Another Thursday A Song of Ice and Fire evening down at Justplay, https://justplaygames.uk/ and eager to face Greg's Lannister's given how much ahs been made of Lannister justice and Red Cloaks
We had already agreed to play Honed & Ready, and I'd selected a fluffy competitive list (as had 3 NCUS) to use two newly painted units:
Unsullied Pikemen with Daario Naharis (c)
Stormcrow Archers
Stormcrow Mercenaries with Belwas the Pit Fighter
Stormcrow Mercenaries with Jorah the Andal
Dothraki Hrakkar
NCU's
Petyr Baelish, Daenerys Targaryen & Illryio
The Lannisters were as follows:
Redcloaks with Gregor Clegane (C)
Redcloaks with Sandor Clegane
Mountains Men with Mandon Moore
Poor Fellows
Poor Fellows
NCU's
High Sparrow, Joffrey Baratheon and Cersei Lannister
We used random terrain, and ended up with a bog centre left near me, a hedge left near Greg and some stakes centre right middle
Greg wasn't red faced due to having two units of Red cloaks, we've had a mini-heat wave in UK...
Colin and Raymond looking serious/angry/worried (delete as appropriate), as the Nights Watch faced off against the Baratheons (twice). Raymond won them both too. He's so quick we call him "Lightning Ray" now...
I set up with Jorah's Stormcrows on my left, then the Pikemen with Daario centre with Archers supporting and Belwas on my right. I left the Hrakkars to outflank...
Greg set up on my left with Poor Fellows, Gregor Redcloaks, Sandor Red cloaks, Mountains Men and Poor Fellows.
I won roll and opted to go second in round 1...
Turn 1 saw Greg take letters first and hit my archers with bribery, making them shot with lowest attack rating of 4. I took crown with Baelish and used the horses, then took thehorses later with Daenerys and advanced them up, and a card also advanced them up. And they managed to shoot the Mountains Men...
Which saw 5 dead Clegane's due to a few wounds and bad panic check...
The Lannisters owned the tactics board turn 1.
TURN 2
Daenerys took the horses and brought on the Hrakkar in the rear of their lines...
Was so looking forward to playing with the big cat...
Picture doesnt do it justice, the big cat is better than the two ones in the actual CMON ones. The Mountains Men had to turn and face the big cat...
I charged in and done some real damage, Joffrey took the bags to heal the mountains men but I attacked again with Baelish on the swords...
We both ended up with weakened but the Mountains Men were ravaged down to two men, but still had a vicious panic check to take...
Sadly for me, Greg just managed to save his unit. I really need to stop sharing my lucky trays!!!
There is room for a second Hrakkar unit, I may need to get it painted
I took some wounds on the Hrakkar and some card tricks left the Mountains men healed up a bit. But Daario and his Unsullied applied the pressure, advancing up to the Red Cloaks and taking the central objective while having Blood of the Dragon card, while my Stormcrows camped on the edge ones as did the poor Fellows.
End of Turn 2 Tactics board
The Unsullied Pike occupy the central objective...
The Clegane Brothers and their accompanying Red Cloaks are playing cagey...
The Stormcrow Archers were the target of much Lannister trickery...
Board at end of Turn 2.
TURN 3
Joffrey took the swords and the Mountains Men attacked the Hrakkars, leaving the lion on 2 wounds
Illyrio took the crown but healed the Hrakkars and weakened the Mountains men...
The 2+ hitting vicious Mountains Men managed 6 hits, but I saved 4.
Sadly, I fluffed the panic check and my Hrakkars died...
It took a lot of effort to finish the beasts off and a few tactics cards...
But that boosted my Blood of the Dragon. Having already dropped a few of Sandor Redcloaks last turn with archers, I decided to try and wipe them out...
Daario's Unsullied managed 7 hits, with sundering as I had the bags, so the Redcloaks needed 5+
But they were resolute, passing their morale check
I realised I was leaving the objective, but wasnt sure if I'd camped the pair of Redcloaks wouldnt have overwhelmed me
My limited attack archers targeted the Mountains Men, recently rejuvenated with more Lannister cards...
3 hits caused 3 wounds...
And the morale failure added 3 more casualties...
Weakened and vulnerable, but un-activated...
So it was a 50/50 needing a 4+ to get in, and Belwas's Mercs just failed, again leaving the objective...
Greg was activating and avoiding committing, so I charged off the left objective too to contest the Poor Fellows camping...
End of Turn 3 had saw me jump off 4 VP's. And Greg gain another 2 with Hrakkars demise and right objective.
Targaryens 4 VP's
Lannisters 4 VP's
Board at End of Turn 3
As you can see, the Lannisters army had avoided engaging. Mountains Men had retreated, Sandor had healed a few and moved across, while Gregor had sought to get behind Daario...
Turn 4 saw Daario charge in to finish off the Redcloaks...
7 hits v 5 Redcloaks... But the lack of sundering saved them, as Greg only failed 2 saves
Would Gregor take the opportunity to flank? Damn right but via Assault Orders tactics card and an NCU activation!!! So he would have another swing next activation.
As the battle was joined I didn't get too many photos, but I took the horses and retreated from the Clegane tag team. Rather than charge in again, and take my set defense order, Gregor hung back. So Belwas went in against the Mountains Men
And again, just couldn't get them dead!!!
The Lannisters again controlled the tactics board!!!
Gregor marched onto the central objective...
I stayed off the board, as was thinkingg of using the battlemetns to hit the left Poor Fellows
But first, Jorah's Mercs attacked, cutting through the Faithful who were panicked into failing a morale check... But one remained!!!
Suspecting what I'd planned, Greg activated and healed, then moved off the objective to deny me the shots...
When Sandor's Redcloaks activated, cards were used to really hurt Belwas with Lannister Justice. Strong Belwas laughed at them!!!
Sandor's Activation which triggered the Lannister Justice was to head to support the left Poor Fellows.
End of Turn 4
Holding 2 objectives to my none, Lannisters moved ahead decisively while avoiding engaging...
LANNISTERS 7 VP's
TARGARYEN 4 VP's
I'd been holding one since Turn 1 but being unable to get to grips led me to discarding both to get some of Daario's cards (I hoped)
Board at end of TURN 4
The Mountains Men had again retreated, in a manner to avoid being charged.
First activation was Gregor try a 4+ charge at the Stromcrow archers. Greg rolled a one, but was at least out of Daario's charge arc.
I responded by taking the horses to allow Belwas to flank the Mountains Men. They triedtocharge the Unsullied in the rear but failed badly, unable avoid being flanked when Belwas activated.
Baelish took the crown to try and finish off Sandor's Redcloaks...
And would have succeeded with the 3 wounds had Greg not managed to just pass his test.
As a result, Jorah's Merc's had to do it the old fashioned way, scoring 3 hits...
Sandor's armour must have been badly dented previously and they finally went down...
With Lannisters running around me, my archers shifted and shot the Redcloaks...
Dropping one with and arrow and two with a failed morale...
The Poor Fellows reposition. But hold the two objectives...
Daario's Unsullied moved to rear charge the Mountain as I activate first in turn 6.
The Lannisters have the edge on VP's at end of Turn 5.
LANNISTERS 9 VP's
TARGARYEN 7 VP's
TURN 6
I activated Daario's Unsullied and charged home, attempting to play Reckless stirke but Greg successfully counterplotted it.
With 8 attacks and re-rolls, I was optimistic...
I was so grateful to get to re-roll these...
Sadly, I only scored 5 hits...
And the Redcloaks would only lose two more to the failed panic...
Greg was looking to take the swords to deny me a free strike, which was fine by me as I'd have taken the bags and got one anyway with Motivated by Coin. But Greg realised that wouldnt save Gregor, and changed to take the horses instead. Retreating the unactivated Mountain away from the Unsullied and triggering Lannister Justice on the Archers, who passed magnificently...
With the Redcloaks free to activate, the only real play to make was to shoot them down. Being impacted all game with Lannister bribery hadnt really stopped my ability to do damage, but undoubtedly lessened it.
3 hits were scored following the swords rerolls, having initially missed with all 4.
Greg found the saves though...
Activating to charge in, I lost two archers to Lannister Justice and with Gregors auto wounds I lost the unit without dice needing to be rolled for the melee...
The only option left to deny the Lannisters victory was crown attack, so Baelish took the crown.
And Greg passed the test...
So near and yet so far...
I charged into the Poor Fellows with Belwas's Mercs, scoring 8 hits due to having Blood of the Dragon on them, fuelled by the demise of the Archers
It made the board look more palatable as it stood at the end of the game...
END of TURN 6 (END of GAME)
House Lannister 13 VP's
House Targaryen 10 VP's
Wow!!! Another fantastic, tense and very close game. Colin and Raymond managed two games to mine and Greg's one, but it was a new army for me after nine games with Mance and his Freefolk (of which I won seven despite having a Mammoth and how rubbish FF are now, if you believe any of the utter pish you read on social media. And stop whining about Night's Watch, it is possible to self-regulate your lists people!!)
Sorry, back to the game!!! I made mistakes in Turn 3 by leaving the objectives, but Greg was lining me up for a sandwich and I would sooner attack with the cards I had. I could have Overrun into Mountains Men had Sandor's Recloaks died, so it was a gamble and I felt it worth the risk. Again, it was 50/50 to get into them with Belwas too, and it didn't pay off.
Greg played well and totally dominated the tactics board, as I think I got the bags once and am not used to using to 3 NCU's. I did give him stick for being a cowardly Lion and tactically withdrawing so much, but it kept the Mountains Men and Sandor alive longer than they should have, and that bought him the time to win the game. He made some really crucial rolls at the right time and thoroughly deserved the victory. Lannister Justice was annoying but not over the top with his two units, despite my 7+ morale.
I will be running this list (or very near to it, still not keen on 3 NCU's) at the Justplay event in Liverpool on 8th August. Sure to be a great event with a handful of tickets left and 14 confirmed players Event Tickets | JustPlayGames (including some hairy primitives from the North East looking to learn how to play the game apparently). Be good to see them again, as met quite a few up at Gaming Figures pre-Covid. And they also do some excellent video battle reports... Dead Meta Gaming - YouTube
EVENTS IN UK (I know about)
Really looking forward to rest of year in UK, especially the one I'll be running a two day event at Ribble Rumble in December The Ribble Rumble - ASOIF | Facebook
Rich and his boys at Justplay in Liverpool are running one too on Sunday 8th August... Event Tickets | JustPlayGames
Other Events:
The lads at Imps Gaming in Lincoln have a few lined up, nice venue as been there twice: A Song of Ice and Fire Ticket - Aug 2021 (imps-gaming.com) I cant make the August one sadly, but November is hopefully doable... A Song of Ice and Fire Ticket - Nov 2021 (imps-gaming.com)
Cant believe I've omitted the biggest ASOIF event in the UK... A Song of Ice and Fire UK GT | LGT 2021 (lgtpresents.co.uk) Two day event in London run by Chris Eustace. I cannot go sadly, but a few of the Justplay regulars are...
Gavin up at Gaming Figures in Redcar will doubtless run a few too Gaming Figures
As will the Entoyment down in Poole, who organise the awesome Beachhead exhibition. Homepage - Entoyment Wargaming and Hobby Centre
All the above venues support the game and sell A Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures. Check them out, or pop in and visit if you are in the area...
