So after a hard fought Free Folk civil war with Greg on Tuesday, I managed a second game down at Justplay for our usual Thursday night ASOIF meet, facing Colin's Baratheons. Colin brought Andrew Estermont to fight against the Rattleshirt...
My army was unchanged from Tuesday:
• Bonelord's Chosen with Rattleshirt - The Lord of Bones (C)
• Followers of Bone with Raid Leader
• Followers of Bone
• Spearwives with The Weeper - Cruel Tyrant
• Free Folk Raiders with Raid Leader
• Free Folk Trappers
NCU's: Craster & Mance Rayder
Colin's force was designed for the scenario as he struggles with A Game of Thrones
Combat Units
• King's Men with Andrew Estermont - First of The King's Men
• Baratheon Wardens
• Baratheon Wardens
• R'hllor Faithful with Stag Knight Noble
• Stormcrow Mercenaries with Davos Seaworth - Onion Knight
NCU's: Selyse/Shireen & Petyr Baelish
Terrain: Stakes left, corpse pile central near Weirwood with bog bottom right
Set up left to right:
Baratheons: Wardens, R'hllor Faithful with Stormcrows behind, Kings Men and Wardens
Free Folk: Followers of Bone, Trappers, Raiders, Bone Lords Chosen, Spearwives, Followers of Bone
Close up of Colin's Wardens on the right...
And on the left. Nothing subtle with Colin's plans, with Wardens objective sitting while the Kings Men and R'hllor took the middle
TURN 1
Colin marched up aggressively, while I was a little more hesitant in the centre due to Estermont's tactics cards. I did march up on my wings, with the intent to engage the centre and flanks the unit there, as didn't fancy going in the front of Wardens and their counterstrike...
Tactics board end of Turn 1
TURN 2
Having advanced up to take the centre with R'hllor Faithful by using horses, I had to bite the bullet and act. I charged the raiders in on a 3+ over the corpse pile...
I was happy with 5 hits...
And I destroyed a rank getting Bloody Trophies from Rattleshirt's Order, but picked up two wounds from R'hllor and Selyse influence...
I followed this up with Bone Lords Chosen charging in, benefitting greatly from the Raid Leader int eh Raiders, with eight dice hitting on 2+'s
While reducing the Faithful to two men, they utilised Final strike and dropped me to a single rank, although I did have Armour Trophies in hand to add to the Chosen.
Colin then activated the Rhllor Faithful, but managed to fail his panic check from horrific visage. His base 4+ morale dropped to 1+ with Weirwood, Stag noble and Syrese, but they suffered a -2 form my ranks, another -1 from Intimidating presence on Rattleshirt and the corpse pile...
Colin had to use Selyse and Shireen
I also gained two wounds from Prey on Fear...
Before dropping down to two when the lone Faithful struck back with Reckless Fury...
Fortunately, I had regroup and reform, with the Trappers boosting my ranks.
Colin erred by activating his right wardens without using Davos's order in his turn to heal up the Rh'llor, allowing me to take the swords and swing again with the Chosen. The Faithful died but wounded 2 more of my Chosen on the way to their fiery hell
With the Kings Men still to go, I used my surge forth to retreat away...
With my Trappers able to take the left objective, my vanilla Followers of Bone charged off it into the left Wardens...
with all seven dice scoring hits. I was feeling pretty lucky...
But Colin only lost a single Warden to the hits...
And the Stormcrows charged my raiders, taking the centre objective. With first activation, I marched my spearwives up to give me a flank charge on the Kings Men or a frontal assault on the right Wardens...
END OF TURN 2
BARATHEONS 3 VP's (3 objectives)
FREEFOLK 2 VP's (2 objectives, 1 unit)
TURN 3
I activated Mance to take the swords and have the Spearwives toss and throw
With charging in, the spearwives dropped 5 wardens, losing 4 to counterstrike though. I did get Armour Trophies appropriately...
Colin had Selyse take the bags to heal the Warden for 3 while influencing them. Leaving me to take the horses with Craster, playing Endless Hordes...
Bringing them up on my right to secure the right objective allowing the Followers of Bone to asssit teh ladies...
Sure enough I made the charge...
With the Raid Leader, they managed eight dice on 3+...
Having played overwhelming assault to gain sundering, Colin saving 5 of the initial 8 hits before expending the Vulnerable token the spearwives had given when they charged (I kept it on as I missed most of the spearwives attacks). This proved to be miraculous foresight as Colin failed ALL 8 saves!!!
With vicious cancelling the Weirwood and Selyse bonuses, the remaining two Wardens fled allowing me to surge forward onto the objective... Its fair to say neither of us expected that!!!
In a proper hissy fit, Andrew Estermont and the Kings Men barrelled into the Bone Lords Chosen and cut them down to the bone...
Having pivoted after the demise of the Wardens, I charged the unactivated Spearwives at the Stormcrows flank. It was a long shot (5+ required) and I took the risk given how well the dice were, but alas rolled a 2. Colin was surprised I took the risk, but if they had have flanked them they would have wreaked havoc. As it was I set Estermont up for a good flank charge
On the left, the Followers and Wardens fought with little impact on each other...
END OF TURN 3
BARATHEONS 6 VP's (5 objectives, 1 unit)
FREE FOLK 7 VP's (5 objectives, 2 units)
TURN 4
Andrew and the Kings Men charged into the spearwives, hacking them down to 2 before the panic and with a vicious flank panic to come.
Requiring a 10+ to pass, well, yeah, Colin really doesn't like my dice...
Holding up the King's Men would prove crucial, and I used Diversion tactics to shift the Raiders off the objective as a threat/diversion, as Craster took the horses to play Endless Horde and bring on Bonelords Chosen on my right ready to march up and re-take the right objective...
Colin took the swords to finish off the spearwives...
On the left, the Followers were not winning the fight, but they were not dying quickly enough for Colin yet...
On the right, Colin tried a 4+ charge at the objective holding unit that had moved up (he didn't have Rush of Aggression as I was expecting). But the dice came up short...
With the Stormcrows holding the centre, we played out the activations...
END OF TURN 4
FREE FOLK 10 VP's (2 units, 8 objectives)
BARATHEONS 9 VP's (2 units, 7 objectives)
Two amazingly close and thoroughly enjoyable games in two days, life is good in Liverpool...
Luck was the biggest factor in my win, no way the Wardens should have crumbled on the right like they did, passing the flank panic with spearwives, and the Bone Lords Chosen v R'hllor Faithfull battle (with my Raiders assistance) was a proper slugfest, with deaths, healing, more deaths and more healing all in a few brief turns. As Colin said afterwards, getting the balance right for the Faithful in how many ranks/wounds to keep them on to maximise their effects is quite difficult.
I had good card draws when I needed them, and have found Mance NCU to be a real bonus, while Colin was missing a few of his key cards in the game, he just didnt get them drawn, like a second assault orders or rush of aggression could have swung the game. Close games like this are always so much more enjoyable in my mind, even if you lose...
Charity Appeal
Kieran "Scaddman" Scaddan is holding a 24hr sponsored wargame of ASOIF in aid of Veterans
mental Health charity on 28th/29th May.
Link to his Justgiving page is HERE
EVENTS IN UK
Kieran's 24 hour Sponsored Event at Imjin barracks 28th/29th May
24 player event at Gaming Figures on Sunday 10th April in Redcar, UK The Caswell Cup
The 128 player UK London Grand Tournament (ELO) 30th September Link
16 Player event at the RIBBLE RUMBLE, ELEMENT GAMES, STOCKPORT, UK LINK
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