The Battle of the Line

The Vikings Greyjoys are coming! So last night I played a siege battle game of A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones game) at the club against Ben and Michael. This was rather different to other games I had played for 3 reasons, firstly it was a siege game, so really different rules with walls and waves of attackers, secondly as it was a 60 point a side game, normal games are 40, and I’ve played a single 50 point game, and thirdly it was a multi player game! And it was rather epic! Also its worth mentioning that we tweaked a few of the rules, as 60 point games don’t really have rules and how multiplayer and siege work is not that obvious.

So we set up on a 5 foot wide board (bigger than normal 4 foot due to bigger armies) and I had 3 walls (the blue rectangles in the foreground) and I could place 5 terrain pieces (added an extra due to the bigger board). My opponents both chose to play Greyjoys, so they simply each took a 30 point army, so they had 2 commanders and 2 command card decks. As the defenders are only supposed to have half their units start on the board I actually did the same and had two 30 point armies. The attackers had to claim 14 victory points by destroying walls (giving 5 points each) and my units (giving 1 point each), while I just had to still be there at the end of turn 6 and make sure they did not have 14 victory points. With that in mind I planned my armies!

My 1st force was there to hold until turn 3, I was always going to be out numbered at this point (30 points against 60) so I chose to go elite hard to kill units, I chose a unit of veterans (shown on the left) as they are hard to hit, lead my Jeor as he makes then very brave, and a unit or sworn brothers (shown on the right) with a Builder and Satin that make them hard to budge. On top of that I took a bolt thrower to try and shoot the force as they came in and a defensive Non Combat Characters.

My second force was all about speed and hitting hard, so rangers all the way! It was lead by Benjen Stark that in a unit of Sworn Brothers (he makes them faster and become Rangers) along with mounted horse archers, and rangers on foot lead by Jon Snow with Ghost and Craster to help them along off the board. Now I know in the books John and Benjen being around together does not really work, but I don’t think Greyjoys attacked the wall either, so this is a very much “what if” sort of thing. So my “what if” is John went looking for his Uncle Benjen and found him and brought him home, just when some Greyjoys where attaching!

I got to chose the terrain we used and picked lots of bits to slow people down and just get in the way, like the palisades (can go through them) and the spikes and a marsh the far side. My opponents deployed as a long line and go ready to run forward, but they had sneakily set a unit up in outflank that came on in the first turn and got straight into attacking a wall! While the rest of their force pressed forward.

The game went really well for me in the first few turns, the obstacles I had placed meant that my opponents had to slow down their advance to knock them down, and the unit they deployed from the flank attacked and damaged the wall but could not knock it down prior to them being taken out from boiling oil and arrows. Also you got 3 special siege cards each and I had a card called parley which stopped an enemy unit from moving for a turn which was great! So the end of turn 2 my army was still very much intact, with just 1 wall damaged and no major combats.

Turn 3 saw my second army turn up from the flanks, they got stook in and really messed up the units closest to flanks. And so far through this turn we all sort of took a pause, as it honestly looked like the game was too 1 sided, I was holding too well and the enemy could not even get near my walls, we did all talk about just calling it there. But Michael was keen to keep playing so we did and my word I’m glad he said that, as actually this was simply the highest point for my force my reinforcements had arrived and I had pushed the enemy back, BUT they kept coming as the turn after an attacker had been destroyed they simply could redeploy and run in again, representing a second wave. While the defenders could not, and slowly my units started to reduce in strength and then in number, and the balance started to tip away from me.

We ended up having to stop the game at the end of turn 5 due to club kick out time, and it was really to close to call, I had 2 walls left and a few units, but my 2 walls where undamaged. My opponents had 10 points (5 from destroying a wall and 5 from taking out my units) which meant they had to take a second wall out on the last turn, they did not have any units next to a wall at the start, but had options, I had very little units left to try and get in the way at this point the never ending stream of Greyjoys taking their toll! So they certainly had a chance (I think they had a card to attack twice but it would of been a close thing.

What really surprised me is just how versatile this game is, we played a bigger points value than its designed to, so changed the board the number of terrain bits and did a multi player and it all worked, and it just felt so right. Nervus at the start with the attackers having to overexpose them selves and me just desperate to hold them back, then tips in my favor as I get my reinforcements, then the slow death as I lose units I can not replace but the attacker just keeps coming. It was great, as I knew I was always going to lose all units and all walls it was simply a case of timings, could I hold off, it felt so cinematic!

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