BrianMcG: 50pts Stark v Targaryens: A Game of Thrones

So as promised, following my first place at the Heroic Half-Century, runner-up again Stephen "PsychoSte" Connor played A Game of Thrones to see what may have happened had there been a fourth game.

I chose Game of Thrones as I like it and took my Marselen list against Ste's Great Jon Umber list...

 Unsullied Swordmasters with Marselen - Mother's Men Commander (C)

Drogon
Viserion
Rhaegal
Stormcrow Mercenaries with Belwas - Veteran Pit-Fighter
Stormcrow Mercenaries with Bronn

NCU's

Pyat Pree, Daenerys Targaryen & Illyrio Mopatis

Ste's Starks

House Mormont Bruisers with Greatjon Umber - Lord of Last Hearth (C)
Stormcrow Mercenaries with Rickon Stark - Prince of Winterfell & Osha - Spearwife Guardian
Shaggydog
House Tully Cavaliers with Glory Seeker
House Tully Cavaliers with Glory Seeker
Stark Sworn Swords with Sworn Sword Captain

NCU's
Sansa Stark, Catelyn Stark & Lyanna Mormont

The Ladies of the North

In honour of my magnificent win at Leeds, JUSTPLAY let us use their live stream/roleplaying private hire room (ok, I cocked up the table booking but as it wasn't being used, they let me and Ste use it)

It's a pretty cool setting if you ever visit Liverpool and want a game, pop on their website and hire it out

TERRAIN: Bog on my left, Corpse pile on my right. Ste put wall out the way...

STARKS: Tully Cavaliers, Great Jon in Mormont Bruisers, Shaggydog behind, Stark Sworn Swords, Tully Cavaliers, Stormcrows with Rickon

TARAGRYENS: Stormcrows with Bronn, Stormcrows with Belwas, Drogon, Marselen with Unsullied Swordmasters, Viserion, Rhaegal.

TURN 1

Ste went first and too the letters. I took the House of Undying and binned devastating impact.. Ste took the horses and moved up the Tully Cavaliers to the right. I then took the swords and played Devotees of the Dragon

Giving me a free unit of Freedmen...

I marched up my Stormcrows to reveal the card 9we'd kept them hidden as I like the surprise) and was chuffed to have the +1 tactics card one...

My plan was to seize the two left objectives, contest the centre, use Viserion and Drogon to hit hard and use Rhaegal to either seize on the right or pick off targets of opportunity (shaggy dog)

Ste took the crown and panic checked my Stormcrows

and I rolled my customary first round pass...

BOARD AT END OF TURN 1

Ste had advanced warily, I'd sent Rhaegal far right to draw away a unit of Tully's but was still gonna stick to my plan...

Tactics Board at end of Turn 1

TURN 2

I took the Letters, Ste took the Horses, I activated the Freedmen, Ste took the House of Undying and I lost my Devastating Impact. I then activated my Swordsmasters and marched onto the centre...

Ste hummed and haa'd then took the swords but brought back a card with Sansa. I activated out my Stormcrows...

I do like to do things that make my opponents have to think, but Ste was taking his time... I do this a lot, there was no real magic to it, as i know he had 4 hard hitting units. But I had dragons and healing as the bags and crown were open and I had Illyrio and Daenerys.

Anyway, Greg had joined us as he had an hour to wait for Ray and after he had dozed off Ste suddenly leapt into action

Sending the Stark Sworn Swords in against my Swordmasters with a plethora of cards

The attack was quite horrific, killing seven Swordsmasters and I even lost one to a failed panic!!! Still, next turn saw me play Supply Aid and promote some Freedmen into four Swordmasters while Illyrio took the crown and healed 3 more

There they go, good as new. Well, nearly...

Ste then growled down on teh great Jon who charged in, taking two wounds off of "Berserker tactics"

I had Drogon take the far left, Daenerys had the bags and healed up the few wounds I'd taken (I'd also healed from passing the panic check). So Ste had two Tully Cav and I had to dragons left to activate. Ste was up next...

In went the Tully's on my left...

And it's fair to say that stung. I charged Viserion into their flank as payback, dropping them a full rank but took tow wounds back from "lash out"

While Ste's other Tully's tackled the elite, half wounded Freedmen. It was a good tactical move mind...

They turned to face Rhaegal, but he happily ate a sheep on the objective...

BOARD AT END OF TURN 2

At this point, I thought I'd erred by spreading my Dragons too far apart. But the Swordmasters had held and I felt confident that one unit of Tully's were going to die for the Swordmasters demise...

END OF TURN 2

HOUSE TARGARYEN 3 VP's (3 objectives)

HOUSE STARK 1 VP (1 objective)

TURN 3

The sun had come up again while Ste's old grey matter got to work

To nobody's surprise, he took the swords using the Starks in what he called a gamble...

Well, it didn't pay off as he scored 3 wounds of the required four and I healed one due to passing morale. I then mulled briefly on activating Daenerys for a Dracarys attack on the Tully's with Viserion but D3+1 may not have done it...

So I charged them in the rear with the Stormcrows, who rolled abysmally and left a horseman on two wounds...

Ste took the bags with Catelyn and used Assault orders to finish of the Swordmasters and Marselen

I activted Viserion and his attack took the two wounds off of the Tully's. He then moved away so the Mormont Bruisers couldn't charge him.

A side on view of the battlefield...

Ste weighed up a 3+ charge for another ten minutes into Viserions flank, then it dawned on him he had the North Remembers and controlled the swords and was due a token for the Tully's death, so he counted as rolling a 6 and charged in. He made short work of Viserion, but retreated away asDrgon and Stormcrows were there and unactivated...

I felt I had played a bit too cagily, but I saw an opportunity to flank Shaggydog and with the Tull's having moved to centre, I took it. There is nothing worse than a Dragon flanking a direwolf and only scoring two wounds, is there?

Well if you were Ste, you could argue that failing the panic for 3 wounds was, especially as I then got to Overrun into little Rickon and his Stormcrows...

Great Jon and his Bruisers charged Belwas and his Stormcrows...

I lost seven men to the charge before the panic check and I was panicked and they were vicious...

So I passed the first one...

And the second one even more so. Strong Belwas has many cuts!!!

Daenerys then took a tactics board spot and used Dracarys, leaving the Stormcrows with three wounds...

I was surprised Ste didnt retrat and at least score the point, but i think his blood was up and he just wanted to kill things. As it was, he caused a wound...

And I nearly failed the panic check as corpse pile put me at 3+ morale... Close!!!

BOARD AT END OF TURN 3

The Stark Sworn Swords moved upand took the centre, I contested the right and held the two on the left.

END OF TURN 3

HOUSE TARGARYEN 7 VP's (2 units, 5 objectives)

HOSUE STARK 4 VP's (2 units, 2 objectives)

TACTICS BAORD END OF TURN 3

TURN 4

I put Pyat pree on the Swords and did the required three wounds on the Stormcrow, Osha and Rickon, killing them and seizing the objective

They did use a "last Stand" but of the four hits, I saved them all

Ste then activated Sansa and did her once per game to get Lash out and the North remembers while taking a zone. I retreated the Stormcrows out of combat... Ste was saying how i'd won and he couldn't stop me getting 10Vps but pointed out at 50pts its first to 12...

by putting Illyrio on the Horses...

At the start of Ste turn, I played swift reposition to move a further 3" away

I did lost three Stormcrows to a crown bomb so they activated and moved further away...

And as no one could reach Drogon, on the Stormcrows activation I used supply aid to heal the Stormcrows up as Great Jon could still long bomb charge them

Ste was really struggling as how best to tackle my tactical withdrawal...

Would it be a risky longbomb with the Great Jon, seen trying out various permutations...?

No, it wouldn't be...

Tully Cavaliers on a 4+ charge got in...

And hit me for twelve... I saved two after the vulnerable but failed the panic check in epic style...

Rhaegal went back to the other objective as he had left some mutton there...

BOARD AT END OF TURN 4

I was regretting taking the wounds of Drogon now!!!

END OF TURN 4

HOUSE TARGARYEN 11 VP's

HOUSE STARK 7 VP's

TURN 5

The Tully's charged in under Assault Orders and easily killed my wounded Drogon...

I had Pyat Pree take the Horses and move my Stromcrows well away from the Great Jon and hoped they could stand the charge...

Sure enough, the Tully's hit next turn!!! But they didnt roll as well as previously, I made more saves, survived and played Sudden retreat to move away from all harm, before healing up with the bags...

Ste did manage to perform a swift reposition and get the Great Jon on an objective, but we played it out as neither of us could do any more harm...

BOARD AT END OF TURN 5

GJ and Mormont Bruisers on Far left, Sworn Swords on the centre and Rhaegal dozing on the near right

Ste was suggesting One more turn I think....

END OF GAME

TARGARYENS 12 VP's (3 units, +1 for Rickon, 8 objectives)

STARKS 10 VP's (5 units, 5 objectives)

Well, that was a cracking game but hard work as I would expect from Ste. I think he was too cautious but he tends to do that against me. There was no great magic trick in sacrificing the Swordmasters, they drew in a crowd and I played for objective with my mobile dragons. Drogon scored three, as did Rhaegal (although he also had a turn loose wreaking havoc on the right with Shaggydog and Rickon. That was fun and won me the game...

Good job there wasn't a round four at the heroic Half-Century or he'd have dropped out the placings!!!

Also, a shout out to Elliott Coulbeck and his blog. You can read his write up of the Leeds event here

Elliots blog

OTHER UK EVENTS

I missed the CYMRU GT last year but is allegedly on a par socially with Scotland, so Greg and I are going. Alas, the event is now sold out but there is a reserve list in case of drop outs...

WELSH GT