So 2021 draws to a close, with our last Thursday down at Justplay
Arriving early, I set the board up for A Game of Thrones, randomly placing D3 +2 terrain pieces and keeping the objective cards face down until taken.
I was running a fluffy list of Greyjoys in preparation for upcoming events, and Steve was trying out his Mormont heavy Starks again
My List was as below:
Ironborn Trappers with Asha (C) and Qarl
Ironborn bowmen with reaver captain
Ironborn Bowmen
Ironborn Reavers
Ironborn Reavers with Warsworn
House Harlaw Reapers with Warsworn
NCU's: Erik Ironmaker, the Just and Rodrik Harlaw, the Reader
Ste was running;
House Bolton Bastard Girls with Rodrik Cassel (C)
Mormont She-Bears
House Tully Sworn Shields with Mormont Veteran
Mormont Bruisers with Bronn
NCU's: Catelyn Stark, Petyr Baelish and Tycho Nestoris
2 palisades, corpse pile adn weirwood were terrain and we set up left to right
Ste: Mormont She-Bears, Tullys Sworn Shields, Mormonrt Bruisers, Rodrik in Bastard Girls (corner)
Me: Bowmen, Trappers with Asha, Reapers, Reavers with Warsworn, Reaver (Bowmen outflanking)
I let Ste choose sides as i had set up the board (randomly) and we rolled for first turn.
Ste is making steady progress in getting his figures painted for
Always Winter
I planned to swampt the centre and right with a 2-1 superiority and let the She-Bears sit on an objective
A "refused" left flank and three hard hitters taking out the Bastards Girls
TURN 1
I activated first and took letters to give "The Reader" a chance to exchange a lot of cards if they were poor...
Ste countered with horses to deny my outflank and also advance the Girls up on my right. I then took the crown with Erik to avoid bowmen being zapped and give out a pillage.
Of course, any player with half a brain will realise how stupid my first 2 activations were given Ste's remaining 2 NCU's. So this is me having pretty much activated everything, having to shuffle about in my back corner to try and mitigate for my error by getting Asha 's morale bubble in for my reavers...
As expected, with hindsight, Ste used Baelish on bags foirst to fire a volley into my reavers, then used Tycho on swords to do the same!!!
I lost 5 Reavers from the two rounds of shooting and the first panic check passing easily...
But again, Asha let me down on second panic...
With 5 reavers left, teh Bastard girls charged home using their charging volley
7 attacks on 3+ (Rodrik gives unit +1 dice)
6 hits, 5 fails...
Not a good fitrst turn and only myself to blame...
Unsurprisngly, Ste didnt hang about and he did have first acitvation next.
End of Turn 1
Stark 1 VP
Greyjoys 0 VP's
TURN 2
Baelish activated seizing the horses and using the swords to shoot more arrows into the other Reavers
They lost 5 men in total but I wasnt deterred as had to get moving up the field. I used Iron Price to give them +1 move and reroll charges and went for War cry too
As that would help v Bastard girls morale
But despite Asha, on a 5+, the fickle Gods were laying it on thick...
I thought I needed a 4+ roll, but I miscalculated and needed a 5+, with reroll. the two dice rolled are on the left below.
I didnt even manage to cover the objective on the failed charge!!!
I passed the pnaic check mind, until Ste used swords to shhot into them and they failed that panic check losing 5 men in total
I'm sure my plan was to launch Reavers at bastard girls and ruin them but so far I'd lost 23 reavers for not even an attack against them
Oh, and Ste used his charging volley order to cahrge in with seven dice on a 3+ with rerolls. (It's called overkill!!!)
On the left, things werent happening and I was being swamped on my right
I was beign totally inept on the tactics baord as well as the battlefield
Destroying the palisade on the left to allow me to shoot at least, as i tried to make the best of what I could on the right
Finally activating the Bastard Girls properly, Ste hit the Reapers three times...
And a little late in the day, my dice showed up passing all three armour saves...
End of Turn 2
House Stark 5 VP's (3 objectives, 2 units)
House Greyjoy 0 Vp's (its not funny)
TURN 3
Well, being not in an enviable position, I took the horses to bring on the Ironborn Bowmen with Reaver captain...
Ste activated the Bastard girls again using Catelyn on the Swords
With 5 attacks and only two hitting and wounding, I lost five Trappers. Thanks for nothing, Asha!!!
Rocking up with 7 attacks on 3+ and pressed the advantage to make it 2+. Back to 3+ with my nets!!!
But he hit with them all and I failed all seven armour saves
Well, that was pretty dire!!!
Still, i charged home with the Kraken Wrath (allowing re-rolls denied by corpse pile and precision as Catelyn had swords) and with vicious and a pillage managed to bring the Bruisers down to 3 models!!!
Its fair to say I was still trying to row up the creek without a paddle...
The Bruisers attacked back with Petyr on crown using bags to allow Bronn and the attack killing 5 Reapers, before healing back up with Tycho. But the bowmen managed to drop them right back down, scoring 5 wounds from shooting and 2 from failed panic
Tycho took bags and Bronnactivated on his own
Bronn v 5 Reapers!!! With precision & critical blow due to Bruisers ability with reduced ranks
Big shout out to Greg for getting Ste these dice for winning our league!!!
2 auto wounds and five failed saves later...
Still, us Greyjoys dont go down easily...
Unless we're platying Starks!!!
Still, at least it was another unit rather than those bloody dogs!!!
In other news, the bowmen killed a She-Bear
With phneomenally poor shooting...
And while doing that, the Tully Sworn shileds weighed upa 4 + charge
Damn those dice, I thought it was a3 he'd rolled!!!
Flanked, with vulnerable and panicked!!! I took seven wounds before panic check
But passed...
TWICE!!! It's a little victory in the battle agaisnt bad dice rolls...
But Ste had literally crushed my forces, with two units of Bowmen really not gonna have much of an impact...
End of Turn 3
House Stark 9 VP's (5 objectives, 4 units)
House Greyjoy 1 VP ( objective)
TURN 4
Activating off Catelyn on the Swords, Ste had the bolton Girls shoot and cahrge into the rear of the left side bowmen
They actually survived until the panic check...
I took the horses to reposition my last unit, as sure enough, Bronn solo charged in with Catelyn influencing and all the bonuses from Bruisers reduced ranks. Wounding alone saw 8 Bowmen die
But i passed the panic
TWICE!!! i have now realised best way for greyjpys to pass morale is NOT to be near Asha...
Although her Ironborn Mettle card came in handy healing up 2 archers...
And when tehy activated, I had bless with Stone, bless with steel which healed another 4...
I still only managed 2 hits, but they looked good...
And Bronn bit the dust!!!
A hollow victory given the magnitude of my defeat as the board at end of game below shows...
END OF TURN 4 (and GAME)
HOUSE STARK 13 VP's (Not 12 Ste) (8 objectives, 5 units)
HOUSE GREYJOY 3 VP's (2 objectives, 1 unit - all achieved by third turn outflanking bowmen, Aden)
Well, its fair to say that my inital plan didnt get off the ground. My first two NCU activations were totally sutpid and allowed Ste to be aggressive with his Bastard girls and achieve a unit kill in Turn 1, and my ineptitude allowed much the same in Turn 2, with the girls killing 80% of my destroyed units, with only Tully's assisting on one of them. And he didnt even drop a model from the girls!!!
A sound lesson in how NOT to play your army. Ste capitalised on my errors, and while my dice werent good, tehy merely compunded the mistakes i made and Ste punished. Highlights for me were few, but i did enjoy the passed morale with my lowest leadership units (double twice due to panic tokens).
So my Greyjoys are still to win, but next year should bring about a more positive outcome, and with a bit of luck not just in game terms...
EVENTS
Hopefully, the New Year doesn't bring new restrictions and these all go ahead
Justplay in Liverpool hosting A SONG OF DICE & FIGURES VOL IV on Saturday 8th January... Tickets
John Craig is hosting Always Winter at Common ground Games in January 2022 (22nd/23rd) at Stirling, a two day event that I plan to go to, link here ALWAYS WINTER The event is sold out but there is a reserves list. Look forward to seeing many of the entrants from Ribble Rumble there...
Gavin up at Gaming Figures in Redcar will doubtless run a few too Gaming Figures
As hopefully will Entoyment down in Poole, who organise the awesome Beachhead exhibition. Homepage - Entoyment Wargaming and Hobby Centre
Board & Swords https://www.boardsandswords.co.uk/ and Board in Brum https://www.boardinbrum.co.uk/will hopefully add another event in before end of year...
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...
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