40pts Freefolk v Targaryen: A Clash of Kings

Stephen turned up with his resurgent Targaryen list led by Khal Drogo to face off against my Mance Rayder Freefolk force for our Thursday night match up at Justplay in Liverpool... https://justplaygames.uk/

My force wasn't to different from the preceding week, with my newly named Mammoth, "Stannisbane", keeping his place at the van of my army..

Free Folk

Mance Rayder (C) in Spearwives

Cave Dweller Savages

Thenns with Walrus Clan Chieftain

"Stannisbane" the Mammoth

Free Folk Raiders with Cave Dweller Alpha

Free Folk Raiders with Tormund Giantsbane

NCU's: Ygritte & Craster

Stephen's Targaryen Army

Khal Drogo (C) in Dothraki Veterans

Dothraki Outriders

Stormcrow Archers with Bronn

Unsullied Pikemen with Belwas

Jorah Mormont

NCU's: Illyrio and Daenerys

Had two new players pop in from Widnes, Andy with Lannisters facing Raymonds Baratheons

And Andy with Starks facing Colin's Night Watch

We decided to play A Game of Thrones, as that's what Colin and Andy were playing. The was set up with bog on my left, two Weirwood trees central and some spikes. The Cntral onjective gave an extra card and hand limit increase, top left Sundering in melee, bottom left out vulnerable to opponent, bottom right 3" shift and top right precision.

I won the roll and chose the Weirwood side of the table, while Stephen selected to go first...

I set up with Cave Dwellers Savages left, "Stannisbane", Mance's Spearwives, Raiders with Alpha, Thenns and Raiders with Tormund far right.

Stephen set up from left to right as I look with Outriders, Stormcrow Archers, Joran, Unsullied and the Drogo's Vets...

A side long look...

And from the Targaryens side...

Stephens Khal Drogo in his hardy Veterans. Rock hard unit...

Belwas is a beast with Unsullied

Jorah with Bronn and his Stormcrows...

On the other table, the Baratheons face off against Lannisters

While up Norf, the Starks and Nightswatch squared up...

Stephen played Blood of Dragon first up on the Veterans, which meant if the Targaryens lost a unit, the veterans would be out for Blood., and also took the letters. I had Ygritte take horses to advance "Stannisbane"

Jorah moved over to my left and T took Craster on bags to take token off of the mammoth

As the Tagrayens redeployed to centre and my left, the Freefolk moved up en masse. As I had more activations, I played Predicaable manouevers if Stephen used Daenerys. He did, so Stannisbane moved again...

Still unactivated, the great hairy elephant was bearing down on the Targaryens...

However, the Outriders fired a salvo at the beast and took out half its wounds...

Despite the Weirwood, "Stannisbane", having strayed an inch out of Mance's leadership, failed his panic...

And trampled into the Spearwives...

Still, they made up and I re-asserted my ranks to face up and it wasn't all bad as I had two objectives secure while only the Outriders had one

End of Turn 1

TURN 2

I took the swords and swapped it for healing and a card, while triggering the once per game heal. Combined they gave "Stannisbane " full health. As Daenerys activated, I played Wildling Diplomacy to threaten Jorah but the Stephen decided to carry on, the heartless wench!!!

True to form, Jorah took 3 wounds and I got first VP's

Still, the bags allowed the Stormcrow Archers a free shot at "Stannisbane", scoring two wounds and two hits...

Damn Bronn and his archers!!!

I failed both my saves and took 4 wounds again...

Fortunately, Mance was on hand to sooth the big guys fears...

But only just with the scent of the Weirwood tree...

Fed up being shot, "Stannisbane" declared a charge rather than a trample, hoping to hurt the Stormcrows and draw in the wrath of the cavalry. But sadly, I failed the 3+ charge!!! (But at least pass the panic check)

My next activation saw Ygritte swap the horses for the Endless horde

Which I brought on behind the Cave Dwellers to take the objective on the left which the Cave Dwellers were sitting on...

After shooting at "Stannisbane" again, for a few wounds, my Cave Dwellers aided by Ygritte influence, charged across the bog and engaged the Outriders...

But managed a paltry two wounds...

Having repositioned from my right, Khal Drogo and his veterans activated...

Moving up to shoot into the Mammoths flank leaving it on one wound...

It barely passed its panic test again...

But it didn't help as the Khal's cavalry charged in...

The great beast was the ignominiously trampled underfoot by the heathens. Poor "Stannisbane" was no more, but it had earned its fame last game and was simply shocking in this one.

Stephen had played quite the combo too as with fire and blood and overrun the Blood of the Dragon was really kicking in...

Needing a 5, they ploughed forward into the Cave Dwellers flank...

And causing maximum hits...

I saved two and passed my panic test by the narrowest of margins...

I repositioned Mance and the Spearwives to give Stephen something to think about for turn 3...

It didnt look good for the Cave Dwellers...

The Stormcrows fired into the Cave Dwellers, inflicting more damage and leaving them looking, well, dead next turn...

Drogo had travelled the length of the battlefield to avenge Jorah (at least that is what Ste would have you believe).  However, I still felt well postioned and had claimed 3 objectives with Tormund marching up the open right flank and the Thenns taking the other one, while left was covered by the recently arrived Raiders. The middle objective was untaken, while the Outriders had the top left one...

Tormund's Raiders and the Thenn's seize the right flank...

End of turn 2    FREEFOLK 4 VP's  TARGARYENS 2 VP's

TURN 3

Taking the swords, Khal auto-wounded the last remaining Cave Dweller. I used Mance's Counterstrategy to deny Unstoppable Advance...

I had planned to charge my Freefolk off the objective and try hemming the Dothraki Veteran in, having just seen how devastating they could be. But having a second Endless horde card, seemed bringing up some reserves was a good idea...

I brought them on to counter the Khal, whose blood was definitely up...

Undeterred, Stephen played Ride by Attack through the Spearwives, killing 4. Engaging with the Raiders would not have been much use given that Ride by Attack can be used when engaged. The Cave Dwellers flanked, using overwhelming assault to help...

Sadly, they didnt do much more than scratch a rider, but it did trigger a panic check. There's too many gave the Khal a minus 3 test, but they managed to pass it easily enough, triggering their order and moving away an inch...

The Outriders scored 3 wounds off the Spearwives who promptly failed their panic check

Things were looking bleak for Mance, so I used Craster to heal 2 and take a card hoping I may survive and get regroup and reform, but I didnt...

Bronn and his Stormcrow Mercenaries took deliberate aim

Scoring 5 hits and wiping Mance and the Speawives out...

The Unsullied with Belwas charged the Raiders on the central objective

Scoring 6 wounds, one of which was saved...

But despite the death of their leader, their nerve held...

Alas, as I feared, an Assault Order ensued...

And Dothraki Veterans in the rear rode the hapless Freefolk down, allowing Drogo to seize the centre objective...

Table at End of Turn 3. Having killed 2 scoring units, and seizing 2 objectives, one with his commander, Stephen had gained 5 VP's to my 3 VP's from objectives.

END OF TURN 3

FREEFOLK 7 VP's       TARGARYENS 7 VP's

The state of play was grim for me, as I couldn't compete with the Targaryen ferocity and sitting on the objectives for 3 turns didn't seem viable as he'd come for me and if not, I'd still lose in a tie...

After Ste had taken horses to advance up the Unsullied, Tormund led his Raiders in a valiant charge which triggered the Unsullied Order to attack, which in turn allowed me to move up the Thenns with Diversion tactics...

I only lost 4 to the Unsullied, with Tormund's morale helping pass the panic

The Freefolk fought with desperation...

But the trained eunuchs were not overly impressed...

I didnt really expect it to end well...

The Dothraki Veterans advanced up, shooting into the Thenns.

Then moving through with a Ride by Attack...

I thought leaving his flank exposed so invitingly was a definite trap for another Assault Order, but we do not kneel, so better to die on our feet!!!

I charged in the Thenns, having used Surrounded and Exposed to make the Unsullied Vulnerable, as well as using Overwhelming assault

A nice card combo, taking Precision and Sundering...

And resulting in 7 hits, one was saved and 3 blocked by the Unsullied order...

Stephen held off his coup de grace on my right, using his Outriders to pour arrows onto my Raiders on the left

7 hits wouldn't end well

Though I did save two...

Unsurprisingly, I failed my panic, with a extra wound taken due to the Raider Disorganised  rule

But they were still holding the objective...

Craster activated on Swords and I used regroup and reform on Thenns from Tormunds Raiders, and attacked the Unsullied again...

The dice finally turned a bit, with Belwas's troops failing all 5 hits...

They were never likely to fail their morale, and now had 3 orders token on them for Belwas's special rules...

They are quite a tough nut to crack....

The Unsullied struck back against the Thenns, doing 3 wounds after triggering the Walrus Chieftains order. They also passed their panic check. And then the second Assault order was played when Illyrio activated...

Fortunately, Ygritte had influenced the Veterans at start of round so they were reduced movement and would be disorderly on a 1 or 2...

Not gonna be good but they did roll the 2...

4 hits, plus one auto wound left 2 Thenns standing

And then I went and rolled a panic check!!!

Admittedly I erred here as the Thenns are "Unyielding" meaning they suffer minus wound from panic per rank lost, but that was realised well after...

Stephen played Unstoppable advance to move onto the centre objective, facing the Cave Dwellers...

Having lost the game, I decided to try and get to the cause of my defeat. Only needed a 6!!!

One small victory for my dice!!!

Sadly, my full strength Cave Dwellers arent as good

But they scored 5 hits!!!

Causing 4 wounds...

Oh how I laughed at the panic roll...

Depleted and wounded, but sadly still victorious with many new heads!!!

Drogo backed off with his retreat order, allowing him to still claim the objective and deny me contesting it

Bronn's archers fired into the Cave Dwellers to finish the round...

The table at end of turn 4 (end of game) told a tale of valiant yet futile resistance!!!

RESULT       TARGARYENS 11 VP's        FREEFOLK 8 VP's

That was cracking game!!! My dice were pretty bad for the most part, which I take as part of the game as I usually roll well, and though I did make mistakes, but I don't think anything would have changed the result as Stephen had all the right cards at the right time, rolled well on the whole and with his archer and outrider shooting and chipping away from range, the Dothraki veterans simply rode around the board, engaging at will to absolutely devastating effect!!! A class lesson on Dothraki tactics!!!

I had heard Drogo was a demon and I had planned early to try holding up with the late and much lamented "Stannisbane", while taking the objectives. The score was quite close, and I fought to the death. The  Cave Dwellers last charge was nice as was reduced the Veterans to 2 wounds. 

Had I remembered about the Thenns unyielding, which would have tied game 9-9 at end of turn 4 to a 5th turn, then Drogo would have been undiminished with unused Illyrio's boon to heal Unsullied, and given Stephen had first activatio, a 5th turn would have saw me tabled and the result would have been worse!!! 

Well played Ste, will be sticking to Freefolk for a while despite the desire to ride the great grass sea after that. Think the Lord of bones may make a trip out next time...

EVENTS IN UK (I know about)

Really looking forward to rest of year in UK, especially the one I'll be running a two day event at Ribble Rumble in December The Ribble Rumble - ASOIF | Facebook 

My next event is at Board in Brum in July, which Simon has organised. First ASOIF event I went to was down here, and it was a great day... A Song of Ice and Fire Tournament – 3 July 2021 – Board in Brum

I also know Rich and his boys at Justplay in Liverpool plan to have one Sunday, August 8th, details to follow soon...

Other Events:

North of the Wall, john Craig is running  The Siege of Pyke at Common Ground Games in Stirling,a 4 game event on 11th July,. Its a four hour drive for me, so unlikely but not totally ruled out as yet.   https://www.facebook.com/events/4027498000641474?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22group%22%7D]%7D

Ian has this one down at Boards and Swords, Derby (Great event last February, before the madness, gutted cant make this one) AsSOIAF - Blood on the Trident one day event - 18/07/2021 — Boards and Swords Hobbies

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)

Gavin up at Gaming Figures in Redcar will doubtless run a few too Gaming Figures

As will the Entoyment down in Poole, who organise the awesome Beachhead exhibition. Homepage - Entoyment Wargaming and Hobby Centre

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...