The game is an simply an excellent table top miniature game, mixing simple mechanics, card deck interplay based on faction and army commander, unit and character specific bonuses/orders and also political intrigue from the Non-Characters Units on the tactics board. This makes for an excellent. multi-faceted combination of in game play.
Gerry had an all Stark force against my Lannisters, and we opted for a 50 point game A Game of Thrones (Scenario 1), which meant we were playing to 12 Victory points, scoring 1 point at end of turn 2 onwards for holding 1 of 5 objectives, and also 1 VP for destroying an enemy unit...
Gerry's force consisted of the following units and characters:
Army Commander: Ser Rodrik Cassel
1 x Units of Stark Sworn Swords with Ser Rodrik
1 x Units of Stark Sworn Swords with Sworn Sword Captain
1 x Unit of Stark Longbowmen with Crannogman Warden
1 x Unit of Umber Berserkers with Bryndon Tully
1 x Unit of Umber Berserkers with Sworn Sword Captain
1 x Unit of Stark Outriders
NCU's: Lady Catelyn Stark, Lord Varys
My own Lannisters consisted of the following:
Army Commander: Jamie Lannister, The Kingslayer
1 x Units of Lannister Halberdiers led by The Kingslayer
2 x Units of Lannister Guardsmen with Guard Captain
1 x Unit of House Clegane Mountain's Men led by The Mountain himself
1 x Unit of House Clegane Mountain's Men led by Bronn, the Sellsword
1 x Unit of Knights of Casterley Rock
NCU's: Cersei Lannister, Pycelle
Apologies in advance for some blurry pictures...
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| A better picture of the Lannisters (no Clegane's to sully the splendour) |
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| The Lannister forces including the Mountains Men |
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| The Tactics board, with The High Seneschal turn marker, Pycelle and Cersei |
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| The Mountain leads his own house troops... |
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| The objective on my left gave the holder a VP and allowed an enemy unit to become vulnerable and weakened |
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| The centre left objective, near the corpse pile... |
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| The centre objective... |
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| The centre right objective, holding unit must take a panic test |
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| Far right objective, holding unit has to take panic test with -2... |
The Lannisters set up right to left as follows: Lannister Guards far right, then Jamie's Halberdiers, the Mountain and his men and the second Guards units central, Bronns Mountain men centre left and Knights of Casterly Rock far left...
Gerry set up his forces with his Outriders on his right, opposing the Lannister knights, Umber berserkers next to them. Centre right was the Longbowmen, left of them was Bryndon Tully and his Berserkers, with Rodriks Swornswords and the Black sworn swords far left...
The Lannister line up...
The Stark set up...
The four close objectives...
TURN 1: Gerry had first activation, moving his Longbowmen up towards the corpse pile.
I replied by Cersei activating and taking the crown, which should be forcing a panic test with on the Longbowmen with a -4 due to influence of Cersei, the tactics board and the corpse pile.
Varys spent two tokens to prevent the influence...
But the Longbows still lost 3 men...
The Umbers with Bryndon "The Blackfish" tully move up centrally
I used Pycelle on the tactics board to gain a few extra cards in my hand and put panic on the Longbowmen.
The Starks activated Varys, "The Spider", healing the ranks of the Lonbowmen...
The initial moves and intrigues effectively all cancelled each other out...
The Lannisters move full pace to the objectives, being slightly slower than the Starks, who edge forward more cautiously
On the left, the cavalry face off against one another, and if I had realised I had first turn in turn 2, I may have moved straight up to flank the Starks...
TURN 2: So if I cant flank them, I'll just charge straight in. With the bonus from the Lances, the Knights of Casterly Rock take out a rank of Outriders...
Lady Catelyn takes additional cards for the Starks, and influences the Outriders, while Pycelle takes the coins as Bronn's Mountains Men benefit from this and figured they'd be going up against some Umbers this turn...
Politics comes thick and fast, with Cersei panicking the Outriders, adding a few wounds and then Varys taking the battle zone, allowing the Outriders an attack at full value due to Catelyn's influence...
However, the Knights only take a wound, shrugging off the worst of it and Lannister Supremacy kicks in, dropping the Outriders down to a wounded single rider...
All the action is taking place off board, or on my left as the cavalry battle it out. The centre and objectives will wait...
The Umbers looked to be threatening the Knights flank, but would suffer a flank themselves from Bronn and the Mountains Men...
Influenced by Catelyn, the Starks played Northern Ferocity which would have given the Outriders one last hurrah. Fortunately, the Lannisters played counterplot, reducing the nastiness somewhat...
Sadly, if having already taken one wound, the Knights managed to fail 5 of 6 3+ saves and a rank.
The Umbers decided to back off, and not risk the charge into the flank of my cavalry. I was surprised by this, as it would also leave me on an objective...
On my right, I moved my right Guards up and took the right hand objective near me, destroying the wall... The Stark Sworn swords on Gerry's left to take that objective. My other guard's left up and took the objective closest to the corpse pile...
With the Umbers cagey edging backwards, not supporting the Outriders, I decided to go for a long shot... With Bronn in the Mountain's Men, he gave them an extra 1" move if I controlled the money bags on the tactics board (which I did due to Pycelle). I needed to roll a 6 to engage, which being naturally lucky, I did and the Mountains Men struck home...
With bonus attacks too thanks to Bronn and his extra incentives, the last wound was swiftly taken from the Outriders...
The overrun put them next to the Umbers, but still just in their arc for the Umbers to charge next turn. The Knights pivoted to threaten the flanks...
As the end of turn 2 approached, the Starks line held back, allowing the Lannisters to take the central objectives
The Longbow men dropped 3 Guardsmen, but lost 2 due to Lannister supremacy. Just off to the right below, the Mountain and his unit marched up onto the centre objective, granting Bronn and his men free manoeuvre, putting them on the Umbers flanks on the Stark right. I also healed the Knights up slightly from another objective
VP's at end of Turn 2: House Lannister 5 House Stark 1
TURN 3: Stark activation first
Gerry had real problems now on his right, given the lucky charge and extra manoeuvre. He had to spend his first activation repositioning his Umbers to avoid being flanked, making him reactive rather than proactive...
Sure enough, my first activation saw Bronns men charge in and hurt the already activated Umbers...
Catelyn took the crown, panicking the Knights but they passed with ease, and I placed Pycelle on the Battle zone, giving Bronns unit a second attack and making them vulnerable. Varys failed both attempts to block this.
With the Umber dropping in number, Gerry took the coins to boost his troops there...
The charge of the Knights could wait, I decided to see if Ser Gregor Clegane could match Bronn's leadership... Sadly not, only need a 3+ to impact on the other Umbers but pulled up just short.
The Knights still bided their time, as Umbers were up to seven men now due to healing...
But they had conditions on due to various objective cards and Pycelle...
Again, the politics played out quite quickly in the round as the Starks were reluctant to commit to melee and were hard pressed to contain Bronn and the Knights
Should point out if the Mountain leads a unit and it is in charge range, they MUST charge. I would have regardless, to force the Stark line to react. But they showed great restraint...
The Starks reacted by dropping arrows on the Lannister guards near the corpse pile, for minimal damage. I charged the Knights in, through and over the Umbers on the Stark right and carried on to threaten the Longbowmen...
The Umbers went into the Mountains men, and while I did something else, think just manoeuvre slightly with my Guards on objective near the corpse pile, the Sworn swords with Ser Rodrik went in and wiped them out...
This allowed them to form up in good order and take the central objective meaning they could manoeuvre the bowmen to avoid being flanked...
Jamie Lannister and his Halberdiers hit the Sworn Swords, killing a few. And my Guards on the right and opposing Sworn Swords were content to hold their objectives...
END of TURN 3: We'd both lost a unit each, and held two objectives apiece so VP's were as follows:
House Lannister 8 House Stark 4
The Longbowmen pivoted to face the Knights, my Guards healed up...
TURN 4
Cersei grabbed the Battle zone, allowing Jamie's unit to attack while also influencing Rodrik's Sworn Swords
The Longbowmen activated for the Starks, while they could and caused wound on the Knights, who passed their panic test, triggering Lannister supremacy and Gerry rolled a 3. Leaving two bowmena left or the impending cavalry charge!!!
I obliged next activation, wiping them out unsurprisingly and threatening the Stark rear
The Blackfish led the Umbers valiantly into the Guards, needing to force them off the objective and it was a good effort in getting them down to 3 men...
Cersei looks on from the sidelines...
Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Jamie and his Halberdiers smashed the Sworn Swords, killing a few but another low roll from Gerry resulted in them losing 5 men from the subsequent morale check. This was further compounded by the tactics card I played, meaning when he failed his morale, a friendly unit in short range received one wound back for ever man they lost. The Guards recovered quite well.
Pycelle took the crown space, panicking Ser Rodrik's and his remaining bannerman, who failed their test and fled...
The Sworn Swords on the far left of their line charged the guards, who hit back but didnt change the outcome...
END OF TURN 4
Holding 3 objectives and destroying another two units pushed the Lannisters beyond the requisite 12 points, and the field was theirs...
Victory for House Lannister
Summary:
Doubtless we both made obvious mistakes to more experienced players as we tried to match up the various synergies of a new game, with so many aspects to it. The one thing I can usually rely on is my luck, and it paid off in spades this game, while Gerry had some shockingly bad dice.
I tend to play aggressively in most games, and was expecting the Starks to do the same given the reports I've seen suggest Starks are better at that and Lannisters supposedly weaker, so was surprised to see Gerry cautious in the early game, which allowed me to fortunately seize the initiative and put the Starks on the defensive... I also had the right tactics card to hand a few times, counterplot probably saving my Knights and discouraging an Umber flank attack.
Rodrik Cassel was a surprise choice too, but good to know Gerry isn't too concerned about maxxing out on the "killer combo's", though I'm sure he'll have a wolf next time out. It was a good game, and sure Gerry will comeback at me next time out, as I'll have some Lannister Crossbows to try out and probably Tyrion... cos he's just so cool!!!
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