So my inaugural game for the Wardens of the North West league game was against Andy R with his Targaryens...
I've decided to do all 8 game lists in advance, with pot luck forcing my Neutrals against an opponent. I'll also be doing only one list for the match up's. Having done the list, i used a D8 to assign them to a game...
My list for this battle was as follows:
House Bolton Bastards Girls with Darrio Naharis (C)
Stormcrow Mercenaries with Brienne, Maid of Tarth
Stormcrow Mercenaries with Jaqen Hagar
Stormcrow Archers with Bronn
Stormcrow Archers
NCU's: Lord Baelish and Lord Varys
Andy's Targaryen's were:
Unsullied Pikemen with Belwas (C)
Jorah Mormont solo
Outriders
Stromcrow Archers with Bronn
Bolton Bastard Girls with Greyworm
NCU's: Tycho Nestoris (using Daenerys model) and Illyrio Mopatis
I thought I was at home for this game so had pre-chosen the scenario: A Dance with Dragons
Andy set up with his B Girls on my left next to his Stormcrow Archers, Jorah, Belwas Unsullied with the Outriders facing my right.
I had Brienne's Mercenaries use her Knightly vow on the Bastard girls opposite her on the left, with Haqens next to them, Stormcrows archers central, and the unit with Bronn centre right with Daario and his Girls on my extreme right...
TURN 1
I had chosen sides, to avoid the corpse pile and Andy elected to go first placing Tycho on the horses to advance up Greyworm and his bastard girls. I followed up with Varys on letters to get a full hand of good cards...
Having marched up to entice the Targaryens in, Andy's Stormcrows used swift reposition and then activated to unleash arrows on my Archers, destroying half my men, 50/50 wounds and panic...
A shot of the board...
I used swords with Baelish, 6 attacks needing 4+'s. After re-rolls...
Andy's Archers passed the morale after failing all the saves...
As the rest of Andy's forces moved up, Belwas with his Pikemen and Jorah also trotting into range of my Stormcrows. I activated Daario's Girls but used Issue Commands to allow the Stormcrows to fire again, targeting the exiled Westerosi...
Four hits followed and Andy failed all four 4+ rolls. For the record, 6 failed 5+ saves and 4 4+ saves
The two forces close in...
Although Daario wasn't walking the dogs Round 1...
Stormcrow Mercenaries 1 VP
House Targaryen 0 VP's
TURN 2
With Brienne's vow on the Bastard Girls, I decided to take the 3+ charge to engage and rolled well.
Brienne's leads the Mercenaries in...
I managed to chop down 7 girls, all failing their 6+ saves. So Andy popped of Tycho heal them by three, and the Archers by two and the took the bags to heal the archers further...
This is Tycho Nestoris...
I had Varys take the swords, and played Daario's "Reckless Strike"...
Granted Precision and Critical hit and 3+ due to Brienne's vow, I scored 3 sixes and 4 additional hits. No saves were made again. Greyworm and his Bastard Girls were totally overwhelmed...
Angered by the loss of Greyworm, Belwas charged into Jaqen's Mercenaries, but poor dice by Andy and good dice by me saw only two Mercs drop...
And I rolled well for the panic...
Start of my next turn I took a new name (Greyworm Hagar)...
A bit blurry, but it's 4+ hits from the Stormcrow "Mummer" archers...
They dropped two full horses thanks to the sundering (or vulnerable)...
They passed the panic though, so it wasn't all bad...
I marched up and over the spikes on the right with Daario, taking 4 wounds in the process but getting the objective...
END of TURN 3
STORMCROW MERCENARIES 5 VP's
HOUSE TARGARYEN 0 VP's
TURN 4
Belwas' pikes activated off the swords, reducing my Stormcrows Mercs with Greyworm Jaqar down to a single rank.
I figured may as well get stuck in before they died, so used bags to activate them and play Reckless strike again. As well as Precision and Critical Blow they use their highest attack value. You can see why I believe dice and luck will always out do Stats!!!With hardened not really factoring, the Pikemen popped their order and only lost 3 men in total and just passed their morale...
Illyrio healed a horse and I looked to move my archers to take the centre objective...
Sadly, Belwas taunted me and I got so irate I had to charge the git!!!
Hmmm....
I did score a hit but hardened cancelled it...
Meanwhile, the Outriders got reduced to a lone horse on two wounds...
The Targaryen Archers had finished off the Greyworm Mercenaries before moving off with card???
Belwas shifted onto the objective and attacked the Archers (they had healed two from Greyworms attack)
Belwas and his pikemen scored 5 hits. I saved 3 on 6+
And passed the panic check too...
The Outriders had ran away, as expected...
END of TURN 3
STORMCROW MERCENARIES 8 VP's
HOUSE TARGARYEN 3 VP's
Baelish took the bags and allowed the "Mummer" Stormcrow Archers to shoot...
I had already weakened and panicked the Targaryen Archers end of last turn with "Sellsword Bravado"
As it turned out didn't need the panic as Andy failed the roll...
When Andy took the bags to attack with Belwas, I used Varys's order to cause 3 hits on the Outriders killing them. I then activated the "Mummer" Stormcrow Archers who shot down the remaining Targaryen archers
My archers had been on target all game but really, Andy's dice was the reason his army was in a bad way...
Illyrio took the crown to panic the last 2 archers in combat...
My dice were good again though...
So Belwas swung and killed them, then "Overran" into the flank of the "Mummer" Stormcrow Archers...
Despite getting six hits, I manage to save half with the required 6+ rolls...
END of GAME
STORMCROW MERCENARIES 13 VP's
HOUSE TARGARYEN 6 VP's
I felt for Andy all the way through that game, as his dice just weren't playing fair and mine were on fire. He is relatively inexperienced with Targaryens and had never used Bolton B Girls before, and he lost both units without really using them (Jorah didn't get his homing beacon on) and the Bastard Girls just died quickly. I didn't use my Bastard Girls in anger but they scored well. Simply holding up Belwas with my two units allowed me to score (I did use Sellsword Negotiations on the Archers twice). While my force did outshoot the Targaryens, the real difference was all in the dice and me getting the better card draw early. Brienne and her Mercs really tore the Bastard Girls apart. Andy will be getting better with practice in the league, and credit to him for saving his Dragons for a tougher opponent than I...
Wardens of the North West
