Donal Noye musters the Defenders of Castle Black against the traitorous Eddard Starks forces of the North

League game 6 saw me play a new member to our A Song of Ice and Fire group at Justplay Liverpool. Sophie was running Starks, and this was her fourth game (first in the League). She'd played Ste previously so had a few good tips on her force, and ran a pretty daunting Stark in your face list...

House Mormont She-Bears with Eddard Stark - Lord of Winterfell (C)

House Karstark Loyalists with Mormont Veteran

House Tully Cavaliers with Brynden Tully - Vanguard Infiltrator

House Umber Berserkers (aka Golden Company stand ins)

NCU's

Sansa Stark, Catelyn Stark & Lyanna Mormont

That looked pretty hard hitting, but Donal Noye was leading my force and his cards are quite Defensive for the already stalwart watch.

Veterans of the Watch with Donal Noye - Defender of Castle Black (C) Shadow Tower Spearmen with Grenn - Aurochs

Conscripts Ranger Hunters NCU's Aemon, Othell Yarwyck & Bowen Marsh

We were playing A Game of Thrones and randomly generated 4 pieces of terrain: L to R

Woods, Weirwood, Stakes and Palisade

Deployment: Sophie set up with umbers on my far left, Eddard She-Bears centre, Karstarks right with Tully's held off on outflank.

I set up with Donal in Veterans centre, Ranger Hunters (with conscripts behind both) and Shadow Tower spearmen right , to taunt Tullys if they came on.

TURN 1

I won roll and elected to go second. Sophie opted to leave Brynden off for now, and took the letters, placing a weakened on the Rangers. I then took the horses to advance up the Rangers

Sophie then crowned the conscripts but they passed their morale. I had Othell take the bags and targetted the Karstarks

I scored 5 hits, but two were saved and the Mormont Veteran blocked one

As we moved up, I did manage a shot with the Rangers but rolled poorly with weakened and only scored one wounding hit which the Mormont veteran blocked

TURN 2

Going first, I took the horses to shoot the Karstarks again with Othell, causing a few wounds but Sophie played swift reposition on her activation, moving Eddard and the She-Bears over and making the charge on my Rangers (healing two Karstarks at same time)

I made five saves out of the eight (with critical blow)

I passed the panic, and had Aemon take the swords and heal a bit and then attacked. I dropped a few, before Sophie played Fury for the Fallen and rolled well

Again, I saved well thankfully.

Sophie used Sansa on crowns to panic the conscripts but used Sansa once per game to get Fury of the Fallen back. I healed up from conscripts and activated, attacking well and dropping Eddard down to  five thanks to a failed panic before retreating away. Sadly Fury of the Fallen allowed Eddard's unit to charge!!!

They hit hard, but had exposed their flank so Donal and the veterans hammered into them, with sundering due to controlling the bags and wiping them out...

Which allowed me to heal up the Rangers as well as make the Eddard latest recruit to the Watch

  

END OF TURN 2

NIGHT'S WATCH 3 VPs (2 objectives, 1 unit)

STARKS 1 VP (1 objective)

Board at End of Turn 2

The Karstarks failed a charge into the ShadowTower Spearmen on the right, who held that objective. The Umbers sat on the far left objective while my Rangers kept the centre

TURN 3

Activating first, Sophie had Leanna Mormont influence Karstarks and used Horses to bring on Brynden and the Tully Cavaliers, right behidn my spearmen. I hummed and haa'ed for a while as what was best to do, but in end took swords with Othell to shoot the Tully Cavaliers to weaken them (and also do a wound). At satrt of next Turn, I played Defensive Formation on the Spearmen, negating charge, flank and rear bonuses until their next activation (which would be last this turn). Sophie charged the Karstarks in the front. as I couldn't attack

Sophie helped by rolling a one (so no re-rolls or cards),scoring one Precision hit, but I passed all 4 saves from other hits

I used Aemon to get ahead with the NCU's and he healed up the Conscripts

The Tully Cavaliers ploughed into my back, rolling another one for charge distance.

From the seven hits, I think I took 5 or 6 wounds. But failed the panic despite ignoring the negatives...

And despite re-rolling with Fire that Burns against the Cold, still managed to fail

I took the Letters with Bowen Marsh, and gained all 3 Othell cards...

Sophie took the Crown, while I moved my Rangers off the centre to shoot upt he Karstarks.The Umbers marched towards the Rangers. The Veterans with Donal hammered into the rear of the  Karstarks, having shifted over when the Karstarks attacked the spearmen at the start of the turn

The Stubborn Karstarks managed to hold, and even the spearmen attacks at end of turn were ineffectual.

END of TURN 3

NIGHT'S WATCH 4 VP's (1 unit, 3 objectives)

STARKS 1 VP ( 1 objective)

TURN 4

I took the swords and shot with the Rangers, inneffectually. Sophie had Catelyn take horses, and played assault orders to have the Karstarks attack spearmen, but despite the lack of Defensive formation, managed to save the few hits that got through. They then lost two wounds due to lash out. I took the bags and healed the conscripts again. The Karstarks attacked again, but again ineffectually. The Rangers then charged in and wiped them out...

before moving back to face off against the Umbers. I played Defensive formation at start of the next turn on the spearmen.

The Tully's attacked with Northern ferocity but defensive formation was proving awesome

I then used lash out to kill a horse, before Otherll on the wall caused a whole rank to drop due to the vicious attack.

The Spearmen turned and attacked but the Cavaliers armour held. The Conscripts managed to cahrge the flank and drop Byrnden down to a single wound, as the Veterans took the far right objective and the Umber's 6+ charge failed, but did allow them to seize the centre objective.

END of TURN 4

NIGHT'S WATCH 6 VPs (2 units, 4 objectives)

STARKS 2 VP's (2 objectives)

TURN 5 

Assault orders off of Catelyn on swords saw the Umbers charge into my Rangers but needing 4's to hit, the Umbers rolled shockingly bad. I saved one hit and took one wound.

The spearmen again tried to kill Byrnden but failed, as the Umbers attacked again with more success, the Conscripts attacked Brynden Tully

4 hits saw the Blackfish cuts into 4 pieces as he failed all 4 saves

I healed up the Rangers from the Conscripts, who then attacked and retreated away and shot teh Umbers, leaving 5 alive.

Before Othell took the crown and scored 5 hits against the Umbers

Sophie failed all 4+ saves and with that, the game ended with the Watch victorious.

END OF TURN 5 (and Game)

NIGHT'S WATCH 10 VP's (4 units, 6 objectives)

STARKS 2 VP's (2 objectives)

Sophie enjoyed it, having not played Night's Watch before. I had mentioned beforehand their healing prowess and she'd did her homework on the units and we discussed afterwards that it would have been better to concentrate the Starks as the umbers were out the game til turn 4 and with the Tully's off til turn 3, I ganged up on the other two units. That aside, Defensive Formation was truly awesome agaisn the Cavaliers and Karstarks (as were some of my dice rolling). It may sound odd, but if anything, the Starks were played to aggressively, where my healing allowed me to avoid reduced attacks and overwhelm with attrition and numbers. Great to have another player in the group too...