With this in mind, we each tried out forces we may take for a 40 pt game down at Justplay in Liverpool https://justplaygames.uk/ https://www.facebook.com/justplayliverpool/
I opted for my aggressive list, as we were playing A Feast for Crows.
House Clegane (Sworn to Lannister)
NCU's:
Tyrion Lannister and Cersei Lannister
Units:
Lannister Halberdiers with Gregor Clegane (C)
Bolton Blackguard with Sandor Clegane
House Clegane Mountains Men
House Clegane Mountains Men
House Clegane Mountains Men
We randomly generated terrain, getting two woods and a forest.
Raymond hasn't settled on this list ( perhaps he is unsure about his hired Mercenaries reliability, or the tonig down of the Flayed Men, or Darrio as as leader for House Baratheon)
It was as follows:
NCU's: Alester Florent and Tycho Nestoris
Units:
House Baratheon Wardens with Darrio Naaharis (C)
House Baratheon Sentinels
House Baratheon Sentinels
Stormcrow Archers with Stormcrow Lt
House Bolton Flayed Men
TURN 1
I opted to take the first turn, taking the letters with Tyrion and forcing Raymond to lose a card. He had Tycho take the free manouvre.
I had forgotten to take a starting line up snap, so here it is after some movement.
On my left, Gregor and his Halberdiers marched up across the hedge advancing on the left token, with an un-activated unit of Mountains Men in support. Centrally, I had another Mountains Men, with Sandor and Blackguards advancing up in support of my third Mountains Men unit, going for the right objective.
As you look right to left, Raymond had deployed Baratheon Wardens with Daario, then two Sentinels (one now in woods) followed by the Stormcrow archers (who had advanced with the free manoeuvre_, then the Flayed Men.
After every unit had finished moving, I activated Cersei on to the Swords but used "Orders to destroy" to allow the Mountains Men to charge into the Stormcrow archers. (I had planned to go for the Flayed Men but they were further away).
This was one of the cards Tyrion added...
And my dice were hot. 14 hits and only two saves, and the mercenary archers were no more...
I have to say that was a nice sight to see...
Raymond was even less impressed when I played "Overrun", the second card Tyrion got for me...
10 hits later, I was feeling like the luckiest player in the world...
But Raymond's dice weren't too bad either...
Only four men dropped from the initial onslaught...
But with vicious, flank and corpse pile from the archers, another 4 men fled in panic...
Raymond had Alester Florent heal up the Sentinels I'd flanked...
End of TURN 1
Well its fair to say the cards and dice were with me, and Raymond was rocked. I was in his line and in good order, but he had first activation and I felt I knew what was coming but that would leave my Commander in the Halberdiers unmolested to start racking up the points...
TURN 2
Raymond started the turn with Tycho healing up the Sentinels...
To full health.
All my hard work looks undone, and the Sentinels activated and swung at my Mountains Men
They lost a rank but had Cersei take the swords and swung back with 6 dice, scoring 9 hits and with vicious, Cersei's influence, the corpse pile and some poor dice rolls, the Sentinels went down to two men. The Flayed Men duly hammered in and eviscerated my Mountains Men from behind.
I activated Tyrion, taking the bags purely to deny the healing to the Sentinels. Raymond smelled a Lannister dirty trick forming, and he wasn't wrong...
All the action had so far been in Raymond's board half, and I had him on the ropes...
He'd already sensed it but couldnt prevent it, so he activated the depleted Sentinels, allowing me to trigger "Paid Mutiny" causing a -5 test with auto 3 wounds as Tyrion had taken the bags...
I then started snapping up Objectives...
The Mountains Men take the right!!!
The Mountain takes the Left!!!
And my other Mountains men took the one in the centre their brothers had created, the Sentinels also backing up onto one their kin had made. Daario and the Wardens had avoided charging me and manoeuvred avoid being outnumbered with my activation first out to next round...
END of TURN 2
With my Commander on one objective, my troops holding two and two enemy units destroyed, the VP's were 6 to Lannister, 2 to Baratheons...
TURN 3
I took the Crown with Cersei, causing two wounds on the Flayed Men. However, this allowed the Flayed Men to manouevre up and flank my Mountains Men on the objective with Wealth of the rock helping. In order to prevent the Sentinels charging them as well, I advanced up my Blackguard to head them off. Tycho took the swords to give the Flayed Men a swing, but they fluffed, causing 1 wound but failed the panic. I then turned to face, picking up the objective again and causing one wound, which with Cersei influencing and vicious and corpse pile, the Flayed Men dropped a rank...
Unfortunately, my turn to face had opened up a flank and just allowed the Sentinels to charge past my Blackguard blockers... It was risky, with two dice rolling but it worked! This was taken before the dice rolled!!!
And after, with the Wardens also charging home against my last Mountain Men unit...
I'd not seized the initiative I'd built up, preferring to wait and see, and Raymond hammered me for it!!!
Fortunately, I was one victory point off winning and felt Gregor and his Halberdiers were not getting shifted any time soon...
END of TURN 3 Lannister 9 VP's, Baratheons 4 VP's
TURN 4
Raymond was really up against it as he had to shift two units on opposite end of the fields with his 3, while not losing any... He activated Alester first, on the manouevre to allow the Flayed Men to close with the Halberdiers, then used a token to switch him to money bags (allegedly to stop me healing). I had Cersei allow my Blackguard to advance and turn to face the Sentinels. The Wardens swung at my Mountains Men but rolled poorly, and I passed my panic. My Blackguard then charged in, taking 50% away from Sentinels and using Fury of the Mounatin to give them a 5+ critical blow thanks to Sandor...
Tycho took the letters to bolster the Baratheon hand...
With a 2+ save (4+ from rear), and another attack incoming from Tyrion on the swords, Daario hung on as my Mountains Men also swung. (He was alone before, but Stags resilience bolstered the unit)
On the other side, a long range charge got the Flayed Men in but used Set for charge to drop a horse before getting hit. The Halberdiers did lose men, fail the panic and drop the objective and with reckless strike killing the last rider, in his fury he then managed to wipe out the Gregor and his unit with Last Stand!!!
While that was a bit of a blow, needing 4+ on two dice to flank my Mountains Men, the Sentinels managed it and proceeded to wipe me out, leaving Sandor and his Blackguard wondering where the army had gone!!!
The Sentinels even managed to surge forth back onto the objective, which with Daario holding one gave Raymond 3 VP's for objectives and 2 for killing my units.
Fortunately, his reckless strike by the Flayed Men had given me the VP I needed to sneak a win...
END OF GAME
House Lannister 10 VP's, House Baratheon 9 VP's
Well that was a real hum dinger!!! Talk about a game of two halves!!! The perfect start to the game for me, with all my cards and dice behaving, Raymond on the back foot, and reacting to the first turn carnage, and allowing me to streak ahead on points. And then, Turn 3 happened. Did I bottle it? Take it a bit easy and feel over-confident? Feel sorry for my opponent given how lucky I had been with every roll and card play in the first two turns? Probably a bit of all three, to be honest...
I felt I had it won and decided to be reactive rather than proactive. Raymond seized on my defensive and less aggressive activations and grabbed the game by the throat. I have to say, I took my eye off the ball and he nearly made me pay (Actually he did make me pay, he had two units to my one at the end). Definitely a morale victory for House Baratheon, and a somewhat Pyrrhic victory for House Lannister...
Really excellent game, and good practice for a week on Sunday. At least my dice rolls look to be in fine fettle, if my
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