BrianMcG: Brotherhood v Baratheons: A Game of Thrones

With the awesome

(tickets still available)

September 26th - 28th

just a few weeks away, the Wardens of the North-West are gearing up for it. With nine of us going down, Raymond wanted to face a Brotherhood without Banners list, so I faced him with this...

Golden Company Swordsmen with Beric Dondarrion (C)

Brotherhood Archers with Anguy

Peasant Levy with Gendry

King's Men with Thoros of Myr & Eric Dayne

Man-At-Arms NCU's

Ghost of High Heart & Lord Varys

Raymond "Mr Ray" Grieves is my oldest ASOIF opponent, but he doesn't get out and about as much as Ste. He is a dab hand with Baratheons, and had a pretty nasty list with some serious tactics board control.

Baratheon Halberdiers with Eldon Estermont (C)

Thorn Watch withParmen Crane

Rose Knights with Robar Royce

Stag Knights withCortnay Penrose NCU's

Alester Florent, Walder Frey & Olenna Tyrell

With A Game of Thrones being played twice at the LGT, we elected to play that scenario.

We selected terrain as opposed to making it random.

TERRAIN & DEPLOYMENT

TERRAIN: Wall, Weirwood, Woods, Wall

BARATHEONS: Stag Knights, Rose Knights, Thornwatch, Halberdiers

BROTHERHOOD: Peasants, GC Swordsmen, Kingsmen, Men at Arms

(Archers in outflank)

With my choice, I opted to go first so they could come on in Turn 2

(Walder willing)

After playing out the tactics board, I marched up on both flanks as Ray closed around the centre with my Kingsmen unactivated.

Tactics Board less the Crown still to be taking by Ray

which cost me three Men at Arms when he took it and I failed the panic

My Kingsmen took the centre for my last activation, with Ray having the Halberdiers and Rose knights still to activate

Raymond managed to get the 5+ charge causing a wound with Precision

Disappointingly, I failed all my saves without a need for the vulnerable to be used.

Not a good end to Round 1

And then I failed the panic...

ROUND 2

Having my Kingsmen so seriously depleted, I felt the need to pressure Raymond. I brought Anguy and his archers on my left to threaten the Stag Knights.

I also played the Forgotten Fellowship to march up Gendry's Peasants and bring more heat onto the Stag Knights

Taking the swords, the Rose Knights attacked the Kingsmen, with my Knights of hollow Hill cancelling Martial Superiority...

I needed both To the Last's to survive, then opted to attack back from Thoros's Relentless...

I then took the Horses and retreated away...

Raymond took the bags cancelling Varys's ability, so I took the Swords and shot the Stag Knights, killing two. But they healed two from Baratheon Conviction.

The Rose Knights moved out of Beric's charge arc and secured the centre

I made a 4+ charge with Gendry to get into the Stag Knights

Ray's last NCU activation was Walder, who used his ability so Ray would go first next turn

My archers activated and shot into the Stag knights again, again with disappointing results.

The Thornwatch smashed into the Men at Arms, retreating away to go hunt Thoros after cutting me down to three men...

END OF ROUND 2

BARATHEONS 2 VP's (2 objectives)

BROTHERHOOD 2 VP's (2 objectives)

The Stag Knights just had room to retreat out of melee towards the Archers, retreating out meaning no Sentinel move for Beric, who turned to face the Rose Knights

BOARD END OF ROUND 2

ROUND 3

Raymond took the horses, moving the Stag Knights into the flank of my Archers. I thought he may have went for a long range charge, but the delay allowed me to Regroup and Reform 4 Peasants to bolter the Kingsmen, including Gendry to bolster the unit

I then took the Bags to heal up more. Ray took the Crowns, allowing me to shoot with my archers. They hadn't made much of a dent int eh Stag Knights last round, and the result was still sadly the same.

After the tactics board, the left and centre looked like this

Old Eldon and his Halberdiers charged the depleted Men at Arms, but with the wall, only managed two wounds. Sadly, I failed the panic check but every cloud has a silver lining as it gave the Golden Company a token for But the Realm Remains.

The Rose Knights charged into the Golden Company but I chose the adaptive defensive style and lost a rank. I withdrew my Peasants a bit to support the archers

With the Thornwatch about, I had marched Thoros and his rejuvenated Kingsmen onto the left objective before Beric got hit by the Thornwatch who then retreated out with Swift strike. The Stag Knights dropped seven archers, who then used Anguys' Swift Retreat order to drop back an inch and retain the objective

END OF ROUND 3

BARATHEONS 5 VP's (1 unit, 4 objectives)

BROTHERHOOD 4 VP's (4 objectives)

ROUND 4

Well, I was in a pretty pickle and no mistake. My Archers were doomed and I couldn't make headway against the relentless onslaught of the Baratheons. Still, I took the Swords and shot the Stag Knights, who popped Resilience and took no wounds again

Before that I'd played the Forgotten Fellowship to retreat out of combat. I didn't take the weakened as had a token on But the Realm Remains

The Rose Knights charged off the centre but my defensive style held them well. I moved my Peasants around to their flank, before attacking back against the Rose Knights, shifting over as I did so.

Allowing Thoros and his fully restored Kingsmen to smash into them with nine hits. Against nine models...

Sadly, I'd come off a wall so only one wound made it past the 3+ armour

The Stag Knights made short work of my remaining archers, consolidating onto the objective and sitting in the rear of my Golden Company after the Crossbows had cut down the peasants to three men and swift retreated to take the centre

END OF ROUND 4

BARATHEONS 9 VP's (2 units, 7 objectives)

BROTHERHOOD 4 VP's (4 objectives)

BOARD END OF ROUND 4

ROUND 5

Raymond took the Swords and had the Rose Knights drop the Golden Company down to five models so I took the bags and healed up to eight.

The Stag Knight's went into the rear with Stags Fury on Turn 5 and +1 from Courtnay and Hefty Ransom from Anguy's capture...

WOW!!!

15 hits...

They then surged forth back onto the objective. I took teh Horses and retreated Thoros out of melee, before I charged in my Peasants to hold the Rose Knights, after using Regroup an reform to bolster them

It didn't help as the Rose Knights finished them off after the Thornwatch failed too

BOARD END of ROUND 5 (& Game)

BARATHEONS 13 VP's (4 units, 9 objectives)

BROTHERHOOD 5 VP's (5 objectives)

Well, I simply got outplayed. I expected more resilience from my Kingsmen and planned to overwhelm the Stag knight but my shooting was poor and Iended up on the backfoot all through the game. Olenna and Alester allowed Ray to deny me the crown for the most part and controlled the board pretty well. A well deserved win for Mr Ray

UPCOMING EVENTS

YECATS MINIATURES PRESENT

UK NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS