Showdown of the Ba… young men with questionable heritage

So last night I managed to get in a game of A Song of Ice and Fire (or Game of Thrones to most), and as such below I’ll try to give a quick battle report as it was a rather enjoyable fight! Please note if anyone wants to read some much better quality A Song of Ice and Fire Battle reports check out this rather nice blog by Brian https://brianmcgonigle.blogspot.com/ .

So last night I had a force of Nights Watch:
Commander Jon Snow in Sworn Brothers – heavy infantry that hit hard plan to use as my hammer
Eddison Tollett (or Dolorous Ed) in Veterans – heavy infantry that are rather tough my anvil
Ranger Vanguards – fast cav that can Outflank (deploy on flank of board later in game)
Scorpion – war machine
Ghost – nasty direwold that is nice and fast
and for none combat units
Aemon – the best healer in the world ever
Samwell – give me more tactics cards
Gilly – who turns up because she likes Sam

I faced off against A Lannister force run by Adam (p.s. its all his fault I got into this game in the first place):
Commander Joffrey in Knigsguard – these looked hard but I thought I would out maneuver them
Knights of Casterly Rock – true heavy cav these had me woried
Pyromancers lead by Brienne – I was not to worried about these I assume nasty ranged attacks but easy to kill in combat (this was being substituted in the game for a non Lanister unit)
Guardsmen lead by a golden company Officer – these looked though to move
and none combat units:
Cersei
Tywin

The mission was Clash of Kings where we had 3 objectives in the center line, and if you killed stuff with your commanders unit you got more points, we had 2 bogs to slow people down, 1 weirwood tree to inspire people and a barricade to stab people. Set up saw Adam field fairy centrally with cav on my left flank kings guard (with the flags) on my central/right, with the guardsmen moving up for the center objective supported by the Pyromancers.

I went for a tight deployment in my right conner (as far away from those heave cav as I could), I went first on turn 1 so my war-machine moved up off the horse on the NCU board to sit behind the stakes and threaten everything. My plan was to hold the center and push around the right flank. My fast cav where off the board and would come in turn 2 on my right flank to really push that side, or at least that was the plan!

Turn 1 saw more or less what I expected I started to push my right flank while Adam had moved up fairly steadily, he had he had his kingsguard in a position they could charge my Vets but I was happy with that the vets where my Anvil and if he did I reckoned I could attack him with sworn brothers and or my fast cav which had just come in at the start of turn 2 (when the picture is taken) at the top right (sorry really need to get some paint on them!) The only thing I had done different was move ghost to the left of my war machine (just about see him in the bottom of the picture) to give me more options that side.

So as I suspect Adam used his first turn to charge his Kingsguard into my Vets, what I did not expect is that they killed the unit in a single round, they did not even need me to take a moral test! A combanation of using one of the banner abillites, one of the special cards the commander unit gets in this mission and a tactics card kicked out a load of wounds, my save where poor, so I tried to re-roll them using one of my tactics cards which he stopped with one of his! Arhhh my Anvil had gone in 1 hit and give Adam a good start on the points!

So I had a cunning plan! I used the NCU board to shift my fast cav closer for a side charge, however that meant there where in a bog (but that’s fine I told myself) [1st picture] so then Adam used the NCU board and moved his Kingsguard away from the fast Cav [Jeoffrey can move off the crown]. The rest of turn 2 saw me trying to kill the kings guard, and after scorpion shots (off swords on NCU board and normal attacks) and Adam healing and Ghost running and charging them in the back I finally got them down to 2 men! at the end of turn 2. But this left Adam controlling the center, his knights sat on the flank ready to bring the pain come turn 3. Adam had 3VPs, to my 1.

Turn 3 I was back as first player and charged in with Jon Snow killing the Kingsguard finally! they had only killed my toughest unit and taken the full conentration of my entire force for all of turn 2! but that did give me 3VPs from that single attack (1 for killing a unit, and 2 for kill the enemy commander with mine). That did however mean Adam’s knights attached and butchered my war machine, he then withdrew his nights did not want to risk then getting charged by Jon. However I did manage to get a flank charge with Ghost on them (after some movement on the NCU board) and he started to eat horse! My fast cav charged in the center to get rid of the “easy to kill” pyromancers, well first off I should of read their rules, I lost some to the charge as the wild fire (Greek Fire) is so scarry. And I rolled a 1 or the charge so did not get re-rolls to hit and hence ended up doing very little. End of Turn 3 Adam at 5VPs but I had started to pull it back to 4VPs.

Turn 4 saw Adam take first player and destroy my fast cav, all I could do in the center was try and set Jon up for turn 5 really. I did however manage to keep Ghost alive using cards, weaken of the letters (NCU board) and heals (NCU board) and he was slowly eating his way through some horses! I did have to use Gilly this turn however (can only use once). That put Adam still in the lead at 7Vps to my 4.

Turn 5 I went first and Ghost had his fill of horse and finished off the last one, I had used a lot of cards and NCUs but going through a unit of heavy cav with a single wolf made my day 🙂
The mess in the center however was not as nice, I ended up with John going into the pyromancers, not finishing them getting flanked by the guards men and Ghost just managing to get in the back. Adam was still in the lead going into turn 6 however with 7VPs to my 5.

Turn 6 and Adam went first with his horrible Pyromancers and killed John Snows units. BUT I had just picked up a very John Snow card “It Shall not end until my Death!” this allowed a single final attach from Johns unit, which not only killed the pyromancers but allowed the unit to survive with 1 wound! We where not sure if that one survivor could be John or not with the wording on the card so we decided that he was dead giving his life to save his fellow Night Watch brother, which seemed very thematic but if anyone understands the rules better than I then please let me know what should of happened! But it did grant me 2 VPs for killing a unit with my commanders unit!
The rest of turn 6 saw some healing and the all my units go at it on the Guardsmen but to no avail the survived.

And the game ended 7VPs each, I could of put Ghost on the objective rather than charge the last unit, but it felt wrong for a friendly game that had been such fun, and I sort of had this hope Ghost could somehow go all the way and take that unit as well!

Overall a great game, lots of learning, the Kingsguard are horrible and the Pyromancers are equally scarry! But Ghost was my man (or wolf) of the match eating all those horses!

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