Saturday 5 September 2020

50pt Baratheon Civil War with No non-Baratheon units!!!

So given that Raymond has seen the light and changed his allegiance to Stannis, and having spent the Summer working in the garden, I have adopted Renly as my favourite for the throne, Raymond and I decided on a 50pt, all Baratheon Game of Thrones battle, with no neutrals allowed. Accordingly, no Bastard girls or Varys for Raymond, but we were both keen to see if Renly could out heal the Lady in Red...



I've spent the last two weeks off work painting up my Baratheons (excluding the Stannis faction for now)

The Forces of Renly, the Charismatic Heir:

Rose Knights with Renly Baratheon (C)
Rose Knights with Loras Tyrrell, The Kings Squire
Stag Knights with Brienne the Blue
Baratheon Sentinels
Baratheon Wardens
Baratheon Wardens with Courtney Penrose, Reliable Castellan (who I forgot to field so he's not that reliable)

NCU's: Ollenna Tyrell, Queen of Thorns
             Eldon Estermont, Venerable Knight


Renly in his Rose Knights...


Brienne the Blue with her Stag Knights and Renly in his Rose Knights...


Raymond's Baratheons of the Stannis faction consisted of the following:

Baratheon Sentinels with Stannis, the One True King (allegedly)
Baratheon Wardens with Devan Seaworth, the Kings Squire
R'hllor Faithful with Red Priestess
R'hllor Faithful with Red Priestess
R'hllor Faithful with Andrew Estermont, True Loyalist

NCU's: Axell Florent, The Hand of the Queen
             Shyra Errol, Lady of Haystack Hall
             Melisabdre, The Red Woman







Stannis, the old war dog v Renly, the young pup playing war...




Also down at Justplay https://justplaygames.uk/ were Colin and Greg with a Stark v Lannister battle...


With Colin, you always get a better class of opponent!!! A very dapper gentleman and always so polite while he's stomping all over your forces...


We'd agreed A Game of Thrones was most suitable to decide who should lead House Baratheon to the Iron Throne, and we also kept the four outer objectives hidden (as we aren't competitive that way, and feel it makes for a more interesting game). Raymond placed the corpse pile and spikes, I placed the Weirwood and a second corpse pile...


Raymond set up from my left to right as follows: R'hllor Faithful with Priestess, Baratheon Wardens with Devan, R'hllor Faithful with Andrew, R'hllor with Priestess and Sentinels with Stannis...


I set up as you look below as follows: Rose Knights with Loras, Stag Knights with Brienne, Rose Knights with Renly, Wardens, Wardens and Sentinels...


TURN 1

Raymond got to go first...


Unsurprisingly, Melisandre was activated first...


Sacrificing 3 R'hllor faithful, she targeted my Sentinels for a -3 panic, which I just failed, removing 5 Sentinels. She then took the bags to deny me any healing, the heartless old crone!!!


I countered with Olenna to take the letters while cancelling Axell, leaving Axell to take the crown...


Targeting the Sentinels again, they failed for 4 more wounds...


Leaving a much depleted left wing unit for me...


The rest of the turn saw both forces march up, bar Renly and Brienne's units who moved to occupy the centre.


Shyra was wasted Turn 1 and Eldon added to more cards to my hand rather than the free move from the horse...


TURN 2

At the start of the turn, I played Baratheon conviction to aid the Sentinels, activating Olenna to cancel Melisandre and take the crown.


I targeted Stannis's Sentinels, but he ignores the negatives for a morale.



However, they narrowly passed...


Shyra then took the Letters,


and weakening Loras's Rose Knights as they were facing off against Stannis


My Wardens centrally took the first hidden objective, which would force one of my opponents units to take a panic test...


While Raymonds sole Wardens too the objective that allows you to heal D3...


I healed up the Sentinels on activation  with Stags resilience and they destroyed the spikes which stopped me claiming the objective this turn...


Both sides were advancing swiftly on one another...


With the R'hllor faithful taking the centre objective


While my Wardens took the lead, Renly positioned his Rose Knights where his +1 morale bonus would be maximised...


Only for Stannis and his Sentinels to occupy the objective that cancels an attachments abilities. Ouch!!!



End of Turn 2

The battlefield was fairly balanced, though we still had to resolve the objective scoring


The centre was soon going to be hotly contested...


I scored of my objective and forced Stannis to take a panic check...


Which the Sentinels failed, losing 4 models...


Which were then healed up by one of their objectives...


End of Turn 2: 

Stannis Baratheon 4 VP's Renly Baratheon 1 VP

On the other tables, the Starks had engaged with the Lannister right in their own Game of Thrones



TURN 3

In the legitimate battle for the Throne, Melisandre activated first again, killing 3 of her own Faithful and targeting the Sentinels. (They didn't have conviction on but Younger, Bolder and far more comely gave them a +2) They would have passed but failed their panic thanks to Renly being muted by that objective. The Red Woman had wiped them out!!!


Melisdanre had taken the letters and placed a weaken token on my left Wardens, in addition to one on Loras from last round. 


I activated Olenna, cancelled Shyra and took the crown, but played Wealth and Charisma to remove both weakened tokens I had on...


The far left Faithful charged home against my Wardens...


They hot pretty hard...


But I managed to save half...


But with vicious and panicked, would be interesting morale check...


But they managed to pass with the Weirwoods help.


 I then used Ours is the Fury to attack back!!!


And was in turn hit back by Our is the Fury!!!


I then activated my Wardens and charged in to the Centre objective holding R'hllor Faithful, doing little damage but suffering from Rhllor's Heart of Fire rule and then being countercharged left them at half strength...


The R'hllor faithful led by Andrew Estermont then cut my Wardens down to a solo man. I charged Briene's Stag Knights in, killing only 4.


The Rhlorr unit's heart of fire killed 4 Stag Knights in return, used Ours it the Fury and killed a further 5 before Brienne failed my panic test to my utter shame!!! Still, it allowed me to have Loras and his Rose Knights charge into the flank of the R'hllor


It looks good, but would they punch their weight???


Yeah, they did but not before the R'hllor activated and finished off my last Wardens. The second attack on their activation saw the Rose Knights finish off the R'hllor...

End of Turn 3

The game had swung heavily in Raymonds favour, with my forces losing 3 units to his one. I would have to be young, bold and more comely to swing it around...


Tactics board at end of Turn 3.

Stannis Baratheon 8 VP's Renly Baratheon 3 VPs


TURN 4

Olenna took the swords and had the Wardens on my left attack,  after cancelling Melisandre's abilities. Mel then activated and healed up those I'd killed. And so we began properly, and Loras charged in with his Rose Knights, severely depleting Andrew Estermonts unit


In response, Stannis flanked the Rose Knights with countercharge. They then attacked again, leaving Loras all alone in the unit.


I activated Renly next, playing "They Will Make Me King" to heal a rose Knights so Renly had company and also add one to the Wardens...


Renly then charged home and finished of the Rhlorr unit. I didnt really know what way to turn, so decided to face my off against Stannis...


On my left, the R'hllor gained extra attacks with Stannis making Harsh Decisions...


With a vulnerable token used, I lost 6 men...


And a further two to the failed morale...


Eldon Estermont took a space on the tactics board and replaced it with  "Wealth & Charisma", healing four Rose Knights up in Loras's unit...


Devan charged home against Renly's rear, but the Rose Knights armour was good, only losing 4 men...


I activated my Wardens and played Stags resilience healing 2, which Raymond responded to with the Azor Ahai card...


And took me back down to the standard bearer...


The Rose Knights were both flanked and reared, but were still in the fight...


The field of battle at the end of Turn 4. The Wardens had retreated using the horses on tactics board...


The tactics board end of Turn 4

Stannis Baratheon 10 VP's Renly Baratheon 3 VP's


TURN 5

Start of the turn I play Baratheon Conviction on Renly...


Melisandre was first activation, targeting Renly with her evil spell. She also claimed the swords, which allowed the Rhllor on my left to finish off my Wardens...



However, Renly was immune to her firebomb of death rolling really well...


Having not been targeted with the free attack, Loars and his Rose Knights activated with Hold teh Line to bolster their attacks, gaining an extra man too. All 5 attacks hit and Stannis also failed his panic check, dropping his unit to Stannis and his standard.


Meanwhile, Devan again cahrged the rear of Renly's unit, bu Raymonds dice failed him with a disorderly charge and I passed my armour saves. Renly struck back with Our is the Fury


I used Olenna to heal up Loras's Rose Knights up and cancel Axell.


Stannis had retreated off from the melee with Loras with Axell on the horses. Eldon took the crown, and targeted Stannis's unit


And its fair to say, Raymond wasn't chuffed with his dice roll...


Stannis, the Rightful Heir, was struck down... RENLY WINS!!!


Well, that's my take on it anyway... But with both forces down to two units, I felt I had the upper hand.


Seeing their so called Azor Ahai go up in a puff of smoke, the unit of R'hllor faithful moved away from the battle and took the objective to give the forces of the late Stannis victory on the field...


END OF TURN 5

STANNIS BARATHEON 12 VP's RENLY BARATHEON 5 VPS



Well, undoutbedly a tactical victory for Raymond but a moral and strategic victory for me, as Stannis is no more!!! Still, have to say well played to Raymond on his victory...

It was a damn good game, with real swings and some bad luck, as well as some cinematic moments!!!

So for the Stannis faction no mistake, Melisdandre, Axell and Shyra are a tough combo that Olenna couldnt contain. The R'llor faithful were tough with their Heart of Fire causing my forces real issues, and totally embarrassed Brienne and her Stag Knights with my shocking dice helping. Getting the heal objective helped them, as did negating Renly for turns 2 and 3.

For Renly, the fact Loras was on his own on two separate occasions in his unit, but managed not only to end at half strength but also scare off the vaunted Stannis from his flank shows the durability of the Rose Knights. The Stags Knights were just unlucky and my Sentinels got mullered by wichcraft, couldnt prevent it...

A great result for both factions, with the dour Stannis bunch saying they won comfortably, but  Stannis is dead, so the Renly faction are pretty happy!!!

The main thing to take from this is Baratheons on the whole are a real force to be reckoned with in Westeros!!!


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