CONQUEST: The Last Argument of Kings 100 Kingdoms v Spire

 So Andy and I finally got round to a large Conquest battle, with my 100 Kingdoms new Household Guard taking to the field in strength...

My forces consisted of :

Warlord, Noble Lord on foot, with Regalia of the Empire, Combat retinue 1, in a 6 stand strong unit of Household Guard with an Armsmaster, with 4 Militia bowmen and 6 militia supporting

A Chapter mage, mastery Blessed, with Call Fog and Tears of Nimuah leading 9 stands of Men-at-Arms

Noble Lord Mounted in unti of 5 Household Knights including a Tourney Champion, supported by two units of three mercenary crossbow stands

Andy's Spire were quite daunting to face, as he had an 11 stong Force grown Drone unit for his Biomancer with a catbolic node in there for good measure, aided by 2 units of  3 force grown drones.

His Warlord was his High Excutor with 3 stands of Marksmen clones, with 3 stands of clone infitrators

A lineage Highborn led 3 Avatara. A mimetic assassin led 5 stands of  Vanguard clones with an assault preceptor. Oh and an Abomination for good measure

The big guy and the big unit!!!

The Avatara are fast and brutal, as are the Vanguard clones with an assassin

My Knights, Crossbows and Men at Arms

Household Guard and Militia

TURN 1

Andy got to bring on all 4 of his lights, so Drones everywhere along with only two of my lights, both Mercenary crossbows deemed expendable... The 3 objectives are laid out, with controlling the two flanks worth 2 VP's and the centre worth 1 VP. We were playing first to 8 VP's and each had 3 secondary objective cards. The buildings could garrison 3 stands

TURN 2

The Clone Infiltrators behind the hill looked ominous, but the two FG drones were just meatshields

I had got my Household Guard on, and decided to send them centrally to turn against big bug block, which I planned to hold up with my Militia if I could. But then, Andy shuffled them sideways, and didnt advance towards the objective...

My Militia bowmen came on my left to trade shots with the Infiltrators or FG drones. Figured that would end badly, but my crossbows were at least plinking an occasional drone off the centre unit that had just garrisoned the house...

3 in fact, pretty awesome by my standards...

TURN 3

I marched the Militia up , making room for the Men at Arms who were 5 stands by 2. The crossbows on the hill fired at the FG drones in the house, while the Executor came on with his Marksmen. The large FG drones didnt move up much

Not much happening on the left

But i was pushing forward aggressively on the right.

TURN 4

The board was getting congested, with the Avatra showing up late last turn along with the Assassin and his Clones. I needed a cunning plan...

So I decided to get the drop on the Assassin and that should draw in the FG drones into the flank allowing my Household Guard to assault them in rear next turn...

Sadly, I came up short...

The crossbows shot at the house again...

As the Marksmen clones dropped four valiant Guards...

The Biomancer and his FG Drones charged into the Militia, dropping two men.

The rest of the peasants conscripts then proved to be quite stoic...

Unfortunately, that was before the Assassin and his retinue charged in!!!

The Mounted Noble lord arrived and headed left from the centre to threaten the FG drones and the objective there...

While on the right the the Water Mage and her Men at Arms took the right objective as the Milita bought them time...

The HouseHold guard took the centre objective and prepared for an Avatara charge that didnt happen as they rolled too low... few!!!

End of Turn 4

100 KINGDOMS 3 VP's                      SPIRE 0 VP's

TURN 5

So before the turn started I mistakenly claimed a minus 1 for first turn. Andy exclaimed his surprise, which i quickly corrected to a plus one, before he rolled his dice. The result was a draw, so we rerolled and I won. Andy was ok about it despite branding me a cheat!!! And so my Household Guard charged in against the Avatara, with their greatly increased clash value de to the Armsmaster, Regalia Banner and an inspired charge the were hitting on 5+. The result was the complete wipeout of the Spire brutes, giving me a secondary objectives for the first successful charge of the round and also for wiping the enemy unit out on a charge...

With no Avatara to attack, the Clones attacked the remaining Militia

It was a formality. But they'd held up the massive Spire block...

And my Knights charged into the FG drones to seize the left objectives...

In response, the fluid Clone Infiltrators with their deadly shots let rip.

4 wounds doubled up to 8, nasty...

Having spent the Clones activation on the Militia, I marched up my Men at Arms to solidly control the right objective...

Belatedly, the Biomancers drones charged toward the objective but the Men at Arms held well, losing only 6 men.

On the left, the Abomination charged into the Noble Lords cavalry's flank...

They barely survived, with only the standard and Lord left...

Having wiped out the Avatara, the Household Guard endured a withering barrage of fire from the Marksman Clones. But they survived.

With my Men at Arms firmly ensconced on the right objective and the centre controlled, I had secured my first victory over the Spire!!!

END OF GAME 

100 KINGDOMS 8 VP's (6 from objectives, 2 from secondary)

SPIRE 2 VP's (2 from objective)

In fairness, if the game was not based on the objectives, I would have lost the attritional battle but I upped my army selection for this battle, having had time to read more and fine tune units rather than going for bland choices. The Household Guard build was honed to fight a horde, but dealt just fine with the Avatara. I always seem to struggle to get the most from my Knights and this game was no different despite not charging through any trees. I was also fortunate in my draw of secondary objective cards which secured two VP's. But I think the biggest factor in the win was not advancing the Force grown Drone horde up to hold the objective on my right.

The heroic Noble Lord who finally got a victory over the Spire...

Starks v Freefolk: Honed and Ready 40pts

Thursday night ASOIF action down at Justplay https://justplaygames.uk/ and was facing Ste (PsychoSte) who decided to take a break from running Targaryens and brought his Starks. I am still using my Mance freefolk for simple reason they are all card ready and in the box. (Plus I feel very comfortable with them)

I was running the Following list:

Mance (C)  in Trappers, 2 x Spearwives, 2 x Raiders with Raid Leader, Raiders with jarl, Mammoth

NCU's: Ygritte & Craster

Ste's Starks were: Eddard Stark in Honour guard, Bowmen, Bran/Hodor in Bolton Cutthroats, Summer Orsha/Rickon in Bolton Blackguard, Shaggydog.

NCU's: Petyr Baelish and Catelyn Stark

I won the roll and having seen deployment and tactics hand, I opted to go first in Turn 1

The terrain was set up with 2 central weirwood trees and two stakes on my side, one just off camera to the left objective. I set up with raiders, spearwives, spearwives (with Mance in Trappers behind), Mammoth and raiders, with Jarls raiders off board.

Ste had set up my left to right with Shaggydog?, Stark bowmen, Eddards honour Guard, Bolton Cutthraots with Bran/Hodor, Shaggydog, and bolton blackguard with Orsha/Rickon. 

TURN 1

I took the first turn to play Endless horde, increasing my activations to 10 v Ste's 8. Ygritte on the horses, and influencing speawives.

As usl turn 1 was manouvering and while raiders took objectives on eahc flank (the free one on left, a raid leader one on right) , I moved up more cagey on the left but aggressively on the right. Steve held back. After Baelish had taken letters, one thing I did do was to play the long Plan allowing me to search for a card in my deck.

So when Catelyn activated, I played Wildling Diplomacy which I just searched for. He used Catelyn, and I rolled a 3 on teh D3 (+10 killing Shaggydog) on my left. 

Start of TURN 2

Baelish on horses used swords to allow Bowmen to kill 3 Spearwives. I countered with Craster on swords but healing 2 wounds on spearwvies and drawing a card. The bowmen fired again, killing a few but I was still on 3 ranks so had Ygritte takes letters.

Meanwhile, on the table next to us Aden was trying to figure sout how to crack tAndy's Night Watch NW...

Catelyn swapped bags for an arrow attack from the battlements (which she ahd doen when Shaggydog died. killing 2 raiders)

As you can see below, effects of round 1

Fortunately, my thick furs proved effective...

With my ten activations to seven, Eddard had to make the first move for the central objective. Fair play to Ste, he needed a 5+ charge witha  re-roll, but sadly rolled a 2 (on second dice). My spearwives launched spears and cahrged home, but ended up taking more wounds back due to soem order or card trickery... My second unit of spearwives moved up and took teh centre objectvie, while the Blackguard were sitting caily at the rear, not taking the objective on my far right.

END OF TURN 2

FREEFOLK 4 VP'S         (Shaggydog, 3 objectives)

STARK 0    VP's

TURN 3

I activated Ygritte on swords for a spear launch and assault into the honour guard and really did a number on them, despite them passing panic easily enough

Eddard's Guard activated and attacked back, and depsite max attacks and otehr things froma card, I only lost 3 wives. I then charged into their flank for 6 Mammoth attacks, killing 3

The beefed up Cutthroats flanked my Mammoth, causing a total of 5 wounds but it passed the panic. I theused Caster on bags to heal all 5 wounds with his once per game and bag effect.

Using their arcing fire, the spearwives were targeted by the bowmen. Fortunately, the wannabee Imperail Stormtroopers were in play, with a mere 2 hits from 7 on 3+. Steve wasnt impressed.

I was in range, but surely some of those arrows could have hit!!!

I did lose one wife however. And my large unit hacked down Eddards last Guard, leaving him alone

The 3 spearwives hit back with 4 attacks , scoring 2 hits which Eddard needed to amke on 3+

The Warden of the not so North is no more...

Summer flanked Eddardbane, my Mammoths new name

And he panicked off into both spearwives, wiping the smaller unit out, which left him on 2 wounds and he trampled off 12" away to my lines...

The Blackguard pulled off a 5+ charge to hit Eddardbane in the rear

With no Stark activations left, I used regroup and refom to beef up the spearwives on the centre and also swap Mance into them

Mance rarely gets to sit in the centre of the field

My right side raiders marched up influnced by ygritte early on, taking the objective in the Stark half while teh Trappers secured the right side objective in mine, which with the left side objective mine too scored 5 VPs

END OF GAME (Turn 3)

FREEFOLK 10 VP's (8 from objectives, Shaggdog and Eddards Honour Guard)

STARKS 1 VP  (Spearwives)

 Steve just wasn't at it this game, which happens. He has been running aggressive Targaryen lists of late, which suits his natural aggressive playstyle but for this more defensive army, beign defensive was just too cagey for this scenario (which Ste picked by the way). I didnt do much wrong, accustomed to my list and cards and with an objective heavy scenario and getting the real edge in activations with the extra unit and dead direwolf Turn one really put the Starks on the backfoot. Knowing he had to get stuck in, Ste attempted to make a long range charge which failed and I soaked up his arrowfire and attacks in Turn 3 while plannign the win by objectives. Eddards unit went in alone, and paid for it. A bad match up for the Starks all told, but just needs to get to know the army better. 

EVENTS UK 

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)

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 hopefull 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 hopefull add anotehr 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...

COMING SEPTEMBER

The Justplay League!!! Will update more but essentially we're going to be running a campaign/league with a great wee rulepack masterfully put together by Greg Deane (Greggers)