raiders took the objective Rattleshirts unit had created... On the Left weeper secured more points and the Wolf Chariot smacked into the Zorses who didnt do anything as the chariot would have retreated...

End of Turn 2
Free Folk                          3 VP's
Mercenaries                      2 VP's

TURN 3

With first activation, I was confident i could smash the Free Folk centre and mop up more objective points

I activated Tycho on Swords and smacked Tormund down some... And then it all went wrong!!!

Greg took horses for a second Endless Horde brining back the Followers of Rattleshirt, but I took the opportunity to crush Tormund... And failed, leaving Giantsbane on his own. So Greg took a 4+ charge and smacked into the Hedge Knights!!!

With Overwhelming assault being played, and already having re-rolls and sundering, Greg took critical blow...

12 hits resulted in 5 wounds and one deeply disappointed Hedge Knight unit!!! Greg was relatvely happy mind and I  always appreciate good dice rolls!!!

Overwhelming assault and There's too many is a great combo when you have plenty of units nearby...

With the Hedge Knights crumpling, i had to act in desperation and flanked the Raider to try and save Bronn's Mercs...

I managed 4 hits...

And Greg saved  two of them..

Pathetic but still, a panic check, which they failed. However, on the left the Weeper Followers of bones flanked the Zorses despite the stakes, wiping them out, and retreating back onto the corpse objective. I used a second Issue Commands to finish of the raiders, while the Wolf chariot rear ended Bronn, wiping them out. This allowed Tormund to retreat onto a new corpse pile token...

And well, that was that. I was feeling confident at start of this turn, but couldnt finish off the Spearwives and the Endless horde, Rattle shirt charge simply turned things dramatically

Tormund... Git!!!

End of Game Tactics board...

Free Folk              10 VPs 

 Neutrals                   3 VPs

What happened there? I was so comfortable and had used Tycho to keep my wounds up. Well, simply put Greg got a great card hand at the key point to turn the battle decisively. And getting dice to match the cards and take the risks all worked out perfectly which won him the game easily in the end and allows him to leap frog me in the league... I didn't really manage to capitalise on my cavalry, although I did crump rattleshirt and was in a good position in turn 2 and start of 3. I had planned to charge off the right objective and seize with Hoat but had to desperately try and turn around the units I had left.

Well, last league game against Lannisters on Thursday ahead of the Ribble Rumble where I'll be taking my Greyjoys to get crumped...

League update

EVENTS

Kieran Scaddan and Duke's Gaming in Pontypool have an event on 4th December Dukes Gaming

I'll be running a two day event at Ribble Rumble on December 11th/12th at Element Games in Stockport, for 16 players The Ribble Rumble - ASOIF | Facebook    (SOLD OUT)

Justplay are running A SONG OF DICE & FIGURES VOL III on 11th December... Tickets

And  A SONG OF DICE & FIGURES VOL IV on Saturday 8th January... Tickets

John Craig is hosting Always Winter at Common ground Games in January 2022 (22nd/23rd) at Stirling, a two day event that I plan to go to, link here ALWAYS WINTER (I've got my ticket and there'll be at least 3 of us from The Wardens of the North-West!!!)

Gavin up at Gaming Figures in Redcar will doubtless run a few too Gaming Figures

As hopefully will Entoyment down in Poole, who organise the awesome Beachhead exhibition. Homepage - Entoyment Wargaming and Hobby Centre

Board & Swords https://www.boardsandswords.co.uk/ and Board in Brum  https://www.boardinbrum.co.uk/will hopefully add another event in before end of year...

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...