BrianMcG: Battle of the Chained Stag II: Yecats Miniatures 3 Game event at Daventry

Elliot, Ste and I travelled down to Battlefield Hobbies in Daventry for Battle of the Chained Stag II run by Grant and his Chelmsford bunker buddies at Yecats Miniatures and where I would be defending my title of Warden of Northamptonshire (you can see how that came about here)

Spearwives with Mance Rayder

Spearwives with Jarl and Raid Leader

Cave Dweller Savages with The Great Walrus

Followers of Bone with Champion of Bone

War Mammoth

War Mammoth NCU's

Lady Val & Craster I had also did a Mag list, but as I am a Mammoth fan I felt I should run them first, and as my first opponent was Victarion Greyjoys, I felt it was more durable than the Giants for the scenario... turns out I never used Mag!!!

GAME 1

SCENARIO "HONED & READY"

Elliott "EJ6023" Jones

HOUSE GREYJOY

So ended up facing my own club mate, but we hadn't played each other for a long while so we were fine with it.

Iron Victory Crew with Victarion Greyjoy (C)

Ironborn Bowmen with Euron Greyjoy - Crow's Eye

Silenced Men with Nute

Ironborn Reavers with Asha Lady Greyjoy & Qarl

Drowned Men NCU's

Balon Greyjoy, Petyr Baelish & Wendamyr

RANDOM TERRAIN & DEPLOYMENT

TERRAIN: Bog, Wood and Hedge

GREYJOY: Silenced Men, Iron Victory Crew, Bowmen, Drowned Men and Reavers

FREEFOLK: Mance's Spearwives, Followers of Bone, Mammoth, Mammoth, Cave Dwellers (Jarl Spearwives on outflank)

ROUND 1

Elliot opted to go first and took the Letters so I decided to deny the Bowmen a move to control centre of board, so I took the Horses and move up the Cave Dwellers.

Elliot advanced up around the centre, while I marched right up with Cave Dwellers and swung around to face.

ROUND 2

I took the Swords with Craster to deny it to Elliot and drew a card by swapping one for Crasters effect

I used Coordination Tactics on Cave Dwellers to give them Followers of Bone and Champions effects

Allowing me to charge the reavers with Vicious, 8 attacks, sundering and re-rolls. Seven Greyjoys fell but they passed the panic

Elliot had Nute charge with Rush of Aggression but missed three after rerolls from new motivated by coin rules.

I took five hits and five wounds but passed the panic

I moved a Mammoth up off of Diversion Tactics, then healed up with Val on the bags while Wendamyr took Horses

Mammoth moved up to threaten the Reavers...

Elliot had the reavers attack the Cave Dwellers, using Qarl to kill the not so Great Walrus with his Expert Duellist

And four more Cave Dwellers...

Mance and his Spearwives dropped three Silenced Men on activation

Before I flanked them with the followers of Bone, rolling really well and dropping them to five before they failed the panic with an additional wound thanks to the Champion of Bones Intimidating Presence. Nute was left alone

Elliot took a risk and shot into the flank of the Followers of Bone, who lost five but passed the panic, unlike Nute who fled in panic...

With an exposed flank to the Iron Victory Crew, I felt it prudent to use Regroup and Reform to heal the Followers up from Mance's Spearwives

But hoped to forestall that by charging a Mammoth into Victarion to pin and deny them the centre objective

After the weakened, I had three hits...

It managed to survive despite a flurry of cards when Victarion attacked...

I decided to ignore the Reavers as I was bringing Jarl on next turn and sent my second Mammoth in to pin Euron's Ironborn Bowmen. There were eleven left as they had taken a wound from Strange Relics earlier. With Critical blow, my seven attacks became ten hits...

Elliot saved two, but failed his panic and his Bowmen died. In revenge, Elliot used the Crown zone panic attack to kill my Mammoth on his last wound

Board End of round 2

FREEFOLK 2 VP's (2 units)

GREYJOYS 1 VP (1 Unit)

Elliot was activating first next Round but he had lost two units and I had my outflankers coming on. The mammoth was also in a good position, having trampled down the Bowmen...

ROUND 3

Spearwives came on in rear of Reavers.

And I played Predictable Maneuvers to hamper the Reavers in that if they performed an action, I could do an attack first

So Elliot charged in with his Silenced Men using Swords and Assault orders but lost four to Horrific Visage and Intimidating Presence

I used long Plan to simply swapping for a deck card before taking the bags and healing up my Followers of Bone

Elliot activated and attacked with the Reavers, and dropped the Cave Dwellers to three, before I failed a 4+ panic and lost another two

I activated Jarl, dropped one Reaver with Spear toss (the Cave Dweller passing his panic this time0 before charging home using Overwhelming Assault for Critical Blow and scoring nine hits due to raid leader

This easily despatched the Reavers...

My next activation saw the Mammoth flank the Drowned Men but they survived, healing up the two wounds they took

My Followers of bone hit with all seven attacks against the Iron victory crew

This dropped Victarions crew down to three men

Meanwhile, Balon had brought back Nute and his Silenced Men and went for the easy kill, charging into the lone Cave Dwellers

But Mance and his Spearwives tossed and charged and I used Counterstrategy to stop What is Dead may never Die, destroying the unit

Board End of Round 3

I had taken the centre and Nute the far right but I was in a good position with Spearwives to hurt Nute next turn

END OF ROUND 3

FREEFOLK 5 VP's (4 units, 1 objective)

GREYJOYS 2 VP's (1 unit, 1 objective)

ROUND 4

Having taken wounds from the wall, I dropped and other two Silenced Men with spear throws before charging in using the Swords to allow it.

Having taken wounds from the Mammoth, Mance and his Spearwives charged in and finished off the Drowned Men

BOARD END OF ROUND 4

FREEFOLK 7 VP's (5 units, 2 objectives)

GREYJOYS 2 VP's (1 unit, 1 objective)

ROUND 5

I played Predictable Maneuvers but that didn't deter Elliot as he took the swords and waded into the Spearwives but I had Endless Horde on them

Elliot did get to engage my Mammoth but I simply used the endless horde Raiders and my other unit to grab the objectives and end the game

Board at End of Round 5

End of Round 5 (and Game)

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

GREYJOY's 3 VP's (2 units, 1 objective)

I have missed using my Mammoths, and the obliteration of the Ironborn bowmen with those Critical hits won me the game. Elliot was down in activations, pinned with units and with Nute being ganged up on early while Victarion had to kill a Mammoth to get back into things. I decided not to play objectives early on, as in Honed and Ready its too easy for FreeFolk to lose units from shooting off the wall. Elliot was unlucky with my dice, but the Mammoths are back...

GAME 2

SCENARIO: A FEAST FOR CROWS

Aaron "Tropic Recon" Grant

HOUSE MARTELL

On top table after Game 1 and I was playing Aaron of Dice and Lead & Steel (DLS) and running a Sand snake list. Aaron was expecting em to run my Mag list, but he had a lot of precision and I wanted to make use of Regroup and Reform and Endless horde if I could. The game was live streamed and I forgot to take pictures until end of Turn 2, so battle report video is linked below as didn't take enough pics to write up

BATTLE REPORT HERE

It is worth viewing if you have time, Aarons list is here

Stormcrow Dervishes with Obara Sand (C)

Sunspear Dervishes with Ramsay Snow & Reek

Darkstar Retinue with Elia Sand & Edric Dayne

Dune Vipers with Dervish Captain NCU's

Nymeria Sand, Tyene Sand & Doran Martell

SPOILERS BELOW!!!

If you didn't watch video, well, you should...

To summarise, I went first round 1 and left Aaron a Turn 1 charge for Obara and her Stormcrow Dervishes. He took the bait, lost two to the reckless heroism charge and more to Horrific visage but dropped six Followers. With the Swords open, he didn't retreat but Wildling Diplomacy would have given him weakened and D3+1 wounds so he passed the activation. At End of round one, I played Long Plan and went fishing for Predictable Maneuvers so stopped him doing anything with Obara so they got flanked by Spearwives. They retreated away after attacking me back, but Mance had moved up off of Diversion tactics and did for her and the Dervishes... It was a perfect ambush and all the cards and interactions were great for me. Aaron, vastly outnumbered, had to shift over to me and hunt me down but my numbers were brought to bear and I ran out with another Crushing victory.

PAINTING

(Apologies, as don't know whose army is whose)

But I like this one...

DAN G's Boltons won Best Painted

PRIZES

GAME 3

Steve "Darkman" Butler

BARATHEONS

SCENARIO: A GAME OF THRONES

STEVE RENLY FACTION BARATHEONS

Baratheon Sentinels with Renly Baratheon (C)

Baratheon Wardens with Brienne

Baratheon Halberdiers with Guyard Morrigen

Highgarden Pikemen with Robar Royce

Riders of Highgarden NCU's

Olenna Tyrell, Cortnay Penrose & Petyr Baelish

I've never beaten Steve and Baratheons I find a tough nut to crack with Freefolk. Still, this scenario is my best for Freefolk, so I would try and stall and out objective if I could. Still on top, I was again Live Streamed below

FINAL GAME VIDEO AT YECATS

But I took enough pics to talk through a report so your choice. Personally, I'd recommend the video and then read the report if you have time

RANDOM TERRAIN & DEPLOYMENT

TERRAIN: Hedge, Corpse Pile, Bog, Weirwood, Woods

BARATHEONS: Wardens, Renly's Sentinels, Riders to the rear, Halberdiers, Pikemen

FREEFOLK: Followers of Bone, Mammoth x 2, Cave Dwellers, Mance Spearwives

(Jarl outflanking)

ROUND 1

I elected to go first and took the Letters, weakening the Riders. Olenna turned off Val and took the Horses

I had a good spread of cards now

I set out my intentions out early and marched Mance up and onto the right side objective

Steve had used Horses to advance Brienne's Wardens

I took the left with the Followers of Bone, hoping the Intimidating Presence, Horrific Visage and Corpse pile would deter the Wardens from trying to shift me. Steve left the Riders near my left, and shifted the Pikemen away from the board edge

BOARD END OF ROUND 1

ROUND 2

I brought on my Jarl's outflanking unit far right to claim it and support Mance

Olenna took the Horses again, turning off Craster I think

I had Val take the Crowns and edged Followers of Bone forward so I had a retreat option and activated Mance early on to objective sit

We maneuvered a lot, but the key was the Halberdiers not taking the centre, but touching to prevent me taking it. It was a very non-commital round but I was sitting on three objectives to Steve's one

BOARD END OF ROUND 2

I was able to shift up the Cave Dwellers from an objective

END OF ROUND 2

FREEFOLK 3 VP's (3 objectives)

BARATHEONS 1 VP (1 objective)

ROUND 3

I activated the Cave Dwellers to pin the Pikemen and also give Steve a choice of flank over front with his Riders, and they charged home with Overwhelming assault but with a weakened they rolled poorly...

Over the course of the round, Steve healed the Pikemen up, retreated out and charged in while the Riders did more damage than it looks v the Jarl's unit but I Regrouped and Reformed to heal them up. My Mammoth charged the Halberdiers, who again healed up but the Sentinels did fail a charge against it's flank. The Wardens sat out as did my Followers and Mance's Spearwives

BOARD END OF ROUND 3

END OF ROUND 3

FREEFOLK 6 VP's (6 objectives)

BARATHEON 2 VP's (2 objectives)

ROUND 4

The Cave Dwellers survived for quite a while as Steve didn't use them early on due to Predictable Maneuvers. But we did use the tactics board with Steve again using the Horses. The Mammoth fell to a flank attack after the Halberdiers failed to kill it, though I used Craster to heal from bags. Val had moved the other Mammoth over, and when the Halberdiers attacked I played Diversion tactics to move it far enough over to hit the Rider in the flank

The Riders retreated away with horses after the mammoth smacked them some

The Pikemen activating here to kill the Walrus

END OF ROUND 4

Steve has repositioned his depleted Riders and secured centre and far left. But I was encamped on 3 objectives

END OF ROUND 4

FREEFOLK 9 VP's (9 objectives)

BARATHEONS 6 VP's (2 units, 4 objectives)

ROUND 5

I took the Swords with Val but moved the Mammoth to avoid a flank Pikeman charge. I positioned so he couldn't charge Jarl's unit. So Steve went for a 3+ charge into Mance and rolled a 2... THIS WAS MASSIVE!!!

I took the bags to deny a heal to the Riders and swapped to move Mance into a better position away from the other Baratheon units

Steve managed to take down my Followers of Bone with the Outriders and secured both left objectives and centre. But I still held the two right as I had moved Mance out of range of any charge...

END OF ROUND 5 (& GAME)

FREEFOLK 11 VP's (11 objectives)

BARATHEONS 10 VP's (3 units, 7 objectives)

Wow, so close a game that really hinged on a 3+ charge fail at the end. I felt Steve should have taken the centre rather than just partially contest as he could have dropped the Mammoth wounds down to secure but also, the Riders redeploying took pressure of off my right but did score off my Followers. I won by avoiding combat where I could or sacrificing units to delay combat and played for objectives. A narrow, hard fought win...

Overall, I came second, with Karl Christy scoring top spot with 3 crushing victories and claiming the title of Warden of Northamptonshire. Second place makes me his Squire, the irony being that by beating Karl Game 3 last year, I jumped up to first place back then. Great event, the Mammoths were awesome and I had three great game.

And I got a nice reward for being The Squire...