GREYJOYS v FREEFOLK: Fire & Blood

 Thursday night's A Song of Ice and Fire battle down at Justplay saw Aden (Spykr) and I get together for our first battle since our league game back in mid-October, which was a real classic and also Fire & Blood ( A real classic).

Aden isn't the most competitive player and wanted to try out a Mance Free Folk list, so I used my Greyjoys led by Victarion...

• Blacktyde Chosen with Victarion Greyjoy - The Iron Captain • Ironborn Bowmen with Asha Greyjoy - Captain of the Black Wind • Ironborn Reavers with Nute - The Barber • Ironborn Reavers • Ironborn Reavers • Drowned Men NCU's: Wendamyr & Aeron Greyjoy

Aden had selected a Mance list as below

• Free Folk Trappers with Mance Rayder - King Beyond the Wall • Thenn Warriors • Free Folk Raiders with Tormund Giantsbane - Tall-Talker, Horn-Blower, Breaker of Ice • War Mammoth • Free Folk Raiders with Raid Leader • Free Folk Trappers (look like spearwives)

NCU's: Ygritte, Lady Val & Craster

Set up: Aden deployed two stakes centrally, while I opted for a corpse pile on my left and Weirwood on my right.

Aden set his Freefolk up Left to right with Raid Leader raiders,(marked) Tormund Raiders, Mance Trappers, Thenns, Mammoth and Trappers (marked)

I set up with Reavers, Bowmen (marked) with Drowned Men (marked) behind, Vic in Blacktyde Chosen, Reavers and Nute Reavers far right

TURN 1

Setting up 12" away, I took the swords 

and used the bowmen to shift up and shoot Tormunds raiders killing 3...

After Ygritte took the letter, Wendamyr took horses and swapped for a token...

Craster took the crown and panicked my left reavers

But they shrugged it off...

I played aggressively as didn't feel I had a choice

Being out activated, i went hell for leather and had Nute charge the Trappers on the right, needing  5+

And got a 6... I did lose 3 men to the hidden traps

And only managed to kill 3...

On the left, the raiders charged my Reavers

and with There's Too Many and the corpse pile

Did diddly squat!!!

Aden had brought the Thenns up and was hoping to taunt me over the stakes. Didnt need try, I simply charged through them after a Wendamyr shift!!!

Aye, took some damage mind

But Krakens wrathhelped

kill 3... Seemed to be the magic number for casualties this round.

As they lost another 3 when Mance bubble didnt help...

I only had the Blacktyde left

And they failed their charge after a Wendamyr shift. On the left, Tormund charged in...

And with the Raider Leaders help absolutely battered me

helped by there's too many and a bad panic which killed 5...

Board End of TURN 1

The Mammoth was blocked in, unable to march or charge and had to reposition. I was disappointed as my left flank looked horribly exposed, with Aden going first and two marked units asking to be savaged... Centrally it could go either way and same far right

TURN 2

Aden was seduced by the Endless Horde and took it first bringing Raiders up near the mammoth, allowing me to steal the swords and hack away on the trappers with Nute. I activated with the Reavers to use a card to heal up what they lost on stakes

And on my left, as Aden was concentrating on finishing off my second bare Reavers I opted to charge Tormund with the Drowned Men. I got 3 hits and with their vicious card dropped them to four Raiders...

I then got the bowmen to finish the job...

Aden had the Raid Leader raiders move up off Lady Val and then charge the Drowned men 

With all 6 hitting. But I made two 6+ saves and only lost 2 wounds. Nice!!!

Meanwhile, after the Thenns had finished off their Reaver opponents, and the Blacktyde Chosen had to charge them, before being flanked and destroyed by Mance and his Trappers,  Nute, having activated off the bags and their activation and finally hacked down the Trappers with We do Not Sow...

dropping back ready to flank the Thenns next turn...

Aden couldn't block the inevitable but he set up ready to take advantage afterwards...

END OF TURN 2

FREEFOLK 5VP's

GREYJOY 4 VP's

TURN 3

I charged into the Thenns and wiped them out, scoring the two extra VP's from when Vic had activated I the previous two turns, surging forth back behind the stakes...

And Aden brought them back on with Endless Horde... But that allowed my Drowned Men to attack off swords (and miss). Lady Val allowed the Mammoth a free move ready for a charge into the bowmen who had moved away from Mance and his trappers

The Mammoth hitting me in the rear...

Leaving Asha and one man left

BOARD AT END OF TURN 3

FREEFOLK  5 VP's

GREYJOY 7 VP's

TURN 4

Off the swords, the Mammoth finished off Asha and the bowmen

I had Aeron takes the horses but used Assault order to attack with the Drowned Men

Allowing me to heal one of my wounds and also miss again...

The Mammoth charged into them with Raid Leader helping to wipe me out but I played waht is dead may never died and survived...

I took the bags to heal up fully and be a nuisance as Mance used diversion tactics to close in

But the Trappers couldn't finish them off

But the last wound was finally taken and the game was all but over...

Although Aden did a long range charge into Nute and his Reavers, scoring 3 hits and I failed the morale badly enough to die

END OF TURN 4 

FREEFOLK 13 VP's

GREYJOY 7 VP's

Well deserved win for Aden and nice for me to see how hard it is to make headway against Mance and his Free Folk.  His dice were certainly good, better than mine over the game and Aden didn't take spearwives, my personal favourites. The Mance bubble and stakes did take their toll, adn i was overly aggressive but why not, Fire and Blood can favour the bold. I loved the Drowned Men charging Tormund, gonna do a Drowned God themed list soon, with Nute as he was the other bright spark. Shame I did 3 attacks with the Drowned Men and totally whiffed with two of them!!! But good to get to play against Aden again, less stressful than the Tully filth I normally get trampled by. Next report will be from War of the White Cloaks as I run a Harma all female Freefolk list...

Charity Appeal

Kieran "Scaddman" Scaddan is holding a 24hr sponsored wargame of ASOIF in aid of Veterans

mental Health charity on 28th/29th May.

GOOD LUCK KIERAN

Link to his Justgiving page is HERE

EVENTS IN UK

Kieran's 24 hour Sponsored Event 28th/29th May at Imjin barracks  

16 player event at Leodis Games in in Leeds, Saturday June 5th War of the White-Rose Cloaks

Saturday June 11th at Battlefield Hobbies, Daventry, Battle of the Bar-Stewards

 16th & 17th July Duke's Gaming Welsh Grand Tournament Cymru Grand Tournament

The 128 player 2 day event UK London Grand Tournament (ELO) 30th September Link

16 Player 2 day event 22/23rd Oct at the RIBBLE RUMBLE, ELEMENT GAMES, STOCKPORT, UK LINK

Fire & Blood: FreeFolk v Targaryen's

 Another A Song of Ice and Fire night at Justplay with Greg "Greggers" Deane and his Free Folk while I'm rolling out some Targaryens for a change...

SUBLIMINAL MESSAGING

Charity Appeal

Kieran "Scaddman" Scaddan is holding a 24hr sponsored wargame of ASOIF in aid of Veterans

mental Health charity on 28th/29th May.

Link to his Justgiving page is HERE

My list is a bit of a mix as below:

Combat Units • Dothraki Veterans with Khal Drogo - The Great Khal (C) • Freedmen • Stormcrow Mercenaries with Jaqen H'ghar - Unnamed • Dothraki Outriders with Fortune Seeker • Unsullied Swordmasters with Grey Worm - Freed By The Dragon NCU's: Petyr Baelish & Illyrio Mopatis

Greg went for a bit of everything too

Commander: The Great Walrus - Lord of the Frozen Shore (C) Combat Units

• Thenn Warriors with The Great Walrus - Lord of the Frozen Shore • Followers of Bone Barroq - Boar Skinchanger • Frozen Shore Chariots • Frozen Shore Bear Riders • Free Folk Raiders Tormund Giantsbane - Tall-Talker, Horn-Blower, Breaker of Ice • Barroq's Boar NCU's: Jon Snow & Dalla

SET UP: I set up a bog after Ste put a Wall down and he followed with a Weirwood so

I placed a corpse pile.

Greg set up with Followers of Bone with Barroq on my left, with the boar just behind, Tormund Raiders

Walrus Thenns, Chariot and Bears

My Targaryens were left to right: Stormcrows, Outriders, Freedmen, Swordmasters and Veterans

I had Drogo's first target in mind and planned to ignore my right and concentrate on hammering the left

TURN 1

I let Greg go first as wanted first activation in turn 2. Luckily for Greg he had Endless Horde and put Jon Snow on horses to take it. I took letters as my initial cards were a bit meh....

I lost two Mercs to the crown panic...

Greg advanced on my left as I closed in on the centre

I then marched up on my left with the Outriders in range for an activation of the tactics board

And shot three Raiders...

I then forced the issue with Drogo moving up into the centre, and recieved a chariot charge which killed 3

Before I failed the panic!!!

I swift retreated as per my plan and then realised I didn't fail the panic check after all because of Iron Resolve... A bit rusty with Targaryens...

So having moved, I then shot the chariot in the flank for 2 wounds...

BOARD END OF TURN1

Well I was being aggressive but was probably overly so.

Tactics Board End of Turn 1

TURN 2

Activating Drogo, I played ADDRIVAT! on the chariot and charged in. Of course, I could have shot and then charged but I got it wrong. As it was, having charged off the wall, I only caused three wounds and the chariot played it's swift retreat order.

I was feeling a little foolish but hey ho

Drogo was sitting nicely in front of the whole Free Folk horde but the Outriders were on hand

Snow took the horses to speed the chariot out of the swordmasters charge arc and Baelish took the crown but used swords to get the Outriders to shoot.

Charity Appeal

Kieran "Scaddman" Scaddan is holding a 24hr sponsored wargame of ASOIF in aid of Veterans

mental Health charity on 28th/29th May.

Link to his Justgiving page is HERE

I tried to force Greg's activations by moving up the Stormcrow Mercenaries to take the objective as he'd intimated on what he was planning...

Sure enough Barroq activated and the Followers of Bone charged in and reduced the Stormcrows down to three men due to a rubbish panic check too. The Boar then charged Drogo only doing a single wound and allowing me to use the Swift Retreat order Greg had forgotten about!!! This allowed Drogo and his veterans to shoot following the move and kill the chariot with Addrivat! on it...

I then tried to kill the boar with a Freed men charge but came up short and lost half of them to the failed panic

Greg was just biding his time for the right and forcing my activations...

Both the Thenns and Bear riders had the Battle Endurance cards which made them pretty hard turn 3 onwards. The Bears Mauled the Veterans and left Drogo on his own

Tempted though I was to heal the Khal, he was dead so  I used the bags to attack

So the Outriders shot into the flank of the Followers of Bones. 

Not a single hit with the weakened token...

But of course, there was a risk and Jaqen and the Stormcrow Mercenaries died to the panic

On the right, the Endless horde Raiders took the right objective as my Outriders activated on their own and shot into the flanks, doing better this time with a panic too which dropped the objective. In the centre, The Great Walrus and Thenns failed to charge to flank Drogo and lost men to the panic. They had also taken men off with regroup and reform to bolster Tormunds unit...

END OF TURN 2

FREEFOLK 3 VP's (2 objectives, 1 unit)

TARGARYENS 2 VP's (1 +1 unit)

BOARD AT END OF TURN 2

TURN 3

Not a surprise, Jon Snow took the swords and had the Bears attack, killing the Khal...

I played field control to shift the Swordmasters at start on my turn, shifting 2"left to avoid corpse pile, only realising afterwards I get to re-roll attacks anyway...

And they made the charge, getting nine attacks with Greyworm and with Precision too

and although Greg made a few saves, and despite hardened, the Thenns died to a man, taking the Great Walrus with them...

The Followers of bone healed up, denying me an attack off the bags so I shot and killed the 3 Greg had just healed

Charity Appeal

Kieran "Scaddman" Scaddan is holding a 24hr sponsored wargame of ASOIF in aid of Veterans

mental Health charity on 28th/29th May.

Link to his Justgiving page is HERE

The Bears charged in and killed six Swordmasters

But they passed their panic...

The Followers of Bone took the left objective and the Freedmen caused a wound on the boar 

before it gored them and ate them with a wasted Overwhelming assault as all the attacks hit without re-roll

I crown zapped the right FreeFolk and they dropped the objective and Tormund's Raider went to help the Bears and used Illyrio to heat the Sword Masters

BOARD AT END OF TURN 3

END OF TURN 3

FREE FOLK 6 VP's (4 objectives, 2 units)

TARGARYEN 3 VP's (2 +1 units)

TURN 4

I took the horses but used the swords and had the Swordmasters attack the bears, scoring 6 wounds

This allowed Greg to have the boar to move off Combat Manouvers ready to hit my healed up  Swordmasters

Greg then healed the bears up, allowing Illyrio to take the swords and shoot dropping Barroq and his Followers of Bone down to two, and they then failed their panic for a further two wounds...

Greg took the Letters to get more cards and I then used swift reposition and a shift to take the left objective and shoot into Tormunds flank

Which dropped them to two models...

The raiders on the right took the objective there as my sword masters again hacked at the Bears

This allowed Greg to move up Tormund with diversion tactics and into range for regroup and reform from the Raiders

The Bears attacked and badly mauled the Sword Masters...

killing seven...

Allowing Tormund and his Raiders to charge in 

and finish the job...

With Barroq dead at the end of the turn, the boar ran away start of next...

END OF TURN 4

FREEFOLK 9 VP's (6 objectives, 3 units)

TARGARYEN 5 VP's (1 objective, 3 + 1 units)

TURN 5

With all our units out of range and on reduced 2" movement bar Tormund, we simply activated out, with me taking the crown to avoid any panic attack

END OF TURN 5 (& GAME)

FREEFOLK 11 VP's(3 units,  objectives)

TARGARYENS 6 VP's (3 +1 units, 2 objectives)

Well, it was a good game but I played it pretty badly with the exception of the Outriders. I wasted Drogo and the Stormcrows, not using Drogo and J'aqen combo. Greg capitalised on my errors but made a few of his own with exposing the Thenns and also the boar attacking Drogo and the veterans. But the Bear Rider were pretty awesome and I'll have finished painting mine by end of the weekend so I'll be running them soon. In the end, a relatively easy win for Greg.

Charity Appeal

Kieran "Scaddman" Scaddan is holding a 24hr sponsored wargame of ASOIF in aid of Veterans

mental Health charity on 28th/29th May.

Link to his Justgiving page is HERE

EVENTS IN UK

Bad Moon Cafe, Great Dover St, London Sunday May 8th , A Prance with Pragons

24 player 2 day event Durham, 14th-15th May, War of the Wall

Justplay Games Liverpool Sunday 29th May ??????

Kieran's 24 hour Sponsored Event 28th/29th May at Imjin barracks  

16 player event at Leodis Games in in Leeds, Saturday June 5th War of the White-Rose Cloaks

Saturday June 11th at Battlefield Hobbies, Daventry, Battle of the Bar-Stewards

 16th & 17th July Duke's Gaming Welsh Grand Tournament Cymru Grand Tournament

The 128 player 2 day event UK London Grand Tournament (ELO) 30th September Link

16 Player 2 day event 22/23rd Oct at the RIBBLE RUMBLE, ELEMENT GAMES, STOCKPORT, UK LINK