War of the West 20/11/21

 

Hello! Welcome to my inaugural post. I had intended to write a blog for the last couple of weeks, looking into the Baratheon faction and trying to figure out how they work (I still plan to do that).

 

This first post, however, is about the event I attended yesterday at Board in Brum in Walsall, War Of The West.

 

It’s going to be a weird blog, I’m afraid. I had only played a total of seven games prior to attending, and only two with Baratheons (the rest were with Starks, I know you were wondering). My goal was to get four games in, have fun, get one win and avoid the dreaded wooden spoon.

 

Welp, I did that. I went undefeated, winning all four games. No, I’m still not sure how it happened, I normally love to live in mid-table mediocrity when I attend events.

 

Before we get into the games, I just wanted to say how damn good it was to attend an event again. All of my opponents were great, I loved chatting to folk between rounds about our shared nerdery and Board in Brum are a cracking venue (which, to be fair, I knew already from a previous Guild Ball event I’d attended there).

 

…and another disclaimer, I’m not great at remembering blow-by-blow accounts. I took no notes during the event and barely remembered to snap any pictures. I’ll mostly go over highlights and post-game thoughts of each event. If I have made any mistakes, it’s entirely due to my shoddy memory. Especially in the earlier games, it turned out to be a long day with way more pressure than I expected.

 

My list:

Stag Knights

-          Eldon Estermont, Lord of Greenstone

Stormcrow Archers

-          Bronn, The Sellsword

Baratheon Wardens

Champions of the Stag

NCUs: Cortnay Penrose, Petyr Baelish, Tycho Nestoris

 

I also took a Renly list (because Lannisters scare me), but he is Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film. It’s also a bit gimmicky, may just be awful and completely unplayed, so I don’t feel confident to assess it at all.

 

Game 1: A Game of Thrones vs Alliser Thorne led Night Watch.

Ah, a Game of Thrones. The venue announced this as a gentle easing into the event, noting that there was several new players. As this is the one scenario I had played most (I’ve done Dance of Dragons once, that’s it for other game modes) and I had a game plan (Eldon takes centre and doesn’t die), I felt comfortable going into this that I had, at least, a clue what to do.

First game of the day was against a lovely chap called Steve. He used Othell NCU to bombard me to little effect, I used Stormcrow Archers to pelt him, reducing the Sworn Brothers to just one rank and taking more off his Ranger hunters (I think).

In the centre, his Ranger Hunters failed a charge into my archers, leaving their flank open to my Stag Knights. Who spiked damage, wiping them on the charge and moving back onto the central objective.

 

 Ain't no party like a Stag Knight party.

Flayed men were met by Champions of the Stag and, turns out, 2+ armour save is really good. They then had Wardens charge off the objective into one flank, followed by the Stag Knights into the other, wiping them out and leaving a single Champion alive while the infantry reclaimed their objectives.

The game ended with his Stormcrow Mercenaries holding one objective on my left and killing my archers (I should not have sent them over there, my bad).

 The archers, they did not make it, Jim.

10 – 3 victory to me, I killed 24 points, he killed 7.

 

Game 2: Here We Stand, vs Mance Rayder led Free Folk.

What a scenario this is, eh? Do you like admin? Well, you’re going to admin like never before. If you’ve never played it, this scenario is about holding table quarters with units, got to be at least 5 points worth to claim a zone. NCUs CAN jump into quarters to help, instead of doing the board shenanigans.

Oh, and every turn both players get to bring a unit back on a board edge, but they count as activated.

This was a confusing, and tiring game for me and Jacob. We both enjoyed playing each other, but the game mode itself is bad. Quite simply, there’s too much admin that’s off the table. Squabbling over objectives? Sure. They are on the table and known quantities. Trying to remember what unit is worth how many points and is in which quarter? Ugh. 

 

And so it begins

 

My memory is really disjointed here, so here are the highlights, probably in the wrong order:

-          Stag Knights were given a single unit of Raiders to munch on, then Jacob just let them claim a quarter. A good call, I think, they are a power house unit for me and meant he could focus on stopping the rest of my army

-          …which led to him mostly being stalled by my Champions of the Stag. They did die eventually (I lost the Wardens too once), but I was able to kill enough of his scoring units and consistently claim two zones for long enough to out score him.

-          Harma. Sentinel. Amazing. She died early, came back on near the action, activated as per the rules. Still gets to sentinel charge in though.

-          After Harma died, Tormund’s unit died. They came back on, Jacob played a card and swapped the attachments over, Harma got to sentinel charge again! Loved this, it was a great move and made me wish I had the sentinel order in my list to charge him back.

-          Tanky Baratheons tanked their way through the day. I won 12-9 ultimately. I also entered the scores wrong for unit points destroyed (didn’t read the word ‘points’, whoopsie). I remember Jacob telling me I killed 44 points worth of his bits, and remember that he got one kill each on the Stormcrows, Champions and Wardens so got 20 off me in return.

 

 So it ends

 

Game 3. Fire and Blood vs Jon Snow led Nightswatch.

This was a place I had not planned to be: table one. I thought now would be a relaxed game, maybe trying the other list just to see if it has synergies or I’m a list-building idiot. Nope, it was time to play in the big leagues.

I’ve known Dan for a while through Guild Ball (alas, the ultimate system done wrong) but never played him. I do know that he was known on that scene as “the nicest guy you’ll ever lose too”, so I expected a fun loss.

Onto the scenario then. Unlike Here We Stand, I really like Fire and Blood. Not just because I marked his conscripts and Ghost, but because it felt like a fresh take on the scenario format, one I had not seen previously.

Deployment had Eldon holding on the left opposite Ghost (who went flanking) and Veterans, Stormcrow Archers opposite Jon’s Ranger Hunters, Wardens opposite Veterans, and my Champions on the right.

 

Hey look, a well timed photo!

 

My archers fired several times doing significant damage to Jon. Conscripts healed that back for him. Then my archers died.

The rest of the game comes down to Eldon being held up by Veterans while Jon yo-yoed back and forth into them. The other veterans tanking my Champions and Wardens combined (should’ve put my Champions in the flank after Wardens clogged them, but I underestimated how much healing Jon plus conscripts could manage).

The deciding factors of the game were:

-          Eldon. His unit tanked so many attacks, even when he was on his own, the ornery old git just refused to die. Seriously, he even took the Black when he did finally fall.

-          Ghost charging Eldon’s rear. Ghost was Marked and had one VP token on. I added another, then killed him with the Stags for a colossal five vp swing. This was a big mistake on Dan’s part, if he had kept Ghost out, I would have lost the game (and Dan definitely outplayed me, this one moment aside).

-          My Champions finally spiking, using Battle Endurance and obliterating the Veterans, who also had a vp token or two (damn you, aging memory).

-          Finally (though may have happened before), claiming crowns wiped the conscripts.

 

 This felt like the game, Jon bouncing in and out while the rest of us sat around on our elbows. Does anyone get these references? Meh, I like putting them in.

 

Eldon had held up Jon and the other Veterans for just long enough that I sneaked in a 10 – 9 win.

A final thought about Nights Watch. Yes, they are strong and have some good synergies. I think a little tweaking is needed there but my real complaint is their tactics deck. It didn’t come out in game one, but in this game Dan had more attached cards on the table than we had movement trays at deployment. This is just a silly design, and I had no chance of tracking what extra rules were being thrown on.

Discussing this after the game with Dan and others, we all pretty much agree that there should be a cap on attached cards to units (one, maybe plus one on your commander?). It would keep the game streamlined, which I firmly believe is one of the main selling points of ASOIAFMG.

 

Game 4. Dance of Dragons vs Eldon Estermont led Baratheons.

Old man off, yo.

First off, this was a great way to end the event. I’d been chatting with Richard (Rich? Sorry, never actually asked how you prefer to be address. Yes, I’m addressing you directly in a blog that’s open to all. Creepy, isn’t it?) all day about our faction, and apparently earlier in the week through the Baratheon Facebook group without realising it.

Second, you can Stag’s Wit a condition bounced to you from Stag’s Wit. This amused us both. No excuses, that shit was funny late in the day.

Okay! So, Other Eldon… nah, let’s go with Evil Eldon, he has a goatee, after all (hush, I know mine does too). Evil Eldon was in his Wardens, mine is in Stag Knights. I have the win there. However, instead of my Stag Knights, he had Flayed Men, and morale could really kill off Eldon. With that in mind, I formed a plan:

My wardens take the left objective, Eldon takes the middle as the Champions and Archers cover him, Evil Eldon can claim the right token and stay out of the game. That way, I’ll win slowly. You know, like an old man.

I honestly thought I bodged this. I took first turn to claim cavalry and move up to get to the centre, forgetting that it would leave Evil Eldon’s archers in range to shoot me. I also forgot that, with Bronn in the unit and me being dumb with NCU placement, he would get three volleys of increasing strength at me.

Cue popping Tycho turn one to bolster the Stag Knights. They did fail a morale and dropped the token, forcing them to move forwards again turn two to collect it.

Overall, my plan worked. Eldon was able to endure a charge by the Flayed men, and my Champions clanged with Evil Eldon’s Champions to no real effect. I charged my Archers into the Flayed men, only hoping to hold them up as Eldon behaved like a true noble and tactically withdrew.

 

 Yes, I forgot to take more photos, here's the end of the game

 

After this, there was only three things to note:

-          Battle endurance is really strong on Flayed Men

-          But losing 11 archers and playing Final Strike back when the Flayed Men are vulnerable is hilariously strong

-          Sometimes it is right to retreat with Champions. That time is when they can activate before their prey can, the Flayed men are almost dead and you have Ours Is The Fury in hand.

That got me the only kill of the game to win 10-6.

 

There we have it, the rambling path I took to somehow go undefeated. There were times when I got lucky, there was a notable moment game three that snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. I also got lucky with the draw, avoiding the two Mother of Dragon’s lists that came second and third.